Footie is a capricious game, and the Reign had been on the wrong end of that capriciousness for quite a while coming into their match against the Boston Legacy.
You could say they had been a bit (or more than a bit) unlucky, and it's true – but really, that's nearly always true of long scoreless streaks. The Reign cracked the crossbar four times, hit the post twice, and were denied on half a dozen penalty shouts over the course of those five futile matches. That is some atrocious luck, some but-for-inches moments that can upend results. At the same time, you seldom hit a scoreless streak that long without some serious shortcomings being exposed.
In the Reign's case, 'serious shortcomings' was for the most part the limited chance creation, especially from the midfield, something profoundly exacerbated by Jess Fishlock's absence.
This match did not and will not upend the Reign's struggles to find an answer in the attacking midfield, but it did demonstrate some of why they've been able to find generally decent results in spite of that over the past 18 months: the return of Jordyn Bugg at centerback provided a bit vision and spark that had been lacking, and also empowered both Sofia Huerta and a returning Madison Curry to attack with more confidence and less pressure.
It also, naturally, didn't hurt anything that a referee finally saw an infraction he wanted to call in the attacking penalty area. Now if I could just figure out what was so ostensibly different about this handball versus the uncalled ones in previous matches...
In any case, it was good to review a win again. So let's get right into it and review a goshdang win.
Goalkeeper
Claudia Dickey – 7
A five-match streak of no run support did Claudia Dickey no favors, requiring perfection that she could not always reach in order to even have a hope for points. Given a lead for the first time in practically a lifetime, Dickey dug in her heels and refused to yield it, coming up with Big Damn Saves in the 30th minute and 72nd minute (both on Aissata Traoré, who had an excellent game for a bit of a mess of a Legacy side) as well as easier but still important stops in the 45th and 70th minutes. She did concede towards the end, spoiling the shutout – Traoré was simply not going to be denied – but turned in a complete performance that was more than good enough to get the Reign a badly needed three points.
Defenders
Sofia Huerta – 7
Goals change games, and in the 11th minute, Sofia Huerta coolly tucked home a penalty kick to give the Reign their first goal, their first lead, and their first gasp of hope in nearly five hundred minutes of game time. She also had an overall excellent match, dictating the terms of the game from the right side. With 73 touches and 3 chances created, Huerta spent more time in her office than she's had a chance to in recent games, finding good positions to cross and finding good opportunities to take on her defender. She did get beat cold by Aissata Traoré to give up a major chance, but honestly, Traoré was on one, and the Reign got the result, so all's well that ends well mostly.
Jordyn Bugg – 6 (off 71' for Emily Mason)
It's so good to have Jordyn Bugg back in the starting lineup – even still on a minutes restriction and still knocking off the rust. I just freaking love her long passes (she completed 4 of 5), the beautiful texture she puts on her switches, the way her vision unlocks the game for everyone in front of her. Through 71 minutes, she misplayed just one pass, had four progressive passes, 7 recoveries, and 4 defensive contributions, got her foot to the end of a ball on a 2nd minute corner, and just in general looked like the real article we know her to be. She also gave up a couple Not Great free kicks and lost more duels than she won, but the timing will come back with reps, and everything else should just get better.
Phoebe McClernon – 6
This is a no-nonsense league, and Phoebe McClernon abided no nonsense, putting in 9 defensive contributions, 3 recoveries, and 4 of 6 duels won defending the middle of the pitch. An interesting wrinkle is how much less she touches the ball with Bugg on the field – she had just 55 touches, and a significant amount of her passing was de facto clearances, hoofing the ball way the fuck out of danger when the pressure broke through. In possession, she played stopper, releasing Bugg to venture forward and pick killer balls. Out of possession, she bodied up her player and made sure the Legacy couldn't break through cleanly and gave them nothing easy. It's the partnership that the Reign built their defense around last season, and it remains a damn good one.
