Portland 2, Gotham 2. A point against the league leaders, an eleventh straight home game unbeaten, and a club record — and none of it is the thing you remember. Emily Sonnett went down non-contact in the seventh minute and left Providence Park on a stretcher, and twenty-one thousand people in a building she doesn't play for anymore stood up for her. We open on that and we close on that, and we don't guess at a diagnosis in between. In the middle: Renee Lyles scoring and assisting in her first ever start, Morgan Weaver back on the pitch after a year and a half and three knee surgeries, and the salary-cap deep dive we've been promising for two episodes. Adults only. Bring a drink.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Before anything else: Emily Sonnett
02:59 2-2, and 11 straight unbeaten at home
03:38 The game: Purce at two minutes, Lyles' chip, Kerr, and ten men
10:58 Morgan Weaver is back
14:34 What still needs work
20:36 The table: Utah leapfrog us
22:32 The transfer window: still no center back
24:07 The cap, the HIP rule, and how Gotham did it
29:29 Utah away, and one more for Sonnett

Takeaways:
- Portland 2, Gotham 2, at Providence Park. Midge Purce scored inside two minutes off a Reiten cross. Renee Lyles equalized on 21 with a chip over Ann-Katrin Berger — her first professional goal, in her first ever start, in her sixth appearance — assisted by Pietra Tordin. Jessie Fleming put Portland ahead on 53, deflected off Purce, assisted by Lyles. Sam Kerr levelled on 62 off a corner.
- Emily Sonnett went off on a stretcher in the seventh minute, non-contact. No diagnosis has been published and we don't speculate on one. The whole building stood.
- Eleven straight at home without a loss is a club record. Every league defeat this season has come on the road, and the next two are away.
- Perry saw red on 72 as the last defender on Kerr. Marissa's read: nobody wants to call it a good foul, but it was the foul you make.
- Renee Lyles got a goal and an assist in her first career start. Pietra Tordin leads the entire NWSL in assists with seven, and signed through 2029 last week.
- Morgan Weaver is back after eighteen months and three surgeries on the same knee. Two standing ovations in one night — one for a player going off injured, one for a player coming back from it.
- What still needs work: the goalkeeper talking to her back line, and a second minute that went missing. The midfield of Moultrie, Tordin and Fleming is not the problem.
- Portland sit fifth on 28 points. Utah beat North Carolina and jumped us. Nothing on Sunday's card could move Portland either way — fifth is fifth.
- Transfer window still open until September. Nina Nijstad in, Spaanstra sold to Utah, extensions signed, still no center back, and Sophia Wilson still unsigned. No news is treated as good news.
- The cap and the HIP rule: Gotham's president of soccer operations has called the salary cap "a competitive weapon." Sam Kerr isn't even eligible for the high-impact-player rule the nickname suggests — what's actually moving is banked allocation money. The players' union filed a grievance in January over the rule being imposed without bargaining, and it hasn't been resolved. Angel City took a $200,000 fine and a three-point deduction for cap violations in 2024 — the points hurt, the money didn't. Both of us land on the same place: raise the cap.

Next up: Utah away on August 2, and a proper segment on trans inclusion in women's sports.

New episodes weekly. Yell back at us: rosecityredcard@gmail.com

Denver 2, Portland 1. Our old MVP came home to Colorado, pulled on the wrong shirt, and assisted the winner, so we gave it a full night before we sat down. That turned out to be the right call for a Lindsey Heaps homecoming. Portland are unbeaten at home and haven't won on the road all year, and this was the away day that dropped them to fourth. We get into the cohesion problem Marissa can't stop diagnosing, the clash of the North American captains at altitude, an air-quality mess at the Queen's Classic, and a transfer window that still hasn't produced a center back. Adults only. Bring a drink.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Cold open: a night to become reasonable
00:50 The game: Denver 2-1, and the cohesion problem
07:29 The homecoming of Lindsey Heaps
12:35 The table and the match week
18:14 Air quality at the Queen's Classic
22:19 What we're drinking
23:59 The transfer window: Fleming, Tordin, still no center back
27:31 Wrap and the tease

What we were drinking:
- Alan: Lagunitas IPA. California, pointedly not a Seattle beer this week. His second.
- Marissa: Rose City well vodka. "Easy peasy."

