Seattle Reign raced out to a two-goal lead in the first half at Icahn Stadium behind a Mia Fishel penalty and a Maddie Mercado goal — her fourth of the season — but Gotham FC stormed back with three unanswered goals after the 81st minute to hand the Reign a 3-2 defeat.
Mia Fishel opened the scoring in the 14th minute, converting from the spot after Mandy Freeman brought down Maddie Mercado in the box. Mercado doubled the lead in the 22nd minute, finishing off a low cross from Maddie Dahlien. The Reign had a second penalty in the 57th minute, but Dahlien's attempt hit the post.
Gotham took over as the match wore on. Esther González pulled a goal back in the 81st minute, then equalized in the 94th. Rose Lavelle sealed the comeback in the 97th minute, finishing a loose ball at the top of the box to make it 3-2.
The Reign are now 5-7-2 on the season and continue their three-game road trip with a trip to San Diego to face the Wave on Sunday, July 26.
Susie Rantz
Highlights
Stats
Scoring Summary
14' - Mia Fishel (Penalty) - SEA
22' - Maddie Mercado (Assisted by Maddie Dahlien) - SEA
81' - Esther González (Assisted by Jaedyn Shaw) - GFC
94' - Esther González (Assisted by Shaw) - GFC
97' - Rose Lavelle (Assisted by Sam Kerr) - GFC
Lineups
Today's starting XI in NY 👑 Lineup Notes ➡️ rgnfc.com/4ysBjRj
— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc.com) 8:06 AM · Jul 18, 2026
[image or embed]
69' - Nerilia Mondesir for Sally Menti; Holly Ward for Ryanne Brown
83' - Jess Fishlock for Mia Fishel; Brittany Ratcliffe for Maddie Dahlien
90' - Ruby Hladek for Maddie Mercado
45' - Guro Reiten for Mandy Freeman; Esther González for Jess Carter
63' - Sam Kerr for Sarah Schupansky; Bruninha for Savannah McCaskill
81' - Denise O'Sullivan for Jaelin Howell
POSSESSION
Gotham: 71.5%
Reign: 28.5%
EXPECTED GOALS
Gotham: 2.31
Reign: 2.30
TOTAL SHOTS
Gotham: 18
Reign: 8
SHOTS ON TARGET
Gotham: 9
Reign: 2
SHOTS OFF TARGET
Gotham: 6
Reign: 4
SHOTS BLOCKED
Gotham: 3
Reign: 2
SHOTS FROM INSIDE THE BOX
Gotham: 12
Reign: 6
TOUCHES INSIDE THE OPP. BOX
Gotham: 49
Reign: 17
PASSES
Gotham: 581
Reign: 229
PASSING ACCURACY
Gotham: 82.3%
Reign: 63.3%
PASSES IN FINAL THIRD
Gotham: 240
Reign: 69
PASS ACCURACY IN FINAL THIRD
Gotham: 72.9%
Reign: 52.2%
CROSSES (EXCLUDING CORNERS)
Gotham: 26
Reign: 10
CORNERS TAKEN
Gotham: 4
Reign: 1
OFFSIDES
Gotham: 0
Reign: 2
FOULS
Gotham: 19
Reign: 10
YELLOW CARDS
Gotham: 1
Reign: 1
RED CARDS
Gotham: 0
Reign: 0
NJ/NY Gotham FC: 3 (2.31 xG) vs Seattle Reign FC: 2 (2.3 xG) #NJYvSEA | #GothamFC | #HerefortheCrown | #NWSL | 🤖⚽
— NWSL Analytics (@nwslstat.bsky.social) 3:45 PM · Jul 18, 2026
[image or embed]
g+ GameFlow: NWSL Regular Season NJ/NY Gotham FC v Seattle Reign on July 18, 2026. #NJ/NYvRGN ⚽️🤖
— g+ GameFlow (@gameflow.bsky.social) 4:31 AM · Jul 19, 2026
[image or embed]
Quotes
Laura Harvey
On the team's overall performance, having led before falling behind:
"I thought in the first half we did a really good job of putting the ball in places they didn't want us to, which caused them tons of problems. In the second half, the subs that they brought on were causing us problems, so we felt we needed to solidify things a little bit centrally — we went to a back five to be able to do that, but wanted to still try and get pressure on the ball. We didn't do that well enough, I didn't think, and we gave them too much space centrally in the box. Their second goal — we can't have a back five and have Esther in the middle of the goal. Little things like that, goals change games. I think if we score the second penalty to get a third goal, it's a different game, which is tough — that's something we have to learn from. We have to manage momentum a little bit better. We have to know when the opponent is on top, how we can get ourselves back into the game. That's been a consistent thing that we've been trying to work on."
