Match preview: Seattle Reign vs. Urawa Red Diamonds

NWSL league play remains on pause through the end of July as continental tournaments continue, but Seattle Reign will be in action on Sunday afternoon in a friendly against Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan’s WE League. The game kicks off from Lumen Field at 1 PM PT. This is the first of three games Urawa will be playing in the United States as part of a preseason tour, with games against Portland and Bay FC to follow.

Urawa has an impressive history since their founding in 1980, having won the WE League title in 2022/23 and 2023/24, the AFC Women’s Club Championship in 2023, the WE League Cup title in 2023, the Empress’s Cup in 2021 and 2024, and also winning the predecessor Nadeshiko League Division 1 title four times. They finished third in the WE League during the 2024/25 season with a 13-2-7 record and +19 goal differential, led by Japan WNT defender Hana Takahashi’s seven goals.

Here are three things to watch for in Sunday’s match:

Will Mia Fishel make her Reign debut?

Recently signed star forward Mia Fishel has now been training with the Reign for two weeks. At Fishel’s introductory press conference, Reign head coach Laura Harvey hinted that she would likely see some minutes in the club’s friendlies this month to help her build match fitness and gain chemistry with her new teammates, but the team also wants to be conscious of not pushing too much to soon as they prepare for the second half of the NWSL regular season.

"I think it's a day-by-day decision,” Harvey told media last week. “I think obviously we're conscious of the transition can always be challenging. You know, coming back to a different club and getting acclimatized with everybody. And I think we're very conscious that we've got a big 12 weeks [of league play] coming up after the friendlies, that we want to try and hit the ground running as quickly as we can. But we want to make sure that we have everybody as best fit and healthy as they possibly can be, and if that means getting Mia in the friendlies because she needs the minutes, then we'll do it. If we feel that it's a little bit too soon, we might not. But obviously we'll speak to the high-performance staff and make sure that we're just on the right pathway that we can get Mia in the best possible position to be able to play the most amount of minutes possible through this big 12 week stretch that we've got coming up."

What will the Reign lineup and formation look like?

With over half the roster involved in national team camps earlier this month and receiving their CBA-mandated week off after completing their international duty, the Reign invited players from several local USL-W clubs to participate in training to make numbers for drills and small-sided matches. While most internationals are now back in training with the club, players who were involved in the Euros remain away – Ana-Maria Crnogorčević and Switzerland were just eliminated in the quarterfinals on Friday, while the Reign’s Welsh contingent are enjoying some well-earned time off after making their major tournament debut.

Harvey will need to balance fitness and chemistry along with rewarding depth players with minutes and evaluating different lineup combinations and potentially a shift in formations, thanks to the addition of Fishel and the return of fullbacks Sofia Huerta and Ryanne Brown. Brown has not yet officially been removed from the season-ending injury list, but she has been training and is expected to be activated soon. 

How do the Reign respond to an unknown team?

The Reign have done well this season to adapt their lineup, formation and tactics to each opponent, but it’s been over 12 years since they last played a team from Japan, dating back to preseason ahead of their debut in 2013. A lot has changed in the ensuing years, with Japan’s first division becoming fully professional and the sport overall seeing vastly more investment, development and growth. Although the Reign will be able to watch film from Urawa’s 2024/25 season to scout their preferred tactics and key players, this will be Urawa’s first game of the 2025/26 preseason and they have had a lot of offseason roster turnover, including adding several players from their youth system and Cameroon national team defender Easther Mayi Kith, who transferred from AS Saint-Étienne of the French Première Ligue.

As of now, there are no announced streaming options to watch Sunday’s game, meaning the only way to see the match is in-person at Lumen Field. Tickets are available for as low as $11.25 plus fees. The match kicks off at 1 PM PT on Sunday, at a time when the stadium district will be bustling, with the Mariners also hosting a game starting at 1:10 PM, the Seattle Art Fair next door at the Lumen Field Event Center, and major construction disrupting I-5 through downtown Seattle and adding significant traffic to surface streets throughout the area.