On a sunny and humid early afternoon at Snapdragon Stadium, the Reign got off to another dream start on the road. Unlike last weekend, the Reign held on for a 2-0 win over the San Diego Wave.
Both the Reign and Wave started tentatively, feeling the temperature of the match, but the Reign continually found space through a new-look, same-faces midfield trio with Ainsley McCammon sitting deep and Sally Menti and Sam Meza sharing a more attacking role. In the 17th minute, it paid dividends, as McCammon picked up Maddie Mercado's darting run, delivered an absolutely beautiful ball over the back line, and Mercado rose to meet it with her forehead, softly alley-ooping it into the net with nobody to contest her.
1-0 Reign, and a shot right in the vibes.
Three minutes later, the Reign struck again, this time on a corner kick. Menti delivered a tantalizing far-post ball, and McCammon headed it into the mixer where Jordyn Bugg flicked it home with her head, with Mercado lurking near the goal line just to make sure it got across. As the Reign learned last week, though, two goals is the most dangerous lead in soccer, and with 70+ minutes to play, the match was far from over.
San Diego started finding the game after the half-hour mark, and Claudia Dickey was called on to make a number of big saves as the half progressed. None was more important than the final chance of the half, as Melanie Barcenas rose to meet the ball from four yards out and Dickey absolutely robbed her to push the ball over the crossbar and send the Reign into the break with their two-goal cushion intact.
In the second half, the Wave came out of the gate pressing and fighting for the first goal that might set them on the comeback trail. Dickey would not be beaten, though, and while the Wave were able to heavily control possession, pinning the Reign back for long periods of time, they were never able to replicate Barcenas' huge chance as the Reign defense dug in and fought for every inch.
Ludmila struck a clever one to Dickey's near post, and then Lia Godfrey drilled a shot from distance in the 70th minute, but Dickey was up to the task and kept her off the scoresheet. Jordan Fusco absolutely laced one from almost exactly the same spot in the 96th minute as the last seconds ticked off, but Claudia once again rose to the challenge, denying a would-be top-corner screamer from dampening the mood.
Throughout the second half, the Wave got touches and created chaos in their attacking penalty area, but couldn't create that one clear-cut chance that might get them on the board despite Dickey's determination.
And while the Reign didn't threaten much in the second half, they had some flashes of intention that were enough to keep the Wave's back line fairly honest, with Maddie Dahlien beating the back line in transition twice. The first, in the 49th minute, could've been the Reign's third goal, but Dahlien took an extra touch as she broke into the penalty area, the Wave's defense recovered, and she settled for a soft shot that Sandra Paños easily contained.
Ultimately, despite the Wave carrying play through the second half, the Reign's defense bent but didn't break, and Dickey kept the clean sheet. Referee Mark Verso blew the whistle for full time at 96 minutes exactly, and the Reign came away with a huge road win and three points to climb right back into the mix for a playoff spot.
WHAT WORKED: Midfield Magic
Menti, Meza, and McCammon once again started in the midfield, though the Reign added some wrinkles in possession and transition, with McCammon playing deeper and Meza playing higher alongside Menti. It paid some immediate dividends, with Meza's presence opening up direct lanes for Menti to run into, and McCammon given a view of the field to pick killer passes repeatedly.
McCammon's five chances created led all players, and she was rewarded with two assists. First, she picked up the tally for her exquisite delivery to Maddie Mercado:
Seattle staying AHEAD of the game 😉 Maddie Mercado and Jordyn Bugg score back-to-back goals with headers!
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 2:38 PM · Jul 26, 2026
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Then, three minutes later, she was the first up to meet Menti's corner delivery, heading the ball along for Jordyn Bugg to finish:
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 2:38 PM · Jul 26, 2026
While McCammon's creativity – she's now the youngest player in NWSL history to record multiple assists in a game – was the big winner of the match, Menti and Meza both turned in tidy games as well, figuring prominently in the Reign's chance creation and fighting for every inch of space as San Diego ratcheted up the pressure searching for a way through.
WHAT WORKED: Maximum Mercado
With her fifth goal of the season, Mercado extended her lead as the Reign's top scorer and set the tone for the match just 17 minutes in. It's her third consecutive match with a goal, and the Reign's third consecutive match scoring multiple goals overall.
Here's that goal again, just for good measure:
Seattle staying AHEAD of the game 😉 Maddie Mercado and Jordyn Bugg score back-to-back goals with headers!
