Playing host to one of the best teams in the league running out one of the hottest attackers of the opening frames of the season, Seattle Reign came out with a strong game plan to deny Trinity Rodman service and get themselves into dangerous positions in possession. And the thing is, it mostly worked.
The Reign out-possessed, out-shot, out-chanced, out-ran the Washington Spirit in both halves. They had more and better opportunities. They erased Rodman as an attacking presence. They largely cut Leicy Santos out of the game. They had 14 touches in the attacking penalty area to Washington's 5.
And an 84th minute goal by Claudia Martinez, against the run of play, against the vibes of the match, made it not matter. The Reign could not find the equalizer, let alone push for a winner. They hit another(!!) crossbar but couldn't push one across the goal line.
All of which begs the question: should losses still count as losses when they're really annoying?
Well, yes, obviously, football is like that. But gods, that one was really annoying.
Goalkeeper
Claudia Dickey – 6
With her side largely controlling proceedings, Claudia Dickey saw little danger over the course of the night and mostly served as a pressure valve, helping to break the press and restart the Reign's possession. For the most part, she filled this role perfectly well, completing 5 of 8 long passes and 51 of 56 overall, while notching five recoveries and coming high off her line to short-circuit Washington on the rare moments they got out on the break.
Unfortunately, little danger is not none, and Claudia faced two shots on her goal minutes apart in the final phase of the match, saving one but unable to do anything about Claudia Martinez’s game-winning strike. It was an annoying way to concede the only goal of the match, and an annoying way for the winless streak to carry forward another week.
Proposed Solutions. Stop Felix Hernandezing her and give Dickey some damn run support.
Defenders
Madison Curry – 7 (POTM) (off 89' for Brittany Ratcliffe)
I liked how Madison Curry stood her ground and stood up her attacker again and again, showing that vintage Curry Loves To Tackle People energy. By the numbers, she won four tackles and six duels to go with her 12 progressive passes. She did that while helping to emphatically silence as good an attacking trio as the league has to offer.
On a backline that was focused on containing the Spirit, Curry distinguished herself by nonetheless getting forward with intention and progressing the ball purposefully. Another quality outing.
Phoebe McClernon – 6
While likely the shakiest of the back four, McClernon also – as per usual – took on the heftiest responsibility in defense, standing up Sofia Cantore one moment and Trinity Rodman the next. The Spirit managed one shot from inside the penalty area in the first 80 minutes, a 40th minute nothing from Kate Wiesner that sailed into the crowd from a bad shooting angle. They could not solve for Phoebe, could not get around her, and when they managed to beat her with a moment of combination or quality, could not get around the well-organized support from Mason, Huerta, and Curry.
McClernon does hold her share of the blame for the late game-winner, wherein Martinez beat just about everybody en route to beating Claudia Dickey. Unfortunately, sometimes the opposition gets one half-chance all game and makes a stinger out of it.
Emily Mason – 6
Fun stat: Mason had as many touches in the attacking penalty area as Trinity Rodman, Rosemonde Kouassi, Leicy Santos, and Sofia Cantore combined, which is to say she had one touch, getting her head to the ball from a corner. It was blocked out, but not a terrible look at goal.
She also had eight progressive passes, five defensive contributions, won two of three duels, and looks to finally be really dialing in her long passes on the wildly quick-playing surface at Lumen Field. Five different times, she put the perfect weight on the ball to break a streaking Dahlien, Curry, or Mondésir. It didn't fall the Reign's way, but the signs from Mason are mostly positive.
Sofia Huerta – 6
I didn't love Sof's game live, but I came to appreciate the texture of it more on rewatch: she was unable to create much going forward, but she was an essential presence for a back four that did a ton of work to render Washington's attack inconsequential. Her 10 recoveries, four defensive contributions, and 70 touches were all part of an indispensable workhorse performance.
It would've been nice if she'd found the early cross, put the ball six inches higher for Emily Mason to head, put that free kick eight inches lower and into the top corner. It would've been nice to see her extend her assists record, find that moment of magic she's capable of to push the Reign forward. But what she provided was still extremely important.
As A Unit
Rosemonde Kouassi completed 5 of 10 passes, had an xG+A of 0.04, and subbed off at halftime. Trinity Rodman had zero touches in the Reign's penalty area, zero chances created, settled for two low-percentage shots from distance, completed 9 of 18 passes, and subbed off in the 56th minute. Sofia Cantore had one touch in the Reign's penalty area, took zero shots, and created zero chances. Leicy Santos created zero chances, had zero touches in the attacking penalty area, was dispossessed three times in the middle third, and settled for two low-percentage shots from distance.