Madison Curry – 8 (POTM)
When the Reign struggle, Madison Curry often plays a thankless role in offense, driving high up the pitch and ending up on an island. This was not that. We got the full Curry exhibition, with spicy defense – she led the match with 10 defensive contributions – and moments of brilliance in attack. The most important of those was, of course, in the 51st minute, a perfectly placed ball for a streaking Maddie Dahlien to one-touch past Casey Murphy to give the Reign a 2-0 lead. She also contained and repeatedly turned back a dangerous Nichelle Prince, certainly occasionally crossing the line into foul territory, but importantly, making the left side absolutely miserable to play against for the majority of the match. Her yellow card, the only one shown in the match, was both well-earned and also the sort of yellow card I absolutely never mind a player taking.
Midfielders
Ainsley McCammon – 6
In some ways, Ainsley McCammon had an incredibly mature match. She put some beautiful passes into space, had four progressive passes and five defensive contributions, popping up, wheeling, dealing, flashing her vision. And in some ways, Ainsley had a bit of a rough one, getting just a little bullied by Josefine Hasbo and Alba Caño, especially in the final phases of the match as the Legacy just threw everything forward trying to find a breakthrough. McCammon buckled some under the flurry of pressure, finding herself dispossessed twice and losing just about every duel she went into, which, as it tends to do, snowballed back and put the Reign back line under more pressure than they'd previously found. And yet, the body of work was good. Inconsistent, but on balance good. Ainsley covers so much ground, sees so many chances, is so tantalizingly close to being an outright magical player.
Sally Menti – 6 (off 71' for Mia Fishel)
Meanwhile, I found Sally Menti's game perplexing. Like – she missed more passes than she connected, but she also put in some of the best crosses the Reign saw in the match. She booted a dead ball so high and wide it's probably still in orbit, and also delivered an incredible corner the likes of which the Reign haven't had in years. She got caught out of position (as she's, uh, sometimes shown a tendency to do) twice but demolished the length of the field in recovery and bodied attackers off the ball like we've never seen from her. She let absolutely nobody past her on the dribble. She won two attacking free kicks. She hit a back pass directly to the opposition in a way that drives an onlooker to madness. My notebook is full of exclamation points and question marks. There's a lot here that I think shows real growth from last year, and there's a lot here that's just... anyway, it was something to watch. And rewatch. And try to make sense of. It mostly seemed to work out for the Reign, though?
Angharad James-Turner – 7
With Sam Meza on the bench as a precaution with a minor niggle, Haz filled in and, frankly, didn't miss a beat. 55 touches, 11 recoveries, 3 interceptions, 34 of 38 passing, 4 of 6 duels won, so much ground covered, and, contrary to what several lineup cards online will try to tell you, absolutely not a striker. This is a Meza-esque heat map.
Angharad blew up Boston's plans time after time after time and put in one of her best performances in a Reign kit. One more tally in a long history of showing up for us since she signed, even through some extremely dire days. Meza's a penned-and-inked starter whenever she can go, but James-Turner's ability to do this provides the Reign a lot of coverage and that's a good thing.
Forwards
Holly Ward – 6 (off 71' for Nérilia Mondésir)
On the whole, I was really impressed with Holly Ward's body of work. She did a lot of hard, unglamorous running, did a lot of hard, low-percentage scrapping with centerbacks to try to win the ball and harry the play, and found moments to set up her teammates for chances. Best amongst them: a 23rd minute ball that Maddie Dahlien couldn't convert, the first big look amongst many flashes of intent from the Reign before they were finally able to cash in for the two goal lead early in the second half. There were two things that knocked this down from being a solid 7. The first was a little more purpose to her physicality: she was fearless getting into it with anybody in her way, but definitely pushed the line a bit and killed some attacking moves in doing so. The second is one I would love to see the whole damn team do a bit more: take the shot when she's got the lane. But all told, damn, I loved what Ward was putting down and I'm excited for her future.
Maddie Mercado – 6
Mercado played some very hard minutes, most of them as a forward dropping deep to facilitate forward possession, a role she's shown some success at in the past, and showed some value at again with more freeflowing play from the Reign's wings and outside backs. To that end, she had 7 recoveries, 6 progressive passes, and got into a ton of duels (albeit winning just 4 and losing 11 while giving up two fouls) en route to a perfectly serviceable shift that perhaps didn't maximize her own skillset but most assuredly helped maximize the Reign's opportunities. While she had several touches in the attacking penalty area, she neither directly created any chances nor had any particularly good shots (she attempted two, both pressured and immediately blocked), but she did pull defenders around and play a facilitating role for Dahlien and Ward, who were able to get a ton of dangerous touches in the spaces she opened up.
