Every minute, every match: Jessie Fleming carried the Thorns through 2026

By Karinna Leonard | November 9, 2026

Jessie Fleming jumping into Shae Harvey’s arms after the rookie scored her first goal. Courtesy of Instagram/thornsfc

Jessie Fleming spent 2,700 minutes on the pitch for the Portland Thorns FC this season, every second of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) regular season. That made her one of eight players in the league’s Iron Women Class of 2026.

The minutes are only a small part of it. In a turbulent season, Fleming has been the most important and most consistent player on the roster. She finished with one goal and two assists, but merely looking at the numbers misses what Fleming truly does for the team. Next to Nina Nijstad, Fleming anchors the Thorns’ midfield as their deep-lying, box-to-box presence, reading the field in a way that stops attacks before they even happen.  

After the Thorns’ Aug. 22 match against the Denver Summit at Providence Park, I asked head coach Robert Vilahamn what it means to have a player like her. He started with the space in front of the back line, which Fleming and Nijstad cover together. “I think if you look at Jessie Fleming and Nina Nijstad as well, how they have this space in front of our back line, it's crucial for us. If they don't do that, then they're going to give up the longer attacks,” he said. When the pair hold that space, Portland can force opponents outside and trust its fullbacks. “And they're also so good on the ball to connect and do this,” he said.

He finished with a line that sums up her season as a whole: “Jessie has played all the minutes so far, and she's just a machine who just keeps going and keeps going. So I'm very happy to have her on my team.”

She continued playing every minute after that night, too, and the Thorns needed it. Before the season, midfielder Sam Coffey left for Manchester City in the Women’s Super League.

In August, Olivia Moultrie tore her right ACL, ending her season. Together, those two losses left the midfield decimated, and Fleming stepped up at every turn. She is a key reason Portland made the playoffs, going 14-8-8 to claim sixth in the standings.

Beyond the box score, the advanced numbers back up what Vilahamn sees in Fleming, protecting the space in front of the back line and connecting the team on the ball. She completed 976 passes this season at an elite 81.8% success clip, doing so in the crowded central channels where turnovers are most costly and common. 

Heat map showing Jessie Fleming’s touches throughout the 2026 season. Courtesy of FotMob 

Her expected assists sit at 0.13 per 90, which ranks in the 86th percentile of the league, and she ranks in the 88th percentile among NWSL midfielders in chances created.

Fleming also places in the 75th percentile for defensive contributions. That combination makes her a world-class midfielder, as she connects the team going forward and protects it going back. A stat line of one goal and two assists can’t capture that, but the underlying numbers do.

Her teammates see it, too. forward Pietra Tordin said last season, “Someone that really inspires me is Jessie Fleming. You will not see her jogging on the field; she is sprinting everywhere. Before I step on, I want to play like Jessie. If I'm out there sprinting like her, I'll do great. I use that when I come off the field as well.” 

Pietra Tordin and Jessie Fleming. Courtesy of Instagram/thornsfc

Rookie midfielder Shae Harvey saw it up close after the team’s Oct. 3 loss to the Boston Legacy. With the Thorns chasing the playoffs and trailing 3-1, Harvey scored her first goal for the club, and Fleming jumped into her arms to celebrate, determined to reward the effort despite the final 4-2 result. “Jessie leads by example,” Harvey said afterward. “But she’s also super intentional as a leader. I feel like she always knows what the team needs, what the individuals around her need, and she always pulls someone up when they need it. So she’s a great leader, one of the best.”

None of this is new. Fleming has been doing it since she was 15, when she became one of the youngest players ever to debut for Canada’s senior team on Dec. 15, 2013.

A native of London, Ontario, she grew up learning from Christine Sinclair, arguably the greatest Canadian player of all time, Canada’s captain from 2006 until 2023 and the Thorns’ captain for 12 seasons. After Canada’s quarterfinal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021), Sinclair suggested Fleming take over penalty duties.

Fleming went on to score the lone goal in the semifinal against the United States with a penalty kick, equalized against Sweden in the final with another PK, and scored the first penalty of the shootout that won Canada its first Olympic gold. During the tournament, Fleming played 555 minutes, the second most for Canada. 

Jessie Fleming with Christine Sinclair. Courtesy of Instagram/_jessflem

By then she was playing for Chelsea FC, having signed her first professional contract in 2020 after leaving the UCLA Bruins. In January 2024, she transferred to the NWSL, a reported record transfer fee of $316,361 for an American women's team, and arrived in Portland for Sinclair’s final season. Fleming has since succeeded Sinclair as Canada’s captain, and the way she leads, with hard work, high standards and humility, is reminiscent of the way Sinclair did. With the passing of that proverbial torch, Portland gained another world-class Canadian leader in Fleming.

While Fleming has been the cornerstone of the team, it would be fair to ask: Is it healthy for a team to depend this much on one player? Fleming never came off the field, meaning the Thorns never had to find out what their midfield looked like without her.

That’s a credit to her durability, but it’s also a risk. After losing Coffey and Moultrie, Portland had little room for error in the middle, and her absence in any match would have left them bereft. The best argument for Fleming’s value is that the Thorns never had to answer that question. For now, the day they do is a ways off. On July 16, Fleming signed a contract extension with the club through 2028, two more seasons after this one.  

On Nov. 8, the Thorns faced the Washington Spirit in the quarterfinal at Audi Field in a highly anticipated rematch, the Spirit having eliminated Portland in the 2025 semifinals with a 2-0 win.

This time, Fleming wore the captain’s armband, as she has since the Sept. 19 match in Orlando when Sam Hiatt was first removed from the starting lineup. She played the full game and assisted Portland’s lone goal, sending a cross to Tordin in the 51st minute, but it wasn’t enough. 

Courtesy of YouTube/NWSLsoccer

The Spirit repeatedly attacked the back post, where the Thorns’ back line was caught out, and Portland saw its season end in a 4-1 loss. Fleming can anchor a midfield, but the Thorns’ offseason task is to make sure she isn’t the only one holding it up.

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