On Sunday evening, Seattle Reign hosted a San Diego Wave side sitting fourth in the table and got an early break when a DOGSO (denial of a goal-scoring opportunity) challenge by Mimi Van Zanten on Maddie Dahlien earned a red card just 13 minutes in. The Reign made the most of their numerical advantage in the first half, going ahead in the 29th minute when Maddie Mercado headed home Dahlien's cross.
San Diego settled in after the halftime break, controlling possession and keeping things tense until the final whistle. The Reign held on for a 1-0 victory that kept them above Angel City and in eighth place, the final playoff spot.
The Reign (10-8-4) conclude their three-game homestand on Saturday, September 11, when they host Bay FC (6-12-4). The match kicks off at 5 p.m. PT and will stream on NWSL+.
June Ash Eden
Highlights
Stats
SCORING SUMMARY
29' - Maddie Mercado (Assisted by Maddie Dahlien) - SEA
LINEUPS
Tonight’s starting XI in Seattle ⚡️ #SEAvSD Lineup Notes ➡️ rgnfc.com/3UHavgH
— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc.com) 5:04 PM · Sep 6, 2026
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64' - Holly Ward for Mia Fishel; Jess Fishlock for Sally Menti
85' - Cassie Miller for Claudia Dickey; Nérilia Mondésir for Maddie Dahlien; Madison Curry for Ryanne Brown
90+6' - Brittany Ratcliffe for Maddie Mercado
THE SD XI IN SEATTLE 🌊
— San Diego Wave FC (@sandiegowavefc.com) 5:11 PM · Sep 6, 2026
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14' - Brooklyn Courtnall for Melanie Barcenas
46' - Gia Corley for Lia Godfrey
71' - Laila Harbert for Kimmi Ascanio
89' - Adriana Leon for Trinity Byars
90+6' - Tatum Wynalda for Kristen McNabb
ATTENDANCE
9,104
POSSESSION
Reign: 41.1%
Wave: 58.9%
EXPECTED GOALS
Reign: 0.73
Wave: 0.93
TOTAL SHOTS
Reign: 9
Wave: 13
SHOTS ON TARGET
Reign: 4
Wave: 6
SHOTS OFF TARGET
Reign: 4
Wave: 3
SHOTS BLOCKED
Reign: 1
Wave: 4
SHOTS FROM INSIDE THE BOX
Reign: 5
Wave: 6
TOUCHES INSIDE THE OPP. BOX
Reign: 21
Wave: 23
PASSES
Reign: 368
Wave: 537
PASSING ACCURACY
Reign: 83.4%
Wave: 85.1%
PASSES IN FINAL THIRD
Reign: 109
Wave: 102
PASS ACCURACY IN FINAL THIRD
Reign: 72.5%
Wave: 72.5%
CROSSES (EXCLUDING CORNERS)
Reign: 9
Wave: 6
CORNERS TAKEN
Reign: 2
Wave: 4
OFFSIDES
Reign: 1
Wave: 1
FOULS
Reign: 17
Wave: 7
YELLOW CARDS
Reign: 2
Wave: 0
RED CARDS
Reign: 0
Wave: 1
g+ GameFlow: NWSL Regular Season Seattle Reign v San Diego Wave on September 06, 2026. #RGNvSD ⚽️🤖
— g+ GameFlow (@gameflow.bsky.social) 10:24 PM · Sep 6, 2026
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Seattle Reign FC: 1 (0.73 xG) vs San Diego Wave FC: 0 (0.93 xG) #SEAvSD | #HerefortheCrown | #MakeWaves | #NWSL | 🤖⚽
— NWSL Analytics (@nwslstat.bsky.social) 8:46 PM · Sep 6, 2026
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Quotes
Laura Harvey
On the match and the comparison to the early season Portland loss:
"Huge three points, but we definitely made it hard on ourselves. It's interesting — I was talking to the players after, and obviously the last time we played against a team that was down a player or two was against Portland, and we sort of trashed that and never spoke about it again. I think this game will be a really good one for us to learn from, which you can do when you win, because I think we could control the game way more. I do think they're a very, very good team. I said to Jonas [Wave head coach Jonas Eidevall] at the end, and I wasn't trying to be patronizing at all, in total respect, I think they're the best team in the league — definitely, in my opinion, the most enjoyable to watch. Credit to them, they played really well down to 10. But I'll give our group a lot of credit. I thought there's been moments this year, a lot of it in the first half of the season, where maybe we'd have crumbled in those moments, but we didn't. So really, really happy with the result — huge three points, to take six points off that team is massive. But from a performance perspective, we're not overly happy about a lot of things. We can talk about it and we'll learn from it for sure."
On Claudia Dickey's injury:
"I'm told she's getting stitches at the hospital currently."
