2026 NWSL Previews: Portland Thorns, KC Current
/Our 2026 NWSL Season Previews have started and today we hit Portland and KC. If you want to support this coverage of the league, you can head to our Patreon. For $5 a month you can get access to a lot of the data visualization tools we use to make these previews.
If you’re more of an audio person, our friends at Expected Own Goals spoke to Phuoc Nguyen from Stumptown Footy to talk Portland, and Cindy Lara from the KC Sports Journal on the Current, available wherever you get your pods. If you want to support them, you can head to their Patreon.
Things have been shaky in Portland for a few years now. The Thorns last won the league in 2022, and haven’t lifted the shield since 2021. That may seem relatively recent, but a lot has happened since then, including the departure of Mark Parsons, three coaches in four years, and a 6th place finish in 2024 which was tied for the team’s lowest placement in league history. Heading into 2026, the team is embroiled in change, with a new head coach, several key departures, and one big returning player. With the Thorns in flux, who knows what 2026 may bring, but here’s the good, promising, and bad ahead of the upcoming season.
Rose: Sophia Wilson (and others) return
To say that Sophia Wilson is integral to this team’s success is an understatement. By the numbers, she is one of the best players in NWSL history and has already scored 45 league goals in just four seasons. There’s no bigger win for the Thorns heading into the 2026 season than having Wilson back in the lineup. While last season was imperfect, there were many positives, including a statement season from Olivia Moultrie. Now, the Thorns’ multi-talented midfielder could be poised to have an even better season with Wilson as a partner. To get an idea of how scary that partnership could be, here’s both players’ most recent radars, and a couple bonus goodies on how insane Wilson is.
Ok, you get the idea. Suffice it to say, Wilson is good. And she’s back.
Other key returners will be Morgan Weaver and Caiya Hanks. Weaver, 28, had a hampered 2024 and sat out 2025 through injury, but will hopefully be back to her best after a long recovery journey. She was one of the Thorns’ top scorers in 2022 and 2023, and averaged 0.62 non-penalty xG + xA per 96 minutes in the latter year. Her dribbling and progression down the wing is excellent, too, with over 4.4 progressive carries per 96. What that means is less of a progressive burden on Moultrie and more chances for Wilson — win-win.
Speaking of dribblers, Caiya Hanks will also hope to make her return this season after a stellar rookie year was cut short through an ACL tear. Hanks, who was signed in part to take on some of the attacking responsibility with Wilson and Weaver gone, will now slot into a talented frontline at just 21 years old. She may have scored just twice in her 7 NWSL starts, but don’t let that fool you; the kid was balling last year.
While both Hanks and Weaver are “later” season additions and will remain on the SEI through the season opener, their eventual returns could power this Thorns team to an even better second half of the season, which is exactly where Portland struggled this season.
Bud: Shae Harvey inherits a loaded position
This may belong in the “thorn” section but uhhhh… Sam Coffey is gone. Oil barons Manchester City managed to snag her for a base fee that feels far too low, and while it’s hard to not be happy for Coffey, it’s easy to see that the departure leaves a massive gap in the Thorns’ midfield. With just two nailed-down starters — Moultrie and Jessie Fleming — the question of who to play the six is all the more important. Portland have been experimenting in preseason with various combinations, but Stanford grad Shae Harvey seems to be the number one choice for the position. The rookie logged over 1,800 minutes last season and registered 8.63 xG, and although she frequently played more of a box-to-box role, her best performances came at the very position where the Thorns now need her.
It may be nerve-wracking to consider a 21 year-old replacing Sam Coffey, but, if it’s any consolation, at least Harvey has the resume. An ACC champion and former No. 1 ranked freshman midfielder in the country, Harvey has the accolades, but the underlying numbers from her time at Stanford back it all up. According to Paul Harvey’s excellent NCAA scouting board, Harvey ranked 14th among holding midfielders in 2025 and 48th overall. Controlling the game’s tempo is one of her best attributes, which will be key in replacing Coffey, who averaged over 10% of the Thorns’ total team touches.
The signs suggest she might pan out, but a lot will be riding on such young shoulders. It doesn’t seem as if help is coming, but if Portland are right, and Harvey is the future, they will have turned a disastrous loss into a potential home run.
