Welcome back to “I’m Curious!”

After a hectic 10-day span with travel taking me to stops in all four time zones on the US mainland, I am back home in Virginia, and grateful to be back after a whirlwind tour.

As for you, you’ll be getting a little bit more from my trip, but I’ll be back to DC-based coverage this weekend.

Before some NWSL reporting and takes, I want to take you to a team a few levels down, to meet a pre-professional team who wrote the first chapter of their own soccer history.

As always, feel free to either read through or flip around as you see fit.

Here’s the Table of Contents.

Table of Contents

• The Most Curious Thing This Week: Portland Cherry Bombs

• The Photo Bay

  • Eyes on the Ball: Claire Hutton

  • The Peanut Gallery: Portland Thorns Bench

  • The Dark Knight: Bay FC's Joelle Anderson

  • A Portland Banger: MA Vignola's Goal

• Other Takes and Things of Note

  • Robert Vilahamn's Thorny Whirlwind

  • Is Utah for Real? A Follow-Up

  • For the Spirit, It's "Almost," Again at CONCACAF

• Something Good I Ate: Cheese Curds at The Sports Bra

And here’s Peach!

The Most Curious Thing This Week

It’s a team down in the proverbial minor leagues of American soccer: The Portland Cherry Bombs.

The Cherry Bombs did not exist before I saw them play last Sunday. They took the field for the first time for an exhibition game against a team of local collegiate players.

On the pitch itself, the Cherry Bombs, with a roster including several high-major NCAA Division I players, were in control for most of the match, winning 4-0.

But so much of what was most impressive was what has unfolded off the field.

From the moment they rolled out their identity, based on the 1976 song of the same name by The Runaways, the Cherry Bombs leaned into unapologetically reflecting Portland, the city they call home.

While The Runaways are not from Portland, the song has grown some deep roots in the city, inspiring many bands from the city’s “riot grrrl” punk scene in the 1990s and 2000s.

The club picked up some existing goodwill and funky marketing tactics from other local clubs under the same ownership group—the collegiate summer league baseball team the Portland Pickles and the semi-pro men’s soccer team the Portland Bangers have both won fans over with an edgy online presence and some funny-looking food-based mascots. 

The Cherry Bombs also made an early statement, with uniforms that prominently feature a kit sponsor that feels defiant in the U.S. in 2026: Planned Parenthood.

Specifically, the club partnered with Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, the Oregon and Southwest Washington division of the national reproductive health nonprofit often associated with abortion access.

In April, the club rolled out their Planned Parenthood-sponsored kits in an event at Portland’s pioneering women’s sports bar the Sports Bra, featuring U.S. women’s national team legend Shannon Boxx, as well as local drag queen Venereal Denise.

“I think the goal was to just do something that we know our fans are gonna be proud of, and we want to be able to represent Portland and the Cherry Bombs as best as we can,” said Cherry Bombs general manager Courtney Schmidt. “Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette has been a wonderful partner of ours and the jerseys are sick. We’ve already put in, like, two, three re-orders because they have been selling out so fast.”

Schmidt says they have sent jerseys not just across the country, but to places as far afield as Spain and Ireland.

But as far as selling tickets and day-to-day operations, getting local fans to dedicate themselves to the team is essential. And Schmidt is confident they have been doing well on that front.

“We have a great community around us and we know that they’re gonna be able to back us up and I think, now more than ever people want to feel represented by the sports teams that they’re repping.”

As the Cherry Bombs leaned into a defiant and unambiguously Portland identity, Portlanders have responded in kind.

More than two thousand fans ringed a soccer field at Lents Park in the residential eastern part of the city. The venue itself didn’t have more than a couple of hundred bleacher seats, but fans sat at picnic tables and field-side lawn chairs to turn the field into a party and a venue that could be imposing when it needs to be. 

Mary T. Cherry, a punky mascot with fishnet stockings, a cherry head and a fuse on the end of her stem, led the club’s first-ever roster onto the field. The squad of teenage and twenty-something players all looked overjoyed to be part of history.

