The Portland Thorns took the field Wednesday and played soccer, falling to the Houston Dash 3-2 in the process, and they did it because it was the only way to move forward.
Yet, after shocking allegations emerged last week that former Thorns coach Paul Riley sexually coerced players -- and that the Thorns’ front office kept the complaints quiet -- Wednesday’s game was about more than soccer.
Before the match at Providence Park, Thorns players wore training tops that said “no more silence.” In the sixth minute, players from both teams gathered at the center circle, arms around one another, and stood with bowed heads for one full minute.
The moment was chosen to recognize the six years it took before Mana Shim’s complaint against Riley, which was reported directly to Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and general manager Gavin Wilkinson, resulted in him being removed from the league. The NWSL Players Association asked fans to “stand in that pain and discomfort with us, as we consider what too many of us have been asked to sit with for too long.”
“This has been a really dark and heavy week for everyone in the league,” Thorns defender Meghan Klingenberg said Wednesday. “But I think with that type of heaviness comes the realization that things need to change. We’ve been doing a lot of grieving for our fellow players. We’ve been doing a lot of fact-finding and having big discussions about where this league should go and how it should look.
“The one thing that keeps coming back to me and to us is that, without any say in the league, without any power, and without the financial resources to protect ourselves, then this will continue happening,” Klingenberg continued. “To me, there needs to be big structural changes within the league to protect these players, because we are vulnerable without a voice.”
Last week, two former Thorns players, Shim and Sinead Farrelly, shared detailed allegations of abusive behavior and sexual coercion from Riley when he coached in Portland. Riley has denied the allegations. Shim filed a formal complaint to the Thorns in 2015, and both Shim and Farrelly were interviewed by the club.
Afterward, Paulson and Wilkinson opted not to renew Riley’s contract, which Wilkinson had previously suggested they were considering anyway because the Thorns missed playoffs. Publicly, the club framed it as a non-renewal, and Wilkinson was quoted thanking Riley for his service in a press release. Riley was hired by another NWSL team five months later, and he stayed employed in the NWSL until he was fired Friday after The Athletic published Shim and Farrelly’s stories.
“We’ve been talking with the front office, coordinating how do we find out what happened here,” Klingenberg said. “How do we have accountability because it’s important to make sure this never happens again.”
The game itself Wednesday was a close and thrilling affair.
Rachel Daly scored first in the 18th minute on a penalty kick, and then Kristie Mewis doubled Houston’s lead five minutes later. Christine Sinclair pulled one back in the 30th minute, and Sophia Smith scored a tenacious equalizer for the Thorns in the 57th minute. But Daly’s 80th minute goal won it for the Dash in a wild back-and-forth.
It was a reminder of what the NWSL is supposed to be about, and that the on-field product has never been one of the league’s problems. But there won’t be any quotes from players about how exciting the game was. Wednesday was not business as usual.
“Following the game, media are advised that players will refuse to answer any questions that do not relate to abuse and systemic change in NWSL,” an NWSL players union statement said.
That stance comes after a week when players have had to process and reflect on the reckoning taking place across the league. The Riley incident is only the latest and most shocking example of players not being protected, a recurring problem in the NWSL. Thorns coach Mark Parsons said his staff was mindful of that, putting players’ mental health above soccer.
“That’s been the mantra for this week: the well-being of every person,” Parsons said. “We’ve started the day with that, we’ve always ended the day with that. This is No. 1: the health, safety and well-being of everyone. From the beginning, we worked closely with the (players’) leadership group in navigating every moment. Every meeting’s been optional, every session’s been optional.”
As a coach in the NWSL, Parsons said it’s “embarrassingly heartbreaking” that the league hasn’t done a better job of protecting its players.
“It’s really, really tough to think about how we got here,” Parsons said. “We have to be honest in reflection and learning. Everyone keeps saying ‘we’ -- everyone in any position of leadership has to work to make sure players are safe, that we have relentless policies and protocols in place to make sure that who we’re giving this honor and special privilege to be around the best professionals, best leaders, best women are the right people.”
