Latest / Rose City Red Card / July 14, 2026: The Coffey-Sized Hole in Our Midfield

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July 14, 2026: The Coffey-Sized Hole in Our Midfield · Rose City Red Card

0:15
Welcome to Rose City Red Card, your Portland Thorns podcast.
0:21
I am here.
0:23
I am Alan, and with me is Marissa, and I'm going to have to make an apology here in a moment.
0:31
Hello, I'm Marissa, and I, Thorns Groupie.
0:35
I will be collecting Alan's tears after this podcast.
0:39
I will be posting his name, birth date.
0:42
It's the last four of his social.
0:43
Mother's made a name in the show notes.
0:45
So if you want to come after him, here we go.
0:48
Perfect.
0:48
You threatened to post my address earlier, but you missed it this time.
0:51
Alan, I think you have an apology prepared.
0:53
Everybody listen up.
0:55
I have to apologize on a Thorns podcast that I helped start.
1:02
I said, go Seattle, and the Thorns have not scored since.
1:10
It was a rough, rough game.
1:12
We watched it together.
1:13
or at least, we watched half of it together, and then it was too painful.
1:19
Got emotional.
1:20
It got emotional.
1:23
Yeah, so the thorns lost 2-0.
1:29
What happened?
1:31
I called it 2-1 the other direction.
1:36
2-0 is rough.
1:40
So, Alan, you asked what happened.
1:42
Let's talk about what didn't happen.
1:44
That may be the key of this.
1:46
story.
1:48
The thorns didn't show up.
1:51
They didn't show up.
1:52
They weren't there.
1:53
We could blame Alan, which I will continue to do for the rest of the season.
1:57
Hold that to him.
1:58
We could blame Alan.
1:59
We could blame the field.
2:00
At the end of the day, we did not show up.
2:02
Well, blaming the field is a thing.
2:05
We have won so many games in our own park, but whenever we're out, we just can't seem to get there.
2:14
We have one of the worst roads, we have one of the worst.
2:17
road.
2:18
We do so badly on the road.
2:21
We have not lost.
2:24
I think you should pull it back to last season.
2:26
A fact check on that here in a minute.
2:30
But we don't lose.
2:31
We've conceded.
2:33
We've tied.
2:34
But we don't lose at Providence Park.
2:37
And we go three hours as well.
2:40
You know, God dang.
2:41
And that's what I'm saying.
2:43
Yeah, we are unbeaten at Providence Park this year.
2:47
We are all.
2:47
All four losses that we've had were away.
2:49
I know we're going to talk about the table later on.
2:52
It's even worse.
2:53
At Lumen Field, specifically, we've been there four straight visits, not without a win, without a goal.
3:02
How?
3:04
Is the stadium cursed?
3:08
We're talking about it during the game.
3:11
This was the last time that people have gotten to play on that grass, that World Cup.
3:17
grass from earlier.
3:20
And it's cool, too, because a lot of the other stadiums pulled the grass.
3:23
So at least Seattle kept it for this game.
3:25
They kept it.
3:25
That was pretty cool.
3:26
That was cool.
3:27
I think that's cool.
3:28
Are we too used to playing on turf?
3:31
No.
3:31
So there is, our training facility, they train on grass.
3:35
But if you look at, I don't want to blame outside outliers.
3:39
I mean, let's all blame Allen for the rest of the season and maybe next year.
3:42
Don't forget about that.
3:42
Of course.
3:43
Don't forget about that.
3:43
But we train on grass.
3:47
We have grass fields for training.
3:49
We don't necessarily just train at Providence Park the whole time.
3:52
And before you get to a, before you go play, like players, when teams come to us, they have to practice on our turf because they have to get used to it.
3:59
Turf skips.
4:00
It doesn't, there's no give.
4:01
You know what I mean?
4:02
It's a different experience.
4:04
But I think the Cascadia rivalry is deep.
4:10
It is.
4:10
It doesn't make sense.
4:13
The lap, when we played them earlier in the season, we won two zero, down two players. That doesn't make sense.
4:20
It's funky.
4:21
We're going to get funky games.
4:21
The chance on Reddit were fantastic.
4:23
We beat you two down.
4:26
I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was fantastic.
4:29
We beat you by nine. We beat you by nine.
4:31
Yeah.
4:32
That was funny until it wasn't.
4:36
But things get funky.
4:38
Like, this is a team.
