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Morgan Weaver is back, and the timing couldn’t be better.
It’s clear a whole lot of things haven’t gone the Portland Thorns’ way this year. The club struggled to find results at the beginning of the year, fired its head coach and recently lost four league games in a row—the longest losing streak in franchise history.
But during that fourth loss—a 1-0 defeat to the seventh-place Chicago Red Stars—the Thorns returned Weaver to the pitch for her first game since May 1.
Weaver’s reentry to the team after a knee injury was accompanied by another news bulletin: The Thorns announced on Sept. 12 (ahead of the Chicago game) that Weaver had signed a five-year contract extension to keep her in Portland through 2028.
One of the Thorns’ key offensive players returning from an injury would be good news in any season. But it’s significant that it’s happening now, at a time when morale around the team feels at a low ebb, and that it’s Weaver, specifically—a fan favorite and irreplaceable presence on the field.
Her contract extension, an endorsement of her commitment to the Thorns, is also good to see. “I’m just not done here,” Weaver said in an interview with the club. “I think this whole team wants to win more championships, and we have the drive to do so.”
Weaver is known for scoring dramatic goals in big moments. In the past couple of years, it’s felt almost routine to watch Weaver finish a shot from an impossible-looking angle or complete a scorpion kick to put the Thorns ahead in the dying minutes of a match.
That ability to grind out a goal has become characteristic of Weaver’s game. It speaks to her tenacity as a player, and it shows a drive that the Thorns, as a collective, have been lacking in these past couple of games.
Indeed, Weaver made herself known in Portland’s 2-2 draw against Angel City FC on Sept. 24. The team was playing without leading scorer and USWNT star Sophia Smith, and Weaver was ready to step into that role. Despite playing only 60 minutes, she was on the end of four of the Thorns’ total seven shots on target, per the NWSL website. And she scored the goal that got Portland into the game in the second half, punctuated with her signature grin and pantomiming rocking a baby. (Weaver said postgame that the celebration was a reference to both goalkeeper Bella Bixby traveling to Los Angeles with the team with her newborn daughter, Ruby, and to assistant coach Vytas Andriuskevicius’ wife, who is pregnant.)
In an interview with the club, Weaver said she puts her passion for the club on full display through her goal celebrations. “Being a Thorn, you should be so proud and so happy to be so,” she said. “I love it. I have so much passion to play for a team that wants to win.”
Goal aside, Weaver’s impact on games has been evident since she returned to the pitch. This was clear in the 45 minutes she played against the San Diego Wave last week. Though Smith was the player finding many of Portland’s early chances, Weaver was able to occupy defenders and draw them away from Smith, giving Smith more space to work.
When Smith scored in that game, Weaver was with her at the front of Portland’s attack. Weaver’s presence as a second threat in front of goal forced one of the Wave’s central defenders, Kristen McNabb, to step to her. With McNabb guarding Weaver, Smith only had to beat San Diego centerback Naomi Girma and goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan to score. (Girma and Sheridan are two of the best in the game, so Smith’s goal was plenty impressive, but playing one against two is better odds than one against three.) Weaver is a prolific scorer in her own right, which takes a bit of the pressure off Smith to keep the team afloat off of half-chances.
I’m not suggesting that Weaver (not yet 90-minutes fit on a team that’s still struggling to find the style of play that works best for their roster and playing in a league as competitive as the NWSL is this year) can single-handedly turn the tide for Portland. But it does bode well for the Thorns that they’re getting a player with her energy and intensity back into the mix as the playoffs approach—and that she helped them to a draw against Angel City to finally break the Thorns’ four-game losing streak.
As it stands right now, Portland has to figure out a way to win games. The Thorns sit in seventh place in the NWSL table, with the top eight teams qualifying for the playoffs. It doesn’t have to be pretty; the Thorns just have to figure out how to score and stop their opponents from scoring. The tactics can come once they have a little bit of their confidence back.
Weaver’s well on her way to helping Portland do just that.
Leo Baudhuin (he/they) has been writing about the Portland Thorns and the NWSL since 2019. When he’s not working or watching soccer, you can find him reading, crocheting or obsessing over his cats, Sully and Camas.