The Reign may not be a complete project, but one way or another, they're turning into a fun one.
This was the first time the Reign conceded the opening goal since the World Cup break. It was also the first time the Reign took at least a point after conceding the opening goal all season. For a very young team – the Reign's starting lineup against Angel City averaged about 24 years, and they even trend a bit younger than that when Madison Curry starts over Ryanne Brown – that's a big moment, a growth moment that they can build off of.
They still have some problems seeing out games, and losing control of games in the final phases, but all of the problems the Reign still have seem eminently fixable. The future core of the team is settling into their talent more consistently, and the points are flowing again.
Will they make the playoffs?
Will they challenge for the cup?
Will they crash out?
I genuinely don't know. I just know that Mia Fishel is scoring Mia Fishel goals again, Sally Menti is finding a way to ball out at the Reign's place of greatest need, Sam Meza is constantly redefining her position, Ainsley McCammon is turning into an absolute box-to-box maniac, and Maddie Dahlien is reclaiming the Danger in her name, and I love that for them.
Sports are about the stories, at the end of the day, and the Reign are turning into a really good one.
Goalkeeper
Claudia Dickey – 5
Plus. Claudia made a strong save in the 60th minute to preserve (for the moment) the 2-1 lead, had good distribution, and completed eight line-demolishing long passes to Dahlien and Mercado. A quick recovery against Ally Sentnor prevented a shot and likely saved a goal, even though it won't show up as a save.
Minus. While Gisele Thompson's strike was well-taken and Prisca Chilufya's touch was absolutely outrageous, both Angel City goals were eminently savable, and Dickey wasn't in a position to contest either of them. Some of that's on the defense, some of that's on reading the play more quickly.
Defenders
Sofia Huerta – 5
Plus. With 88% pass completion, 65 touches, and 6 progressive passes, Huerta was once again an effective shuttler, finding ways to hold the ball and move it vertically. She only had one completed cross, but it went for a decent chance and could've been an assist on another night.
Minus. On Angel City's opening goal, Gisele Thompson just toyed with Sof, who gave her way too much deference and ultimately screened Dickey more than contesting the shot. Thompson beat Huerta a number of other times, too, though none of those turned into goals.
Jordyn Bugg – 7
Plus. The most consistent defender on the pitch for the Reign, Bugg led all players with 86 touches and 12 defensive contributions. She did that while adding 93% pass completion, including going 5 of 7 on long passes, stepping up repeatedly to break Angel City's press, and calling her own number for a great look at goal on a 45th minute corner.
Minus. She got beaten pretty cold for the second goal, and while she recovered to get goal side of Chilufya, she could only watch a perfect touch chip her and Dickey both.
Phoebe McClernon – 6
Plus. Strong in the air and steady in a stopper role, McClernon did good work locking down the right side of the defense, and nearly won it for the Reign in the 87th minute, sadly seeing her shot off the set piece blocked away.
Minus. A lot of nervous passing kept this from being a truly vintage McClernon performance, as she misplaced a bunch of completable passes and went 0 for 7 on her long attempts. The Emily Sams to Chilufya connection for the tying goal also caught her napping, and she was unable to recover.
Ryanne Brown – 6 (off 66' for Madison Curry)
Plus. With much of the Reign's buildup coming on the opposite side, Ryanne Brown played a low-volume game, but she was efficient when she did have the ball, completing 14 of 17 passes (including 4 progressive passes and 5 passes into the final third) and won a couple big duels in the air to win possession back – none bigger than in the 45th minute, a header that would become the hockey assist on the Reign's first goal.
Minus. Ryanne's impact was limited and she neither got forward all that frequently nor defended all that actively, but she also wasn't really asked to by the gamestate or the opponent and had no serious misses that hit my notebook.
Midfielders
Sam Meza – 7
Plus. Extending her league lead in both categories yet again, Sam Meza got into 17 duels and won 10 of them en route to once more being – scientifically speaking – everyfuckingwhere on the pitch. She also had 10 recoveries, won 5 tackles, and drew a defensive free kick. She also had 7 progressive passes. Like what are we even doing here.
Minus. Ary Borges caught her flatfooted a couple times, and Angel City could've done more with it when she did.
Do you know what time it is? It's time to D-D-D-DUEL!
Sally Menti – 8 (off 75' for Angharad James-Turner)
Plus. All Sally did was drive the Reign's offense, score a big goal, assist another moments later, and make good things happen on the ball. Dribbles? Many and successful. Goal? Big damn goal. Assist? Gorgeous layoff. Duels? Not quite Meza-esque, but a great imitation, winning 6 of 12. You really can't ask for much more from the spot than Menti gave against Angel City.
Minus. Yes, she did get dispossessed half a dozen times, but you can get away with that when you create that much and score a goal that big.
Ainsley McCammon – 7 (off 88' for Holly Ward)
Plus. It won't show up on the stat sheet, but Ainsley had the hockey assist on Mia Fishel's go-ahead goal with a cutting, direct ball up the middle. She once again covered a truly ludicrous amount of ground, from penalty area to penalty area, touchline to touchline, and finished the match with 13 recoveries, 3 interceptions, and 5 of 7 duels won. Including that hockey assist, she had 7 progressive passes and 3 passes into the penalty area. Just a good, good night of ball.
Minus. She's taking higher-risk, higher-reward passes and the Reign are getting rewarded for it, but her 53% completion for the match also includes some moments where she'd have been better off taking the safe option.
