List of Portland Thorns FC seasons
Under head coach Cindy Parlow Cone, the Thorns played in the new league's inaugural game on April 13, 2013, against host team FC Kansas City, which ended in a 1–1 draw in which Christine Sinclair scored the club's first goal on a penalty kick.
[7] Beyond setting a new league record, the home opener crowd of 16,479 at Jeld-Wen Field eclipsed any single-game attendance from Women's Professional Soccer.
[11] On August 28, 2013, the NWSL named Thorns FC forwards Christine Sinclair and Alex Morgan, and defender Rachel Buehler, to the league's second-team Best XI.
A week later they beat the Western New York Flash 2–0 in the championship game, with Tobin Heath and Christine Sinclair scoring the two goals and the Thorns overcoming the red-card ejection of defender Kat Williamson in the 57th minute, to become the first NWSL Champions.
[14] The Thorns kicked off their 2014 season with the announcement of a new head coach, Paul Riley, formerly of the Long Island Fury of the Women's Premier Soccer League.
[15] The team traded goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc to the Chicago Red Stars and replaced her with 2013 FIFA World Player of the Year recipient Nadine Angerer,[16] and in April traded Kat Williamson, Courtney Wetzel, and a first-round pick in the 2015 NWSL College Draft to the Flash for defender Sarah Huffman[17] and the right to sign Spanish international Verónica Boquete.
In November 2014, the Thorns traded Amber Brooks to the Western New York Flash to re-acquire Kat Williamson and acquire midfielder McCall Zerboni.
[23] Portland also signed Equatorial Guinea international forward Genoveva Añonman, who had made 122 appearances and scored 95 goals for in the German Frauen-Bundesliga,[24] and midfielder Sarah Robbins from Åland United, champions of Finland's Naisten Liiga.
[25] As part of the National Team player allocation process, Portland received Canadian international midfielder Kaylyn Kyle and defender Rhian Wilkinson.
[28] The Thorns also sold out Providence Park for the first time in a match against Seattle Reign FC following the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, again setting the league's attendance record with 21,144.
[33] In Parsons's first season in charge, the Thorns executed a series of trades — anchored by moving founding forward Alex Morgan and midfielder Kaylyn Kyle to expansion team Orlando Pride — that resulted in the acquisitions of defender Emily Sonnett in the 2016 NWSL College Draft, Lindsey Horan via allocation from Paris Saint-Germain, Meghan Klingenberg through as an Orlando pick-and-trade during the 2016 NWSL Expansion Draft, goalkeeper Adrianna Franch's rights from the Boston Breakers, and international slots used to sign Olympique Lyonnais Féminin midfielder and France national team Capitan Amandine Henry and Icelandic international midfielder Dagný Brynjarsdóttir, and Danish international forward Nadia Nadim acquired from Sky Blue FC.
[34][35][36][37][38] Parsons also signed former Washington Spirit winger Hayley Raso off waivers and acquired Meg Morris from Sky Blue.
The physical match, with a playoff-record 20,086 in attendance, ended in regulation as a 2–2 draw, and the Thorns lost in a 4–3 upset after extra time.
[43] After a 14–5–5 league record and 47 points for a second-place finish behind the NWSL Shield-winning North Carolina Courage, successor to the Western New York Flash team that had beaten them in the final the year before, the Thorns defeated the Orlando Pride 4–1 in a playoff semi-final.
[43][46] On January 11, 2018, the team announced a trade that would send midfielder Allie Long to Seattle Reign FC in exchange for the rights to Australian international defender Caitlin Foord.
[43][49] The team also acquired Boston Breakers players Margaret Purce, Ifeoma Onumonu, and Angela Salem in the 2018 NWSL Dispersal Draft.
[51] Before the start of the season, the Thorns announced that the team would play its first six games on the road due to ongoing renovations and expansions of Providence Park.
[53] Beginning the month of September at the top of the table and contenders for the NWSL Shield, the team entered what would be the worst run of form since Mark Parsons was named head coach.
[56] The Thorns participated in the inaugural NWSL Challenge Cup, defeating the North Carolina Courage in the quarterfinals but losing to the eventual champions Houston Dash in the semifinals.
[57] The Thorns also participated in and clinched the 2020 NWSL Fall Series Community Shield with a win on October 11, 2020, over OL Reign.
[70] The Thorns competed in and won the West Division of the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup, advancing from the group stage to host the finals on May 8, 2021, against NJ/NY Gotham FC.
[77][78] Following Mark Parsons's exit, the Thorns hired one of the club's former players from Paul Riley's tenure, Rhian Wilkinson, as his replacement.