4:40
Like, this is, I don't want to say it's our Super Bowl because ultimately we want to win the league, but each fan base will tell you.
4:47
you, it's like, well, shit, we didn't have a good season. We didn't make playoffs, but we beat the fucking thorns or we beat fucking Seattle. Like, it's big. You know what I mean? It's a huge rivalry.
4:56
And every team is going to play their heart out. Like, every time, this game means so much.
5:01
Like, have you seen the, seen all the clips? Like, Seattle was posted, they had their, the sounders and the, and the rain posting, they had a bonfire and they were burning roses and all that stuff. Like, it goes deep. It's a big deal.
5:16
We have a whole chance.
5:17
you know what I mean? Like, it goes deep, and so I feel like those games are...
5:20
This is one of the big rivalries.
5:22
It's true. I mean, they try to make all these other rivalries in the thing, like California Derby, like, blah, blah, blah. This is the rivalry. Like, it is the biggest rivalry in the oldest rivalry in our week. You know what I mean? And it's passionate and it's funky. And I think what we got was a funky game. We did. And, you know, we've seen it both ways now. We beat them.
5:45
In a funky way. In a funky way.
5:47
They beat us in a funky way. And, you know, maybe that's the future of this rivalry. We'll have to see what happens in the next game. Yeah. I mean, it's, something's got to change, Alan. We came out flat-footed. We didn't have it in us. Like, we had a lot of shots. We had so many shots, even shots on goal. 26 shots. 26 shots, 10 on target. Zero goals.
6:17
Also, you know, this would be a different conversation if we, if you thought that Claudia Dickie was in goal, who's the shoe in for the number one goalkeeper for USA. But it wasn't. They had their second string goalie in. And she played like a fucking rock star, honestly. And I don't want to discredit the rain, even though fuck Seattle. But, like, I'm just kind of discrediting them. If they were a better team, the score would have been 6-0. Remember those plays that we watched when They were, like, their players were outside of the 18, and they cut it wrong or a bad touch.
6:50
It was so close.
6:52
I've never, players have bad games.
6:55
But as a team, even so, mulchry, Tordon, Flem, Vig, M.A. Vignola, like, our goalie, everybody, Mueller, everybody was lagging.
7:08
It seemed.
7:09
It didn't seem like we were playing cohesively.
7:11
No, no, not at all.
7:13
We were playing on our heels, and it was so.
7:15
So in our faces.
7:17
It was not what we were asking for.
7:22
All right. So, the Brown scored in the eighth minute.
7:25
Brown.
7:25
And then Mercado scored in the 43rd minute.
7:28
It was Brown's first goal in the league.
7:30
Congratulations.
7:32
Brown. Whatever.
7:34
But eight minutes into the game, eight minutes into a 45-minute half.
7:39
It started the game on the wrong side.
7:42
You know what I mean?
7:43
And then, like, what were we doing for warm-ups?
7:46
Like, how did this?
7:46
What happened for every single player to be lax?
7:50
Were we going into the game thinking, like, well, we just beat this team, two zero, nine players down?
7:55
Is this going to be nothing?
7:56
Did we just walk into it?
7:57
Because me personally, I'm a fucking Thorntz fan.
8:00
I'm always high.
8:02
I'm always living my life.
8:03
I'm always like, fuck you, we're better, you know?
8:06
And this was kind of humbling, you know?
8:09
Like, it was really humbling.
8:11
It was.
8:12
We didn't show up.
8:14
I mean, like, can we?
8:15
We've talked about, Oh, we've talked about how the thorns are a second-half team.
8:21
It takes us a little while to get going.
8:23
It takes us a while to get our heads together and actually be able to cooperate.
8:32
And, I mean, I only scored their two goals.
8:35
No.
8:35
We ever got there this week.
8:37
No.
8:37
We kept doing the same things.
8:40
We kept playing individual games and not playing as a team.
8:45
Exactly.
8:45
Exactly. We couldn't connect a pass.
8:47
And it's almost like, usually if everyone's slow, you'll have our, okay, so our attack is great, and we know that, but we're missing cohesion from our forwards, our midfield, and our defense.
9:00
We need cohesion on three levels.
9:02
And McKenzie Arnold, baby girl, please don't play with the ball at your foot.
9:07
She once gave up that goal.
9:08
She's just, some players, some goalies just can't do that, and that's fine.
9:13
But, okay, sorry, let's circle back.
9:14
I'm getting ahead of myself.
