Rose City Red Card
The unfiltered Portland Thorns podcast. Marissa bleeds rose. Alan is from Seattle, which makes things interesting.
Every episode: what actually happened in the Thorns' last match, what it means in the NWSL table, and at least one rant that goes too long.
Adults only. Bring a drink.
Rose City Red Card
August 30, 2026: One Point Is Better Than Zero
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Gotham 1-1 Portland. A point on the road at the team top of the table, and Portland had 26% of the ball to get it.
Jaedyn Shaw scored in the 60th. She admitted afterwards it was meant to be a cross. It still chipped Mackenzie Arnold, who was off her line. Sophia Wilson equalized from the spot in the 75th, her eleventh of the season, after Pietra Tordin got her ankle stepped on inside the box and her shoe came off. Play carried on for two minutes before VAR looked at it.
Marissa's argument is that this was the best the defense has looked all season, and that the reason is boring. Same four as the previous match. Vignola, Perry, Hiatt, Calzada, two games running. Familiarity, not signings.
Her quote of the pod follows from it. She is not a sports analyst, she is drinking well vodka in a bucket hat at 2:45 on a Sunday, but it looks to her like Portland are trading some of their scary offense for that defense. The midfield sits instead of pressing. Sophia Wilson ends up alone on an island up top. Marissa will take the trade and points at Gotham grinding out 1-0 wins all year.
Then the weekend happened. Portland went into it third. Utah beat Orlando on Saturday, Washington beat Bay FC on Sunday morning, and by the time we sat down the Thorns were fifth on 38. One point off fourth.
Also in it: Jayden Perry as the best centerback on the team in her second pro season, Nina Nijstad taking people on one-v-one and picking up a booking for it, Tordin still one assist off the league record, and Marissa's Match Day Roundup.
Five of the last eight are at Providence Park. Portland have not lost there all year.
Adults only. Bring a drink.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open: a point at the best team in the league
03:26 The defense, and why the reason is boring
09:10 The two goals
13:02 Vignola and Tordin, Perry, Nijstad
15:56 The table: third to fifth in one weekend
21:41 Marissa's Match Day Roundup
22:40 What are we drinking
25:27 What's next: five of the last eight at home
WHAT WE WERE DRINKING
Marissa: a shot of well vodka and a big cup of water. She was sent a list of suggestions and had the well vodka anyway.
Alan: a Lagunitas IPA. He ordered every drink a listener recommended that the bar actually had, which came to none of them.
THE NUMBERS
Possession: Gotham 74%, Portland 26%. Portland still had the better of the shot count.
Table: Portland fifth on 38, one point off fourth. Gotham top on 45.
Tordin: 9 assists. The NWSL single-season record is 10, set by Tobin Heath for Portland in 2016 and equaled by Croix Bethune at the Washington Spirit in 2024.
Next: Portland v Washington Spirit, Sunday September 6, 1pm, Providence Park.
Welcome to Rose City Red Card for August 30th, 2026. I am Alan. I am here with Marissa, and we are coming off of a great game. We played Gotham. We tied 1-1. But you know what? I think I'm seeing some great things about this team coming up. Marissa, how do you think we looked out there?
Marissa:We looked really good today. We looked really good. We went toe-to-to-to with the best team in the league. he looked good. We looked good. I don't know. We looked really good. We are all the way from the back. Maca played good. She had some good saves. Did consider a goal. We'll talk about that later. Defense. Our defense looked good. We're finally seeing our defense really coming together. Soph is going to Soph. Soph's just so strong and scary up at the top. So yeah, it was exciting. It was big.
Alan:It was a really fun game. The energy just kept up the entire. higher time. It was another one of those anxiety-inducing games, but also it was just an exciting one.
Marissa:Yeah, it was a good match.
Alan:Really fun to watch. And this was one of our road games, which we traditionally have not been great at. We've lost 6 of 11 on the road before this. But, you know, we tied this time, which for a road game for us, you know, not to blame things too much, but, you know, I think I will take it. One point is better than zero, as we were just talking about.