And they got a crowd unlike anything that many of them have seen before. 

Fans lit up red smoke to celebrate goals. Banners draped the fences around the sidelines and end lines. And the Portland Opera, fresh off one of its members singing the national anthem, kept the music going for a full 90 minutes.

A handful of Portland Opera singers sang specially-made songs set to the tunes of legendary classical music pieces and they are set to bring their vocal talents to every Cherry Bombs home game this season.

One particularly catchy song that the opera singers relied on, in no small part because it caught on with fans, was set to Mozart’s Symphony No. 40.

I dare you not to have “Cherry Bombs, Cherry Bombs, Cherry BO-OMBS!” stuck in your head as you read the rest of this piece.

Coming straight from seeing the Portland Thorns, I could tell this was a slower game and some overall lower-level soccer than those across town in the top-level NWSL.

Still, fans and players alike were clearly just happy to be there.

“The energy was crazy. First time I’ve ever played with a big amount of people and with all the noise and stuff going on and the environment. I felt, like, really special,” said Patricia “PK” Krepel, a Cherry Bombs center back who is a rising junior at NCAA Division III Willamette University.

“I’m just super excited to be here because the competition is crazy and I think it’s gonna help me become a better player.”

Many of the players had ties to the area, either growing up in or around Portland, playing at nearby schools, or in the case of midfielder Lucy Quinn, both.

“Portland’s my home. I love being around Portland,” said Quinn, who grew up in the city and graduated last year after playing through college at NCAA Division I Portland State.

“All my friends, everyone I’ve ever known is here supporting me, so that’s super awesome to feel like I’m playing for my home.”

Quinn is easy to spot out on the pitch. Much of her naturally black hair is dyed so that it is red higher up near her head, with flecks of blue at the front, as well as a pair of mostly blue pigtails.

“I am always on the ground. I’m always falling over, sliding,” Quinn said.

“I really like to give it my all and not have any regrets when I leave the field.”

As someone who finished playing collegiately after the 2024 season, it’s not entirely clear whether Quinn will have a professional opportunity waiting for her. But she takes a ton of pride in helping build something in her hometown.

“I just love how Portland is unapologetically themselves, loves to promote being unique, being yourself. I feel like that’s always a virtue I grew up to appreciate a lot is fully embracing who you are. And this team is everything that and more. It’s feminine, it’s powerful, it’s unapologetic, and I just love being a part of a program like this.”

That’s particularly important for clubs at this level to build on, because by and large, these are not highly vaunted, top-of-the-line prospects.

Down here in the USL W League, dozens of clubs representing small towns or big city neighborhoods across the country are playing pre-professional games outside the U.S. soccer pyramid.

Most of these clubs play in relative anonymity, but teams are steadily drawing eyeballs, either by bringing in top-level players to their clubs or building strong communities.

Vermont Green, whose men’s club has become one of the top teams in the men’s semi-pro USL League Two, made waves by bringing U.S. women’s national team legend Sam Mewis in to coach the women’s team.

Minnesota Aurora have become a darling among online soccer fans with some of their unapologetic stands against racism and for social justice, and some of their historic signings. The club brought in Sarah Fuller, the former Vanderbilt and TCU goalkeeper who made history by playing as a kicker on Vanderbilt’s football team in 2020, for their first-ever roster in 2022.

And before this season, the club made history by signing Isaac Ranson, a standout keeper on the women’s soccer team at Cal State Fullerton and a trans man assigned female at birth, to be the club’s first out trans player.

(Full disclosure: I am an owner of the Aurora via their community owner program. I own exactly one share.)

Clubs and players describe the level of play as pre-professional. With many collegiate players spending their springs and summers with USL W League teams, it’s not unlikely that a team like the Cherry Bombs will produce a pro someday. 

Many of these players are here to tune up their game between collegiate seasons, or in many respects, just have fun playing a game they love.