On Maddie Mercado becoming the team's leading scorer this season:
"It's hard, right, because we play more games, so I think you got to put that in a bit of perspective. After she came back from Carolina, that loan was amazing for her and for us, and she showed then that she knows where the goal is. Again, you all know I black out a little bit on goals, but I just saw her rise and head it — how it got there, I've got no idea. But yeah, just really happy for her. She's been consistent too, which is great."
On Maddie Dahlien's assist, drawing the red card, and her mentality:
"Maddie Dahlien's a winner, that's what Maddie Dahlien is. She's a winner and she's growing week by week, day by day. She wants to challenge herself to be better, she's never settling for where she's at. That's a mentality that, if you have it in any player irrelevant of age, that's something as coaches you want to work with. She wants to be the best, and that's all I can ask for. When you've got that mentality, you're willing to do anything and everything to win — she'd run over anyone to win, without a doubt. And she matches that with quality when it's needed, and she did that tonight."
On Angharad James-Turner's performance filling in at midfield:
"They're a really tough midfield, they combine really well. But especially in the second half, I thought she was the one winning the most duels — I could be wrong, but it felt that way — and putting her foot in, nicking things and breaking play up. So yeah, I thought she did well."
On Jordyn Bugg pushing forward from the back:
"Jordyn Bugg is a top player currently, but she will be one of the best. What makes her really good is how comfortable she is in every aspect. We joke about it a lot — I think we joked about it last year when she scored that banger in North Carolina — in small-sided games, she never sits at the back, she's always up scoring, trying to score. I think a little bit of her being on the outside was off a set piece, with Sof [Huerta] just going central. But again, I think it's actually a good example of — and I said to the players at halftime — yeah, they're down to 10 players, but we have to have purpose in what we're doing, and when we didn't have purpose, we allowed them to have more purpose. Jordyn is young and she wants to get better, she wants to be the best too, she has that mentality. But the thing that makes her great is she's just so calm and comfortable, and in that moment she's like, 'Oh, space, I'll run into it,' and there's me on the sideline having a heart attack."
On San Diego seizing momentum in the second half:
"We couldn't stop, couldn't get pressure on the ball and protect what we needed to protect. When we brought Coco [Mondesir] on, we decided to get our wingers to press and keep Jess [Fishlock] and Maddie [Mercado] central, and we should have done that earlier. I'm going to give them a lot of credit for that — I thought their midfield diamond, whatever you want to call it, of [Kenza] Dali and Kimmi Ascanio and [Gia] Corley, [Lia] Godfrey, whoever, everyone that was in there, they're very, very good in tight spaces, and we struggled with that tonight. That's something we have to solve."
On closing out the game after Dickey went off:
"The changing of the press — that was what changed. That's something we should have done at halftime, that's on me. In fairness, they changed a little bit too, but that's something we've got to solve. Teams can't do that. It's hard when we're very much a team that builds from our game plan, and when we execute our game plan well and the team we're playing does what we expect, really good things happen. When our game plan suddenly has to shift and change, we find that a challenge. That's something we just need to get a little bit better at."
On tunnel vision and missing overloads on the other side of the field:
"We fell into the trap that they wanted. We kept going down the same side, and we'd get frustrated at giving the ball away when an easier solve was just moving it, shifting it and swinging it. It's a bit of a mental thing, I think, when you're playing against a team that has fewer players, because you're like, well, why can't I find a pass and why isn't there a spare — and the reality is football's not that easy. We've got to act like they still have 11 players on the field, and with that there will be space that opens up. We would dribble when we needed to pass quickly, we would go down one side when we needed to switch it. But again, all of these things we can really dig in and solve. We did a lot of those conversations, which were really hard, after Portland, because Portland was just a disaster. But when you win a game like this, and you know deep down that poor performance needs to be better, what this group's really, really good at is they've got an appetite to want to learn and develop. It's my job to give them the solutions to the problems, and that's something we'll do this week."
On the run of form and playoff push since the break:
"Points are a premium. Someone asked me yesterday if we're officially in the playoff push, and I said that started on July 4th, after what was a really good start to the season. We had a really tough May and put ourselves in a position where we couldn't afford for that to keep happening. I think you've just seen a shift in us — whether it be seeing games out, whether it be scoring multiple goals, which is something we need to get back to — but there's been a definite shift in mentality, and that July 4th game in North Carolina was the start of what I think was the playoff push. Winning games at home in this league has always been super valuable. Thankfully we've got one more next week before we go on two tough road games."
