PAWTUCKET, R.I. — By the time Portland Thorns forward Pietra Tordin reached the media workroom of Centreville Bank Stadium, she had already heard most of the records she set on Sunday in a 4-3 win over the Boston Legacy.
First career hat trick, and the youngest Thorn to record one. Fastest goal she has ever scored. League leader in goal contributions. But as she sat down, flanked by defender Sam Hiatt, she was not fixated on the accomplishments.
The 22-year-old said she had no thoughts during the 90-minute game, which is why she laughed when remembering her concise halftime interview with CBS. She was just a vessel for soccer, a pure flow state. During her postgame media responsibilities, her words returned — mostly.
“Sometimes it feels like it’s not even me,” she said of her growing list of accolades. “I’m listening to all of this, and I’m like, ‘Wow, like cool! Cool, man.’”
To say Tordin can, at times, have the laidback vibes of Crush, the surfer-dude turtle from “Finding Nemo”, would not be far off base. Her growing in-game interviews are proof of that. During a previous halftime interview, when asked how the Thorns could see out a game, she answered “Score more goals?” in the innocently sly way of a player who can dance around an obvious question as well as she can with a ball at her feet.
There’s more to Tordin than playful charm, though.
Following a collegiate career at Princeton, Tordin signed with the Thorns for the 2025 season. Last year, she scored five goals and picked up a couple of Rookie of the Month nods, though she missed out on being a finalist for the year-end award. Tordin has yet to earn a U.S. senior national team call-up, but was selected for the Futures Camp and was the youth team’s leading scorer at the 2024 U-20 World Cup.
Born in the U.S. to Brazilian parents, Tordin is a dual citizen who trained with Brazil’s youth national team before swapping to the U.S. It did not take the Thorns long to lock her into a new contract through 2029, a necessary piece of business alongside ongoing negotiations with key free agents like Sophia Wilson.
“One of the things about this league is that players come in, they have to learn very quickly,” Thorns assistant coach Sarah Lowdown said on Sunday, stepping in for head coach Robert Vilahamn, who was sent off in the second half against Boston. “Pietra, she’s already a true professional, and she’s always trying to ‘meg everybody at training. She has a really funny personality, and she also knows when to be serious and get to work.”
Tordin started her scoring on Sunday with an early free kick from just outside the corner of the box, tipping it off and over Legacy goalkeeper Casey Murphy’s gloves. Her second was a more standard goal from the middle of the box off a Jessie Fleming assist. Her third, though, was a perfect touch: a long ball from Thorns goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold, a couple of bounces, and Tordin’s right foot slicing expertly underneath to chip it over Murphy while running at full pace.
Portland Thorns FC forward Pietra Tordin scored her first career hat trick against the Boston Legacy. (Edward Finan / Imagn Images)
“What people will remember is the hat trick, which is fantastic,” Hiatt said, stepping in on a question for Tordin to keep things a little more serious.
“But she put in such a shift for us defensively, and that was absolutely what we needed, especially in the second half towards the end. I just want to recognize that as well, because again, the hat trick was crucial and we love it, but she was really covering ground and doing so much for us defensively. She (did) a little bit of everything today.”
Tordin has been doing that a lot for the fifth-place Thorns this season, but Sunday’s road win could not have come at a more crucial time for Portland as they looked to bounce back from a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Utah Royals.
The victory over Boston was more narrow than the first 15 minutes of the game suggested, but for the Thorns, the win was necessary. It broke a pattern of: score early, head home with zero points. Tordin’s hat trick, plus a goal from Wilson, was enough to keep the Legacy at bay — though it won’t entirely put to rest questions about the team’s ability to close out games.
“A lot was said after our result last week,” Tordin said postgame, “but coming into this game, at least for me and the group, passion, aggression and intent was a big key to moving forward in the season. This game, we definitely did show that we came in with a lot of hunger, obviously. I really think if we keep that same mentality going forward, that it can and it will only lead to good things.”
A CHIP. A HAT TRICK. A GOALKEEPER ASSIST. THIS GOAL HAS EVERYTHING.
Pietra Tordin completes the first-half hat trick ‼️
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— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) August 9, 2026 at 4:49 PM
The smaller moments that Hiatt referenced won’t make the match highlight reels, but they were on Tordin’s mind postgame as a reflection of the previous week’s work.
“Another emphasis that we had was just to put our heads down and work,” she said. “Doing the extra sprint, the proactive movement to get there defensively. I think we did all of that today.”
Hiatt is right, though. People will remember the hat trick. And a performance like that might finally nudge Tordin over the line for more end-of-season recognition and into serious contention for the senior national team, even at this point in the cycle with 2027 World Cup qualification on the horizon in November.
If nothing else, on a chaotic NWSL weekend full of award leaders scoring goals, Tordin provided one of the most entertaining performances. After all, as Lowdown said with a smile, “We know Pietra is a footballer.”