Marissa:Pin it, baby. But, no, yeah. It's, yeah, we got one point on the road against the best team in the league. They have the best defense in the league. I mean, Soph was still making runs. We still had more shots on goal from them, or shots on goal from us, but we went up against a really strong defense, and we still, we came away with
Alan:a point, which is great. Gotham is in first, and not by just a hair. They are, you know, solidly in first place. We've talked about them on previous episodes, how they have stacked together an incredible team. They've got some just really superstar players there. So, us being able to really hold our own, like you said, our defense was playing better than we've seen in a while, and it was just fantastic to see. A fantastic stat of the game. We only had possession of the ball 26% of the time. a quarter of the time.
Marissa:And it did not look like that. It did not. That's not how the game looked at all.
Alan:Like, again, it was a tie. It felt like a tie game. It felt like the energy was there between both sides. And we still outshot Gotham, even with, you know, only that 26%.
Marissa:Yeah, yeah. It was great.
Alan:It was a lot of fun. And that brings us then into a little bit more detail about what's going on with the defense. So Marissa, you were saying that this is the best our defense has looked all season. Tell me more about that.
Marissa:Okay, so let's start up with, we had the same lineup as last, last week, which I, which I've been saying is really important. We need those girls to have repetitive people around them, the familiarity, you get used to like, okay, well, they like to step back, they are a little bit faster, they can catch up to that, they can't, you know. So we started, we had MA Vignola, we had Jayden Perry, Sam Hiatt, and Carolyn Calzada, as our starting defenders, again, for the second time in a row. We need M.A. Vignola on the field at all times. She wasn't starting there for a little bit with us, and then she came back, and she had the game that kind of, like, she was kind of getting a little bit better, getting a little more active, but now she's awesome on the field. She loves to go up to the left side. We'll talk about that later. She works so well with Tordin on that left side, and she's just been, yeah, she's just great for us. Jayden Perry is the best centerback on the team. She's young. This is only her second year in the league, and we depend on her a lot back there. And I hate to say it, but our defense is slow, but you can counteract that with, you know, cutting people's angles off, dropping back a little bit better, you know, so.
Alan:Well, that does bring up. Where is Reyes? She hasn't played in a bit.
Marissa:Yeah, I actually don't know. She's not on the injured list. She's just kind of not playing. He was available as a sub this last game, but they didn't bring her in.
Alan:We don't know anything.
Marissa:But how the rumor mill usually goes, if somebody is not playing and they have like no excused absence, no injuries, is people are thinking that they're about to leave a team because they're waiting to pass medical with their next team. We don't know. That is heavy, deep into the world of the Internet.
Alan:We all know how Internet can speak.
Marissa:We all know how that goes, but also look at us.
Alan:We're recording in a bar.
Marissa:Yeah, we're not, you know, take with whatever we say. Who knows what my real name even is, you know? So you don't know.
Alan:I tried to come up with a fake name. No, that's, it's okay. Mine went blank. So luckily, I get to keep calling you Marissa since we've done that since episode one.
Marissa:I know, yeah. Beep, beep, beep, pew. Whether that's your real name or not. Who knows?
Alan:It does bring up, we were talking, we've kind of given up a little bit of our offense, but we've really improved on that defense. And it feels like we're playing a lot more cohesively because of it. Yeah. Tell me more about that.
Marissa:So this is my, this is my quote of the pod. I'm not a fucking sports analyst. Drinking vodka at a bar with a bucket hat on. On a Sunday.
Alan:Woo!
Marissa:At 2.45 in the hour. afternoon. But it seems like we are giving up some of our offense to be better on defense. It seems like maybe our midfielders instead of pressing, they're kind of stepping back a little bit, a little bit. And you can kind of just see it in like the stats. Our defense has gone up. We're not scoring as many goals. We all can see Soph Wilson out there on an island. All by herself. All by herself up there because we are kind of favoring defense, which is fine. Like we're fine. We're fine. God damn, Gotham's got away with all year 1-0 games, you know? And we're as a point to point, you know, 2-1 against Orlando, 1-1-0 against Summit. Like, yeah, we can defend, but we will score. So I think it's working out. I do know that Soph does look fucking gassed towards the end of the game to like the last 15 minutes. But we got Weaver. She's playing hard out there. Yeah, but we got Weaver coming back strong. We have Hanks coming back. They both got 30 minutes, which was huge. that last game, 30 minutes. They're building it up. Reilyn Turner, she was available, but she didn't come out, which is fine. It takes a lot to get back from injuries slowly but surely, you know. But we're looking at having a pretty, I mean, not full strength, obviously, thinking about you live. But, like, we are looking at almost, we could be full strength in a month when we really get towards like the end of the season, you know?
