Seattle Reign continued their three-match week with a game against the red-hot Racing Louisville on Wednesday. While the Reign dominated early — and Maddie Mercado scored her seventh goal of the season — Louisville's pressure caused the Reign to fold, and Emma Sears finished the two chances she got in transition.
The Reign are still in 8th place heading into the weekend but had a real chance to close the gap with their games in hand and weren't able to capitalize.
Seattle (8-8-3) has another quick turnaround, as they face the Kansas City Current (9-8-3) on Saturday, April 22. That match kicks off at 3:30 p.m. PT and will air on ION.
Steve Voght
Highlights
Stats
Scoring Summary
19' - Maddie Mercado - SEA
35' - Emma Sears (Assisted by Lauren Milliet) - LOU
52' - Emma Sears (Assisted by Lauren Milliet) - LOU
Lineups
Our squad kicking things off tonight in Louisville ⚔️ Lineup Notes ➡️ rgnfc.com/3U6p5OA
— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc.com) 2:36 PM · Aug 19, 2026
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62' - Maddie Dahlien for Holly Ward; Sally Menti for Mia Fishel; Madison Curry for Ryanne Brown
73’ - Emeri Adames for Nérilia Mondésir
83’ - Brittany Ratcliffe for Angharad James-Turner
Our Wednesday night XI to take on the Reign 👑 Coming soon to NWSL+... ℹ️ tinyurl.com/3f5s3376
— Racing Louisville FC (@racingloufc.com) 2:45 PM · Aug 19, 2026
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55' - Ella Hase for Makenna Morris
70’ - Maja Lardner for Emma Sears; Audrey McKeen for Lauren Milliet
83’ - Rachel Hill for Quincy McMahon; Sarah Weber for Kayla Fischer
POSSESSION
Louisville: 34.1%
Reign: 65.9%
EXPECTED GOALS
Louisville: 1.34
Reign: 2.56
TOTAL SHOTS
Louisville: 8
Reign: 22
SHOTS ON TARGET
Louisville: 3
Reign: 5
SHOTS OFF TARGET
Louisville: 2
Reign: 7
SHOTS BLOCKED
Louisville: 3
Reign: 10
SHOTS FROM INSIDE THE BOX
Louisville: 5
Reign: 19
TOUCHES INSIDE THE OPP. BOX
Louisville: 12
Reign: 44
PASSES
Louisville: 239
Reign: 444
PASSING ACCURACY
Louisville: 69.5%
Reign: 80.6%
PASSES IN FINAL THIRD
Louisville: 72
Reign: 158
PASS ACCURACY IN FINAL THIRD
Louisville: 58.3%
Reign: 69.6%
CROSSES (EXCLUDING CORNERS)
Louisville: 11
Reign: 29
CORNERS TAKEN
Louisville: 0
Reign: 12
OFFSIDES
Louisville: 2
Reign: 1
FOULS
Louisville: 8
Reign: 12
YELLOW CARDS
Louisville: 0
Reign: 1
RED CARDS
Louisville: 0
Reign: 0
Racing Louisville FC: 2 (1.34 xG) vs Seattle Reign FC: 1 (2.49 xG) #LOUvSEA | #RacingLou | #HerefortheCrown | #NWSL | 🤖⚽
— NWSL Analytics (@nwslstat.bsky.social) 6:46 PM · Aug 19, 2026
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g+ GameFlow: NWSL Regular Season Racing Louisville FC v Seattle Reign on August 19, 2026. #LOUvRGN ⚽️🤖
— g+ GameFlow (@gameflow.bsky.social) 7:19 PM · Aug 19, 2026
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Quotes
Laura Harvey
On the team's overall performance and the two goals conceded:
"I thought in the first 20-25 minutes we played exactly the way we'd planned, and then we stopped doing those things. We didn't do it well enough in the second half. Really disappointed with the two goals. Just watching both back, Emma Sears looks offside on the first goal, and Maddie Mercado looks like she gets fouled on when she goes to compete for the header, but sometimes that's the way the game operates unfortunately. Those things can happen in games, so we've got to react to them a little bit better than we did. I just thought in the second half we stopped doing the things that caused them a problem in the first half, and they didn't really change until sort of the last five minutes of the game. So overall, just disappointed that we started so well and couldn't be clinical and punish them in those moments. And then when the game started to get challenging, we stopped doing those things."
On whether her side stopped executing the plan once Racing got into the game around the 30-minute mark:
"I'm not taking credit away from them, but the spaces that we knew were going to be on — even on their second goal, when it drops to Ainsley, Ainsley has an opportunity to play Coco in behind and tries to play short, which gives them a second bite of the apple. It's just little things like that, that in the first 25 minutes we were doing really well at, and we just stopped doing it. That's a lesson we've got to learn real quick."
On finishing, after the team had 22 shots and 12 corners but only five shots on goal:
"I think it's about better chance creation. I think sometimes we take too many touches and don't take the shot, or sometimes we snap at it and take it too early. But there was no doubt we could have caused them way more problems down the flanks, and we stopped doing it. We were doing it really well and causing them a ton of problems, and we just stopped — that's probably the most disappointing thing."
On the outlook of some injured players ahead of Saturday's match against Kansas City:
"It will be a last-minute decision really with Sam [Meza] and Jess [Fishlock]. They're both on the road, so we'll see how they train tomorrow, see how they feel on Friday, and then we'll make a decision."
On whether a shift toward a more attacking approach has made the team more vulnerable to conceding:
"I don't think so — no, honestly I don't think tonight was about that. We knew how they were going to play, we knew what their threats were, but I thought both goals were preventable. Even though we want to put bodies forward, we're not very kamikaze with it — we tend to always have numbers up behind the ball, which in both goals we did. We just didn't execute well enough in regards to preventing the chances that they created off that."
Ryanne Brown and Maddie Mercado
Overall thoughts on the game after starting strong before Louisville came back into it:
Brown: "It’s disappointing. I think we could have put the game away a lot earlier on and then just been able to manage that a little bit better. But overall, I just think we're disappointed, and I think it was in our hands and we kind of let that slide. But now we just got to focus on the next."
On the team's finishing struggles, generating a lot of shots without challenging the goalkeeper much, following a similar one-goal output against Chicago:
Mercado: "I think finishing a lot is repetition, and I think it's on us to get those reps in training — I know our games are a little bit back to back right now. But again, I think it's on us, when we get in front of goal, to be calm and just put the ball in the back of the net, which is a lot of times much easier said than done, but it's something we're going to continue to work on. I think the good thing is we are creating a lot of those chances, and I do believe that they're going to start to fall for us."
On her own goal-scoring form:
Mercado: "Like I said, I think I've mentioned this in previous interviews, but I think goal scoring is service — so much of it relies on service from other people. I think part of it is putting yourself in those positions consistently. You're never going to finish everyone, it's kind of playing the odds. But again, I think if you look at Chicago, I personally had nine shots and good opportunities that I didn't put away too. So I'm part of that, where — how can I help create more opportunities for myself, my teammates, so we can go up two, three goals so we're not chasing a game or worried about giving up a goal."
On what shifted in Louisville's play after the Reign dominated the first half hour:
Brown: "I think it's something that we've been talking about all year — recognizing when that momentum does switch, and whether that means coming together, and just figuring out how to get that momentum back. I think that's something that we really need to continue working on."
On whether a more attacking defensive approach has made the team more vulnerable on the counter:
Brown: "I think we definitely want to try and get more numbers in the attack, but that shouldn't take away from our defensive side. That's definitely something I'm sure we're going to talk about, because we still want to be a team that is hard to score on. So that's definitely something we'll be working on."
