July 26, 2026: Don't F*ck with Providence Park

Portland 2, Gotham 2. A point against the league leaders, an eleventh straight home game unbeaten, and a club record — and none of it is the thing you remember. Emily Sonnett went down non-contact in the seventh minute and left Providence Park on a stretcher, and twenty-one thousand people in a building she doesn't play for anymore stood up for her. We open on that and we close on that, and we don't guess at a diagnosis in between. In the middle: Renee Lyles scoring and assisting in her first ever start, Morgan Weaver back on the pitch after a year and a half and three knee surgeries, and the salary-cap deep dive we've been promising for two episodes. Adults only. Bring a drink.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Before anything else: Emily Sonnett
02:59 2-2, and 11 straight unbeaten at home
03:38 The game: Purce at two minutes, Lyles' chip, Kerr, and ten men
10:58 Morgan Weaver is back
14:34 What still needs work
20:36 The table: Utah leapfrog us
22:32 The transfer window: still no center back
24:07 The cap, the HIP rule, and how Gotham did it
29:29 Utah away, and one more for Sonnett

Takeaways:
- Portland 2, Gotham 2, at Providence Park. Midge Purce scored inside two minutes off a Reiten cross. Renee Lyles equalized on 21 with a chip over Ann-Katrin Berger — her first professional goal, in her first ever start, in her sixth appearance — assisted by Pietra Tordin. Jessie Fleming put Portland ahead on 53, deflected off Purce, assisted by Lyles. Sam Kerr levelled on 62 off a corner.
- Emily Sonnett went off on a stretcher in the seventh minute, non-contact. No diagnosis has been published and we don't speculate on one. The whole building stood.
- Eleven straight at home without a loss is a club record. Every league defeat this season has come on the road, and the next two are away.
- Perry saw red on 72 as the last defender on Kerr. Marissa's read: nobody wants to call it a good foul, but it was the foul you make.
- Renee Lyles got a goal and an assist in her first career start. Pietra Tordin leads the entire NWSL in assists with seven, and signed through 2029 last week.
- Morgan Weaver is back after eighteen months and three surgeries on the same knee. Two standing ovations in one night — one for a player going off injured, one for a player coming back from it.
- What still needs work: the goalkeeper talking to her back line, and a second minute that went missing. The midfield of Moultrie, Tordin and Fleming is not the problem.
- Portland sit fifth on 28 points. Utah beat North Carolina and jumped us. Nothing on Sunday's card could move Portland either way — fifth is fifth.
- Transfer window still open until September. Nina Nijstad in, Spaanstra sold to Utah, extensions signed, still no center back, and Sophia Wilson still unsigned. No news is treated as good news.
- The cap and the HIP rule: Gotham's president of soccer operations has called the salary cap "a competitive weapon." Sam Kerr isn't even eligible for the high-impact-player rule the nickname suggests — what's actually moving is banked allocation money. The players' union filed a grievance in January over the rule being imposed without bargaining, and it hasn't been resolved. Angel City took a $200,000 fine and a three-point deduction for cap violations in 2024 — the points hurt, the money didn't. Both of us land on the same place: raise the cap.

Next up: Utah away on August 2, and a proper segment on trans inclusion in women's sports.

New episodes weekly. Yell back at us: rosecityredcard@gmail.com

Transcript

Alan: 0:14

Hello and welcome to Rose City Red Card, your Portland Thorns podcast. I am Alan and with me is Marissa, but before we do anything else, I want to acknowledge Emily Sonnett went down in the seventh minute on Friday night last week and left Providence Park on a stretcher. We don't know what it is yet. We're not going to guess. What we do know is that over 21,000 people who in a building she doesn't play for anymore stood up for her. Once a thorn, always a thorn. Get well. We wish you the best. And welcome Marissa.

Marissa: 0:58

Yeah, yeah. Like Alan said, way to keep it classy Providence. Yeah, once a thorn, always a thorn. I'm not a doctor, nor is Alan. He's pretty smart, but not a doctor. We are not Gotham medical staff. So, yeah, just sending good vibes to her, and hopefully she gets on the pitch again soon.