Maddie Dahlien – 7 (off 89' for Brittany Ratcliffe)
One of the biggest beneficiaries of Bugg's return and the way it changed the Reign's attacking shape from bow to stern, Danger Maddie was able to run free, occupied the highest place on the pitch for the Reign and got off two shots in incredibly dangerous space. One of them was a sweet-as-fuck one-touch finish of Madison Curry's beautiful delivery that left Casey Murphy no chance and secured the win. Goals change games, and it's both great to have Maddie back on the scoresheet, and to see her score a goal like that – one that was pure timing to beat the line and with a cultured touch to beat the keeper, not a marauding run and a cutback to her favored foot. (There's nothing wrong with that type of goal, but adding this sort of artistry to her regular arsenal would be a spectacular outcome.) She had a pretty, pretty good game aside from that, making a ton of things happen and showing her usual determination tracking back, but honestly, just frame that screenshot of her beating the offside line. You absolutely love to see it.
Substitutes
Emily Mason – 6 (on 71' for Jordyn Bugg)
In Bugg's absence, Mason has shown a ton of unheralded ability to hold down the back line, and some real tantalizing capacity to find the seams with the ball on her foot. Covering the hard minutes in the final phase of the match, with Boston throwing everything they had and also a banjo at the Reign to see what might come undone, Mason completed all five of her passes and got her head in for three big clearances to help see out the win, even if Aissata eventually broke through in the dying seconds for a consolation goal.
Mia Fishel – 5 (on 71' for Sally Menti)
Jordyn Bugg's departure combined with Boston's decision to throw caution to the wind and throw absolutely everybody into the attack searching for answers, and Mia Fishel consequently saw almost none the ball: most of her shift was spent bodying up and harrying the central defense for the Legacy. Unglamorous, but slowing down and unbalancing the opposition's possession when seeing out a lead is an important part of the game too, sometimes, and she was basically fine within the context of the minutes and game state she played.
Nérilia Mondésir – 5 (on 71' for Holly Ward)
Sometimes, Mondésir's physicality can go a bit beyond what the moment calls for, and sometimes, Mondésir's willingness to get into it is exactly what the moment needs: she didn't spend long on the pitch, and she didn't see a ton of the ball, and she didn't have many moments to get forward, but dang did she make it miserable for Boston trying to combine and advance the ball. In the context of the minutes she played, this was a wholly sufficient contribution. Winning a couple free kicks out of her scrap and pressure was an added bonus.
Brittany Ratcliffe – N/A (on 89' for Maddie Dahlien)
Ratcliffe was technically on the pitch for a period of time, and completed a pass in that time. Like Fishel, she spent her time on the field providing necessary pressure and slowing the game down.
Legacy POTM
Aissata Traoré
From beginning to end, Traoré looked the most likely to make a difference for Boston, and Claudia Dickey basically committed highway robbery against her twice on what would have been gorgeous top-corner strikes before Aissata finally got one through in garbage time to cut the Reign's lead to 2-1. She was perpetually a menace in the box, leading the game in both shots and touches in the attacking penalty area. She deserved a goal, and ultimately, she got it, even if she (fortunately) wasn't able to pull her team to a result.
Referee
John Matto – 7
After several matches and several non-calls ranging from somewhat perplexing to absolutely indefensible, it was nice to see an official with the confidence to point to the spot on a fairly clear penalty call, and nicer to see VAR not search for a reason to overturn it.
I mostly liked Matto's game. He used his whistle fairly often, calling the Reign for 16 fouls and the Legacy for 11, but I have a hard time arguing with any of his calls, and Madison Curry certainly earned her yellow card. He was assured in the game he wanted to oversee, and players seemed to understand his lines quite well, even if they did transgress them fairly often in the spirit of exuberant competition.
And Another Thing!
I'm not ready to say the Reign are so back, baby, but I am ready to say Jordyn Bugg is so back, baby and isn't that almost as good?
