The bad news: I recommended that the Reign should simply try to win their decision day matchup with Orlando and secure a home playoff match. They did not take my advice, instead giving up the first goal of the game late and clawing back for a draw.
The good news: by coming from behind to get a road draw, the Reign only fell to fifth place, and will have an immediate rematch against Orlando on the road. No extra travel needed, and it avoids an incredibly annoying road match against P*rtland!
All that being said, this was a match where not a lot happened, suddenly everything happened in three minutes, and then, well, not a lot happened. The first half was All Orlando in possession and Orlando failing to do much of anything with it. The second was more even, but still lacking for many genuinely good chances – per Opta, there were only two big chances the entire game.
Rafaelle couldn't put hers on goal, and Carson Pickett smoked hers. At that point, you might think it was game and third place for the Pride, but Jordyn Bugg had other ideas, turning a hard angle and 12 yards into a scorcher that kept the Reign alive.
Onward to the playoffs, friends, and a first round match that – while not easy – certainly seems winnable.
Cup run begins NOW.
Goalkeeper
Claudia Dickey – 6
Where would the Reign be without Claudia Dickey between the pipes? Per the analytics, probably a lot closer to their expected goal differential of -14, rather than their actual goal differential of +3. Claudia has had an absolutely monster season, putting up underlying numbers like nobody else in the league, keeping the Reign alive in games they might've been buried, helping pick up points repeatedly.
With all that said, this was a pretty pedestrian performance for her. Two saves, one of them (off a Marta free kick from distance) fairly solid, one basically the definition of pedestrian. Her distribution was improved from previous games, and she was stronger in the air and coming off her line than she has been in recent games, too. Pickett's strike wasn't completely beyond saving, but she got all of the ball, quickly, and Dickey didn't have much chance to see it, so it's hard to pin on her.
Mostly, Dickey did enough in a match where she really wasn't asked to do much. Orlando had all the ball a team could ask for, but put almost nothing on her goal.
Defenders
Madison Curry – 5
The Reign absolutely could not hold possession between minute 7 and minute 55, and Madison Curry was a major culprit, completing just 10 of 25 passes and being caught in possession once to go with it. Not all of this was on her – she was, as has been her usual deployment, trying to create a vertical outlet for the Reign, and when she received the ball in space, Orlando was quick to close, and the Reign seldom gave her easy options. Still, she also just missed on the easy option several times, and made inadvisable passes when forcing the Pride to take it from her might've been the safer option.
Add to that the unusually limited defensive workrate – Madison got into it occasionally, but inconsistently, and finished 90 minutes with 5 registered defensive contributions – and you have what was, for 89 minutes of the match, one of Curry's least impactful performances of the year. Some of this is just that Marta has a tendency to drift central, Angelina has a tendency to drift central, and there were fewer opportunities to throw her grit around than might be expected in a defensive matchup. Some of it was that Cori Dyke and Marta both burned her for position more than once.
And yet! For all she struggled through the match, all the missed passes, lost possession, and unexploited verticality... Curry came up with the biggest pass of the night. After Sofia Huerta quickly interceded to keep possession and found her with a back heel, Curry drove in the ball that Jordyn Bugg collected, unmarked, off the back shoulder of two defenders.
Phoebe McClernon – 6
For the most part, Phoebe put in another Big Damn Game. For the record: I think her self-assessment on Carson Pickett's goal is a bit harsh. She misjudged the floating cross and missed it, and obviously it would be better if she caught it on her head, but it was also a really nicely dropped ball with deceptive air time. Would've been a hell of a play to intercept it, and Carson absolutely hit the shit out of it.
That moment aside, McClernon was excellent in her usual sweep and cover role, cleaning up the trash behind the lines and keeping Orlando's prolonged spells of possession from genuinely threatening Claudia Dickey's goal. She had 5 clearances, 6 recoveries, and 2 interceptions to go with that, and routinely made Marta's life very difficult. She also had 3 passes into the final third, sharing the team lead, and 82% passing overall, in another steady outing as the anchor of the defense.
Jordyn Bugg – 8 (POTM)
The Reign didn't always look ready for Orlando, but Jordyn Bugg showed up to play and she did not get much wrong in this match. Her 75 touches shared the team lead (with McClernon and Huerta), and she missed just two passes in the entire game – finishing a fairly ludicrous 61 of 63, with two shot creating actions, two progressive passes, and, of course, a whole damn BUGG BOMB of a goal to go along with it. She also racked up 5 clearances, 2 tackles won, a blocked shot, 2 interceptions, and 6 recoveries, covering ground on both sides of the ball and – with the stats wholly matching the eye test – really putting in the work to keep the ball out of the net.
Hell, she took three shots, leading the entire team, more than all of Maddie Mercado, Jordyn Huitema, and Mia Fishel combined. She was getting into it everywhere, in every phase of play. She got her rewards in the end, and playing a game this well kinda deserved it.
On a match that was mostly good enough but a long way from the Reign's best, Bugg picked the team up on her back and carried them as far as she could, made sure they salvaged a point after going down a goal, made sure there was always an outlet, always a pass, always coverage. She's had some gems this season, but on the road against tough competition with the team really up against it, this might well be her best outing.