Alan: 1:19

Yeah, from what we could see, it didn't look good. And it definitely changed the flow of the game. Yeah, it will get into that here in a little bit. But, yeah, so tell us about the game. You know, we were really hoping for a win here. We didn't quite get that. But how

Marissa: 1:41

did it in for us? So, Alan, like, before this podcast, we mentioned, like, good or bad, however this game went, we would push and talk about positive things we did because it's been a rough couple weeks, you know, Thorne's fans. But we played like we were not those, those teams, that team from two weeks ago or even last week. We kept our form. We moved together as a cohesive unit, which is something, I don't know if I've said the word cohesive more in my life than on this podcast, but we didn't get stretched too thin. Getting stretched too thin makes holes, and that's holes that they drive into. And, yeah, we played really, really well. Having Reyes back was, on the back line was really big. I feel like Moultrie took a knock, and, like, earlier, like, after, I mean, like, kind of like during break, and so she's kind of just getting back to it. And, yeah, like, we just, we looked good. Sophie looks hung. Sof looks hungry. We looked really good. Our forwards, we just kept our shape. And that's kind of what we've been hoping for. Yeah, midfield showed up. It was great. It was, it was really great. We played really well. All right. So, yeah, the game ended in a tie two, two. It was a tie, and we wanted to pick up three points, but I'll take one point from this game. So two to two, yeah, I'll

Alan: 3:11

It may be only one point, but it is our 11th straight game unbeaten at home. It may be a tie, but we are still unbeaten, and that makes it a club record. Is it really a club record? It is a club record, 11 straight unbeaten at home. Don't fuck with Providence Park. Exactly. Don't fuck with Providence Park. We had, yeah, so. All right, so two to two,

Marissa: 3:41

first goal went to Midge Purce. That was kind of just a giveaway. We just, our just defense needs to be better at marking. That was a hard, hard start to a game. That's a really, really rough start. And then, I mean, we answered back, but then in the seventh minute, that's when Sonnett went down. And so I feel like it shook both teams. It shook both teams. It shook us at home. It shook everybody. And, yeah. And so then I feel like, yeah, we just put our pedal to the medal to the medal. and we just kept pressing and pressing. Then we finally got a goal. Lyles scored on the 21st minute. It was, it was beautiful. It was beautiful. That angle that she shot it at to chip AKB, like Ann-Katrin Berger, who's one of the best goalies in the world to just chip her and just had her just on her feet. AKB didn't even move. She just, Lyles, it was a perfect ball. If you look at that angle, like she only had like two feet. to put that ball in. And she nailed it. That was her first career goal. That was amazing.

Alan: 4:46

So go Lyles. First career goal. It sailed over the keeper's head. She just watched it go in. Yeah, didn't move her feet. Assist by Tordin. She's actually the league leader in assists. This is her seventh assist. Yeah, Tordin. Let's go, girl. She's been playing amazingly well the last few games.

Marissa: 5:11

Yeah, she really has. She's just, I'm so glad that we have her for another couple years, because she's just, she's just really hitting her stride. And it's been, it's really fun to watch. And it's, it's, yeah, it's really, it's really, it's really fun to watch. So it's just going to get better with Tordin. And yeah. All right. So, shall we move on?

Alan: 5:31

Yeah. So, that was the end of the first half, I believe. Yep. And so, uh, we're going into the second half, one one. Um, how did this start off for us?

Marissa: 5:44

I mean, we kept, we were playing so, so well. We kept pushing our defense, our midfield, everybody was working well. We would lose, we lose possession, midfield off, like, everybody just collapsed in and we regained possession. We were cutting off their passes. We just played really well. And then we got to, you know, we got, uh, a prize for that playing so well. And that came at it with a goal. like a phleg goal at 53 minutes. Um, it did deflect off of Midge Purce. So you can giveeth, but also you must take if Midge Purce. Sorry about that, sis. But, uh, it was a, another beautiful one. It was another beautiful goal. But, um, yeah, an assist by Lyles. So that, and that marks her first career goal and her first career assist in the same game, which is pretty cool.

Alan: 6:32

That is incredible.

