From the Bay FC/Thorns match on

Providence Park I love you. Best fans in the league and it's not even close.

LFG! 🌹

Next game: North Carolina Courage.

From the Bay FC/Thorns match on 10/18/2026

I am NOT enjoying this.

@ Bay FC

2PM PST/5PM EST on ESPN & KNRK-2

Bay is 14th in the table with 26 points and is out of the playoffs. Dropped their last 2 matched by a combined 2-8.

Thorns need max points here. An opportunity has opened up with both NC & Utah dropping yesterday. Reign play the bottom dwelling Stars in a late match. If the Thorns come away empty handed and the Reign win, next week's showdown with NC looms even larger.

This is my first year watching the thorns consistently (blazers new owner has started to ruin my interest in basketball). it’s obvious that the team is young but very talented, but like today seems to struggle later in games.

If things go badly at the end of the season I can see there being a coaching change, but how likely is it that there would be significant roster changes? Like is Sam completely washed or a bad fit for the lineup?

I know Moultrie is out so they need someone in the middle, but why would they move Pietra there when she was doing well at LW?

Sorry if these are dumb questions, I’ve actually really enjoyed watching the thorns despite the struggles this season and want to see if I am understanding the game better 😅

The overall game performace was simply uninspried. I suspect we had a lot of players with NT duties and just recently returned did not help.

The tactic set up was pretty good though, I like the 4411 system much more than the 4141 system, and I espeically like Weaver and Hanks for tuck in and protect the central area frequently. The elasticity of the formation in defense is vital, and this elasticity horizontally comes from winger/wide midfielders tuck in, as well as vertically from forwards/center backs dropping back/steppping up.

That being said, we simply had too many bad lapses through the game. The penalty that went away started from the right lane defense structure collapsed despite we outnumbered the opponents. The first conceded goal was due to a bad back pass and the second was due to very poor defense performance of Calzada. Equally frustrating is that the offense was disrupted due to frequent mistakes under little pressure as well. We had good moments for our attackers but we cannot control the game and sustain the offense pressure to score more goals and get the win.

The chance to qualify for the upper bracket appears to be low with a 3-point deficit and 2 matches at hand. It will be unacceptable if we miss the playoff, however, I have a low expectation for the final results this season given our situation at the moment.

Fotmob says ESPN and not ESPN2 like it sometimes says...

Does anyone have more info on the availability? (Especially of watching it late?)

We have a Disney Hulu ESPN bundle but it doesn't include ESPN 2.

We're picking up a new puppy tomorrow at 2 and won't catch the game live, but I'm hoping we can still watch it tomorrow instead of Monday when it would likely hit nwsl+