9:15
We need cohesion with the forwards, with the midfields, and with the defense.
9:21
Our midfields and our forwards work together so well.
9:26
The way Tordon passes with Sof, Moultrie, works out so well.
9:31
I mean, our attack, we're first in the league in attacking, which is crazy.
9:34
Even after the weekend we had, we're still ranked number one with our attack in the whole league.
9:41
But our midfield with our defense, there were times that Seattle had a quick turnaround.
9:47
They would send a ball over, and they would show the screen, and you would only see our four defenders.
9:51
There would be no midfielder's back at all.
9:55
And so you're just four defenders back, and that's why the name of our, the title of the podcast today is we are, we are, there is a hole that is shaped like Sam Coffey in our midfield, and it is extremely apparent.
10:10
It is right there on our faces, the goalie, I mean, I mean, I mean, Our coach, our players.
10:16
Our coach called it.
10:17
Somebody in Man City knows about it.
10:19
Sam can see it from there.
10:21
She knows.
10:22
What are we going to do?
10:24
What can we do about this?
10:26
We need to sign a solid six.
10:29
I know that we need a centerback and we need defense, but a solid six is a defensive midfielder.
10:36
There is somebody that can stick.
10:38
So we have our four defenders right here at the back.
10:42
And so a six is right here.
10:43
and the other three midfielers are up here.
10:46
Our six is basically defense, but can go this way.
10:49
But she would be the one molding back.
10:51
Hey, Moultry, come back here.
10:53
Or no, hey, go this way.
10:54
She's talking.
10:55
She's the one who can communicate between the players.
10:58
She's the clue between the defense and the midfield.
11:00
And right now, we don't have anything like that.
11:02
You need somebody managing the field.
11:03
And also, like, God damn, Sam Coffey's one of the best sixes in the fucking world.
11:08
I would probably say that she's in the top five of defensive midfielers in the the world, Alan.
11:15
And now she's gone.
11:17
And that's a huge hole.
11:19
And yeah, it's getting, like, Tordin and Flem and Moultrie have time to shine.
11:23
But our defense is shit.
11:25
Because, like, you need communication.
11:28
There's four defenders, but midfield gets back, and we're just not doing that.
11:32
And it's so apparent, and it's so in everybody's faces.
11:35
And what we're doing is, like, our coach knows it.
11:38
He literally, that's where we got our title from.
11:41
Our coach said it in the post-game presser.
11:43
And, and.
11:43
We are not, we're not, we're not, we have the money.
11:48
Let's get somebody in.
11:49
We just, we just, uh, we just, uh, we just got a, uh, J, S-T-A-D.
11:53
Nina Nijstada.
11:55
Yeah, Nina Nijstada.
11:56
Nijstada.
11:57
Nijstad?
11:58
I, I, I, I believe.
11:59
I know the J is J.
12:00
Hey, my, my last name is, uh, Dutch and originally had an I-J in it.
12:06
Uh, so I, I believe it is Knight.
12:08
Mr. Worldwide.
12:10
Uh, this is, this is like the first time I've ever had a chance.
12:13
to use that knowledge, but, uh, Nightshad, I believe, uh, if I'm wrong on that, it's my heritage that's at fault.
12:21
She doesn't start regularly for the Dutch team, which is not a great sign.
12:28
She, it's hard to find, she plays for a Dutch league, which is great, which is great.
12:34
She's going to be phenomenal in two to three years.
12:36
We don't need that now.
12:38
We need a complete player now.
12:40
We don't need, we have a bunch of players that are great now.
12:43
that are building. We don't need that now. We need somebody that's finished, not finished growing, but we need somebody now. We need somebody now that can be good for us. We need somebody to fill that hole in the meantime. Nothing, nothing's going to fill Sam Coffee hole.
13:04
Anyways, nothing. Brooke is like, you guys belong in jail. We'll keep that in. Yeah, but nothing is going to fill that hole. Nothing can. She's a one of a kind player. You know what I mean? Sam Coffey's a one kind player. But we need to start, and we are not starting with that. We're moving our defense around. We're getting people playing in different positions, like we said, being like repetitive. Now, like, our defense, if we play the same lineup every game, they would know, okay, you get used to this. It's like, okay, well, she can't, she doesn't track back as fast, and she likes this ball. She likes this. She likes this. That works out.
13:39
But we're not. They're starting different defenders all the time. Muehler, we're playing her at wing sometimes. Reyes.
13:45
We don't have the consistency.