Marissa: 6:34

Mm-hmm. Um, and then moving on because we told you the scores two to two. and now the score is two to one. So Kerr scores in the 62nd minute off a corner kick. Um, it was, the ball was bouncing around in there a little bit and Sam Kerr is going to do what Sam Kerr does and she finishes. That's, it's a shame, but we don't like it.

Alan: 6:55

And it was great. Um, we're talking about all these firsts. Uh, this was her first in WSL goal in almost seven years. So it is great to see her back, uh, out playing, uh, even if, uh, she's, she's scoring against us.

Marissa: 7:12

Yeah. I mean, she still holds the title for most goals in the league. So I mean, it's only going to go up and I don't think anybody's going to catch her at this point. For to not be in the league for almost seven years and still hold the scoring title is fucking ridiculous. It's incredible. It's incredible. Yeah. All right.

Alan: 7:32

And then there was one more event that happened before the end of the game, uh, at 72 minutes. Uh, things didn't go very well for us. Uh, things were already tied up. Um, we at least managed to, to, to hold the, the game the rest of the time after this, but what happened at 72 minutes?

Marissa: 7:49

Uh, 72 minutes, um, Sam Kerr is going to Sam Kerr. She gets you on her back. You just, she just tries to flip that ball right through to you, right past you. And she did. Um, it would have been if, uh, Perry wouldn't have, it was a red card. She, Perry got a red card, but she's the last defender. She took Sam down. It was, nobody wants to say. good foul, but it was, it was a foul you wanted to make because if not, you leave Sam Kerr versus our goalie and as much as people love the Aussie on Aussie crime there, we wouldn't like it. So take the defender, take her down and that's kind of stops an automatic goal. Because if you just leave Sam Kerr versus one goalie, then that's bad news. But also, I will say, I know the devil doesn't need an advocate, but Sam Kerr is not the fastest player in the world. She's great. She's not the fastest. And I think maybe if we wouldn't have fouled her, we would have gotten caught up to her, but you don't want to, we don't want to leave things in the gray. And I think Perry, she's not going to be able to play next game, which is a huge, huge thing, because we play Utah on the road.

Alan: 8:55

So that has not officially been announced. We assume she will not be playing, but that it apparently has to get decided later in the week before it's official. Oh, interesting. which I have been seeing a bunch of photos going around of what looks like a red card from, red card from Gotham that was not called as a red card. Oh, are you talking about the choke?

Marissa: 9:23

The choke hold slam.

Alan: 9:25

The choke hold slam. And apparently, even though it was not a red card, it could still be a game suspension due to the way this works, that the committee that does these. actually decides later in the week. And so the red card that was given to Perry means that she probably will not play, but they still need to decide. And even though this other red card was not given, it could still result in a penalty.

Marissa: 9:58

Yeah. Yeah. So I didn't know that. I thought that you could only, if once the red card was pulled, the red card was pulled. But I did know that they could go back and maybe change. Duddly's yellow to maybe a straight red. So that is really interesting. And I don't know. I mean, you think, I mean, I understand if a ref can miss that, but for how many people, four people in a VAR room with hundreds, like, not hundreds, but dozens of screens, access to slow motion could miss that, then you're like, okay, come on. What are we doing? What are we doing in the VAR room?

Alan: 10:32

Well, it sounds like they might have not even done VAR on that at the time. So this could be, you know, one of those things where we had the information and they just didn't look at it.

Marissa: 10:44

Yeah, I mean, I don't know that for sure. It happens. Yeah. Oh, Alan, why don't you know everything? Damn it, Alan. Just joking.

Alan: 10:51

Because Brooke only gave me so much in its prep doc. That brings us to another one of the big stories of this game, Morgan Weaver. She is back.

Marissa: 11:11

Oh, gosh.

Alan: 11:11

It has been a year and a year. And a half, three surgeries on her right knee. She said earlier this year that she'd be back out there and that she was going to make sure she was 100% ready. And she was right. She came out and, you know, we were talking about how hard the end of that game was being one player down. And I think she really kept the team going there.

Marissa: 11:38

Yeah, she did. And like, I feel like I'm getting emotional, which is so lame. But. And it's like, I feel like we were saying, like, yes, like you were saying, it was the end of the game. Gotham really wanted that win. They were pushing. They were pushing. It's the end of the game. Everyone's tired. We're down a player. And Weaver coming back, like, it wasn't just her being on the field. It was 21,000 plus people on their feet, supporting Weaver, supporting our girls. And I feel like that was huge. I feel like it got us through that last, you know, 20 minutes of the game. Man, that was, that was really something special.