Lauren Barnes – 5 (But It's A 10)(off 80' for Maddie Dahlien)
A bit of a non-factor night for Lu Barnes, who – despite playing the majority of the match on the back line – touched the ball just 28 times, and went long periods without adding much, either in buildout or defense.
She did, however, also do plenty right, and showed her instincts in some key moments – blocking a big Julie Doyle shot, finding Sam Meza in space to line up for a shot of her own, overlapping Huerta to create space to counter into. The moments were real, but also few and far between; more than anything, Lu couldn't seem to find the game. It was never on her foot, a position she's seldom been throughout a long and exemplary career.
Sofia Huerta – 7
The Reign didn't have a lot of offense through the first 75 minutes, but what they did have continually came from Sofia Huerta's sainted boot. In the 5th minute, it was Huerta finding Bugg, who couldn't put the shot on frame. In the 54th minute, it was Huerta finding Jordyn Huitema, who delayed slightly too long trying to get the shot off and saw it blocked out. Immediately after that, it was Huerta off the corner finding Sally Menti, who laid it off to (who else but) Jordyn Bugg, who saw her volley blocked. In the 55th minute, as play recycled, it was Huerta following up on what Jess Fishlock started, only to watch the shot skitter just wide.
Finally, with the Reign trailing by one and seeding very much on the line, Huerta found Madison Curry with a nifty backheel, and Curry sailed a cross that found Jordyn Bugg's late run at the back post. And the rest, as they say, is history.
She was also just generally good on the scoresheet – 74 touches, 83% passing, 4 shot-creating actions, 3 progressive passes, 9 defensive contributions. Solid day's work.
Midfielders
Ainsley McCammon – 5 (off 46' for Sally Menti)
After a couple excellent performances and working extremely hard during her youth national team call-up, Ainsley McCammon's outing against Orlando mostly just looked tired. She was the first sub (along with Mia Fishel) at halftime, and probably needed the break.
None of which is to say she was actively bad, but with the energy and pressure Orlando was bringing, she wasn't able to muster that little extra that's the difference between fine and great. The Pride were able to bypass her too consistently in the midfield, she was too inconsistent with time and space on the ball, and while she was quick, decisive, and accurate with her passes (13 of 15 overall) and didn't cough up possession much, she also didn't set up much positive with them.
A very take the week of rest and come out stronger next time 45 minutes of play.
Sam Meza – 6
A workhorse as usual, Sam Meza was by far the most active and involved player in the middle of the pitch for the Reign, with 49 touches and 80% passing to show for it. Orlando's pressure was constant, and Orlando's midfield – featuring the likes of Angelina, Marta, and Ally Lemos – did not make the game easy on her, but Meza kept up with them quite admirably. She was only credited with 6 defensive contributions (1 tackle, 3 blocks, 2 clearances), but I think there's an argument to be made for more, where her position and presence forced Orlando to take worse options, recycle, or turn over the ball elsewhere.
One moment, in particular, occurred at the top of the penalty area – on broadcast, Mike Watts gushed about Marta ‘salsa dancing all around Meza’, an odd commentary at the best of times, but odder still in context of what happened: Marta faked several times, Meza stayed goal-side of her through all of them and gave her no angles or lanes to attack, and Marta turned back and recycled possession.
There were moments she might have gone to ground or forced the issue, but Meza's consistently good judgment about when to tackle may well be even more important than her proficiency at tackling.
...she also took a shot in the 50th minute. It was from more than 30 yards out and would've been, ah, a hell of a banger had it gone in. It did force a tougher save than might be expected out of Anna Moorhouse, though!
Jess Fishlock – 5 (off 58' for Nérilia Mondésir)
A perplexing performance for Jess Fishlock, who touched the ball just 13 times in nearly 60 minutes as primarily a central midfielder, offering very little moment to moment influence on the game, but also had her footprints all over the Reign's best moments in those 60 minutes.
She had 9 completed passes (on 11 attempts) and three shot-creating actions; she had just two defensive contributions and one recovery, but one of those was to keep alive the Reign's best spell of sustained pressure of the match and ended up the closest the Reign came to scoring until Bugg's golden foot drove one home.
Also she was off her side three times and missed Mia Fishel's run when it could've broken the game open twice. A not very impactful performance, but one that could've been all-impact with one or two touches going slightly differently.
Forwards
Maddie Mercado – 6 (off 80' for Emeri Adames)
Defending from the front for the better part of 70 minutes is a hard and thankless ask, and Mercado put in a very solid shift doing just that while waiting for a moment to strike back. She was unexceptional but solid in holdup, getting 37 touches on the ball and frequently buying time, laying it off, keeping things alive for one more pass while the Reign needed a breather. She couldn't find much space to get forward in the first half, and the partnership with Fishel wasn't working under Orlando's pressure and the Reign's apparent fatigue, but she found more space in the second paired with Huitema running the channels and pulling defenders.
Mercado took just one shot, in the 23rd minute, a strike from 26 yards out that was a bit of an unnecessary one to take when the Reign would've been better served keeping possession a little longer. She did a lot more work defensively, winning 4 tackles and 6 of 7 duels, often serving as the first point of confrontation when Orlando started building out their possession.