You can quibble about the margins for the back line, but they faced one of the most dangerous attacking units in the league and made them look utterly pedestrian.
Proposed Solutions. Launch a few Bugg Bombs to right the vibes and remind the back line that they can hold their ground, but they can also find some sauce of their own.
Midfielders
Sam Meza – 4
Okay, so, everybody's allowed a bad game. While Leicy Santos didn't get much going when it came to finding the final pass and beating the back line, she absolutely ate Meza's lunch. And Santos is a great player, but damn, it is rare for anybody to get the better of Meza twice, let alone consistently for a full 90 minutes.
Things we are used to seeing: Meza getting into 14 duels, racking up eight recoveries, picking up 61 touches to drive possession, finding a moment to spring a beautiful chance on a through ball, running absolutely all over the pitch to support and combine.
Things we are not so used to seeing: Meza losing 11 of those 14 duels, giving up three free kicks, coughing up the ball in possession three times, misplaying a half-dozen passes in dangerous places, getting beat cleanly on the dribble three times in succession. I do want to note that even in losing those duels, Meza contributed to Washington's frustration with some frequency, it wasn't a total washing.
But all in all – one to shake off.
Maddie Mercado – 5 (off 79' for Emeri Adames)
Part of the problem for Meza is that the Maddie Mercado – Mia Fishel switcheroo routine up the middle seems to have reached its limitations. Neither player is, really, a #10, and while they might play well together in a two striker setup, the Reign were not playing that.
So you have the duality of Mercado's game: she was pretty dangerous getting forward into the final third. She had 7 touches in the attacking penalty area and 5 shots, both game-highs. Her best look was a dangerous chance in the 64th minute, a neat header that demanded a quality save to the bottom corner by Sandy MacIver.
And also, ostensibly playing midfield for a side that was dominating possession, she managed just 31 touches and was victimized often when running in defense, getting into 12 duels but winning just four, committing two fouls, and having no answer to Washington's crafty dribblers. She also kept drifting way to the left, leaving too much empty space in the attacking midfield. Real effort and the effort isn't nothing, but it does seem to be a positional mismatch, and her best moments were all crashing the penalty area with aggression and purpose.
Ainsley McCammon – 5 (off 79' for Angharad James-Turner)
I loved Ainsley's forward vision (what else is new), her seven progressive passes, and her pair of feeds into the attacking penalty area. I also loved her doing the work to get a foot to a 25th minute corner, even if the shot went wide: it was one of those chances that Opta clocks at 0.02 xG, but nobody could've been surprised by it rippling the net – a real just get a touch and see what happens moment where she successfully got the touch, but unfortunately didn't get the luck.
Aside that, Ainsley had an occasionally rough one, losing her mark defensively, losing the ball in transition, losing more duels than she won, and losing the race to the loose ball a few times where she should've been favored for position. Washington's midfield is legit, and Ainsley was often up against it just trying to keep up and slow them down. That, too, is part of the developing young players experience.
As A Unit
While they lost (a lot) in individual moments and gave up probably-too-many of the sort of transitional opportunities Washington thrives on, the midfield was extremely active and made it very hard for Washington to do much of anything with them, a full team effort that warrants praise even in the spaces the individual ratings might not offer context for. The midfield lost 21 out of 30 duels, but also got into 30 duels, and never gave the Spirit the time to run and pick their killer pass that they desperately wanted. There's a reason American Soccer Analysis specifically tracks goal value added through "disrupting", after all.
Unfortunately, the quality to set up the forwards for success wasn't there.
Proposed Solutions. Sign Yui Hasegawa.
Forwards
Maddie Dahlien – 6 (off 87' for Holly Ward)
For a beautiful, fleeting moment, it looked like Danger Maddie was poised to steal back a point from Washington as she charged down the touch line in the 86th minute, cut inside, beat her defender, and struck. But she didn't have the power or the placement to beat MacIver, who easily corralled the shot.
A microcosm of the night for Dahlien, who had a ton of great sequences but couldn't put the finishing touch on any of them. On the plus side, she looked great on the dribble, she looked fast and fearless getting into the attack, and she's showing more confidence and decisiveness with the ball at her feet again. She had a good chance to score, and set up a good chance for Maddie Mercado to score. Her play was solid.
Just lacking that, natch, little bit of quality...