Alan: 12:16

It really was.

Marissa: 12:16

You just even hear it, you know.

Alan: 12:18

And, you know, it was, it was the emotional core of this game. You know, we, we had two different standing ovations. One for each team, technically. But, you know, one for Sonnett when she was injured. One for Weaver, when she is coming back from being injured. You know, these players put their bodies through so much. And it's emotional on both. of that journey. And, yeah, we saw both of them.

Marissa: 12:48

Oh, man. Yeah. And, but yeah, so instead of, let's pull from the emotional, she's, she's fast, she's strong. She can finish. She got called up to the USA team, I think, maybe once or twice. Like, she is a fantastic player, and she will help SOF up there at the top. And I'm just, I'm just so excited to get her back. It's so big, like, it's so big for the city. It's big for the city. It's big for the league. it's big for her. She worked her ass off. She's going to, her offense is, Alan, our offense is going to be different now, like having her there. And then once Turner gets back from her injury, like it's, this is going to be a game changer for us, dude. Like, for real.

Alan: 13:31

You know, we've been talking about what we need. And, you know, we'll talk in a few minutes about what still needs work. But yeah, we're, you know, we're seeing some changes. We're seeing some people come back. We're seeing people, you know, start communicating, coming together. And like you said, Weaver is fast. And she's coming back from a knee injury, which can sometimes really take off some speed. But we saw her out there, and it didn't look like she's any slower than she used to be.

Marissa: 14:02

No. And also, like, mentally, because you're like, well, shit, like, do I really want to push? Like, is my knee going to be okay? So I feel like there's also a mental block on, like, I don't want to push as hard. Am I going to re-injure? But I feel like she took. She did it the right way. She took her time. And, yeah, she hasn't lost it. And I'm so excited, man. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Big deal. Big deal for us here in the Thorns community.

Alan: 14:26

It absolutely is. It is fantastic to see her back. So let's talk about what we can do to improve the team. We saw our team coming back. We were playing better this time. But we still have some gaps. What are you seeing? And what can we do to help out?

Marissa: 14:48

All right. So as I said, like this, we played so great this, this past weekend. But they're like, yep, there's always a need for improvement. So let's start from the back. Let's start to the goalie and move our way forward. So McKenzie Arnold, she had some great saves. She had some great saves. She had some great saves. She's looking so good for us this season. But she needs to communicate with her backline a little bit more. We've been saying that the center backs control the, basically the team, how they move up, how they shift. But it really starts with the goal. That's the last line of defense, literally. And there's just times when she wouldn't come off her line and the defense thought she was going to grab the ball. And there was just some miscommunication, especially towards the end. You could, you could kind of see it. You know, like somebody would head the ball back, and they thought she was going to come out and she didn't or she did come out and she was too close. And so we just need just kind of, I don't want to say better decision making, but just just communicate a little bit more. Yeah. I mean, also, Providence Park is fucking loud. You know, like, I also understand that. But just you just need to communicate with the back line a little bit more.

Alan: 15:59

Yeah. Well, our team should be used to that. You know, this is our home field. You know, I know we had more people out than we've had in a while, but, you know, I think that's part of what makes us so good is we've got the fans really, really going. but that second minute goal was a real tough start. And yeah, you know, like you said, communication took a little while to get going. And then it seemed to be falling apart there a little bit