Alan:And we've talked a lot about how much this team cares for its players.
Marissa:Yeah.
Alan:Taking care of them. making sure that they really are ready to go. Yeah. And that, you know, they have recovered.
Marissa:Mm-hmm. You know, giving them limited playing minutes to give them a chance to build. Build. Just build. Yeah.
Alan:Although everybody who comes back on the field seems to just play incredibly.
Marissa:Yeah.
Alan:Hanks a few weeks ago. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's just, it's been really cool to see. So we'll see how, uh, how it all comes together. Um, and, you know, we talked to last, uh, last week about, uh, the big honest meeting. that Vilahamn was the thing that they needed to have. And, you know, it seems like we're seeing some results.
Marissa:Yeah. I mean, it's everything changed after that. We haven't lost a game. I mean, granted, three wins and a tie. But since that Utah lost, like, we fucking looked ourselves in the mirror and we're like, let's pull our big girl pants up and play some fucking soccer. And that's what we've done. And we've just looked great. Like, we've looked great. Not great. No, we've looked good. We've looked great. It's awesome.
Alan:I think we've looked great. Yeah.
Marissa:Thank you. Thank you.
Alan:It's been, been a lot of fun. And this was such a fun game to watch.
Marissa:Yeah, it was. It was fun.
Alan:Really good energy. Which then brings us into kind of a little bit of more detail on what happened in the game. And those two incredible goals.
Marissa:Yeah, so two goals of the game. One went to Jaedyn Shaw at the 60th minute.
Alan:It was.
Marissa:So she later admitted in interviews. She said that it was supposed to. be across. But baby girl, that was a beautiful shot. She chipped it right over Mackenzie Arnold. Arnold was a little bit off her line. She should have been a little bit more on a line, but that was. It was one of those shots you see. Yeah. It's just like me and Alan, we were watching the game. We looked at each other like, that was a good fucking goal. You know, that was a really nice shot. So, um, good for you, Jaedyn Shaw, I guess. And then, but we got a.
Alan:The second one, I think, was.
Marissa:the really interesting goal. Yeah. That was really interesting. Yeah. So what happened was, so we, Soph won, or, no, actually, Tordin won it, but Soph made the penalty at the 75th minute. But what happened before that was, I think it was like three or four minutes in play, Pietra Tordin, was in front of the box, and she was inside the 18-yard box, but towards the edge of it. And she was just doing her Tordin thing with her feet, and somebody clipped her, and she fell, and somebody slept on her ankle, and it tripped her. her up. And you, we didn't see it in the play. We didn't see it during play. Play just kept going. They just kept going for a couple minutes. And that's always frustrating for the fans and for the players. Like, come on this, you know, but VAR's going to do its thing. And VAR checked, and sure enough, it was a penalty. Like, she got her ankle stepped on. She was tripped, and her, she was tripped, and her, she kind of lost some of her, her shoe came off at the back. So, uh, there's a little bit of force. Yeah, a little bit of force and so stepped up and just wax it right at Berger. Berger, you know, goes right, or Berger goes left, Soph goes right. It was, she sank it. And that was at the 75th minute. And yeah, that was, you know, yeah, that was, that was awesome. I, like, we have in the note, we have in our notes that we were going to kind of say that she had an off night. And I guess we, for Soph, an off night is that she doesn't score a goal, you know, because she's still such a beast out there, you know, but. And I was talking, I was getting a bit nerdy and talking about kind of the game theory of penalty kicks. Oh, yeah.
