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.

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