Seattle Reign continued a challenging three-game week with a Wednesday evening visit to BMO Stadium in Los Angeles to face Angel City FC. The two teams were only four points apart in the standings going into the evening, with one on each side of the playoff line. Angel City capitalized on set pieces to punish the Reign, winning 3-1 in a game where Seattle never quite found their footing.
The Reign were under pressure from the opening whistle, with Angel City controlling the tempo and keeping the ball in the Reign half for much of the opening quarter-hour, although they had very little to show for it due to some timely blocks and mishit shots. That changed in the 18th minute, when an Angel City corner fell loose in the box, and in the ensuing scramble the ball hit Angharad James-Turner’s elbow. The referee immediately pointed to the spot and Ally Sentnor buried the penalty.
After the first goal the Reign grew into the game, but it was Angel City who once again punished them on a set piece in the 40th minute. Ary Borges was left unmarked on the near side and redirected a laser corner kick just inside the far post, leaving Claudia Dickey flat-footed. For most of the second half the game became choppy, with neither side really having too much to show until Angel City made some changes in the 80th minute. Taylor Suarez entered and immediately made an impact for the home side, taking a couple of touches in the box to open some space and rifling a shot into the upper corner for Angel City’s third goal of the night. Seattle ultimately got a consolation goal from Sofia Huerta late in stoppage time.
The Reign remain in the 8th and final playoff spot, but in a much more precarious position now that Angel City is only one point behind them.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK: Set-piece defense
Angel City is the best team in the league on set pieces, having scored 9 goals coming into tonight’s game. Both of their first-half goals tonight were the direct result of corner kicks where the Reign defense stumbled, and their third goal came almost immediately off a throw-in. There wasn’t much that James-Turner could do about the handling call for the penalty – the shot came in very close proximity and she was turned away from the ball to shield herself, with it striking the back of her elbow – but once the call was made there was no clear and obvious error to overturn.
Ally Sentnor. Calm. Cool. Collected. 🎯
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 7:35 PM · Sep 16, 2026
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The second goal was a complete defensive breakdown, with no one tracking Borges as she ran across the box. Too many Seattle players were doing zonal marking inside the six yard box, Jess Fishlock was left to track two runners, and no one identified the danger until it was far too late. The third we’ll discuss in the next part.
Up, Up, and In 🚀 Angel City doubles their lead with a beautiful header from Ary Borges!
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 7:57 PM · Sep 16, 2026
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WHAT DIDN’T WORK: Substitution patterns
On short rest and having traveled over 1500 miles and with another long travel day and game at altitude in only three days, Seattle looked completely out of sorts. Their passing and ball control were poor and they kept getting pinned back in their own end. Laura Harvey made four changes from her lineup on the weekend against Bay FC, starting Claudia Dickey, Madison Curry, Jess Fishlock and Mia Fishel tonight, but even with an experienced lineup the team could not get in sync.
Despite the struggles, Harvey opted not to make any changes until 72nd minute, at which point the team finally started holding some possession and making progress moving the ball forward. But it was Angel City whose substitutes proved to be the gamechangers. Taylor Suarez entered the match in the 81st minute, received the ball off a throw-in, and took two touches to set herself up for a beautiful arcing finish to the far upper corner. The goal took any remaining hope out of the game for the Reign, although they continued to fight for a goal until the final whistle.
Super Sub Suarez 🦸♀️ In this one clip you can watch Taylor Suarez get subbed-in and then score a goal... all within 20 seconds 🤯
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 8:58 PM · Sep 16, 2026
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What sort-of worked – The Etsy witch blessing
The Reign set a new club record by scoring in their 15th consecutive game. The old record was set all the way back in the final game of 2013 and the first 13 matches of the legendary 2014 season. While the result didn’t go their way tonight, the team has yet to be shut out since our pals The Cooler Guild paid for a blessing from an Etsy witch after the team’s fifth-straight shutout loss to Gotham back in May.
The Reign still need to do better with their finishing (they had 25 touches in the Angel City box, but only 3 shots on target to show for all that potential danger), but they have dug in and found ways to score game in and game out, be that from crosses, from penalties, from individual brilliance, or in the case of this game, from kicking the absolute crap out of it from 25 yards out.
Sofia Huerta pulls one back with an incredible goal ⚡
— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc.com) 9:05 PM · Sep 16, 2026
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Quotes
“We need to get more goals and we need to keep clean sheets”
Asked about the team setting a new club record for consecutive games with a goal after their scoring struggles early in the season, defender Phoebe McClernon was proud but felt that the team still has more to do on both sides of the ball if they want to earn that first postseason trophy.
“I think this this group that we have has the potential to score in so many different ways, and I think that you've seen that throughout the last 15 games. Our ability to be ruthless around the goal is the only thing that's 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 that we definitely will be proud of.”
“Every one of those games is going to be important”
Jess Fishlock was asked if the loss tonight put added pressure on the team to get a result at Denver on Saturday. As someone who has been around the league for a long time, she cautioned about putting too much pressure on any one match with six still to go.
“Obviously 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 of those games is going to get more and more and more important as the weeks go on, as everybody plays everyone, as people take points off everyone, so really kind of narrowing it down on this one game is not going to be super beneficial for us. All we need to do is honestly focus on ourselves, focus on our performances, focus on our principles.”
The Reign won’t have much time to dwell on this result. The team has a recovery and film day tomorrow in LA, then flies directly to Colorado to prepare for a game against the Denver Summit on Saturday evening. That game kicks off at 5:45 PM PT and will air on ION TV.
