Reign vs. KC Current: Highlights, stats, quotes

Seattle Reign FC found some offensive momentum against one of the league's best defenses, but they fell apart on the other end – resulting in a 5-2 road loss to the Kansas City Current.

Jordyn Huitema, earning her first start for the Reign since March 29 due to an injury, scored both Seattle goals.

Temwa Chawinga had a brace and assist for the Current. The home side scored two goals immediately after the Reign found the back of the net in the first half, and then scored twice in 90 seconds at the start of the second.

The undefeated Current (8-0-4) moved to the top of the NWSL table, while the Reign (2-9-1) remain in 13th. Up next for Seattle is a home match against rivals Portland Thorns FC. That game kicks off Sunday, June 16, at 1 PM PT.

Reign swept away by Current on the road

A second-half defensive meltdown dealt Seattle their third straight loss.

Sounder at HeartAlli Haynie

Highlights

Stats

SCORING SUMMARY

24' - Jordyn Huitema (SEA)

 28’ - Temwa Chawinga (Assist: Michelle Cooper) (KC)

 41’ - Jordyn Huitema (SEA)

45+2’ - Lauren (Assist: Beatriz) (KC)

 46’ - Vanessa DiBernardo (Assist: Temwa Chawinga) (KC)

 47’ - Temwa Chawinga (Assist: Elizabeth Ball) (KC)

67’ - Lo'eau LaBonta (KC)

LINEUPS

 56’ - Olivia Van der Jagt for Angharad James; Ji So-yun for Bethany Balcer; Lauren Barnes for Phoebe McClernon

 75’ - Ryanne Brown for Alana Cook

 79’ - Emeri Adames for Tziarra King

46’ - Vanessa DiBernardo for Claire Lavogez; Debinha for Beatriz

 73’ - Stine Ballisager Pedersen for Lauren

 77’ - Ellis Wheeler for Hailie Mace

ATTENDANCE

11,500 (Children's Mercy Park, Kansas City)

POSSESSION

KC: 51.3%

Reign: 48.7%

EXPECTED GOALS

KC: 3.33

Reign: 1.87

TOTAL SHOTS

KC: 12

Reign: 13

SHOTS ON TARGET

KC: 7

Reign: 7

SHOTS OFF TARGET

KC: 4

Reign: 5

SHOTS BLOCKED

KC: 1

Reign: 1

SHOTS FROM INSIDE THE BOX

KC: 9

Reign: 9

TOUCHES INSIDE THE OPP. BOX

KC: 22

Reign: 12

PASSES

KC: 448

Reign: 426

PASSING ACCURACY

KC: 75.4%

Reign: 73.5%

PASSES IN FINAL THIRD

KC: 133

Reign: 83

PASSING ACCURACY IN FINAL THIRD

KC: 58.6%

Reign: 48.2%

CROSSES (EXCLUDING CORNERS)

KC: 12

Reign: 10

CORNERS WON

KC: 6

Reign: 5

OFFSIDES

KC: 1

Reign: 0

FOULS

KC: 11

Reign: 6

YELLOW CARDS

KC: 0

Reign: 1

Quotes

On what she wanted from her first three subs: "I thought in the first half, we actually did some really good stuff. We had chances to score – obviously scored two goals. Again, I think we shoot ourselves in the foot, a corner coming in, it can't drop in the six-yard box and someone be able to volley the ball that close to goal. It's just not acceptable. And to concede so close to halftime was tough. I said to the players at the end of the game, I think I just saw 90 seconds of madness in the start of the second half, just changed the trajectory of the game immediately. So, the three changes were to try and change the game a little bit. Phoebe had to come off. She had a little issue, so that wasn't really planned, but we were planning on doing an attacking sub, but we had to change. So yeah, I think we just, again, caused us our own problems – that 90 seconds at the start of the second half just changed the idea of the game immediately."

On how she balances fixing issues while also building confidence in the players: It's a hard balance. I actually felt like training had been really good. I felt like we turned a corner. The hard thing is, when that sort of goal goes in – honestly, the corner, I think the corner was a start to it – the first goal, too, very similar to Orlando, Washington goals, all the work that you sort of been doing you can just see the players' confidence drain out of them and that's something that we've got to address and we've got to work through. But the harsh reality is – again, I said this the last game – you can't concede the amount of goals we're conceding and expect to get results, because outside of the corner and outside of the 90 seconds of madness, the game is relatively even and I think they're the things that we have to look at. Do I think that we played well after the fourth goal went in? Not really; we hung on. You could just see our confidence drained out of us. But I thought prior to the fourth goal, I thought in the first half we played some really good stuff and caused them a lot of problems. I thought what we'd set up, our game plan, when we were doing it, we created opportunities from it."

On Shae Holmes starting over Lauren Barnes: "Lu missed training yesterday because she had to go to her grandma's funeral. She flew in late last night, so we decided that we wouldn't risk starting her just in case something happened. Thankfully, she got in about 9:30 last night and yeah, was OK to be able to play some minutes today, but we knew she couldn't play 90."

On what gave the team the most trouble today: Jess Fishlock: "Honestly, I feel like we're just really conceding really sloppy goals, ultimately. This isn't kind of the first game that that has been happening. Their first goal and their set play goal in the first half are goals that we should be just dealing with and then they scored two goals in one minute in the second half, which is just not good enough from us at all. When we come out the second half, we don't track a run and then we don't even deal with our own kickoff. So, for us it's just more like they're our problems, we're creating our own problems and we scored two great goals – this one over here [Jordyn Huitema] – we're so glad she's back. But, we create loads of chances in the first half, we hit the crossbar, we have another two great chances. So, we're just really the masters of our own downfall right now and we either need to stand up and take accountability as individuals and collectively or this is just not going to change. So, it is 100% completely on us as players and we have to really look in the mirror individually and collectively to figure out why we are causing ourselves so many problems."

On the team scoring goals and creating chances and if that makes the team feel better: Jess Fishlock: "Yeah, of course. I mean, what's nice is we are scoring goals and we have a lot of different goals scorers. Obviously, we've been missing really big players for us, too. We've been missing this one [Huitema], which is nice to have back and adds a completely different dimension to our game. Yeah, you can't be scoring two or three goals – well, two, probably – back-to-back-to-back-to-back games and then conceding five and three and three, you just can't. So, obviously it's nice and we're scoring great goals, too. They're not tap-ins or anything, they're just really well-worked goals and great runs and whatever. It's nice and that's not a problem. Yes, to answer the question, it's really nice, the scoring goals is not our problem."