Alan:And there's an economics podcast episode about it out there somewhere. But kind of the game theory of which direction that do you go? Do you go left or do you go right? And, you know, there's a lot more to a penalty kick than that. But like that one decision, you know, does 80% of the work. And if you go the wrong direction, you know, you just don't have a choice. Or you, you know, you don't have a chance. And we saw that. her footwork coming up to the ball, like, you know, indicated she was going one way and she was able to kick it in the other direction. And it looked like she was going to cross her body, but she opened her hips.
Marissa:And it was, and Berger thought that she was going to go that way, too.
Alan:It's all about reading the body language. And, you know, it was a little bit of a body language fake out there. And it's so cool seeing, you know, those, those mini games inside the whole game of just those two play players against each other and watching, am I going left or am I going right?
Marissa:Especially between the Gotham goalie, who is the great and powerful Ann-Katrin Berger, who plays for Germany's national team. That's an incredible player. One of the best goalies in the world. Seriously, one of the best goalies in the world. And you knew soap was playing her mind tricks, but so was AKB, you know? Like, the way they slow down the game, she'll go and get water and maybe take her time, getting back on the line. Like, it's all such a mind game. Yeah.
Alan:It is. There's so many little moments. that can really make a big difference in the game. And it's so much fun.
Marissa:Yeah.
Alan:So let's talk a little bit more about the team and some of the players and what's going on with the team. All right.
Marissa:Yeah. So let's get into the team. How everybody played or, I don't know, let's pick a little bit of people out of here. First of all, I was blown away with M.A. Vignola and Pietra Tordin and working on the left side together. they, they move great on that left side together. Vignola is strong enough and fast enough to get back, but she loves to push in the attack. And if she pushes up and our centerbacks know to move over left, then they have her back. She's fine and she can push up. And then suddenly we're moving fast up there, you know, with her speed and Tordin's feet. Like, it looks amazing. So that's my number one shout. Those girls for this game, they played, yeah, they've been great. I mean, Tordin, like, you know, Tordin. Tordin's been great. Tordin has had an incredible season.
Alan:We have been talking. She is one off still of the assist league record. We keep talking about that, and she keeps not getting it. I know. She had a bunch in a row, and then we started talking about it. So is this another time we blame ourselves?
Marissa:I don't know. Where are the Etsy witches? Do you have, I have a contact, but it's been a while.
Alan:We need a higher one. I haven't looked into it, but we've seen the things that Etsy witches can do, and we just, we need to hire.
Marissa:one. I actually have seen some witch stuff on Facebook Marketplace.
Alan:Oh, okay. So maybe the witch has moved to Facebook Marketplace. You know, you go where the customers
Marissa:are. Okay, so another big shout that I have today is for Jayden Perry. I feel like she's her second year as a professional. And she is, we depend on her a lot back there. She's finding herself in really good spaces. She is never, she's never waiting for the ball to come to her. She's always rushing to the ball. And she's probably one of the faster people on our back line. And yeah, she's just, she's been, she's been great. She's been great. And then another, my third big shout out is Nina Nijstad. Holy crap, Nina. You are what we needed. You are taking people on one-on-one. You are being aggressive. I think you picked up your second or third yellow card this game. That's okay. Girl, we see you. That's okay. You know, you have to, you can't play a completely. completely passive game. Yeah. It's about pushing those lines sometimes. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But she's been playing. Welcome to America. Welcome to America. Welcome to the PNW girl. But yeah, so she's been huge and exciting. And actually, you know, we know the more we get into all the national teams playing. We had a FIFA break coming up next month. I feel like it's going to be more exciting to maybe watch, you know, now we have another team. I'm going to watch the Netherlands. I'm going to watch the Dutch players, you know, because I'd like to watch her play. We're starting to, you know, get to know these players. and see them. And it's really exciting. Yeah, it is. It's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah.