Marissa: 16:31

at the end as well. Yeah. Yep. I mean, I don't know the statistic for it, but there are like so many goals that have been scored an extra time this season amongst like all the teams. It is. It is. is something crazy because there's just something mental. I mean, first of all, we went down to 10 players. So that's going to be huge. But it's just they are pushing. They're pushing. We're just trying to survive. We're just trying to survive. So you're going to get a little bit of, I didn't want to call it, freaky deaky soccer, but you're going to get some weird NWSL after hours games. So, yeah. It was great to see. Yeah. But let's move forward to the defense. our defense looked a lot better. I feel like getting Reyes back from injury to get her back to the full 90 minutes was a huge, huge. I mean, I guess she didn't play the full 90 minutes, but to get her back to starting. And that was huge for our back line. We played really well. Like, I feel like as long as that word cohesive again, like we played really, really well. We stuck to, we kept our line. We kept pushing. We kept dropping. We just moved really well together. And that was because of our our midfield. Midfield is, you're supposed to be defense and offense. You're going to, you run the most. Your, your job is kind of the hardest. Whether it be physicality, we need somebody. Yeah. Yeah. Like, whether it's physicality, whether it's like mental decisions, like midfield is kind of, you know, like, oh, shoot, should I press or do I need to drop back? Or, you know, like so, but our midfield did great. They dropped back and helped defense. We moved. There was no huge gaps. We didn't get spread too thin. God damn. Moultrie, Tordin, Flem. Like, I don't know if you could beat that midfield, you know? Like, we just, we just look super great. And I feel like the more, because, I mean, like, we can kind of push into offense after this. But, like, Sof is back. She missed all last season. You know, she's only, she's only half a season in with, to have these, like, to have this, like, I don't know, recognition or just this comfortability with Tordin, Flem and Mold you know what I mean? And once they, I mean, they're already starting to crack, you know, they're already making those really good connections. And I feel like we just keep pushing and we keep pushing, and those connections are going to get better and better. And I mean, Tordin and Flem just serving those balls to Sof is just going to be fucking beautiful, you know, like, I mean, Tordin, like, God damn, she's leading the leagues and assists. Like, that's amazing, you know, and that's just huge. So, um, we're really seeing, sorry, went on a spiral here. Um, Yeah.

Alan: 19:12

So we're really seeing our offense push, uh, hard and we're seeing some, some great play up there.

Marissa: 19:19

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, yeah, and especially having Weaver back is huge. Like she's, that's huge. You know, like, I mean, somebody, like, one of the reasons we, they scored, uh, well, Midge Purce scored that goal is because all of our defender at the second minute of the game is because all of our defenders flooded to Sam Kerr, because Sam Kerr's scary as fuck with the ball in her foot. That left Midge Purce open. And so when Sof's out, out there. Or now that we have weaver back there, people are like, oh, shit, weavers are threat. So people will maybe push towards weaver and then let a leave soap open. Or even when they go to Sof to Sof to crowd her, that leaves weaver open. So I feel like it's, it's just, it's good. It's good news all around. Um, um, I know that we, we still are missing like a solid six and, um, that nothing will, nothing will fill the same coffee hole. We know that. But, um, we, we looked good. And maybe we don't need a coffee size. whole anymore. Maybe we just need the size hole that we was going to work with us.

Alan: 20:15

So we need to find what works for our team, what works for our players, uh, how we can get them all working together. And, uh, you know, we, like you said, we can't replace coffee, but, you know, we can, we can adapt. And I think that's what we need to do. So we talked about this game being a tie to two, two, which got us one point. We were really hoping that we get those three, uh, from a win. But this has brought us up to 28 points. Unfortunately, Utah leapfrogged us, uh, after our game, uh, last night in quite a game. Uh, but we are now in fifth and we are going to-

Marissa: 21:00

They beat the shit out of North Carolina.

Alan: 21:02

Sorry. Yeah. So tell us about, uh, Utah's game. Uh, and then let's talk about, uh, where we're at and where we're going to go.

Marissa: 21:11

Okay. Yeah. So, um, Utah beat the shit out of North Carolina. it was, um, an asswumping from beginning to end. Um, and Utah deserve those points. They had a slip up last week, but they deserve those points. And, yeah, I mean, Utah's just going to

Alan: 21:27

Utah. You know, we talked about how, how this league can, uh, you know, every game is, is, is a new game and you never quite know how it's going to go. Uh, but this, this was quite, uh, the, the, uh, the game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Um, yeah.

Marissa: 21:45

but yep, they leave frog dust. And so now they are solidly tied for second with the spirit.