But based on the size and enthusiasm of the crowds that have turned out to see them, they are still making something deeply meaningful.

The Photo Bay

Eyes on the Ball: Claire Hutton

Bay FC’s Claire Hutton has become one of the top midfielders in the world before she can even legally buy a drink. The 20-year-old upstate New York native became the youngest captain of the U.S. women’s national team in a quarter-century during an April friendly against Japan. 

And even on a team that has dealt with some struggles and often asked Hutton to do a bit too much, she was all smiles before Wednesday’s game.

The Peanut Gallery: Portland Thorns Bench

I’m still not entirely sure what captivated the Portland Thorns bench in the moments before players walked out onto the field, but I do appreciate the varied reactions from each player that make it so that it seems like each one is looking at something else entirely.

Shae Harvey and Carolyn Calzada are in some sort of awe or excitement, Maddie Padelski looks a bit confused, and Renee Lyles is giving the kind of side eye that suggests somebody off camera is doing something extremely embarrassing.

Honestly, I’m just kinda glad the person they were looking at didn’t seem to be me.

The Dark Knight: Bay FC’s Joelle Anderson

Bay FC defender Joelle Anderson has been playing with a face mask all season after a history of face and head-related injuries. The 27-year-old has a goal this season despite playing as a center back and continuing a shift to playing as a defender that began in 2025. 

There is clearly a protective aspect to it, but Anderson’s face mask adds a bit of an intimidation factor. Maybe it’s just because of the fact that it looks like she borrowed it from Batman, but either way, it works.

A Portland Banger

It turns out the semi-pro Portland Bangers aren’t the only soccer team in Portland capable of producing a banger. The Thorns got on the board with an extraordinary finish from outside back MA Vignola, who put a right-footed finish from roughly 30 yards out that arced down just below the crossbar and in.

Needless to say, there was quite the celebration both on the field and in the crowd.

Other Takes and Things of Note

Robert Vilahamn’s Thorny Whirlwind

Depending on how things go this weekend against the tied-for-first Utah Royals (more on them in a sec), the Portland Thorns may be heading into the June break at the top of the NWSL standings.

Due to a late hire and some ensuing visa issues, head coach Robert Vilahamn had exactly one (1) training with the Thorns before the start of the season, a snowy affair before the team’s opening game on the road against the Washington Spirit.

The 43-year-old Swede’s track record did not necessarily prime fans to expect immediate success. After coaching BK Häcken to back-to-back second place finishes in the Swedish league, Vilahamn took over the Tottenham women in 2023, finishing 6^th in the English Women’s Super League in his first season and then losing the gig after stewarding them to a finish of 11^th out of 12 teams the following year.

Whether it’s been Vilahamn’s leadership or the prep work by top assistant Sarah Lowdon, the Thorns have played their way to the upper echelons of the league, particularly by overperforming their advanced defensive metrics.

After Wednesday’s win but before their loss over the weekend in Kansas City to the surging Current, I asked Vilahamn about his whirlwind few months.

“I have had to push myself outside my comfort zone, so going into a new continent, a new league, having one day to prepare the team, I had to flip it on,” Vilahamn said. “So I kind of went from building an identity of how we want to play to trying to win as much as possible. And through that journey, adding stuff, during the journey.”

Vilahamn said he has seen good and bad from the team but that he is happy that good results have followed. 

“Am I proud of the data of the phases of each game? No. But we have tried to find a way to win every game. And through that, we have won a lot of games.”

The summer break, he said, would be a chance to recap and dig deeper into game models, but right now, it’s about maximizing the team’s points in the standings heading into the break.

“It’s very fun. It’s very difficult, but it’s fun.”

Is Utah For Real? A Follow-Up

Remember when I said about a month ago that my answer to the question of “Is Utah for real?” was “ehhh…”?

Well, I think we’ve gotten closer to that answer being a solid yes. At 7-2-2, the Royals are tied for top of the table with 23 points and own the tiebreaker over the Thorns with a +8 goal differential. 

