Only two players have been with the Thorns longer than Emily Menges, making her, Christine Sinclair and Tobin Heath the most tenured NWSL players in Portland. Perhaps as relevant for the 2020 season, the trio are the only players who experienced the team’s other makeover - the one it undertook after missing the 2015 postseason.

On this episode of Breaking Lines, we talked to Menges about her team’s rebuilt squad, Portland’s new, clearer priorities for the 2020 campaign, and what it means to be a Thorn. Before that, though, we ask about what took her to the Australian league for the first time this offseason, what it was like trying to make her way back to the U.S. amid COVID-19’s spread, and what her life is life right now, with teammates at a distance.