Shortly before Wednesday’s game, the Thorns players issued their own statement calling for new investigations into the Thorns’ handling of Shim’s complaint and for Wilkinson to be placed on administrative leave until the results of the investigations.
Quickly afterward, the Thorns organization announced that Wilkinson had been placed on leave “from Thorns duties pending the results of the outside independent investigation,” leaving Wilkinson’s primary role of overseeing the Timbers intact.
“For the players, we’ve had a ton of discussions and we felt it was appropriate that the GM, Gavin, is on leave while this happens. Honestly, we haven’t really talked about the Timbers side,” Klingenberg said. “... For us, we wanted to make sure there was accountability and fairness, and that this investigation is very thorough. We feel that it should be swift, and when we have the information we need, then we can move forward with what we think is best.”
The Timbers Army and the Rose City Riveters supporters groups have also targeted Wilkinson, calling for “complete removal of Gavin Wilkinson from the PTFC organization” and vowed a boycott of all club purchases, including concessions and merchandise.
The players also asked for more seats at the table for players to work with the front office, and for more diversity among the club’s executive ranks. The supporters have made similar demands, including adding a diversity officer, player input on the hire to replace Parsons at the end of the season, and separate general manager positions for the Timbers and Thorns.
“While we have remained silent in the public eye for several days,” the players’ statement said, “within our locker room we’ve been grieving, reflecting, asking difficult questions of the club, gathering facts, and engaging in daily discussions.”
Klingenberg said there are big structural changes needed in the NWSL, and she hopes they will empower players to speak up. She recalled how during the NWSL’s predecessor, WPS, only one player spoke out about the abuse of Dan Borislow, a team owner who berated and sexually harassed players.
“We need to have a type of reckoning there too, because we need to protect each other and stand up for each other,” she said. “But it’s scary when you think your career is on the line and your dreams could be dashed.”
Fans made their anger at the club known in the stands Wednesday, carrying signs that said things like “only sorry you got caught” and “six years,” a direct reference to the Thorns organization’s handling of the allegations against Riley.
The club that hired Riley after the 2015 complaint was the Western New York Flash, which later became the North Carolina Courage. Stephen Malik, owner of the Courage, issued a statement Wednesday saying his club was aware of the Thorns’ investigation into Riley, but “were subsequently assured that he was in good standing.” Malik did not say who provided those assurances or what constitutes “good standing.”
Paulson has remained friendly with Riley since the coach left the Thorns in 2015, and earlier this week Paulson deleted a series of tweets praising Riley, which he published in the years after the 2015 investigation.
The allegations against Riley turning public has forced some uncomfortable self-reflection for those across the league who had been aware of alleged wrongdoing by Riley, even if they didn’t know the full extent of what the former Thorns coach had been accused of doing. Parsons said he was told of an incident and investigation, “and the coach was let go because of that, never to be hired by this club again,” but that was the extent of what he knew.
“Apart from that, it was an area where I wasn’t allowed and I wasn’t able to know more,” Parsons said, “and of course I’m probably feeling like a lot of other people right now that have been around this. What could we have done? What should we have done? How could we have done it? Because people needed us.”
For long stretches Wednesday, fans chanted “protect the players” while holding up signs that said the same. Fans held up scarves that said “no more silence.”
Wilkinson was also accused of promoting a culture of silence at the Thorns -- Shim said he told her in 2014 not to discuss her personal life, including the fact that she is gay. Wilkinson flatly denied it initially, and then later admitted he may have said something that Shim interpreted that way.
That meeting allegedly took place around when The Oregonian/OregonLive published a profile about Shim and featured photos of Shim and her then-girlfriend, which prompted complaints from the Thorns front office.
The Thorns were supposed to host OL Reign last weekend, but all the NWSL’s games were canceled amid the controversy. Fans showed up in front of Providence Park anyway with signs calling for Wilkinson to be fired and for Paulson to sell the club.
Up next, the Thorns head to Kansas City and face the NWSL’s new unnamed expansion club on Sunday.
-- Caitlin Murray for The Oregonian/OregonLive
Twitter: @caitlinmurr
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