Seattle Reign concluded their three-match week with a tough road trip to Kansas City to face the Current, a side that hadn't lost at CPKC Stadium in 26 matches. The Reign scored first before the Current equalized at the start of the second half, but the visitors held firm for the rest of the match and came away with a hard-earned point.
The Reign again started with strong early pressure and were rewarded with the opening goal. In the 11th minute, Seattle earned its first corner of the match. They opted to go short, dropping the ball to Sofia Huerta near the corner of the box. Huerta crossed to the far post, where Ainsley McCammon headed it back across the goal. The ball took a fortunate bounce off defender Kayla Sharples and redirected into the goal, marking the league-leading 11th set-piece goal that Kansas City has conceded this season (per FotMob).
"The ball from Sof was world-class, and it's just going to cause people problems," head coach Laura Harvey said after the match.
The momentum shifted in Kansas City's favor for the final 20 minutes of the half, with Croix Bethune launching a shot off the crossbar in the 35th minute and getting another shot a minute later that went wide (the referee also missed a slight deflection from Jordyn Bugg and gave the Reign a goal kick). In the 39th minute, Debihna put a free kick from about 25 yards just wide after Angharad James-Turner was whistled for a foul and handed a yellow card.
The half finished with a Current shot bouncing off the left post and a Lo'eau LaBonta rocket from distance pinging off the crossbar. The Reign were fortunate that neither slipped into the net, and they went into halftime with the 1-0 lead.
The Current continued their pressure at the start of the second half and scored in the 51st minute on a penalty kick. After being called to conduct a video review, referee Katja Koroleva awarded the Current a penalty for a handball in the box on Mia Fishel while the Reign defended a corner kick. While Fishel was turning away from the play, Koroleva still determined her arm was in an unnatural position and gave the penalty. Debinha slipped her shot from the spot just under the diving hands of Claudia Dickey and into the lower right corner.
Kansas City continued the pressure until around the 75th minute, when the fresh legs of Nérilia Mondésir and Brittany Ratcliffe helped to shift the momentum. While they couldn't create any truly dangerous chances, the Reign were finding their wing players with long balls in behind Kansas City's defense and earned a couple of corner kicks and a few shots.
The Reign (8-8-4, 28 points) remain in eighth place for now, with other results pending, and will be happy to return to Lumen Field to get some rest and play their next match in more comfortable temperatures and with the backing of their home fans.
WHAT WORKED: Early momentum
The Reign were rewarded with a goal in the 11th minute after putting Kansas City under pressure — getting the ball high and earning a corner kick that led to the own goal.
Seattle converts on the set piece to jump in front! 👊
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 3:47 PM · Aug 22, 2026
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Whenever the Reign lost possession, they put the pressure on the Current, forcing them into bad passes and winning the ball back high up the field. In the early stages, the Reign had a 75/25 possession advantage.
At least, that was the trend for the first 20 minutes of the match ...
WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Punished by the pressure
While the Reign did well to pin Kansas City back for the first 20 minutes of the game, they fell into a deeper stance for the next 50 minutes and struggled to move it into their attacking half. They were finally punished at the start of the second half when they conceded a corner, and a video review awarded the Current a penalty due to a handball on the ensuing play.
KC loves a Debinha goal 🎯 The Brazilian converts the spot kick!
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 4:52 PM · Aug 22, 2026
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The Reign held on after that, but it wasn't easy. The Current finished with 24 shots and created 3.31 expected goals. But they put only three shots on target, ensuring that Dickey didn't have to do a lot of work to preserve the draw.
"I thought we were a little bit passive and a bit indecisive defensively, and when we're like that, you can give Croix [Bethune] and Debinha half a yard, and they're the types of players that are going to punish you in those moments," Harvey said about the team's lost momentum.
"I said to the players at halftime, the amount of times our players were pushed off the field, Kansas picked the ball up, threw it back in, and we just allowed those things to happen. In the second half, we came out, and we said we weren't going to let that happen to us anymore," Harvey added.
"We would have liked to have been able to control the tempo of that game a little more," Phoebe McClernon said after the match. "So while [the draw] is definitely a positive takeaway, I think they still had a lot of chances, and we would ideally have executed our game plan a little bit better and a little bit more frequently. But we came off a midweek game, and when we're coming out of Kansas City with a point, I think that's really big for us."
WHAT WORKED: Never giving up
Toward the very end of the game, Croix Behune found Amelia White on the right wing. She had Emily Mason trailing her and found enough time to get a shot off, but Mason slid at just the right minute to block the opportunity. That play was just a small example of the gritty defending that the Reign displayed to earn the point. And, as stated above, it sure wasn't easy. It was hot and humid, and the Reign were playing with tired legs after another tough match in Louisville on Wednesday.
"It was hot for me, which is saying something," Dickey said. "To play Louisville midweek. It's August. Then to play Kansas City in August after being in Seattle when it's 70 degrees every single day that we train. I think the fact that we can hang in these games, and we had a three-game week where it was over 85 degrees both games. And we don't have to make subs into the 60th minute. I think it's a credit to how much work people are putting in."
"We knew coming here is really difficult. I thought in the first 20 minutes we played really well. Obviously, you've got the goal in that period. Then they start to get back into it," Harvey said. "I said to the girls at the end, there's been moments in this season and last season where I think some of that inexperience has shown, and I thought tonight we looked like an experienced team at times when the going got tough, and that's something we can build on."
The Reign return to Lumen Field next weekend to begin a three-game homestand. On Sunday, August 30, they'll host the Houston Dash at 4 p.m. PT. That game will stream on NWSL+.