Alan: 21:51

So where does that leave us? We have 11 unbeaten games at home and all of our losses are away and our next two games are away. What, what do we need to do here? Okay. So, um, so there's games today that could

Marissa: 22:09

change the positioning of us on the table. San Diego Wave plays Seattle rain. Washington spirit played Denver summit. So judging off of like who wins those games or not, we could definitely drop significantly more. Actually, no. Actually, we're standing still. Yep, but we will be in fifth, um, no matter what happens on those. So the trading window is still open. It closes in September.

Alan: 22:37

Uh, we still don't have a centerback. We do have night shot in. We've lost one player to Utah. Uh, And we have signed some extensions.

Marissa: 22:49

Mm-hmm. So Sponstra was on loan to Utah. And so that was just like, she's on loan. We can get her back or not. But we've chose to just actually sell her over there, which is great. She's getting more playing time. And also, I don't know if you remember, but she's the one that pushed Sof down in the box that led to our tie in Utah the last time they were here. So good looking out for us anyway, Spaanstra. Love you, girl. Good luck in Utah.

Alan: 23:15

Well, and we've signed some. some extensions, uh, but we still, uh, have not, uh, signed Wilson. Uh, Sophia's still still unknown. Uh, we, we really need to keep her, but are we going to be able to do that? Uh, are we going to sign something with her? Uh, what do you expect to see here? I don't know. I think no new news is good news. Um, like,

Marissa: 23:36

I feel like no new news means that she's not shopping around. She's not talking to anybody else. So she's, I feel like she wants to stay here. Like, we've already talked about, like, her husband plays the NFL, but they play opposite schedule. So he can be here during the summer, you know, and like, her family's up here. So I think no news about this is good news. We don't want to hear her being shopped around or some bullshit like that. So I think that's good. I think, yes. So last week, we promised that we were going to talk about the salary caps, the hip rule, and what is going on with Gotham. Um, you know, we keep seeing all these incredible players, uh,

Alan: 24:20

over on Gotham's side.

Marissa: 24:23

I'm like, I, dude, I've, like, I've, like, I've listened to so many podcasts about it. I've Googled it. I still am like, okay, like, I kind of know what they're talking about, but there's just, I don't know.

Alan: 24:33

So as we've looked into this more, we found out it's more complicated than you think. Uh, people talk about the high impact player rule, uh, nicknamed the Rodman rule. Um, people say that's why it occurs, uh, over on there. Uh, but it turns out she's not even eligible for the high impact. player rule, that hip rule. So what's going on? It seems to be allocation money. I guess they get a little bit of money each year that they can bank. And essentially they spent a couple of years just saving up. And this year, they're spending, spending, spending. And so we're seeing everybody come out. The president of soccer operations over for Gotham said that, uh, said, we've view the salary cap like a competitive weapon. So, you know, it's something that they see as a way to, to win, you know, pulling in all their players all at once. Um, but, you know, we're talking about this, this hip rule, uh, but the union, the players union has also opposed it. They filed a grievance in January. Uh, that hasn't been resolved yet.

Marissa: 25:46

It is a huge mess, though. It is a huge mess, though. It is a huge mess when they could just, move the salary cap up a million dollars instead of putting all these weird fucking rules in. Just raise the salary cap a million dollars. Raise the salary cap. That's what I have to do. Make all this weird garbage rules that we have to talk about. Raising the salary cap seems like it

Alan: 26:02

would be a completely reasonable solution to this. It would let everybody play on the same playing field. And, you know, essentially that's what the union is asking is, uh, do we have a car carve out here for, for famous people? Or do we raise the floor for everyone? And, you know, I say we should be raising everybody, you know, let, let these players get paid more overall. The other thing is, you know, what is the enforcement on this? Angel City took a $200,000 fine and a three-point deduction in 2024 for cap violations. Three points, yeah, okay, that's a big deal. But $200,000 when the cap is $3 million, you know, that's a not that much extra money to spend and to, you know, potentially get, get some extra better players. They say they're starting annual audits, so it should be police now, but we'll