Thorn: No coach, no worries
The Thorns only got their coach a week ago. One week ago. The good news is that he has experience coaching one of the top sides in England, Tottenham Hotspurs! Oh, wait…
Anyway the good news is that he’s here and ready to implement his tactics, despite the short time frame! Oh wait, he literally got his visa yesterday. I love one day of prep for a new season.
So anyway, the Thorns have a new head coach, and he’s definitely better than nothing. That being said, the timeframe is less than ideal — maybe waiting for an entire offseason before hiring your new coach is a bad idea — and he has the same name as the last guy, so who knows if anything will actually change (just kidding!). Phuoc Nguyen over at Stumptown Footy had some great analysis as to why this may not be the best hire, but one key point stands out:
Vilahamn’s hiring was prioritized because of his “experience”, but the former Tottenham coach was fired by his previous club after nearly getting them relegated. The good news for him is that the NWSL doesn’t have relegation.
Further, the Thorns may have already had an excellent head coaching option in Sarah Lowdon, who has now been rejected twice in Portland. Where the coach and coaching staff goes from here is anyone’s guess, but one thing is clear: if the Thorns are to succeed this season, it likely won’t be because of Vilahamn — it will be because of a talented roster and a certain woman called Sophia Wilson.
Going to get my baby back home
We’ll begin with a list of stats to describe Vlatko Andonovski’s 2025 Kansas City Current.
The Current ran a +29 xGD, that’s third all time in the ASA dataset, behind only the 2024 Current and the 2018 North Carolina Courage. That xGD drove them to 65 points, the most points of all time by five. Despite having a high powered attacking reputation, their 0.67 xGA per game is the lowest xG conceded by any team in the ASA dataset. Their +26 goals added difference is third all time, with 2024 sat right behind them in fourth. Opponents, on average, reduced their chance of scoring a goal by one sixth of a goal by even attempting to dribble against them every match.
So they’re coming off back to back NWSL Championships led by God King Vlatko Andonovski, world respected best coach in the world? Right? Right?
Wrong. Idiot. This is NWSL. Vlatko is out as head coach, and in as Global Sporting Director. Former MLS head coach Chris Armas is in as head coach.
Okay, fine, maybe Vlatko was done with the hamster wheel of coaching on pitch every single day and wanted the stability of a front office job. But like, they’re just running the same team back right? 2024 and 2025 are two of the five best NWSL regular seasons of all time, eventually they’ll get it right for the playoffs. Chawinga and Bia won’t get hurt. Same team? No moves?
The Roster Moves
Also wrong. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the plethora of moves the Current have made under wheeler dealer Vlatko Andonovski and totally-a-tier-1-WoSo-ball-knower Chris Armas.
Outgoings: Claire Hutton (CM), Nichelle Prince (W/ST), Alex Pfeiffer (AM/W), Tyler McCamey (GK), Regan Steigleder (FB), Hailie Mace (FB), Laurel Ivory (GK), Bia Zaneratto (ST),
Incomings: Kyra Carusa (ST), Croix Bethune (AM), Amelia White (W), Gianna Paul (ST/W), Melia Brewer (child), Marisa Jordan (GK)
That’s a lot of stuff. And not just volume of players, but minutes, and quality! The Current are basically middle of the pack by returning minutes fraction, at 65%, but it feels like more. That predominantly comes in the form of departing potential all-world kid midfielder Claire Hutton, one of two star strikers in Bia Zaneratto, and one of the league’s best attacking fullbacks in Hailie Mace. Bia is a fairly understandable departure, she’s 32, was out of contract, ended up going back to her native Brazil, has a somewhat checkered injury history. I get it.
Mace is reliable, can play fullback on both sides, outside centerback, has even spent time at DM pre Vlatko in KC, she’s 28 (almost 29). I don’t know. I’m sure they’re ultra capped out given one particular incoming we’ll discuss, but this feels like a casualty you’d really like to avoid.
The real backbreaker is losing out on Claire Hutton. If you look at the goals added numbers, she’s come in at almost identically -0.01 g+ per 96 at both DM and CM in her two NWSL seasons. That is not eye catching, but some context.
