Seattle Reign could never find their footing in their midweek match against Angel City and fell 3-1 on the road. The Reign were whistled for a handball in the box, and Ally Sentnor buried her penalty kick in the 20th minute. Ary Borges flicked in a corner kick 20 minutes later, and substitute Taylor Suarez scored immediately after coming on to seal the win for Angel City.
Sofia Huerta scored a consolation goal in the 92nd minute on a great strike from outside the box.
The result could be massive for the playoff push, as the Reign remain in the final playoff spot in 8th place but are now just one point ahead of Angel City.
The Reign (11-9-4, 37 points) have a quick turnaround and another important road match against the Denver Summit (8-8-8, 32 points) on Saturday evening. That game kicks off at 5:45 PM PT and will air on ION TV.
Steve Voght
Highlights
Stats
Scoring Summary
20' - Ally Sentnor (Penalty) - ACFC
40' - Ary Borges (Assisted by Evelyn Shores) - ACFC
81' - Taylor Suarez (Assisted by Evelyn Shores) - ACFC
90+2' - Sofia Huerta - SEA
Lineups
Today's starting XI against Angel City FC! Lineup Notes 📝 rgnfc.com/4gZLS7S
— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc.com) 6:03 PM · Sep 16, 2026
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72' - Sally Menti for Angharad James; Nérilia Mondésir for Jess Fishlock
79' - Holly Ward for Mia Fishel; Emily Mason for Phoebe McClernon
83' - Brittany Ratcliffe for Maddie Dahlien
The Angel City FC Starting XI for LAvSEA. Presented by DoorDash
— Angel City FC (@angelcity.com) 6:23 PM · Sep 16, 2026
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56' - Prisca Chilufya for Maiara Niehues
80' - Nealy Martin for Carina Lageyre; Taylor Suarez for Sveindís Jónsdóttir
85' - Karsyn Cherry for Sarah Gorden; Claire Emslie for Ally Sentnor
ATTENDANCE
13,208
POSSESSION
Angel City: 48.8%
Reign: 51.2%
EXPECTED GOALS
Angel City: 1.68
Reign: 0.43
TOTAL SHOTS
Angel City: 14
Reign: 8
SHOTS ON TARGET
Angel City: 3
Reign: 3
SHOTS OFF TARGET
Angel City: 4
Reign: 3
SHOTS BLOCKED
Angel City: 7
Reign: 2
SHOTS FROM INSIDE THE BOX
Angel City: 11
Reign: 5
TOUCHES INSIDE THE OPP. BOX
Angel City: 16
Reign: 25
PASSES
Angel City: 398
Reign: 412
PASSING ACCURACY
Angel City: 77.9%
Reign: 78.9%
PASSES IN FINAL THIRD
Angel City: 94
Reign: 119
PASS ACCURACY IN FINAL THIRD
Angel City: 60.6%
Reign: 63.9%
CROSSES (EXCLUDING CORNERS)
Angel City: 6
Reign: 17
CORNERS TAKEN
Angel City: 5
Reign: 2
OFFSIDES
Angel City: 0
Reign: 2
FOULS
Angel City: 11
Reign: 10
YELLOW CARDS
Angel City: 1
Reign: 3
RED CARDS
Angel City: 0
Reign: 0
Angel City FC: 3 (1.68 xG) vs Seattle Reign FC: 1 (0.43 xG) #LAvSEA | #AngelCityFC | #HerefortheCrown | #NWSL | 🤖⚽
— NWSL Analytics (@nwslstat.bsky.social) 9:46 PM · Sep 16, 2026
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g+ GameFlow: NWSL Regular Season Angel City FC v Seattle Reign on September 16, 2026. #ACFCvRGN ⚽️🤖
— g+ GameFlow (@gameflow.bsky.social) 12:04 PM · Sep 17, 2026
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Quotes
Laura Harvey
On the manner of the loss, the penalty call, and the set-piece goals:
"Goals change games. We as people in this league ask for consistency in refereeing all the time. I can't even put on one hand the amount of times that stuff like that's happened to us in games and no penalty's been given. So that's frustrating, because you're like, well, Tara Rudd at home; there's been more, I could name over five. I'm not saying that it isn't a penalty — I'm saying if that's a penalty, we should have had at least five penalties this year. So that's frustrating. Obviously the corner, we have to do better — we weren't good, we didn't do well enough on that, even on the corner that actually creates the penalty. And yeah, goals change games. I think if we'd have put at least one away in the first half, which we had opportunities to — I think it was Jess hit the post, was it? And then the rebound — a little bit of luck, how it bounced, the clearance, just going where it went."
