Tag: Becky Sauerbrunn

Gavin Wilkinson, Mike Golub dismissed as Yates investigation fallout continues at Portland Thorns

Wilkinson and Golub are out as the shake-up around NWSL continues

Soccer in Portland won’t be the same after the Sally Yates investigation.

Gavin Wilkinson, the president of soccer for both the Portland Thorns and Portland Timbers, and the organization’s president of business Mike Golub were both dismissed Wednesday.

In a statement from both clubs, Wilkinson and Golub were “relieved of their duties with both clubs, effective today.” Merritt Paulson, the majority owner for both teams, stepped away from decision-making duties with the Thorns on Tuesday, along with Wilkinson and Golub, but less than 24 hours later, the organization took a further step.

The statement said that the organization’s general counsel Heather Davis — who had been given executive authority over the Thorns in yesterday’s announcement — is now the interim president of Peregrine Sports and will have the final say on business operations for both the Thorns and Timbers.

Karina LeBlanc will continue as the Thorns’ general manager, while Timbers technical director Ned Grabavoy will take charge of the MLS side’s soccer operations.

(Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)

Amid the tumult of multiple investigations throughout the league, Portland fans have been calling for the ouster of Wilkinson and Golub for some time now. Supporter outrage grew after Wilkinson was reported to have given a positive recommendation of disgraced former coach Paul Riley despite having known of a complaint regarding attempts at sexual coercion and other abuse from ex-Thorns midfielder Mana Shim.

The move comes one day after Thorns and U.S. women’s national team captain Becky Sauerbrunn called for the dismissal of “every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players and failed to protect the players,” including those in Portland. Tuesday also saw Arnim Whisler, the owner of the Chicago Red Stars, relinquish operational control due to his own involvement in the investigation.

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Sauerbrunn says owners and execs who failed players ‘need to be gone’

Sauerbrunn did not shy away from calling out her own team’s ownership

Becky Sauerbrunn did not mince words when speaking to the media one day after the release of the Yates report.

“The players are not doing well,” the Portland Thorns and U.S. national team stalwart said on Tuesday. “We are horrified and heartbroken and frustrated and exhausted and really, really angry.”

The report by former U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates detailed “systemic” verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct within the NWSL, as well as numerous authority figures who did not do enough to root out abusive coaches.

Among those figures were the owner and several executives within Sauerbrunn’s own team, the Portland Thorns. The Yates report details, among other ugly revelations, that only months after the Thorns fired their coach Paul Riley following an investigation into alleged sexual harassment, they recommended him for a new job.

The uproar over those revelations led Thorns owner Merritt Paulson, Timbers President of Soccer/GM Gavin Wilkinson (who doesn’t have a role with the Thorns anymore) and Thorns President of Business Mike Golub to temporarily step away from the Thorns on Tuesday.

That likely won’t satisfy many and it appears Sauerbrunn is among that group.

“It’s my opinion that every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players and failed to protect the players, who have hidden behind legalities and have not participated fully in these investigations should be gone,” Sauerbrunn said.

Sauerbrunn on Thorns ownership

Sauerbrunn was later asked to clarify whether she included Thorns ownership and executives in her demand for accountability.

“It includes everyone that has continued to fail the players time and time again, who didn’t take concerns seriously, who didn’t pass on information correctly, who have not participated in investigations — all of them,” she said.

“If people continue to fail the players, and they don’t comply with anything that gets asked of them or gets implemented because of these reports, then they need to be gone gone.”

Thorns ownership has been under fire for some time, with Sauerbrunn’s USWNT teammate Alex Morgan calling the team out last month after a report saying Paulson tried to prevent Riley from getting the USWNT head coaching job in 2019 in order to conceal the reason behind his departure from the Thorns.

Sauerbrunn concluded with her most pointed criticism of her own club’s leadership, calling their actions “abhorrent.”

“All I know is that the team that I play with and the staff, the technical staff and the medical staff — those people are good people,” the defender said.

“But the things that have happened above them in the front office as owners are abhorrent and it cannot continue. The fact that people were abused because things weren’t done well and right is inexcusable.”

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USWNT grateful for a test in 1-0 CONCACAF W Championship win over Mexico

“We really wanted some adversity, and we got it.”