1) Really young players are almost always a net negative to winning, her being dead on average in the middle of the pitch having just turned 20, over two seasons is awesome.
2) Staying on the field as a kid is often more predictive of future talent than how well they play in the minutes they do get. Hutton has played 40 NWSL 90’s and already appeared for the USWNT 15 times. Again, by age 20.
3) The average calculation for CM in NWSL is somewhat weird because it’s so compressed by the valley of meh problem. Here is a list of deeper midfielders who had a 2024/2025 season of about average g+. Sam Coffey, Jaelin Howell, Jess Fishlock, Olivia Moultrie, Hina Sugita, Amandine Henry, Lo LaBonta.
$1.1M is a big fee, don’t get me wrong, but given the trendline of league revenues, global WoSo transfer fees, and Hutton’s own career trendline, I think this is going to look extremely stupid awfully soon.
Shot, Chaser
Here’s the tonic: the flip side of Hutton’s departure is a huge trade for one of the league’s most exciting creators in Croix Bethune. Bethune had a down year by her lofty standards in 2025, after tearing her meniscus at the end of 2024, but was gargantuan the year prior. I’ve already espoused how good KC were the last two seasons, but it has mostly come through being ridiculously solid defensively and being an absolute buzz saw in transition with Temwa Chawinga. Bethune meshes with that, she is a string puller needle passer as comfortable eating space on the carry as she is slipping a willing runner.
At the same time, I think she adds a creative gear against more settled defenses this team simply didn’t have the last two seasons. I am ideologically opposed to the old “Our shit doesn’t work in the playoffs”-isms, but the Current’s 2025 season ended with them stuck in the mud against a Gotham team who were straight up worse than them. Trading for Bethune feels like a clever way to address that without going too far away from who you’ve been.
Bits and Bobs
The Current traded for Ally “I’ve never seen a shot I don’t like” Sentnor midseason, who promptly put up 0 goals and 0 assists on 2 xG+xA in 800 minutes. That’s bad. The g+ was better, where she was a mild positive, particularly as a progressive passer. She then spent some time going to Emma Hayes goalscoring school and looked significantly friskier as a box crasher in her USWNT appearances. Getting more out of her in 2026 is crucial if the Current want to separate themselves from the pack once again.
Former league MVP Debinha was good not great in 2025, she’s now 33, keep an eye on how that decline is managed. Particularly with new head coach Chris Armas being an energy drink soccer guy, a style we haven’t really seen translate to women’s soccer yet. It’s very easy to see a down year where she breaks down physically under the increased defensive load. I hope I’m wrong.
Michelle Cooper felt like she made the leap last season, after being a fairly disappointing prospect in year’s previous. She exploded for nine goals and assists off of 10 xG+xA, and a whopping +0.14 g+ per 96 above average. Cooper started preseason on the season ending injury list with a lingering foot problem that limited her to only 14 90’s in 2025. Getting her fit and firing is key to maintaining the attack. The same can be said of reigning league MVP and also currently SEI’d Temwa Chawinga, though the Malawian FA was allegedly fairly confident she was going to play at the Women’s African Cup of Nations, before the tournament was postponed.
New head coach Chris Armas wasn’t great in MLS, and his only women’s experience was three good seasons at D2 Adelphi nearly 20 years ago. If there is a structural defect upon which it all comes tumbling down, look no further. For those unfamiliar, Armas was a Red Bull upstart who was supposed to take the energy drink soccer of New York Red Bull teams of yore, and add some in possession juice. He didn’t. He then went to Toronto FC and tried to play, and again, they didn’t. He then went to Colorado, and they were decent! Until they weren’t. Now he’s here. This is bald Phil Neville.
Luckily for Current fans, coaches mostly don’t matter, and KC are still ultra talented. If they can stay healthier than last year, the attacking cavalcade of Chawinga, Cooper, Bethune, Sentnor, Debinha (and the last minute trade for Penelope Hocking, which nobody really gets for anyone) is a pretty spectacular fall back plan. If they stay even remotely as stout defensively, the goal, and a realistic one at that, remains to win a championship.