On a pleasant Sunday evening, the Reign welcomed the San Diego Wave to Lumen Field, took advantage of an early red card, scored a first-half goal, and saw out a nervy second half to secure all three points in a crucial matchup for their playoff hopes.
The Reign looked good coming out of the gate, opening the match with the better looks and more dangerous possession. Maddie Dahlien looked particularly up for it, breaking the Wave's line of confrontation several times in the opening minutes. She had the Reign's first decent look at goal in the 7th minute, and though she ultimately didn't do much to challenge Wave goalkeeper Sandra Paños, it was an early warning sign of San Diego's inability to contain her.
Just three minutes later, she beat the Wave backline to a long through ball, splitting Mimi Van Zanten and Kennedy Wesley and earning a clear path to goal. Van Zanten stabbed for the ball, but got none of it and plenty of Dahlien's ankle.
After a recommendation from the VAR booth and a trip to the monitor, referee Abdou Ndiaye showed Van Zanten a red card and gave the Reign a player advantage from the 13th minute.
Seattle promptly took advantage, generating a number of looks at goal in the minutes that followed: a Sally Menti header that skipped wide of the far post, a Sam Meza blast from distance that soared wide the opposite direction, a quick turn and clever shot by Mia Fishel that squeaked just wide again.
The breakthrough finally came in the 29th minute as Maddie Dahlien made one more marauding run down the left, capping it off with a brilliantly placed delivery that Maddie Mercado jumped to head home. The Reign had their lead, San Diego looked out of sorts, and with a player advantage, a big statement win seemed there for the taking.
As is so often the case in sports, that wasn't quite how it played out. While the Reign controlled the majority of the first half, San Diego started to find their feet again in the final minutes, capping off the half with Trinity Byars' first real chance of the night. And then, after the break, the Wave came out like a team on a mission.
Joining at the half, one might be forgiven for thinking the Reign, and not the Wave, were playing down a player: San Diego adjusted brilliantly, clogging up the space the Reign had been exploiting and putting numbers in the midfield to disrupt the Reign's buildout and develop long spells of possession of their own. Though they struggled to find the killer ball or the clear-cut chance to bring the game back to level terms, they had the Reign on the ropes, holding 67% possession and outshooting the Reign 9-1 in the second half.
Ludmila, a name Reign fans may remember from her devastating performances against Seattle last year, put in a particularly brilliant shift, finding the ball for two of San Diego's three good chances, first in the 55th minute then again in the 81st, when she went in hard against goalkeeper Claudia Dickey on a 50/50 ball that ended in a bad collision and left both players down on the turf. After being treated on the pitch for a few minutes, Dickey ultimately exited the game as a concussion sub.
From that point, the Reign – and substitute goalkeeper Cassie Miller – were able to milk the sting out of the game and see things out comfortably. The Wave didn't manage another shot, and Ndiaye blew the whistle for full time, securing a hard-fought three points for the home side.
WHAT WORKED: Maddie 2 Maddie
A week after Maddie Mercado assisted Maddie Dahlien for the game-winning goal, Dahlien returned the favor, putting in a beauty of a cross after breaking free at the endline. Mercado made no mistake, taking advantage of a disorganized San Diego defense to rise up and knock it home.
MADDIE² Maddie Dahlien ➡️ Maddie Mercado HEADER!!
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 6:42 PM · Sep 6, 2026
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It was Mercado's team-leading 8th goal of the season, and Dahlien's 3rd assist.
WHAT (MOSTLY) WORKED: Substitutes seeing it out
It took the Reign the better part of 40 minutes to find their feet in the second half, but a long pause while Claudia Dickey was assessed for injury provided a much-needed breather, and substitutes Nérilia Mondésir, Brittany Ratcliffe and Jess Fishlock were able to calm the game down and get the Reign organized. All three contributed heavily to killing off the clock, winning the ball, carrying to the corner, and denying the Wave any easy possession to find their groove.
WHAT (MOSTLY) WORKED: Winning ugly
While you don't want to have to win ugly, especially when you're playing up a player for 75-plus minutes, sometimes the game in front of you takes more grit than glory. While San Diego made excellent tactical adjustments and was able to seize control of the match from Seattle in the second half, they manufactured only a few looks at goal with their significant possession advantage, none of them particularly clear cut. The Reign bent, but did not break, and secured an ugly win – and those three points count just the same when you scrap and struggle for them as when you run away with them.
Win secure, it's now on the team to watch the tape and get back to training so they can better take advantage next time they have a clear upper hand.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Punishing the mistakes
Maddie Dahlien earned the red card, and Maddie Mercado bagged the game-winning goal, but the Reign had opportunities to put the game to bed and they couldn't make them count. Mia Fishel, Maddie Mercado, Jess Fishlock, and Nérilia Mondésir all had chances to pounce and put a second goal on the board, and all four saw those chances evaporate without even finding a shot. Credit to San Diego for fighting hard to deny them, but up a player and with options in every case, the Reign needed to be able to find the pass, the play, or the challenge to slam the door closed.
The Reign let San Diego hang around, and San Diego, even down a player, grew into the game. When you let that happen, you're always one bad moment away from dropped points and questions with no good answers.
"She literally put her body on the line for us."
Speaking to the performance of the Reign's two goalkeepers, Sofia Huerta talked up San Diego's quality in possession but focused on the big moments Claudia Dickey and Cassie Miller showed up for when asked:
"We talked about that going into the game, that San Diego's an incredible team, especially on the ball. They are really fluid. They have such attacking forces on their team. So, we knew we had to be big defensively and that that was going to be a whole team effort. I think when you look at our whole back line and the defending we did, with our press, and the midfield had to do a lot of work. But our goalkeepers really stepped it up. I mean, Claudia on that last save – she literally put her body on the line for us.
"Unfortunately she did have to come out; she has a little gash on her forehead. But Cassie came in and did her job, and we're extremely proud of both of them."
"We never wanted to feel like that again."
Asked about the last time the Reign had a player advantage, a bleakly memorable 2-0 road loss to the Portland Thorns, Maddie Dahlien answered emphatically.
"Yeah, we never wanted to feel like that again. Portland was not a great performance. I don't think we made it the easiest for ourselves today, but there was growth in that. We got the clean sheet. We got three points. So we're going to dissect what we need to get better at, but it's a great turnaround to have a performance like that after we had a performance like Portland at the beginning of the season."
Huerta added her own thoughts:
"I think when the team goes down a man, sometimes it feels like a relief, they're down, so we're at an advantage, but it's not as easy as it sounds. In fact sometimes I feel it can be more difficult, there's added pressure onto that. I feel like the good thing about what we did this time around is we scored quickly, we took advantage of that. And then there's a lot of defending towards the end of the game, but a win's a win. Now we're five games unbeaten at home, which we're really proud of. We want to keep winning, so we can stay on the playoff line and hopefully get a home playoff game, to play in front of our fans."
The Reign are back in action on Saturday, September 12th when they host Bay FC at Lumen Field. The kicks off at at 5:00 PM Pacific, and will be streaming on NWSL+.