Like Portland, Utah has outperformed its defensive expected goal metrics, meaning some regression may be due. But with Kate Del Fava’s difference-making defense at center back and the return of goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn to her old, national team-caliber self, Utah’s emergence is looking more and more legit.

The Royals can force the issue on the attack, with both Mina Tanaka and Cloé Lacasse filling up the score sheet and complementing each other. Tanaka leads the club with four goals and has tacked on three assists, while Lacasse has three goals and three assists of her own.

The wins are still not coming against top-notch competition. Utah has won seven of their last eight but the eight games have been against the eight teams that are currently below the playoff line. Their first three games, where they lost two and drew one, were against Kansas City, San Diego and Washington, all of whom are firmly above the playoff line right now.

The ultimate question for Utah will be whether they will be able to keep this up in the second half and do it against teams who are currently more likely to be contenders.

The Royals may not necessarily be title or Shield contenders but their performance in the first half of the season has proven that the floor will likely be a lot higher than it was when they finished near the bottom the last two seasons.

For the Spirit, It’s “Almost,” Again

The Washington Spirit will need to break the trend soon if they want to avoid being the NWSL’s equivalent of the early-1990s Buffalo Bills.

For the third straight time, the Spirit lost a tournament final when they fell 5-3 to Club América in Mexico in the CONCACAF W Champions Cup Final this weekend.

The Spirit did win the 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup before the start of the 2025 season but that was a matchup set by the previous year’s standings rather than a tournament.

The loss this weekend follows their 1-0 loss to Gotham FC in the 2025 NWSL Championship and their 1-0 loss to the Orlando Pride in the 2024 NWSL Championship.

For the third time in less than two years, the Spirit trudged off the field as yet another opponent got the medals, the trophy and the on-field celebration.

This game had decidedly more firepower, as the Spirit clawed back from a 2-0 deficit to put in three goals, first by Sofia Cantore in the first half and then two more from Rosemonde Kouassi in the early minutes out of halftime.

But the Spirit defense collapsed, allowing Club América to put in three goals in the final half-hour to make the Spirit’s domination of possession absolutely meaningless.

The Spirit have two more chances at a trophy before the end of 2026. They are five points off first in the NWSL table and can win the Shield if they finish the regular season first, or they can win three games in a row in the NWSL Playoffs to capture their elusive second championship.

Something Good I Ate

Even the bars in Portland know they have to offer some pretty good food to contend in the city’s vibrant food scene.

I didn’t come to the Sports Bra for the food but it was quite the pleasant surprise.

Situated on the eastern end of a happening stretch of Northeast Broadway, the Sports Bra opened in the spring of 2022 as America’s first sports bar dedicated to women’s sports.

They take their mandate seriously. The walls, the ceilings, the bar, the bathrooms—they are all covered in women’s sports merch. Jerseys and scarves hang above your head. Signed pictures and bobbleheads take up small spots wherever there is space. Cards and photos dot the walls. For a genre of sports as overlooked and under-promoted as women’s sports, it is genuinely astounding to see so many jerseys and so much merch, some dating back decades, all in one place.

Owner Jenny Nguyen is quite busy, as after all, the establishment is on the fast track to franchising after an investment from Reddit cofounder and women’s sports booster Alexis Ohanian. But I saw her darting around the place, making sure that food was moving and customers were satisfied.

It was a busy afternoon, with the PWHL Walter Cup Finals and a Portland Fire road game against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on tap. I was still kind of full but I ordered some fried cheese curds.

An $8 order got me far more curds than I had ever thought possible, coming out piping hot from the kitchen.

After giving it a few moments for the molten cheese to cool off, I had plenty of deliciously battered, ooey-gooey cheese curds to pick at. Some stretched astoundingly far, almost making me pass on eating them. They were delicious, but sometimes you just have to marvel at some stretchy cheese.

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