Photo Copyright Jaime Valdez for USA TODAY Sports
Was it as simple as a coaching change? To say the circumstances surrounding the Portland Thorns‘ coaching change were odd would be an understatement. The five matches since Rob Gale became interim coach while his predecessor, Mike Norris, was sent to the front office, have shut down most of the skeptics. Saturday night’s fifth consecutive win established a club record and pushed the disastrous, 0-3-1 start further into the rearview mirror. The cherry on top was setting the mark against their archrival Reign. The 4-0 score made it the Thorns’ most lopsided victory in the series. In the process, the Thorns also denied Reign coach Laura Harvey her milestone 100th regular season win.
“Especially to do it at home and against Seattle was really great,” Payton Linnehan said after potting the final goal deep in stoppage time.
The transition once Gale took over was almost immediate—literally. It was April 20 against the Houston Dash and Christine Sinclair scored in the sixth…
