Reign ride first-half goals to 3-0 win over KC

It took a few minutes for them to get going, but after the jitters broke, the Reign took control of the game and comfortably dispatched the visiting Kansas City Current 3-0 in the first match at their temporary home stadium in Spokane.

Despite some early field control from the Current, the Reign grew more and more into the match, and by the 10th minute, they seemed firmly in control of proceedings, holding possession, generating pressure, and winning set pieces – one of which would ultimately be their breakthrough.

In the 18th minute, Emeri Adames delivered a corner. The initial delivery popped free to Angharad James-Turner, with space and time to shoot. She collected the ball and blasted it. While Current goalkeeper Lorena stretched and got a hand to it, it wasn't enough, and the ball looped into the goal to give the Reign a deserved 1-0 lead.

Just eight minutes later, Brittany Ratcliffe doubled the lead, as Sofia Huerta found time to cross and dropped a perfect HuertAssist to her feet at the far post. Ratcliffe made no mistake, firing it home past Lorena. With a 2-0 lead in the 26th minute, the Reign might have felt comfortable to rest, but they weren't done yet.

Huerta once again found herself with plenty of time and space, and picked out the cross of her dreams again – this time, a soaring ball that Maddie Mercado rose up like a salmon to meet, nodding it home for the Reign's third in the 32nd minute.

As electric an opening half-hour as the Reign had, things nearly got much, much worse for Kansas City on a number of occasions. In the 34th minute, Mercado pounced on an errant back pass and nearly got through clean, with only a desperate touch on some last-ditch defending denying her a chance at a brace.

In the 38th minute, Jess Fishlock rifled off a laser beam of a shot, which struck the crossbar and deflected down. Referee Thomas Snyder signaled no goal, and the play was not reviewed, despite still images appearing to show the ball all the way across the goal line for what would've been the Reign's 4th.

The Current managed few dangerous chances in the first half, but a 40th minute opportunity nearly brought them back into the match, a timely intervention by Phoebe McClernon preventing it – a feat she would repeat in the 78th minute, turning in another huge block on a Current set piece to preserve the shutout.

As first-half time ticked away, the Reign had one more huge moment – a ball delivered across the Current's penalty area bounced off Mercado's boot and struck Elizabeth Ball's outstretched hand, in a play that seemed destined to head to the penalty spot. However, after a lengthy VAR review, Thomas Snyder again declined to make a call, and the Reign settled for a mere 3-0 lead at the break.

While the second half was less action-packed than the first, the Reign still had work to do, and manufactured a few chances to extend the lead further, including an 83rd minute Maddie Dahlien run that carved up half the field and another absolute rocket from Fishlock that missed just over the top of the bar.

Deep into an inexplicable eight minutes of stoppage time, the Current found one final chance on a set piece, with Michelle Cooper snapping off a dangerous shot. Claudia Dickey got a claw to the ball, though, and the Current's final moment of danger came to nothing. The Reign saw out the last seconds of the match, and protected their temporary home field, securing all three points and jumping to 4th on the table.

WHAT WORKED: Creating (and finishing) chances

Five days after a listless attacking performance at Providence Park, the Reign came out with a chip on their shoulder, turning a significant possession and field tilt advantage into repeated dangerous chances – which they were then ruthless in finishing.

They were dangerous on set pieces, including the corner kick where Haz James opened the scoring.

They were dangerous from wide positions, with Huerta delivering lethal crosses from the right and Madison Curry and Brittany Ratcliffe running defenders ragged and getting them snapping at ghosts on the left, leading to two goals in quick succession.

And they were dangerous going right up the gut – Jess Fishlock apparently scoring on a laser of a strike (even if it didn't count), Maddie Mercado pressing and pouncing on loose balls and pressuring defenders into mistakes.

It was a dominating performance in the attacking third from a team needing to quickly shake off everything that had gone wrong the last time out.

WHAT WORKED: Possession with purpose

The Reign held a 55-45 advantage in possession, and a 61-39 advantage in the first half, when they ran Kansas City off the pitch. They controlled the ebb AND flow of the conversation, holding the Current to just six shots and no big chances while creating four big chances of their own and dominating every phase of play.

Even the nerviest moments for the Reign were handled with aplomb, and they carried a brilliant opening half hour into an unbothered finish, managing where they needed to manage, threatening where they needed to threaten, and never really giving the Current a gasp for life.

WHAT (SORT OF) WORKED: Getting healthy and available

With appearances by Sally Menti and Ryanne Brown, the Reign are seeing some of their missing pieces work back to game fitness. Unfortunately, it wasn't all good news, as second-half substitute Maddie Dahlien had to sub back off, apparently bothered after taking a knock in an awkward duel with Michelle Cooper.

The Reign are still waiting to see Mia Fishel, Lynn Biyendolo, Jordyn Bugg, and Shae Holmes return to the pitch.

"That's why she's got the records that she's got"

Laura Harvey called out Sofia Huerta's quality delivering crosses, but focused on the Reign's success at overloading wide areas to give her the space and opportunities, in contrast to their struggles in Friday's match against the Portland Thorns:

"I think I said this in the press conference before the game – we didn't create enough overloads in the wide areas on Friday, and two of the goals came from that today. So whether you're playing against a team that's down to nine players, or against eleven players, if you can't get past them 1-v-1, having the ability to get that overload can really hurt a team."

"And there's no one better in this league at crossing the ball from those positions than Sof. That's why she's go the records that she's got and the assists that she's got. So really happy for her, but really happy for the team. That they could see that stuff we'd spoken about going into Portland, and post-Portland, that if we do it, we can create goal-scoring opportunities."

"Brit's awesome"

In her post-match interview, Huerta had a lot of positives to share for her teammates, but she was especially direct in her praise of Brittany Ratcliffe:

"Britt's awesome. I mean, I've been in the league the same amount of time as her, and she's always been a player that you hate to play against, because she's very, you know, tenacious. She fast, she wants to score, she's great defensively, and on top of the great soccer player that she is, she's such a cool person."

Later, talking about the offensive potential of the team as a whole, she shared the love a little more:

"[Maddie Mercado] has a great shot. I don't think you guys have even seen that yet. She's one of our best finishers. Brittany, obviously, is scoring goals as well. And I mean, Mia is injured right now, but you saw the chances she created versus Orlando. And then you have Coco, having two assists in Orlando. Emeri having a phenomenal game. So, you know, we have a lot of quality attackers. I'm excited to see what our offense does this summer."

Coming up, the Reign continue their Spokane homestand at One Spokane Stadium, hosting Racing Louisville on Saturday, March 28 at 3:30 PM. It will air on ION.