On the weather delays and conditions affecting the match:
"I think you could look at it both ways. I find it interesting that smoke's the issue and we stay out longer — I think that's something we probably have to look at a little bit, because that just doesn't make sense to me logically. But we had everything thrown at us today — weather delay, rain, heat, smoke, the lot — but we're not a team that makes excuses. We're just not like that. We will evaluate and be analytical about our performance and the things that were in our control. There are things that weren't in our control. But we pride ourselves on behaving the right way, being respectful as much as we possibly can. I didn't think that was the same on the other side today. Unfortunately, on the sideline, I felt that some of the things that were happening, if I was the fourth official, I just thought it wasn't acceptable — but that's not in our control. We control the things we can control, and how we behave and how we analyze things will be really important moving forward."
On getting to the end line in the first half and the impact of Gotham's substitutions:
"I thought in the first half we did brilliant things and we caused them real problems. They have a lot of things that they can do coming off the bench — the two changes they made with Esther and Guro Reiten coming on. It was a completely different type of thing that we had to solve for when they came on, and we didn't have as much joy then in the second half doing the same things that we'd been doing — partly because we stopped doing them, partly because of how they tweaked a little bit with their personnel to stop that."
On balancing defensive solidity with staying threatening going forward:
"You've got to decide which areas of the field you want to be really good in, and I think we just got caught up in doing half of each one. That's what we've got to sort of analyze and get better at — are we going to absorb some pressure but know when the ball comes into those dangerous areas we can deal with it, or prevent the ball from getting into those areas? We tend to be a prevention team, but the gaps were starting to get big. We were fatigued, so we were trying to protect that central space, but on their second goal we just completely opened up that central space, and you can't do that against the players that they have."
On Mia Fishel scoring her first goal for the club:
"Yeah, great — really happy for her, to get that sort of duck off her back. I think she needed that, and hopefully this can be the start of some good things happening for her on the stat sheet."
On starting Cassie Miller in goal over Claudia Dickey:
"Claudia was touch-and-go on whether she would even be available today, so it was hard to plan that Claudia could slot straight back in. But she's come through this week really well, pain-free, which is a positive. That's what we needed her to do. So now we're in a position where we can make a choice for next week."
On losing both starting wingbacks and how it affected the team's defensive shape:
"Ryanne Brown did brilliantly last week, I thought she did well today when she was on — got tired earlier than she did last week. But yeah, you're losing Sofia [Huerta], you've lost [Madison] Curry, Shae Holmes is one of the backups in that position. We were sort of playing Jordyn Bugg out of position a little bit to solve it. We knew it was going to be a difficult task, but I think we did a decent job of it at times. Once they started to throw multiple numbers high in central, we felt we needed those three — [Emily] Mason, Phoebe [McClernon], and Jordyn Bugg — centrally to defend those spaces. But we couldn't quite be able to make those sort of moments really count in the dying stages of the game, unfortunately."
On evaluating a game the team led 2-0 for so long before losing, and keeping morale up:
"We're always just consistent. We weren't too high after the Portland game, we won't be too low after this. We're very analytical. We have a very good group that is vulnerable and is willing to take feedback and learn from things, and that's something that we've got to do in this instance for sure."
On Jess Fishlock coming off after blocking a shot late in the match:
"Yeah, I mean, obviously everyone's heart sort of stopped when Jess went down, but I think she's come out of it okay, which is good. Everyone's just really disappointed right now, so it's hard to really talk about anything else other than that."