Alan:So that brings us to the standings, the table, where we're at. It's actually been quite an interesting weekend for us. We started off in third. We got this tie game, which gave us a point, brought us into second for an hour. Yes, yes. And then we dropped down to third, and then we dropped to fourth, then we dropped to fifth. Yes. Which again is saying, you know, how close these matches are. We are really, really, really close there. And it's exciting. You know, there is this movement. We still are in a good spot right now. But tell me more. Tell me about who brought us down and what happened. Before I bring up
Marissa:all the match weeks or the, before we get into Marissa's match week 19 roundup, I will say that we have a really, after this spirit game next week, we have a pretty easy rest of the season. So, but, okay, let's get into it. Drum roll, please. Okay, we have Marissa's Match Day Roundup, 19. Let's go. All right. So first, we had a game on Wednesday. It was North Carolina versus Angel City. North Carolina wins 2 to 0. It was, I caught the second half of the game. It was, it was just a game. Friday, we had Gotham versus the Thorns. We came away in a tie. We already talked about that game in length. The next game on Friday was San Diego versus Racing Louisville, or Racing Louisville, during race versus racing Louisville. San Diego comes back from a two zero deficit to beat racing two to three, which was insane. I can't believe they made a comeback. I couldn't even believe that racing was beating him like that. Yeah, it was crazy. This is what we're getting towards the end of the season. Everyone's just kind of pushing. And then Saturday, first game of the day was Kansas City versus North Carolina. Casey beats, uh, beats North Carolina three to two. KC welcomes back. Temwa Chawinga from WAFCON. And also, the KC current have not conceded a home game in 28 games. What the fuck. That's what the fuck. And so I know the 28 games is right on spot, but I'm pretty sure only six of those 28 were ties. Wow. What the fuck. We talk a lot about our record at home. But that's, yeah, I fucking know. I literally wrote my notes. What the fuck. That is, that is insane. Yeah, it's unbeaten, not conceded. Sorry. Your girl can't speak.
Alan:No, you said the right thing. Brooke just thought. I don't know if you've noticed. Brooke so far has three or four times said, oh no, that's Jaedyn, not Jayden.
Marissa:Yes, and she spells it like Jaedyn Shaw and not like our Jayden Perry.
Alan:Yeah. And so she keeps trying to tell us the wrong one. And so I needed to be like, no, don't, they sound the same. You're just transcribing it wrong.
Marissa:Girl, stop. Thank you for the help. Thank you, Brooke. Okay. All right. So, yeah, that was the Kansas City. Yeah, 28, 28 fucking games at home. That's insane. All right. So next game on Saturday was Orlando versus Utah. It was a rainy, lightning rain weather delay because Orlando. And Utah wins two to one. Barbra Banda scored the first goal of the game, and I thought Orlando were going to be in it. But then it toppled and Utah, Utah. And it's. they won two to one. Last game on Saturday.
Alan:Oh, this was.
Marissa:Yeah. So it was Denver versus Chicago.
Alan:Poor Chicago.
Marissa:Denver beats Chicago 6 to 1. Swanson was out for Chicago. Heaps was back for Denver. This is not fun for anybody.
Alan:I hated R5-1 loss.
Marissa:I know. We thought that's the thing. Like, we all, I want great things for Chicago. I want everybody to do well. But I shout out that our, team doesn't have the worst loss in the season. Give it up. We're not the worst. Just really not having a good year. That was rough. Yeah. So, yeah, that was rough. So that was the last game on Saturday. Sunday got up and woke up. It's 9.30. Really nice to wake up and watch of soccer. Perfect. A game was Spirit versus the Bay, or Bay FC. And the Spirit won 1 to 0. It was pretty, it was. I will say, so the Spirit 1-1-0, but I cannot believe that Bay is ranked 14th in the league. They looked good. They looked good, yeah. And I guess, like, they have a bunch of young players. They're still kind of managing to get some stuff together, but they're always, I looked up to record, so I don't watch a lot of their games when I looked them up, and they're always losing 1-0-2-1. They got like a last-minute goal. VAR really fucks them a lot. And so. It's just crazy that they're 14th, and it's insane to see. But, yeah, those are the only games we're going to be able to watch because the next game, the next two games of the match week are today at its game starts in an hour. Seattle versus Houston. And then Monday we have Boston versus Angel City. Those games do not, won't fuck with us on the table. So we decided that we were going to record before also because we're not trying to record.
Alan:We don't need to get every game. We're here for the thorns.
Marissa:Yeah, we're here for the thorns. You're lucky you're getting this shit. Sorry. I mean, we love, thank you for listening.
Alan:We love our listeners.
Marissa:We love our listeners.