13:47
Exactly. And Reyes, that's another thing. It's like, Reyes is hugely missed.
13:52
She is a rock for us back there. And not having her, we kind of fall apart.
13:57
You know, and not fall apart, but she's just huge for our defense and it's lacking.
14:02
Like, you, and even men, like, I'm saying, like, we have great attackers.
14:08
Goose, we scored zero. You know what I mean? Like, there's only so much.
14:13
Like, where's the line? We all just played, it was just not a, it was, it was the worst game I've seen us play since last season.
14:24
It was a rough game to watch.
14:26
So it sounds like we have holes. We need to fill them.
14:31
And we will get into that here in a minute when we talk about the trade window, which we've been talking about and getting wrong.
14:40
But hopefully this time, we've got our information correct.
14:47
All right.
14:48
brings us to what are you drinking today? All right. So I am drinking a space dust IPA.
14:57
I decided to go for the formerly fantastic Elysian, one of my favorite breweries, now Anheuser-Busch.
15:06
But you know what? It's still okay. I'll drink it. And Rosa, what are you drinking?
15:12
Alan is classing it up, as he always is. I am messing with our average because I am drinking well vodka.
15:19
Roe vodka again?
15:21
Baby boy, it's Rose City. It's Rose City vodka. Come on.
15:24
Rose City vodka. Fuck yeah.
15:27
What are you drinking some Seattle beer?
15:29
No, I just...
15:29
Oh shit. Oh. And I'm dragging it. I'm dragging him. It's okay. I'm already collecting his tears. It's okay, you guys. It's cool.
15:36
Wow. Oh, I didn't even think about that.
15:38
I'll be dragging you for four or five years. We're good. We're good. We're good. We're good.
15:42
That was the wrong decision for me to make tonight.
15:44
That's showbiz.
15:51
All right, Marissa. So that brings us to talking about the table.
15:54
we were really, really hoping that this game was going to bring Portland into the first.
16:01
We went in third at 27 points and a win was going to get us 30 points and bring us into the first.
16:08
But that's not what happened.
16:11
Especially, so it was rivalry weekend all weekend, you know?
16:15
And L.A. was playing San Diego.
16:19
Everybody obviously thought L.A. was going to lose to San Diego, L.A. was going to lose to San Diego, L.A.
16:24
just caught, just fired their coach.
16:26
San Diego's been on a tear.
16:28
And you know what happened?
16:29
San Diego got their asses beat by L.A.
16:32
So they did not score any points.
16:33
We did not score any points.
16:35
The only people that went up in points were the Washington Spirit.
16:37
Thankfully, they were lower.
16:38
So now we are tied with 27 points with the spirit.
16:42
San Diego remains at the top with 28 points.
16:45
And there's a, holy crazy.
16:48
There's a three-way tie between Gotham, Utah, and Casey, current for third.
16:52
Okay, so it's really close to the top.
16:54
seeing some really good rivalry, some good competition here.
16:58
And we're just, this is, we're only at the middle of the season, man.
17:02
We still have a whole other half season to go.
17:04
There's going to be tons of movement.
17:06
I just, I really hope, we do well at home, but we can't play all of our games at the Providence Park.
17:13
We really need to, we really need to fill these holes.
17:16
That's it for the table talk.
17:17
My bad, baby.
17:19
Okay.
17:19
Well, so with that, Seattle is climbing.
17:23
They're in 10th.
17:24
They're still down there, but are we worried?
17:27
Are they coming back?
17:28
Is this the start of something for them?
17:30
So, honestly, Seattle, fuck Seattle, but they have not, their losses, they're not a bad team.
17:38
They are not losing in these, they're not getting humiliated.
17:42
They're losing by small margins.
17:44
They don't look terrible.
17:46
So that's why all these different games, like, that's why our league is so fun is the parody.
17:51
Like, we lost to racing Louisville, the bottom of the table.
17:53
the bottom of the table, 3-1 last month.
17:55
And now we've just beat them 4-0.
17:57
That's something we've always talked about with this league is how you never know what's going to happen.
18:03
Each game is a new game.
18:05
Things can change.
18:07
Everything can turn around so fast.
18:09
Especially with this rivalry weekend.
18:11
Like this is, you got San Diego playing L.A.
18:13
Like, these are big, this is big moments.
18:17
Like, these players, they're new to the team, but this history goes back 10, 12 years.
18:22
Like, this is.
