Reign punch ticket with 2-1 win over Royals

Twenty-five matches into the season, the Reign have an identity, for better or worse. Part of that identity has been starting slow, taking time to find the game, but dialing up the pressure and finding ways to be in contention by the full time whistle.

In some ways, Friday evening's match against the Utah Royals echoed that identity. Through the first half hour, the Royals outshot the Reign 9-1, and though the Reign's defense did well to recover and never give them particularly easy looks, Bianca St-Georges and Cloe Lacasse both delivered dangerous shots from inside the penalty area requiring timely interventions from Claudia Dickey. Approaching halftime, though the Reign had settled the game down some and begun to look more dangerous, it was still a lopsided 9-2 in Utah's favor.

But in first-half stoppage time, the first strike would go to the Reign: Maddie Dahlien beat Janni Thomsen outside with a burst of speed and delivered a looping cross across the area, and Ainsley McCammon rose up like a salmon to drive it home past goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn. And despite Utah's plethora of first-half shots, the danger had been building for the Reign, with Dahlien and Sofia Huerta finding more and more opportunities to deliver the ball attacking the left-hand flank. The 1-0 lead at halftime felt, perhaps, surprising, but not necessarily undeserved.

In the second half, the Reign came out more authoritatively, dialing up one chance after another as they tried to double their lead. For fifteen minutes, they looked like a team on a mission, inevitably marching towards their second goal. Maddie Mercado broke free in the 49th minute, fed by a phenomenal Nérilia Mondésir ball over the top, but by the time she brought the ball under control, she'd lost too much of the angle, and McGlynn was able to save her shot. Six minutes later, Dahlien broke free again on the left, delivering a stinging ball that McGlynn warded off but fumbled on the goal line – but no Reign player was close enough to try to stab it home, and Ana Tejada cleared it from danger.

Disaster struck in the 60th minute, as the Reign's spell of dominance fizzled out in a bad giveaway, Dahlien taking an ill-advised touch right into Paige Monaghan, who raced past the back line with the ball. While Dahlien's recovery speed let her get back in the play, Monaghan beat her with a touch inside and struck a spectacular ball from distance to the top corner. A sprawling Dickey could only reach and hope, and ultimately watch the net ripple.

1-1, and a movie that Reign fans surely felt they had seen before.

The Reign were determined, though, and seven minutes later, Maddie Mercado changed the script. A good touch in the penalty area put her between Bianca St-Georges (who curiously never saw a yellow card despite several challenges where she got all of the player and none of the ball), who simply crashed through her and took her down. After a brief VAR review, referee Cristian Campo Hernandez pointed to the spot, and Huerta tucked it home to restore the Reign's advantage.

After the 67th-minute goal, the Reign tightened the screws to the Royals, professionally killing off the game. Utah took just two more shots before full time, neither dangerous, both from well outside the penalty area. Though the Reign had a few more looks of their own, they were content to hold serve and only take what was given them, and after six-plus minutes of stoppage time, Hernandez blew the whistle.

Full time. 2-1.

Ticket punched.

WHAT WORKED: The kids are alright

It's a young Reign team in 2025, and that youth has come with plenty of growing pains along the way, but in a match dedicated to the extraordinary service of the Reign's longest-tenured veteran, the kids came through in a big, big way.

Obviously, 18-year-old Ainsley McCammon's opening goal – brilliantly assisted by dynamic rookie Maddie Dahlien – was a big moment and a game changer.

But it was more than just the big goal at the big moment. Sam Meza delivered another huge shift in the midfield, with eight defensive contributions and six of seven duels won. Maddie Mercado, fresh off her brief loan spell to Carolina Ascent, won a penalty, had a huge chance of her own, and tormented Utah's back line for a full 90 minutes. Jordyn Bugg, a standout on the back line despite her youth, delivered six clearances, two tackles, and four recoveries in a huge covering performance.

Eight of the Reign's starting eleven were 25 or younger, and they showed out in a big way with everything on the line.

WHAT WORKED: The veterans are alright too

Lu Barnes, veteran of 250 games, turned in one of her best performances of the season, fighting for every loose ball and cutting off the angles of attack like she's done so well for so long. The effort was relentless, culminating in a late full sprint to dispossess Mina Tanaka as full time approached.

And then she became the inaugural recipient of the Lu Barnes award, of course.

Sofia Huerta, meanwhile, scored the game winning goal, kicking the shit out of a penalty in her 200th career NWSL match.

Jess Fishlock dialed up the pressure late, nearly scored a slick one of her own, and helped to keep Utah penned in and defanged. And, lest it be overlooked, notched her 100th career NWSL win – just the second player to accomplish the feat, after, of course, Lu Barnes.

The Reign are a team in transition, a team passing the torch, but the OGs still have plenty to give.

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Taking care of the ball

Sixty minutes of good work, including twenty to thirty straight minutes of dominant play, came undone all at once on a too-casual touch in the back line, as Paige Monaghan took the ball off Maddie Dahlien's foot, ran down the field, and scored.

While it was a brilliantly taken strike by a player who's been seriously locked in (with four goals and two assists in her last eight matches), it all started – much like the goal the Reign gave up a week earlier – with not taking care of the ball.

If the Reign can get past these sorts of avoidable mistakes, they're very difficult to beat. In the playoffs, mistakes like these can end your campaign.

"She took it into her own hands."

After the match, Lu Barnes and Ainsley McCammon talked about Ainsley's first professional goal, a towering, playoffs-clinching header. McCammon was deferential but cheerful:

"Honestly, I'm just so grateful and excited. Like, I think my adrenaline was pumping so hard, I didn't even know what to think, but I was just so happy to get it with this team. We've been working hard for it. So I was just beyond happy."

Lu Barnes was quick to add:

"Right before her goal, too, she was the one that was yelling, 'we need to get a goal before half, we need to get a goal before half.' And then she took it into her own hands.

"She's the most incredible person."

Ainsley also had a lot to say about the woman of the evening, Lauren Barnes herself, positively gushing about Barnes' influence on and off the pitch.

"Lu is amazing. Like, not even just on the field, off the field. She's the most incredible person. She's so easy to come to with anything we need, and she was so welcoming from the beginning. To have that coming in as a younger player, it's like a game changer and you don't get that everywhere. So, it was, it's so amazing to have someone like her leading and being there every step of the way. I can't thank her enough."

Barnes, for her part, was effusive in her praise of the Reign's young core as they find their feet.

"Yeah, honestly, it's incredible. I think people have asked – just, like, how I'm feeling. And, you know, seeing this young group starting to take form and lead is exactly what senior players want to see, and this is why it's so easy to kind of walk away, from a club that's done so well to invest in the youth. Today is a great example of that, this whole season's a great example of that. We've never had the same starting eleven. We've been in and out, with injuries or just performance, whatever it may be, but these young ones have stayed in it and that's hard to do.

"Ainsley is probably the best one I've seen do it. She's becoming a true professional. It's so fun to watch."

The Reign play their final match of the regular season away at Orlando Pride. The match will kick off at Inter&Co Stadium on Sunday, November 2, at a time to be announced. Though both teams have already clinched a playoff spot, there's plenty on the line, as for both teams, a win or a loss could easily be the difference between hosting and visiting in the first round of the playoffs.