On Tuesday evening, Seattle Reign finished the second half of their match against Racing Louisville. After being put under a lot of pressure in the first half, the Reign were more settled as they progressed in the second half – and substitute Jess Fishlock scored her fifth goal of the season in the 90th minute to give the Reign a home win and lift them to 6th place in the league standings.
The match was broken up across 48 hours due to Savannah DeMelo's medical emergency in first-half stoppage time. The midfielder, who shared earlier this year that she was diagnosed with Graves' disease and hyperthyroidism, went down and appeared to lose consciousness. Reign and Louisville's medical staff immediately jumped into action and helped get her to the hospital, and the teams and league jointly agreed to suspend the match and complete it two days later behind closed doors.
On a personal note, it was truly horrible to see DeMelo experience her medical emergency. It's not something I want to witness again in person, and I'm grateful to hear that she's alert and getting good treatment at the hospital. I am wishing her good health and healing. I also felt really proud to be a Reign fan watching the way that head coach Laura Harvey and assistant coach Scott Parkinson reacted in the moment — both immediately consoling Racing head coach Bev Yanez, with whom both Harvey and Parkinson have connections. It was a no-brainer for the Reign to halt the match, because this club has always tried to put players first.
This had to be a tough match for both teams, which makes it hard to evaluate through a data lens. And frankly, it's challenging to transition from my emotions to the data. There are more important things than soccer, and DeMelo reminded us all of that. My thoughts are with her and her teammates in Louisville right now.
But there were a few interesting things in this game, and I am going to awkwardly transition into them. Here are three stats from the Reign's 1-0 home win.
13
Since the summer break, Jordyn Huitema has been an important contributor to the team. Against Racing Louisville, she finished with three shot-creating actions, one goal-creating action, and one key pass. Huitema led the match with six touches in the box. She also won six aerial duels, put three of five shots on target, and was fouled three times, an indication of how much she frustrated her opponent.
To explain the difference between the three:
- Shot-creating actions are the last two actions (foul, tackle won, interception, shot, or pass) before a shot.
- Goal-creating actions are the last two actions before a goal.
- Key passes are the last pass before a shot.
Huitema now leads the Reign with 13 key passes. It's nowhere near the top of the league (Olivia Moultrie leads the league with 42 key passes), but it shows how important Huitema has been lately for the Reign. She has 21 shot-creating actions, which is tied for fifth on the team (Madison Curry leads with 29).
As Huitema demonstrated against Louisville, she can be an important hold-up player who shields defenders and finds teammates. In the 90th minute, she did just that, beating two defenders to the ball and poking it to her left to find Maddie Dahlien wide open in space.
Huitema has always been great at winning long balls in the air, but she seems to be figuring out how to do this on the ground as well – a role that really supports this three-back formation. In the last five matches, Huitema has scored twice, assisted once, and provided six key passes. It would be great to see her get into more threatening goal-scoring situations, and she needs her teammates to feed her the ball in these moments, but this kind of play is going to be critical against Kansas City and over the rest of the regular season.
1.6
This was definitely an example of finishing in action. While Racing Louisville put up an expected goals (xG) total of 2.56, and kept the Reign under constant pressure in the first half, the visitors only put four of their 17 shots on target and finished with a 0.8 post-shot expected goals total. For three out of their four best chances, they didn't even force Claudia Dickey to make a save — sending those attempts over the goal or wide.
To put it a bit more simply: Louisville could have easily scored two goals or more, but the quality of their shots was lacking — and based on the placement of their shots, they would have been lucky to score a goal.
On the other end, the Reign finished with 1.2 xG, but a post-shot expected goals total of 1.6. Most of those chances came in the second half of a disjointed game played two days apart, and substitutes Maddie Dahlien and Jess Fishlock added important dynamics that led to these chances and the goal.
Some of the Reign's chances in the second half that forced saves (or resulted in a goal)
Against Racing, the Reign found their finishing boots when it mattered. Louisville couldn't. The Reign can't always count on that luck, however, and will need to be even more buttoned up defensively against a Kansas City Current side that has threats in every spot on the field.
72
Mia Fishel got her first start for the Reign, slotting in as the right forward in the Reign's 3-4-3 formation. She went 72 minutes in her first start, and while it has been a slow and gradual introduction, you could definitely see in those 72 minutes what she can and will bring to this team.
Fishel wasn't always in sync with her teammates in the first half, but she made clever runs and had a few slick touches to connect with teammates. Sometimes, they weren't making the same run to get to the ball, but that will come.
Fishel had two shots — one shot from distance in the 3rd minute on some combination play with Huitema, and a flicked header in the 32nd off a set piece. Against a Louisville side that is physical and likes to press at all times, Fishel completed 19/23 passes, including one key pass and 6/7 passes in the final third. It was certainly a promising start.
Mia Fishel's first shot of the match
The Reign have a quick turnaround from Tuesday's 45 minutes of action and are on their way to Kansas City to take on the league-leading Current, who could clinch the NWSL Shield with a win. Kickoff is Saturday, September 20, at 4:30 p.m. PT. The match will air on ION in the U.S.
