A group of fans attended the Portland Thorns' semifinal game against San Diego Wave with three goals: ◽️ Support the players ◽️ Build community ◽️ Pressure Peregrine Sports LLC to sell its two pro soccer teams How they managed to balance it all. NWSL
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At the start of October, former U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates released a U.S. Soccer-commissioned investigation into the allegations of abuse in Portland and a handful of other NWSL teams, detailing the systemic failures to protect players across the league. Both Wilkinson and President of Business Mike Golub stepped away from the teams following the Yates report. Paulson resigned from his role as CEO soon after — though he remains financially involved as an owner of Peregrine Sports.
SCAN member and Timbers and Thorns supporter Sofia Freja said she’s seen overwhelmingly positive responses to the group’s protests. But, she said, “tomorrow’s going to be about supporting the players” in their semifinal game. It’s also about making sure that the players know that fans have their back, SCAN member Tina Ettlin said. Although SCAN planned a demonstration in the stadium — fans held up red “for sale” and “sell the club” signs in the 10 minutes leading up to kickoff — its members emphasized that once the ref blew the starting whistle, everyone’s attention would be on the players. After goalkeeper Bella Bixby, over 22,000 turned out for the match — the second-largest playoff attendance in league history.
In the dying minutes of the game, Dunn got on the end of another poorly-cleared ball from a Thorns corner and — as she put it in the postgame press conference — “literally hit it with all [her] might.” And it was enough to put Portland through to its first NWSL final since 2018.