On not letting the result define the team:
"I said to the team at the end, this won't define us — we can't let it define us, I think, is a biggie. And the third goal too, it's another set piece — it comes off us not switching on quick enough, them playing a short give-and-go and getting behind us. The things they've done a really good job of, of late, is really hurting the opponent behind their back line, and they didn't do that once tonight. So I think we have to look at the game, but we also have to really focus on the ways in which we can turn around real quick to go to Denver, because Denver's a massive, massive, massive game. I think we've put ourselves in a good position between now and the end of the season to collect the points I think you're going to need to get into the playoffs. Tonight was, in my opinion, a must-win for them to keep them anywhere near the playoffs, and they played that way, and we didn't have that bite to us at times. We grew into it in the second half, but that third goal just killed the game off."
On the stakes heading into Denver:
"The stakes are high — the points have been premium this whole second half of the season. Do I think it's a must-win for them? Yeah. Is it a must-win for us? I don't think so. But you can't keep giving up games — that's reality. I think our attention has to turn back to being really hard to beat. We were in a lot of phases tonight; in one phase we weren't, with set pieces. So we've got to iron that out with a very quick turnaround, and we want to put on a better performance. What really helps this group is when we believe we've performed well, and we didn't believe we did that tonight enough. There were glimpses, splashes — I didn't feel like we had a lot of momentum that turned into dominance, and that's not been the case in a lot of games this second half of the season especially. So that's something we can talk about and look to address for Saturday."
On the team's second-half fight and matching resilience with quality:
"This team's shown that all year — they've shown resilience all year. But you've got to match that with quality. You've got to match resiliency with quality, and I didn't think we showed enough of our quality tonight."
On combating Angel City's momentum:
"I'm not sure they had much momentum, if I'm honest. I just think what they've got is something that's quite unique — their long throw is a threat. That long throw turns into corners, corners turn into goal-scoring opportunities, and that's how we got hurt. Do I think they had tons of sustained pressure? Not really. But in those moments, how can we turn that into our favor and turn it into momentum for us? So I didn't feel like we had to deal with a ton of momentum from them, but in games like this you've got to show quality, and I just don't think we showed enough of it."
On the team scoring in 15 straight games, a new team record:
"We just have belief in what we do. We have structure, we have belief, we have a mentality that we're going to get players in good positions. I felt in the first half we got players in really good positions — we just didn't play the right pass, we didn't make the right decision. We'd shoot when we should cross, we'd cross when we should shoot. And then you look at Sof's goal — we probably had four or five opportunities to do that and didn't take it. But I think we are creating. That's the key, and I've felt that way all year. That's credit to the group — they're committed to wanting to try and do that."
On Sofia Huerta passing 10,000 minutes for the club and her leadership:
"She's shown consistency. She's grown in her leadership and continues to do that, and we always know Sof's quality, and she showed that with the goal."
On the reasoning behind Phoebe McClernon's 79th-minute substitution just before the third goal:
"It wasn't a tactical decision. She needed to come off. We put on a defender to replace her. I think the damage was done out wide in the free kick, and then once Taylor Suarez takes that inside touch inside the box, what can you do? There's not much you can do. I think [Emily] Mason stepped [in] and put her arms behind her back, because we'd given a penalty up earlier, which — again — so many of them have happened to us this year. I said to the fourth official when it happened, I'm not saying that's not a penalty, but if that's a penalty, we should have had at least five this year. There was no tactical shift when we took Phoebe off and replaced her with Emily Mason at centerback. We didn't change shape — nothing changed. We just didn't deal with that free kick well enough out wide."
On whether Phoebe's withdrawal was injury-related:
"She actually got a knock in the Bay game, and I think she was compensating a little bit, and she cramped, basically. So we had to manage her, and with a big game coming up Saturday, if we can protect her a little bit to get her back ready for Saturday, we needed to do that."