Mia Fishel – 5 (off 46' for Jordyn Huitema)
Bringing Fishel up to game speed slowly, and knowing she's probably a move for next year and going forward rather than a big reinforcement for the 2025 campaign, doesn't change that it's a bit disappointing to see her struggling in matches where she has a chance to break out. Some of it is likely team chemistry, some of it is almost definitely the work of coming back from a serious injury very early in her career, and hopefully, if she doesn't click in the playoffs, an offseason with the team will see her come out burning in '26.
Against Orlando, with the Reign pinned back and overrun in the first half, she managed 17 touches, 9 for 12 passing, one unnecessary offside, and one free kick won. More than that, she made a number of clever runs, and nobody on the team seemed ready for them. This is the sort of thing game film and practice should help address, but it's a little odd how unused to her movement the team still seems to be at times.
Anyway – as with many Reign players, it wasn't bad bad, but it wasn't enough to impact the game in a way that mattered.
Substitutes
Sally Menti – 6 (on 46' for Ainsley McCammon)
The first substitute alongside Jordyn Huitema, Sally Menti was legitimately a game changer in the match. She doesn't have McCammon's first touch or vision, but she had something that can be more important on a given day: the fitness to run at Orlando, and the physical presence to make them second-guess just mugging her for the ball. Menti was less clean with her passing but much more involved, and the gravity she created with her 30 touches and willingness to get physical (both winning and conceding free kicks) did a lot to gum up Orlando's midfield dominance and allow the Reign a window back into the match.
She also put the ball to Jordyn Bugg's foot in the 54th minute in what we did not yet realize was but a practice run for something spectacular to come.
Jordyn Huitema – 5 (on 46' for Mia Fishel)
The first substitute alongside Sally Menti, Jordyn Huitema was also legitimately a game changer in the match. She took one decent shot (albeit waited too long, allowing it to be blocked out for a corner), and had a decent shout for a penalty later, but more importantly, she ran the channels hard in a consistent way that pulled defenders and forced Orlando to pull back their line of confrontation.
Which forced Orlando to open up more space in the midfield. Which was essential for the Reign getting more of a foot to the ball and more opportunities to look upfield and try to create.
It was, ultimately, not a barn-burning outing for any of the Reign's forwards, but it was interesting to watch Mercado in holdup and Huitema on the run, Huitema in holdup and Mercado on the run, and the ways they might complement each other as a pairing in the future.
Nérilia Mondésir – 5 (on 58' for Jess Fishlock)
The third sub of the night, Mondésir helped continue the Reign's trend towards greater midfield influence, replacing Jess Fishlock and providing some instant impact and intention. She had 14 touches on the ball, including 8 carries, and immediately looked to take the game to Orlando whenever she had the chance.
That intention didn't ultimately amount to much, as the Reign still struggled to create that clear-cut chance they needed, but further shifting the midfield and further unsettling Orlando's pressure were essential to either preserving a draw or chasing a win, and Coco did what she needed to in the match that existed.
Maddie Dahlien – 4 (on 80' for Lauren Barnes)
Dahlien came on late, with the game tied 1-1 and a chance to run right at Orlando's back line on fresh legs, and was largely ineffective. She had 9 touches in 10+ minutes, but parlayed most of them into incomplete passes and turnovers. At least some of this is because Orlando, after conceding the tying goal, put much more effort to defending than attacking, knowing full well a win would gain them less than a loss would lose them.
There was a late moment – a blistering run into space, receiving the ball, quickly turning to attack. It ultimately didn't come to anything. Given another 10 minutes to settle into the pace of the game, Dahlien's effort (which was not lacking) might've turned into more results.
Emeri Adames – 4 (on 80' for Maddie Mercado)
Emeri Adames, too, came on late, a last push by the Reign to turn 1-1 into a win and home field advantage. It came to nothing, as she managed just 7 touches and wasn't able to break down Orlando's defensive shell.
She did complete three passes, one of them a real beauty, and have one excellent run into space that didn't wind up clicking like it needed to. It's not really on her, but with ten minutes left to turn 5th place into 3rd, she couldn't find a way through.
Referee
Brad Jensen – 5
I have a lot of Thoughts about Brad Jensen's performance here, but ultimately, it's not going to be anything you haven't heard all year about NWSL officiating. Jensen had some solid moments, and a lot of questionable ones, and mostly just declined to call a lot of persistent contact that probably should've been called.
He also seemed to have a very hard time telling who touched the ball last when it went over the endline or touchline, and he had ARs who weren't necessarily helping his case; I counted at least four times the throw, corner, or goal kick was incorrectly awarded on rewatch, which is a lot of times for a full officiating crew to get the basics wrong. I also think Huitema had a solid call for a late penalty – we've seen much less contact with much more effort on the ball than that be called as a penalty in NWSL this year.
But the regular season is over, and Brad was fine, and PRO refs, in general, have been infuriating but fine. As long as the crews work well in the playoffs, we're all good here.
And Another Thing!
CUP RUN BEGINS NOW.