Takeaways:
- Denver 2, Portland 1, at Denver's home opener. Janine Sonis equalized in the eighth minute of first-half stoppage; Natalie Means won it at 86'. Portland were out-shot, out-cornered and out-possessed by an expansion side.
- Marissa's read: not a defensive failure so much as a cohesion one. Midfield, attack and back line moved as three separate units, and Sophia Wilson spent the game marooned up top against four defenders while the midfield jogged in ten seconds late.
- The road is the season. Unbeaten at Providence Park; every league loss this year has come away from home.
- Wilson's 25' penalty was her 51st career club goal, which by their count ties Megan Rapinoe on the single-club list. Said as "by my count," not as a published milestone.
- Lindsey Heaps gets the respect, not the boos. Captain America started at #10, played all 90, and set up the winner. Clash of the North American captains: Heaps for the USA, Jessie Fleming for Canada.
- Portland sit 4th on 27 points from 16. Gotham 30, San Diego 29, Washington level on 27 from two fewer games.
- Air quality nearly stole the Queen's Classic. AQI up around 170, a heat index near 100F, oxygen on the sideline, and 42,000 in the seats anyway. The point the hosts land on: the gate money kept a match on the field that maybe shouldn't have been, and the league's thresholds should move.
- Transfer window: Jessie Fleming re-signed through 2028, Pietra Tordin through 2029, still no center back. Marissa is claiming credit for the Tordin deal.

Next up: Gotham at Portland, July 24, Pride Night at Providence Park, plus the salary-cap deep dive we keep teasing.

New episodes weekly. Yell back at us: rosecityredcard@gmail.com

Seattle 2, Portland 0. We watched the derby, stewed for two days, and then sat down at the bar to talk about it. The short version: the Thorns didn't show up. That's four trips to Lumen Field now without a single goal. Marissa's whole thing this week is that Portland has a Coffey-sized hole in the midfield and nobody to fill it. The transfer window opened the morning we recorded, and Portland still hasn't signed the player we've been asking for since day one. Adults only. Bring a drink.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Cold open: the apology
00:51 The Derby: Seattle 2-0 Portland, and the Lumen goal drought
08:51 The Coffey-Sized Hole: the midfield needs a defensive six
11:52 The Nijstad signing: a project, not the fix
14:48 What we're drinking
15:50 The Table: Portland stuck on 27, San Diego lead on 28
19:26 The Window: the six they still need
21:29 Next week at Denver, and the sign-off

What we were drinking:
- Alan: Space Dust IPA. Elysian, formerly fantastic, now Anheuser-Busch.
- Marissa: well vodka. "Rose City vodka, come on."

Takeaways:
- Seattle won 2-0 at Lumen. Ryanne Brown scored in the 8th, her first league goal, a defender filling in for the injured Madison Curry. Mercado got the second before half. Portland managed nothing.
- 26 shots. 10 on target. Zero goals. Seattle did it with their backup keeper.
- That's four straight visits to Lumen without a Portland goal.
- Marissa's read, and the reason for the title: Portland has no defensive six tying the back line to the attack. The coach basically admitted it after the game.
- A win would have put Portland top of the table alone for the first time all year. They took zero instead and sit tied on 27 with Washington. San Diego lead on 28.
- The only business so far is Dutch midfielder Nina Nijstad. She'll be great in a couple years. She is not the six they need now.

Next up: Portland at Denver on Saturday, on the road. Denver just drew 2-2 at home with Houston.

New episodes weekly. Yell back at us: rosecityredcard@gmail.com