Alan:So that brings us to closing out and talking a little bit about what is coming up next.
Marissa:All right. And so to wrap up, everybody's favorite segment, Marissa's Match Day Roundup, Match Week Roundup. Gotham is out the, we're just going to lay out the top eight teams, the teams that are going to be into playoffs, well, at least for now. Gotham, number one, is at 45 points. Washington Spirit is at 40 points. Utah is at third with 39 points. San Diego is at fourth with 39 points. Our Portland Thorns are at fifth with 38 points. North Carolina is at sixth with 36 points. Kansas City is at seventh with 34 points. And Seattle is at 28 points. So they're the, they've been pretty close at the bottom. But yep, that's the end of Marissa's match. week 19 roundup. And that brings us to what is coming up next week. Yeah.
Alan:But before we go into that, we forgot to talk about what are you drinking tonight, Marissa? We've gotten a little bit of flack online for our lack of creativity with drinks. So I just want to call out that we got recommendations for each of us. And today I ordered every single recommendation that I was given that was available at this bar. and then none of those were available, so I ordered a Lagunitas IPA again. I am going to talk to the owners of the bar and tell them they need to put a Portland beer on, but right now it's, yeah, there's no selection. So once again, I am drinking Lagunitas. And Marissa, you were also given a list of suggestions on how to spruce up that vodka. Yeah. So what did you decide to go with tonight?
Marissa:So actually, I decided to change it up and I, no, I didn't. I didn't change it up. I still have a shrews up. shot of well vodka and a big cup of water. So shout out to you for, uh, to guy online, you know, I.
Alan:We should have had his name up, but I forgot to do that. So we'll be better. We'll be better next time.
Marissa:We're just easy. We're just easy. Exactly. There we go.
Alan:Cheers.
Marissa:Cheers.
Alan:So next week, we are playing the spirit. And like you were saying, they're in a pretty good spot right now. They played a pretty good game.
Marissa:Mm-hmm.
Alan:Seeing them play, uh, what do you think that means for us going forward?
Marissa:forward um we need to play a it's like we're playing gotham we need to play a damn near perfect game um we have to be kept we have to do good we have to have good defense um Washington spirit has some of the best midfields in the league um they also have trinity rodman who is almost just as scary as
Alan:soph wilson is at the top um you were talking before we got on uh mike that you know she's she's looking
Marissa:just as scary and fucking scary so we just we have to play our game um we have to play defense but we also can't remember that we need to score goals to move on or you know to win games so yeah it also just depends on a lot of like uh like we're coming back pretty healthy uh but they during today's match Ashley Hatch went off with an injury she's I don't know nobody she might be fine but she went off and Leicy Santos is also really big for them and she's been out the last game with an injury as well so I don't know it's kind of it's getting towards the end of the and it's next woman up and or like who's the healthiest you know like who's the healthiest so yeah well luckily uh you are going to be at that game uh watching it in person you're going to ask your fourth question at a press conference uh yeah i am yeah i am you said it we got it yep yep um wait so first let me just go through like the last like seven or eight games that we have yeah who else are we play this year so we play washington spirit on sunday the six at home we play chicago stars on sunday the 13th at home we play orlando on the 19th in orlando portland uh we we play houston at portland on september 26th we play boston at portland on september 26th we play boston at portland on october 3rd we pay bay f city in bay f city on october 18th we play north Carolina in Portland on October 23rd and then our final game of the regular season is against Houston Dash on November 1st so we hey you know the spirit and North Carolina in there but we play some of the more bottom of the table games I mean every we every game counts every game
Alan:counts but you know we are in the top of the pack we've got we're in that cluster yeah so yeah that bottleneck we can't afford to to give away too many but it also means we've got some good good chances here
Marissa:and so and like i said we're like we're i don't want to say peaking because that's a weird word but i feel if we're peeking at the right time we're getting people back healthy at the right time like this is so big Hanks weaver and turner coming back right now at the same time like that's that's huge for our bench that's huge for us so and we still have not lost at home all year yeah so hopefully we see another win uh another three points it would be fantastic providence park gives exactly so we will see you all next week and as always all smiles no injuries book seattle go thorns go thorns go thorns