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 2:38 PM · Jul 26, 2026
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WHAT WORKED: Meeting the Moments
San Diego is known as a second-half team this season, and true to form, they came out blazing in the second half. The Reign had to dig deep and grind out a hard result on the road, and they met the moments repeatedly. While San Diego dominated possession for the second frame and got numerous touches on the ball, they never managed to find a chance as dangerous as Barcenas' first-half header, the Reign consistently forcing them to recycle possession and try again, accept a shot under pressure, or try to cross and hope for the best.
And when San Diego did find a good chance out of that, Claudia Dickey was always there to meet the moment herself, coming up with 8 saves and a shutout. Melanie Barcenas couldn't get it past her in first-half stoppage time:
OH MY GOODNESS CLAUDIA! 😱
— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc.com) 3:00 PM · Jul 26, 2026
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Gia Corley couldn't beat her in the 58th minute:
CLAUDIA!!!!! 🤯
— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc.com) 3:29 PM · Jul 26, 2026
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And Lia Godfrey couldn't beat her on the run in the 70th:
The claws are out 🦞 Seattle's GK, Claudia Dickey is on a mission today!
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 4:00 PM · Jul 26, 2026
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WHAT (ALMOST) DIDN'T WORK: Managing Melanie
While the Reign didn't concede a goal, there were a number of times they came agonizingly close, and Melanie Barcenas was in the middle of far too many of them. In the 3rd minute, she had the first real chance of the game, mishitting it wide but eluding the Reign's defense to find a shot from a dangerous position. She then nearly tucked a clever ball past Dickey on the near post in the 44th minute, and struck a close-range header in the 45th only to see Dickey absolutely rob her of a goal. On another afternoon, she might have two in the bank.
"That's actually a ball we've been working on in training"
Talking through the opening assist, McCammon both deferred to Mercado's run and finish and let out that this was the sort of delivery the Reign have been working on.
"That's actually a ball we've been working on in training, just like clipping it to the back post. Obviously, I got it – looked up, saw Maddie's hand up, and I was like, oh, I got to try to hit this. And it was a great header. I was just super happy she could get to the end of it."
Asked about the defensive effort and organization to see out the match, Jordyn Bugg started by giving a nod to both Cassie Miller's efforts as a backup and getting Claudia Dickey back into the lineup.
"It was really nice to have Claudia back. Cassie did super, super good in these past few games, we really appreciate her stepping in. But I think that based off the last game, we knew we kind of had to step up, have that defensive mindset that we're going to have a clean sheet and we're going to go home with a win. All of us, collectively, having that same mindset really helped us in the game."
"Hence why I'm changed, because I got soaked"
Asked about the milestone of notching her hundredth win with the Reign, Laura Harvey admitted she hadn't realized it was a milestone until after the match.
"Yeah, I think it's – I didn't know that before the game, I had no idea. I didn't know after the game, either. And then Scott told the group in the huddle. Hence why I'm changed, because I got soaked. Yeah, I'm just really proud of the club, you know, the journey that we've been on to date. Proud of the fact I've got some longevity in me. I don't know if this means I'm old... probably means I'm old."
"I always would say, none of this happens without players, staff, you know, people believing in me, believing in the process that we're trying to put together. I've been lucky enough to come back to this amazing club. And yeah, I'm just really proud of that."
Bringing the press conference back around to the match itself, she talked up San Diego's quality as well as the Reign's determination to not repeat the late-match debacle against Gotham from a week prior.
"This was the third game in a row that we were up 2-0 at halftime, and at halftime today, I was quite blunt with the group that we can't let what happened to us last week happen to us again. I do think we need to sort out what we do in the start of the second half. There's something about us in the start of second halves, where we don't come out in the same vein."
"And San Diego are a good team, I was listening to stats before the game – that they've [completed] the most passes, had the most possession, so it's expected that they were going to do those things. But I thought we reduced them to shots from distance, put our bodies on the line, and Claudia made some fantastic saves." [...] "This is a big mentality thing for us after last week. We were devastated after last week, and to come to a really difficult place, be able to see the game out, clean sheet, had a really good chance to score in the second half with Maddie. But I do think it's something that we need to continue to work on."
The Reign return to action on Saturday, August 1, away at Bay FC. The match kicks off at 5:45 p.m. PT, and will be broadcast on ION.