Mia Fishel – 5
While she had plenty of touches, Big Fish didn't get enough time on the ball in the attacking penalty area, and wasn't able to repeat her extremely good performance against Houston. She did, still, find one big chance – a 26th minute opportunity that fell to her right foot at about 7 meters – but saw it blocked away.
She had a little more luck as a facilitator, with some nifty interplay with Maddie Mercado when the latter crashed into the penalty area, but not enough to break through, and with the midfield behind her often vacant, she checked back deeper than the Reign would like in order to get on the ball, and spent too much of the match in not particularly dangerous areas.
Nérilia Mondésir – 6 (off 87' for Sally Menti)
My hottest take about the match is that Coco might have been the Reign's best player. I narrowly gave Curry the edge for POTM, but it was under protest.
Mondésir was a chance-creating machine. No other player for either side created as many looks at goal as she did. And not nothing-looks, either. Two of her four chances created were high-value ones, and in a just world (I know, fallacy) she would have at least one assist for her performance. She also got free for a decent look at goal herself, a 54th minute header that she unfortunately put central and head-height, right in the prime MacIver's Not Dropping That One zone.
She had three tackles and six duels won along with seven recoveries, conceded two fouls but won two in turn, and was an absolute menace on the press, a key reason Washington struggled so much to break out of their own defensive third, and a key reason the Reign should have been favored to take the lead for the entire first 80 minutes.
Alas, close only counts in...
Positional Solutions. Get Mia Fishel more touches in the attacking penalty area, get Emeri Adames more minutes in the front three, play Maddie Mercado as a wide forward rather than an attacking midfielder... and maybe try not to hit the goshdang crossbar anymore?
Substitutes
Emeri Adames – 5 (on 79' for Maddie Mercado)
Though she only had six touches, Emeri did a fair bit of work with them, completing five of five passes, two of them creating dangerous entries into the final third. I am a proponent of giving Emeri more minutes even when she's frustrating, because the potential is huge, she constantly shows the vision, and she's not going to reach the next level without playing through the growing pains.
Angharad James-Turner – 6 (on 79' for Ainsley McCammon)
Quietly, Haz came on and was an instant stabilizing force in the midfield, touching the ball 11 times, completing 10 of 10 passes, winning both her duels, and winning a free kick. With a midfield sometimes struggling to match up with the Spirit's craft and guile, Haz came on and broached none of their nonsense. You love to see it.
Holly Ward – N/A (on 87' for Maddie Dahlien)
Holly had three touches and completed one pass. It is what it is.
Sally Menti – N/A (on 87' for Nérilia Mondésir)
Despite playing just three-plus minutes, Sally got on the ball a lot, with 14 touches, 7 of 8 passing, two tackles won, and two duels won. You can say what you want about the substitution choices – and I might even agree with you – but Menti understood that the Reign needed a goal and pushed like hell to try to take the ball back and put it somewhere dangerous, and I appreciate that.
Brittany Ratcliffe – N/A (on 89' for Pheobe McClernon)
Coming on for stoppage time, Ratcliffe touched the ball three times, won a dribble, won a duel, and completed a pass, but ultimately didn't find her way into a dangerous space to try to claw back a point.
Proposed Solutions. I'd be interested in seeing what Holly Ward can do with an actual run of minutes, but this one's not on the substitutes, most of whom barely saw the pitch.
Spirit POTM
Claudia Martinez
Unfortunately, on a night when her team was pretty handily outplayed both by the eye test and by the numbers, Martinez made it not matter with a slick run and killer finish for the game's only goal. I for one would have preferred she not do that, but unfortunately we live in the darkest timeline.
Referee
Jaclyn Metz – 4
I have... questions... for Jaclyn and for the VAR. I would really love to know what PRO's guidelines for handling are this year. I'm not even saying they're wrong, I still think handling is a bad rule that largely cannot be applied fairly, I'm just saying at least one of those would've been a clear penalty last season and I'm utterly mystified by the apparent disinterest in even considering it this time around.
Beyond that – it was an extremely inconsistent game from the CR. She went from biting on micro-contact for the first half to ignoring full-blown across the body pullbacks in the second, then after ignoring egregious challenges for a solid 20 minutes, went quickly to her book for ghost contact by Nérilia Mondésir. If 22 players agree that they have no idea what you will or won't call, you're probably having a forgettable outing.
Usual mea culpa that officiating is really fucking hard, the people who do it are overworked and underpaid, and PRO keeps demanding more ref-hours to cover more games while trying to bust their union at every turn.
And Another Thing!
Winless in four, goalless in four, two points in four. It's not great for the vibes.