Mia Fishel and Maddie Mercado
On the first-half game plan and what changed in the second half:
Fishel: "I think we did what we wanted to as part of our game plan getting into this game with our press. I feel like they had no answer to it. They started going long, going wide, which is exactly what we wanted, and we were able to get two early goals too, which was a big thing for us. So the first half went really well. I think what went wrong was continuing that same pressure and energy into the second half. I think we got too defensive too quickly, instead of keep going at them — three, four, five, six goals. So I think that's where we went wrong."
On whether going more defensive in the second half was a coaching decision:
Fishel: "No, I think it's just in-game — I feel like it's on players to read the room and be like, 'No, we need to keep going instead of holding back.' So I think it's all of us."
On whether the air quality and hydration breaks affected the team's rhythm:
Mercado: "I personally wouldn't say so. I mean, I think you've probably heard players all around the league — when you have two water breaks a game, it messes up the flow a little bit, but again, that's something that's kind of out of our control. We need to learn as a team, despite the weather, the air quality, all those sorts of things, the travel — how to manage games. I think that's a big area of growth for us. I think we've gotten better at it. But again, I think like Mia said, we came out on top — we executed our game plan in the beginning. I think it's just going to be how we can learn as games go on and momentum shifts, how we can manage that and turn the momentum in our favor."
On the bright spots of the game:
Fishel: "We nailed the game plan in the first half. We got goals, and that was a big positive. It's just now doing it for 90 minutes."
On whether it felt like playing a different team once Gotham brought on Sam Kerr and Esther González:
Fishel: "I personally didn't feel that at all. It was on us — that game was on us. We did it to ourselves. I didn't think it was like, 'Oh, they came out different, they made subs that changed the game.' I feel like what happened was our fault, honestly, and something that we had to learn from going forward."
On scoring her first goal and her penalty-kick mentality:
Fishel: "I'm obviously happy to get that first goal for the team, and I knew I wanted to take it for the team to get the lead. I felt confident, felt good, and now it's just about continuing to score and contribute to this team."
On whether there was a discussion about who would take the second penalty:
Fishel: "She [Dahlien] was pretty adamant about it, and when a player wants to take a PK, I can't really say much, so I just let her take it. And yeah, that's all I got to say about that."
On carrying momentum from the Portland win despite the loss:
Fishel: "Honestly, this is a loss, but it doesn't feel like a loss, because we did so many things right and we executed the game plan — we had a great game against Portland. We felt like the momentum, like in our strides, came out strong against the defending champs, and this game was on us. I think that's the biggest thing — when it's on us, then we can change, and we can learn from it and be better from it. So even though we lost, we're going to continue this momentum that we have going forward."
On dealing with pressure heading into her first goal of the season:
Fishel: "I've never really felt the pressure — for my team, for my coaches, not even for myself. I've just been focusing on contributing to this team. There are so many other ways to contribute to a team than scoring goals. I'm a forward, but there are so many other players who can score — like Ryanne last weekend, and it's huge for us as a team. So I'm just happy that people can stop talking about it at this point, because to me it wasn't a big deal. If you watch my game full 90 minutes, I had a great performance — I've had many of them this season. So I'm just happy that talk can just kind of die."
On Maddie Dahlien's performance getting to the end line and providing service into the box:
Mercado: "I mean, I thought that was great. Obviously, that's something that was working for us — kind of putting them on their heels in the beginning. Everybody knows Maddie, one of her biggest strengths is her speed, and she's been working so hard on her ability to cross and put consistent balls in the box. I think she, the past few games, has done that. And then I think it falls on us to be able to be in the right spots and get something on the end of those. So I thought it was great. I think, like I said earlier, it's on us to be able to continue to do that — continue to put her in those spots and put the ball in behind and create opportunities. I think we stopped doing that — we became too defensive, I feel, like Mia said. But yeah, I have a lot of positive things to say about her and her performance today and in the past game. So I think as a team we'll just keep building on that, putting her in those good positions."