The U.S. women’s national team completed an unblemished run through the CONCACAF W Championship’s group stage, defeating a hard-working Mexico side 1-0 on a late Kristie Mewis goal.

Heading into the game, the USWNT made plenty about wanting this particular game, with a larger and louder crowd on hand to back Mexico, to be a good test of the team’s mentality. While the performance—largely untroubled at the back, but also impatient and predictable going forward—left something to be desired, the theme of the night for the team was that the test will help going forward.

“We knew that if we don’t score early in in the first quarter of the game, that the game will be difficult and we saw at the end, it became a really good atmosphere,” head coach Vlatko Andonovski explained to reporters after the game. “I was coaching a big part of the game with a smile on my face, because to some degree we want that. We wanted to see that.”

“We really wanted some adversity, and we got it,” team captain Becky Sauerbrunn told the Paramount + broadcast after the match. “It’s not very often we get to play in front of a crowd like this. They really came out to support the home (team), and so it was good. It was adversity.”

The crowd at Estadio Universitario did bring the noise, booing USWNT corner kicks and roaring Mexican attacks. While the pattern of play meant many more boos than cheers on a night where the home team was credited with just three shot attempts, Andonovski did admit that the crowd eventually threw the USWNT out of their rhythm.

“As the atmosphere was getting fired up, our team started losing the focus of the tempo. We actually had very good control of the tempo until the atmosphere started getting rattled a little bit, and then our players started starting falling into the trap,” said Andonovski.

That trap was a too-direct approach on the ball that seemed destined to see the U.S., even playing with a numerical advantage after Jacqueline Ovalle was given a 73rd minute red card, end the night with a frustrating scoreless draw against the sort of conservative tactical approach they have spent plenty of time working on breaking down.

However, a moment of inspiration from an old hand changed the game, with Megan Rapinoe’s quickly-taken short corner kick catching Mexico off guard, and eventually ending in a scramble that Kristie Mewis bundled over the line in the 89th minute.

The goal survived a VAR check after some still angles raised major questions over whether Emily Sonnett had been offside before heading on goal moments before Mewis finished the play, but for a younger group learning some old-school USWNT resourcefulness, there’s value in finally breaking through in gritty fashion.

Sauerbrunn, who has seen plenty of big USWNT wins come via that sort of scrappy play, underlined the benefit of a new group showing that trait. “I think that’s what makes the U.S. really special, is that identity of relentlessness, never say die, really will (a goal) in.”

“I was very happy to see at the end that we still found a way,” said Andonovski. “It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t nice, but in order to win big tournaments, we know that sometimes you’re just gonna have to find a way, and we were able to do that.”

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Becky Sauerbrunn scored a goal. We repeat: Becky Sauerbrunn scored a goal

They actually got Becky a goal

U.S. women’s national team captain and famous non-goalscorer Becky Sauerbrunn scored a goal today, giving the Portland Thorns a 2-0 lead over the Orlando Pride.

Just four minutes after Portland had jumped in front on an emphatic volley from Hina Sugita, the Thorns won a free kick out on the left wing. Sam Coffey, who will join Sauerbrunn in the USWNT camp that begins after this weekend’s NWSL games, powered the dead ball past the wall, forcing Erin McLeod into a great save, only for Sauerbrunn to beat everyone to the rebound for her first goal since joining Portland in 2020.

Sauerbrunn had nearly scored earlier in the game, floating a back-post header across goal only for McLeod to produce a top-notch save to tip that effort wide of the post.

Just nine days before her goal, Sauerbrunn pledged to donate $500 to Playing for Pride, an LGBTQI+ advocacy campaign, for any goal she scores in the month of June.

Sauerbrunn’s USWNT history includes 202 caps, but she hasn’t scored, making the idea of her getting a goal a long-running joke for fans. She has, however, occasionally scored a goal at the club level. Her last NWSL goal came on September 6, 2019, when she was playing for Utah Royals FC (and, funnily enough, it was a game-winner against Portland).

In fully professional club play, Sauerbrunn scored three times for FC Kansas City between 2013-2017, as well as a loan goal for the Washington Freedom in WPS and for Røa IL in Norway.

See Becky Sauerbrunn’s goal

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