Forwards
Maddie Dahlien – 5 (off 88' for Emeri Adames)
Plus. Whenever she got on the ball, Dahlien looked to drive it forward and do something dangerous with it. It was her direct run for the endline in the 49th minute that cascaded into Angel City desperation defending, Ryanne Brown winning the ball back, and Mia Fishel flipping the ball to Sally Menti in the area. She completed 92% of her passes, won 2 free kicks in attacking positions, and created 3 chances by running at the soft spaces Angel City left out wide.
Minus. Though Huerta drove much of the Reign's buildup behind her, Danger Maddie wasn't actually on the ball that much, something particularly pronounced in the first half, where Angel City declined to defend the wide areas and Dahlien also declined to punish them for it.
Mia Fishel – 8 (POTM) (off 66' for Nérilia Mondésir)
Plus. Big Fish absolutely balled out in this one. The assist to Menti and then the first-time curler for her own goal, obviously – chef kiss, no notes stuff. Four touches and five passes into the attacking penalty area were game-definers for the Reign, amounting to five or six of the highest-leverage moments the team created. Her contribution to the press and team defensive shape is also severely underappreciated: Mia scrapping with Emily Sams and Sarah Gorden wrought havoc on Angel City's attempts to build out of the back, and she got into 10 duels with the back line in 66 minutes of game time, constantly denying Angel City's central defense the time and space they wanted to pick their passes.
Minus. Getting Mia somewhere closer to 90 minutes of fitness is imperative. We're currently losing too much when she substitutes off the pitch.
Maddie Mercado – 6
Plus. Mercado killed it on the wing, and after Fishel left the match she put in a solid shift up the middle, too. I particularly liked how consistently she made herself available for the long switch from Huerta to open up opportunities. A 12th minute shot over the bar and a 23rd minute header that, unfortunately, Angelina Anderson made a strong save on were the Reign's best opportunities of the first half. Scrapping on both sides of the ball, Mercado got into almost as many duels as Meza, winning 8 of 16 across two positions and 90-plus minutes.
Minus. While she got on the ball fairly often and offered to receive the ball at every opportunity, Mercado made plenty of bad choices with the ball, misplacing a ton of passes and getting her pocket picked by Taylor Suarez a couple times along the way.
Substitutes
Nérilia Mondésir – 5 (on 66' for Mia Fishel)
Replacing Fishel (but really replacing Mercado on the wing, as Maddie tucked central where Fishel had been playing), Mondésir had a very hot/cold performance. She touched the ball 13 times and completed just 2 of 5 passes, but also created 3 scoring chances, taking two very good corners late in the game that could've yielded a winner. Her defense has hard-nosed and active, though the Reign definitely lost something in the organized press with Mia out.
Madison Curry – 5 (on 66' for Ryanne Brown)
With 14 touches on the ball, Madison completed 5 of 6 passes, won all of her duels, notched 3 progressive passes, and made herself a menace high up the right wing. She's also probably the defender least culpable for Angel City's game-tying goal, given that she held her line with the centerbacks and the ball and touch both came on the opposite side of the field.
Also, Ref Brad should've protected her after that extremely late challenge.
Anghard James-Turner – 5 (on 75' for Sally Menti)
Ever-reliable, Haz James touched the ball 11 times in 15-plus minutes, completed 5 of 6 passes, and generally got things settled down again after the Reign conceded. She also had a hilariously good long ball to a streaking Dahlien that didn't come to anything but was worth noting anyway. While you'd never really favor a player to score off them, I didn't mind either of her speculative shots in the 82nd and 83rd minute. With the bite draining out of the game and time ticking off, why not have a go?
Emeri Adames – N/A (on 88' for Maddie Dahlien)
Playing short minutes, Adames touched the ball 6 times, completed 2 of 3 passes, and failed to connect on her one cross attempt.
Holly Ward – N/A (on 88' for Ainsley McCammon)
Playing short minutes, Ward touched the ball 4 times, nearly sneaked a cheeky near post shot in the 94th minute, and fought for the ball out of possession.
Angel City POTM
Ary Borges
Gisele Thompson and Prisca Chifulya both scored tragically beautiful goals, but it was Ary Borges who kept Angel City moving and kept Angel City in the game. She had the assist on the opening goal (notwithstanding how much of that was just Thompson's individual brilliance combined with Huerta's indecisive defending), but she did so much more than that, going beat for beat with Meza in the midfield (and matching her for duels entered and duels won), dribbling McCammon out of her boots, and constantly creating opportunities for Angel City to run with numbers. A frightening player any day, and this was a good game by her own standards.
Referee
Brad Jensen – 4
I promised I wouldn't write as much about the ref this time, so I'll keep this fairly quick. Brad Jensen mostly called a solidly reasonable match, except for the places he didn't, and the places he didn't were both utterly disastrous and potentially seriously game-changing.
I want to specifically draw attention to two late botched calls. One, a late ankle-breaker challenge on Madison Curry at the endline, should have seen a card of at minimum the yellow variety. The second, at the very death, saw Maddie Mercado absolutely taken out in the penalty area by Emily Sams. A no-call would've been annoying but at least understandable – few refs want to whistle a game-winning penalty at the last second, that just is what it is. Instead, though, he whistled Mercado for the foul for... dangerously getting blindsided, I guess?
Come on, Brad.
And Another Thing
The games come fast over the next couple of weeks. Chicago, Louisville, and Kansas City in quick succession will have a lot to say about the Reign's place in this league. A few good results could see them vault the table and look a lot more secure for the final stages of the season. Dropped points they can't afford will make the margin for error fighting for their playoff spot that much narrower.