18:23
is important. They're going to play with a lot more heart than they maybe would have, you know?
18:27
Absolutely. It's exciting to see what's going to happen. You know, we're, how far into the season are we? We just hit that kind of the halfway point? And Mike, wrong about that?
18:40
So, matches played. Yeah, we're a little bit longer than, so we're at 15 matches played.
18:47
And there's a 30-game regular season. So we are, so we are right in the middle of it.
18:52
We are right in the middle.
18:53
so we still have time you know we're still up there we just we need to learn how to play outside of our own field yeah yeah exactly and we need to sign big names we have the money we the owners show that they want to spend the money like today was day one nothing happened we did sign a dutch player i don't see her changing changing our team a lot That brings us to the window, the transfer window that we have been talking about since our first episode and getting wrong.
19:34
It's actually open now. Okay. So that brings us to Portland. What do we need to bring in during this window?
19:42
We have a chance. There's transfers open. We can get somebody. But bringing us back to the title of our episode, who do we need? What hold? Whose hold do we need to fill?
19:56
Just kidding. We need Sam coffee hole to be filled. No one's going to fill it. She is a phenomenal player, one of the best sixes in the fucking world. No one's going to fill that hole. But somebody needs to come close. We don't need a player that can grow in two years and be as good as we need in two years. We need that player now. I don't know. It doesn't need a, actually no, we need a marquee player. We need somebody that's the best what they do now. We have the fucking money. We have the skill. We have the team. We have the history. Come play for Portland. We have a new.
20:26
We have a brand new training facility. Come play for Portland. We need that.
20:31
We have it. We need the glue. We have. So that, that is the important bit there, is we need somebody who can communicate across the team. That's a hard position to pull in from outside. Somebody who needs to be cohesive with everyone, be able to communicate with everyone and coordinate what's happening on the field.
20:51
That's not an easy position to feel. Because also, Sam was our captain, too. So she's the six, but she's also our captain. So she was glue, glue. Like, and like I said, nothing's going to replace that, and that's fine. People leave. That's great. I'm so happy watching her play for City. I have another, I have a WSL team that I can follow now.
21:10
That's great. I love her. They won the league.
21:12
Fuck yeah, Sam Coffee. Love you, girl.
21:14
But we need somebody to fill those shoes. Somebody's not going to fill them all the way, but somebody can be a good six for us. And right now, we're not doing it. We need the glue.
21:24
Come to Portland.
21:26
We will see how the window goes, and if we can get there.
21:29
So that brings us to the end of our show.
21:32
Next week, we are at Denver on Saturday.
21:36
I keep wanting to say Sunday. I don't know why.
21:38
Christ's Day.
21:40
They just drew 2-2-2 at home to Houston after leading twice.
21:46
And everybody keeps floating them for Sophia Wilson.
21:52
How is this going to be for us?
21:54
I think it's going to be exciting.
21:56
This is our first game against one of the expansion teams.
22:01
Denver and Boston are new to this league this year.
22:04
It's the first time we're going to be playing versus one of the expansion teams.
22:08
We're one of the original teams. We're playing one of the newer teams.
22:11
It's exciting.
22:12
It is.
22:12
We are playing a mile high into the air.
22:16
That's going to be crazy.
22:17
That's a big difference for our players.
22:18
That is a big physical difference.
22:20
We low down here at the river.
22:22
We low in Portland.
22:23
But, Alan, I don't know.
22:29
last weekend. I think if the thorns show up, what kind of version of thorns are we going to get?
22:34
I think if we can show up, then we're going to pull off a win.
22:38
And absolutely, if we can show up and be the thorns that we all know our ladies are and who we can play like, we're going to win. But also they're an expansion team. They're fighting for a lot more, you know? They are. And you know what? We will see how it goes.
22:54
And we will join you next week as soon as we get a chance after watching the game. We will record our thoughts and send it out to all of you. Also, would you guys like like a live episode? I mean, not like a live thing, but would you guys like to hear clips about that stuff? Or, you know, let us know. Let us know. Rose City Red Card at gmail.com. And we will, we will answer any email that you send us, no matter what you send us. Yes. Send us emails.
23:23
Please do. That brings us to the end of the show.
23:27
I'm Marissa.
23:28
I'm Alan.
23:29
This is Roe City Red Car.
23:30
Go Thorns.
23:32
Fuck Seattle.
23:35
No injuries.
23:36
All smiles.
23:37
Let's go.
23:38
Go Thorns.