Marissa: 27:03

see what that actually means. It's also, sorry, it's also just ridiculous. Like, the stipulations, like the, like, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, the, like, like, you're saying if ESPN doesn't rank me on their rankings, then I won't, I'm not eligible to get paid more, you know, like Sam Kerr is one of the top players in the world, but she technically doesn't even qualify for the hip rule. You know what I mean? So you're asking your, these, or Ballondor, when Ballondor is notably not pro-American at all, they, we never, we're like, and the Ball and, it's like a French magazine, it's like a French, it's like a huge deal. A ball and door is supposed to be a big deal, but they just favor Spanish and European players, always. So for you to, for the hip rule, or for them to say that this is how we're going to judge how much money you get is ridiculous. It just does not make sense. It does not make sense. For, like, or say if you're injured, because they also judge, like, how many times you play for, like, yeah, the top USA, like, if you play for your country, like, well, what if you were injured? If, what if you, you know, and there's only three camps this summer. And so it's just, it's just ridiculous. They, they raise a salary. recap a million. It's, that's it. It gets the same thing that doesn't need to involve the ESPN or the guardian or like some French magazine. Like, like, what are we doing? Sorry. And I do

Alan: 28:29

want to correct one thing I said, which is that the union, the players union's grievance, uh, is that this rule was imposed, uh, without bargaining. So, uh, they're not, they're not saying, uh, that they want, uh, anything in particular. They're just saying, um, you know, this was imposed, uh, without us, our input. And I agree they definitely should have been able to have that input there. So it'll be

Marissa: 28:53

interesting to see how that. And our players union is they, our players union is serious. Like, they, they fight for like our women and our players. And yeah, we want, everybody wanted to see Trinemy Rodman stay with us. Because you had mentioned people do nickname it the Trudy Robben rule, but we are not calling it that on this podcast. But like, we wanted to stay here. And we want our players to get paid. But like, you have to go through the right channels. And for them to just like, the league just to say, fuck you guys and just go on and do what they want to do. That's not how this works. That's not how a players union work. That's not how this works. Steps off soapbox.

Alan: 29:29

So coming up next for the team, they have nine days off and then they are against Utah on the road on August 2nd. We were talking about road games. How's this one going to play out for us?

Marissa: 29:46

Alan, I hope it plays out okay for us. I mean, I understand that Providence Park is our 12th man, We played so well. Like, we played so well on Friday night. I think that if we can keep up the pressure, play our game. What is, trust the process. Trust what we're doing. Like when we went down one goal in the first two minutes, we did not give up. We just kept pushing and pushing and pushing and we played our game. And I think, yeah, Utah's an amazing game as an amazing team, but fuck, we're the fucking thorns. We're fucking amazing too. So I think if we keep up the pressure, it's also like, no offense to Utah, but they get about like a couple thousand people in their stadiums. It's not like they're like going to, you know, their crowd is going to like make us shy or something. So I think that if we just keep our heads down and press and play our game, keep our, keep our plan, then I think we could come out with a win. I don't want to say easily, but I think that we can come out with a win.

Alan: 30:44

After that game on Saturday, seeing how well Utah did then, it does make me a little bit worried, but I hope you're right, and we can keep this up. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm,

Marissa: 30:56

I'm worried every team. I, every, I mean, we lost four or one to the team that only has, to a team that only has eight points, like this season, you know, like this is the NWSL. It could go anyway, but I think, I think we can pull something off. I think that we can pull something off. We're a great team, and I feel like we're finally jelling. I feel like, you know, only took half season, but I feel like we're, I feel like we're really pushing, but I, too, am worried, Alan, and it would be dumb not to say that we should not be worried or concerned. Well, and Perry will presumably be suspended due to that red card, so are we going to be all right without her? I think that we'll be all right. It is not good to not have her on the field, but I think that we'll make do. We always do. It's next woman up. You know, that's kind of got to be your mindset. It's like, okay.

Alan: 31:50

Right. Next woman up. Next woman up. So let's go. All right. Well, that brings us to the end of our podcast. And once again, I want to say, Emily Sonnett, heal up. We are wishing the best for you. Once a thorn, always a thorn. Even though you were playing for Gotham, you know, we hate to see you taken out that way. Hopefully we'll hear some good news here in the next couple of days.

Marissa: 32:16

Yep. Yep. Yeah, Sonnett. Love you, girl. Hope to see you back. on the pitch. Go Thorns. Fuck Seattle. All smiles. No injuries. See you guys. Go Thorns.