Phoebe McClernon and Jess Fishlock
On the overall frustration of conceding two goals from set plays:
Fishlock: "Honestly, super frustrating to give up two goals on set plays. The handball, obviously, is just unfortunate in my opinion — I think it's very, very soft to give there. I don't know what Haz is meant to do, but obviously it's given, so there's nothing you can do about that. And then to concede off another set play is just frustrating from our point of view. Goals are just things that change the game — we had our chances in the first half that, maybe, better decision-making would have meant we would have gotten better chances. So just a frustrating overall game for us, but equally, we can't let it define who we are, we can't let it derail what we want and what we want to achieve. So we've got to learn from it fast, and another game on the weekend — that's great for us. So yeah, just super frustrating."
On how the team responded to Angel City's momentum:
McClernon: "I think in the first half they were more on the front foot than us, and I think that had a lot to do with first and second balls. Looking back at film, I think we were probably going to shoot ourselves in the foot there. But I do think we came back and tried to stage a late comeback, and I think Sofia taking shots at the end of the game speaks to the mentality we're trying to build. Another point of mentality, though, is set pieces, and that needs to be so much better, and so much more hard-nosed and detail-oriented in those moments. It's all learning and growing moments — I don't think it's anything that, like Jess said, defines us. I think we have so much to learn and grow from this game."
On not letting one result raise the stakes unnecessarily ahead of Denver:
Fishlock: "Honestly, we all know the situation — every team knows it. This league is notoriously chaotic around this time — at least for the 14 years I've been in it, it's always been the same. So adding unnecessary pressure or anxiety into one game is just not the way to go. We have six games left. Every one of those games is going to be important, and every one is going to get more and more important as the weeks go on, as everybody plays everyone, as people take points off everyone. So narrowing it down to this one game is not going to be super beneficial for us. All we need to do is focus on ourselves, our performances, our principles. Today that really wasn't us in terms of how we deal with set plays and things like that, so we just have to learn from today and take it into our next performance, and our next performance, and our next performance — that's where we're going to get to where we want to get to."
On the game being closer than the scoreline suggested, and the need to be more clinical:
Fishlock: "I think it's really meaningful, and I think it's going to matter a lot going forward throughout the season. Honestly, if you take away the two set-play goals in the first half, I don't really think there was much in it — they had three shots on goal and scored three goals, it's not like they had a gazillion shots on goal, and we didn't have many either. It was just that kind of game. We have to look at our decision-making in the final third, because it wasn't that we didn't get in there — we just have to be a little bit cleaner. So when you see two goals at halftime you might think Angel City dominated, and I just don't think it was that type of game. We had chances — I had chances in the first half, I hit the post, I had another chance that got blocked. It was a game where, ultimately, they took their chances and we didn't. We just have to be a little bit more clean in the final third and be ruthless, which is something we've talked about over the last few weeks. So like I said, I don't think this is a rip-up-the-playbook-and-start-all-over-again moment. Yes, it's a loss, it's super frustrating, but I believe we're going to be okay. I trust this group tremendously. Like Phoebe said, our depth is fantastic, and it's going to get us through, I believe, these next six games."
On the halftime message and trying to get back into the game:
McClernon: "We wanted to get pressure on them in more advanced positions. We wanted to be winning the ball back in higher positions on the field so that we could hopefully create momentum in their half, as opposed to trying to clear the ball out of ours, and I think that worked to a pretty good extent. Just being more on the front foot, basically, a little bit more than we were in the first half — and first and second balls, really, because that was the momentum of this game. When we won them we got momentum, and when we lost them they got momentum. So it was just, can we be a little bit tighter and cleaner in those areas."
On scoring in 15 straight games, a new team record:
McClernon: "I think it means a ton — I think that's a sick record for us to hold. I think this group has the potential to score in so many different ways, and I think you've seen that throughout the last 15 games. Like Jess said, our ability to be ruthless around the goal is the only thing separating us from a championship right now, it feels. So just being able to keep building on that — don't accept a streak as enough, because it's not. We need to get more goals and we need to keep clean sheets, and there's still so much to grow from. But that's a really positive takeaway, and something I'll definitely be proud of."
Fishlock: "That's also the evolution of this group over the last two years, especially the growth in the last six months. We don't need to be too devastated about this — it's going to hurt, of course, losing sucks all the time, and losing by conceding two set plays is going to really hurt when we watch film tomorrow. But like you said, we score goals, we have to clean up a few things, and really take that into the weekend and get back on track to what we've been doing over the last six months. Like I said, we will not let this game define us, and we will come back stronger."