On what the result means for closing the gap into the top six/four:
"Let me be clear — I'm very happy we won, let me be real clear about that. I'm just not overly happy with our performance. The result I'm extremely happy about. Points are a premium right now, and we do live in a process-driven environment, that's how we work. Results aren't the be-all and end-all, and this is a really good example of that — we could not talk about this game and dig into it because we won. How we actually operate is if we win, we're probably way more critical on ourselves about our performance than we are if the outcome isn't as positive. We're very process-driven, and that's what makes this group so great — their appetite to want to learn and be better. Even if I was willing to sort of put it to bed and not talk about it, they wouldn't accept that. They want to learn, they want to get better, and as a coach that's all I can ask for. When you get a performance you're not happy with but you get a result, it's actually the best time to really dig in, which is what we'll do this week."
Sofia Huerta and Maddie Dahlien
On both goalkeepers' performances and the defensive effort to keep San Diego off the board:
Huerta: "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 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. 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."
On facing an early red card again and turning it into a win this time, unlike the Portland game:
Dahlien:"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 a 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: "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."
On assisting Maddie Mercado's goal:
Dahlien: "Yeah, we find each other a lot in training. It's just really exciting to see her flourish this year. She deserves it so much, she's such a hard worker. It's really cool to see our attacking front evolve and create relationships on the field. I'm just super happy for her and happy to get that goal."
On the team's strong form and mentality since the break:
Huerta: "Really, it's just the mentality. I feel like we went through that stint where we weren't winning a lot — we went five games or whatever without scoring. And what I really noticed about the team is that there was never this negative attitude. It was like, how can we get better, I want to be a sponge, I want to learn, I want to grow. There was a lot of leadership from the staff, from Laura, just reminding the team that this league is crazy — anything can happen, you can lose three, four, five games in a row and still go up. So what I'm really proud of from the group is that there was never a die mentality. It was, we're always going to come up, we're going to keep winning, we're going to keep growing and getting better. I think you've seen that as the games have gone on. Like Maddie said, I don't think today was the prettiest, but I think good teams win when they don't play their best. So I'm still looking forward to when we have a complete performance and what it's going to look like."
On San Diego generating more looks in the second half despite playing a man down:
Dahlien: "Like Sof said earlier, I think sometimes it's easier said than done to be up a player. I think we just fed into their hands a little bit. We weren't as clean as we wanted to be on the ball, but then also defensively, I think we shifted ways we got pressure on the ball — maybe that had an impact on the game and we can watch it back. But like we said, it wasn't the prettiest, but I'm really proud that we kept the clean sheet, and I think it's just something we can look at and grow."
On defending San Diego's transitions and the team's off-the-ball shape:
Huerta: "I feel like we're typically a team who wants to be on the front foot and press very high up the field, but with this game specifically, because they have such threats up top with Trinity [Byars] and Ludmila, we really focused on keeping it compact in the back and trying to get San Diego to stay in their half. They're class players, so they're definitely going to have moments where we have someone on them and they're able to get out of pressure with just their ability on the ball, and I think you saw that several times. But I have to give it to our midfielders — and Haz, Sam, Mia, Sally, Jess, even our front line — regardless of if we got broken, we still got shape behind the ball, we didn't let them take advantage when they did break us. Our backline stayed pretty disciplined in that, and we were able to just stop them from being dangerous a lot of the time, except that last play where Ludmila got in behind, but Claudia was there to save us. Really proud of the group's performance in terms of how we showed up defensively, because that team is a very, very good team."
On drawing the red card after two penalty shouts went against her the previous game:
Dahlien: "Obviously last game those two calls didn't go my way, but I just try not to let that affect me mentally. Going into this game, their right back got really high, so there was space in behind, and I was just going to chase that down. I think you saw my surprise in the moment that it wasn't called right away, but that's what VAR is for. The calls aren't always going to go your way, but I think it's the reaction that I can always work on. I was happy that I got the call today."
On Maddie Mercado's season leading the team in goals:
Huerta: "Yeah, Maddie, in my opinion, came to the Reign and immediately had an impact — even though that might not have been something that everybody else saw, but I saw that as a player who practiced with her every day. She's always been a phenomenal teammate and player, she's incredibly technical, she knows the game really well, and she's very versatile. I think you've seen her play at the nine, the 10, now you've seen her play winger — sometimes at training she'll play outside back. Over the last couple years, she's a player who can really play anywhere. Something I'm really proud of her for, too, is that even though it was hard, she decided to leave last year to go on loan, and since she's been back, she's been on fire — that's the Maddie that we all see and love. She's just someone who's always going to show up, be her best, work hard, and she's effective. I can't remember the last time we had a Reign player score in the double digits, so I know Maddie's on her way there, and that's something that we love to see — we love seeing her at the end of Maddie Dahlien's crosses, we love seeing her in there getting shots, she has an incredible shot. As a teammate, I just love seeing her have success — she's like the best player and best person, so I'm happy that everyone's seen her flourish. As Maddie said earlier, too, she's been so dominant aerially, which is something that's missing sometimes in this league — that header was banged in the back of the net, and it's been really cool to see that element of her game rise too."
