The BulleTin • SaTurday, July 24, 2021 B3
NWSL
Sophia Smith, Marissa Everett emerging at right time for Thorns
BY TYLER TACHMAN
The Oregonian
The Portland Thorns took
full possession of first place in
the NWSL standings last week-
end after defeating the Orlando
Pride 2-1 in Providence Park.
The victory was, in large part, a
result of the offensive firepower
provided by Sophia Smith and
Marissa Everett.
The duo’s offensive emer-
gence might have seemed un-
likely just a few months ago.
Smith was the first to make
her mark in the 26th minute,
curling a shot inside the near
post and past the goalkeeper to
put the Thorns up 1-0.
“The feeling when I struck
it was just, ‘Don’t overthink it,
you know how to do this, you
know how to score goals,’ and I
just felt free,” Smith said.
Then in the 58th minute, it
was Everett’s turn. Teammate
Meghan Klingenberg chipped
in a cross from outside the box.
Everett tracked the trajectory
perfectly, crashing into the
box from the right flank. She
flicked her head right as the
ball dropped in front of her and
sent it toward the corner of the
net as she bellyflopped onto the
turf. The goalkeeper dove, get-
ting a finger on the ball, but not
enough to keep it from careen-
ing into the goal.
Everett’s first goal of the sea-
son put the Thorns up 2-0.
“Me and Kling have been
working on that ball, so to fi-
nally get one felt really good,”
Everett said.
It wound up a necessary
cushion after the Thorns con-
ceded a goal in extra time.
Smith and Everett have taken
different paths in their respec-
tive careers, but the Thorns
needed both of them to pull out
the win last weekend.
Smith is the more widely
known of the two. She was a
phenom at Stanford and helped
lead the team to a national
championship as a sophomore
in 2019. The Thorns selected
Smith as the No. 1 pick in the
2020 NWSL draft. Then 19, she
was regarded as a future star in
the league.
But since then, she hasn’t
been able to fully gain her foot-
ing for a variety of reasons. She
was out for the Challenge Cup
last July while dealing with a
Olympics
Continued from B1
But there she was at the center of
the stage when a staircase emerged,
the cauldron opened atop a peak in-
spired by Mount Fuji and Osaka as-
cended with the Olympic and Japa-
nese flags blowing in the breeze off to
her left. She dipped the flame in, the
cauldron ignited and fireworks filled
the sky.
“Undoubtedly the greatest athletic
achievement and honor I will ever
have in my life,” Osaka wrote on Ins-
tagram next to a picture of her smil-
ing while holding the flame. “I have
no words to describe the feelings I
have right now, but I do know I am
currently filled with gratefulness and
thankfulness.”
It capped quite a series of events
over the past two months for the
Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Portland Thorns’ Sophia Smith launches a shot against the Orlando
Pride in an NWSL match on Sunday in Portland.
knee injury and appeared in
four matches during 2020.
This season, even though
she’s notched three goals, Smith
missed more time while at
U.S. women’s national team
camp. Then in June, she was
23-year-old Osaka.
Going into the French Open in late
May, Osaka — who is ranked No. 2
— announced she wouldn’t speak to
reporters at the tournament, saying
those interactions create doubts for
her.
Then, after her first-round victory,
she skipped the mandatory news con-
ference.
Osaka was fined $15,000 and —
surprisingly — publicly reprimanded
by those in charge of Grand Slam
tournaments, who said she could be
suspended if she kept avoiding the
media.
The next day, Osaka withdrew
from Roland Garros entirely to take a
mental health break, revealing she has
dealt with depression.
She sat out Wimbledon, too. So
the Tokyo Games mark her return to
competition.
out briefly due to undisclosed
injuries she picked up during a
road trip.
“There’s not a big amount of
training times and games that
we’ve had with her because
of the constant in and out of
“The Olympics are a special time,
when the world comes together to cel-
ebrate sports. I am looking forward
most to being with the athletes that
had waited and trained for over 10
years, for celebrating a very hard year
(2020) and having that happen in Ja-
pan makes it that much more special,”
Osaka wrote in an email interview
when she was selected as the 2020 AP
Female Athlete of the Year. “It’s a spe-
cial and beautiful country filled with
culture, history and beauty. I cannot
be more excited.”
There was a big hint that Osaka
might have an important role in the
ceremony when her opening Olympic
tennis match was pushed back from
Saturday to Sunday without an expla-
nation earlier in the day.
She was originally scheduled to
play 52nd-ranked Zheng Saisai of
China in the very first match of the
national team camp,” Thorns
coach Mark Parsons said.
Then there’s Everett, who
played four seasons at Oregon,
where she finished her career
ranked among the top 10 in
all-time program assists, goals,
points and shots.
In 2019, she went undrafted,
but the Thorns quickly decided
to bring her in.
Over the last three years, Ev-
erett has appeared in just 17
matches. It’s largely because the
Thorns are consistently loaded
with star midfielders and Ever-
ett has been stuck behind them
on the depth chart.
“It’s hard when Lindsey
Horan, Crystal Dunn, Chris-
tine Sinclair, Rocky Rodrí-
guez are on your team, but you
know that you’re not going to
play a lot,” Parsons said. “That
can be tough.”
Still, Parsons has watched
Everett pour herself into every
aspect of the game. She’s built
her fitness and worked on her
mental toughness. She also dis-
plays a glowing “enjoyment for
the game,” Parsons said.
And now, more than ever,
the Thorns need both Smith
Games on center court Saturday
morning. But clearly by lighting the
flame as midnight approached, she
wouldn’t have had enough rest for an
early morning match.
Osaka became the first tennis
player to light the Olympic cauldron.
She’s also one of the few active ath-
letes to be given the honor. Australian
sprinter Cathy Freeman lit the caul-
dron for the 2000 Sydney Games and
went on to win gold in the 400 meters.
Osaka — along with top-ranked
Ash Barty — is a favorite to win the
women’s singles title in a tennis tour-
nament that also features Novak
Djokovic aiming to become the first
man to win a Golden Slam by hold-
ing all four Grand Slam trophies and
Olympic gold in the same year.
Whatever the final results on the
court, Osaka has already become part
of Olympic history.
and Everett to be at their best.
Five Thorns, including Dunn,
Horan and Sinclair, are com-
peting in the Tokyo Olympics
and will be away from the club
for the foreseeable future.
Smith was a part of the
group vying for a bid on the
U.S. Olympic team earlier this
year, but was ultimately turned
away. Despite that, Parsons said
Smith has remained “present”
and “focused on growing and
improving.” This stretch will
also allow for Smith to spend
more time in one place, giving
her the chance to focus even
more on her development.
“The heartbreak is real, but
the long-term goal is just to be
the best player,” Parsons said.
With the Olympic players
gone, Everett will have a big-
ger role in the Thorns’ attack.
She has played in each of the
Thorns’ last four matches, in-
cluding three starts.Facing the
Houston Dash on the road Sat-
urday, the Thorns likely need
both Smith and Everett again.
“Everyone is working and in-
vesting,” Parsons said. “Because
of that, players like Marissa and
Sophia can do their job.”
Kiichiro Sato/AP
Naomi Osaka practices ahead of the 2020
Summer Olympics at Ariake Tennis Center
Monday in Tokyo.
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