Seattle Reign shut down Boston Legacy, 2-0

It was a good, if damp, night at Lumen Field for the Reign faithful.

Jess Fishlock scored a brace from outside the box, Claudia Dickey pitched a shutout despite picking up a knock to her hand early in the second half, and the defense kept Aïssata Traoré and the Boston Legacy attack exceedingly quiet en route to a comfortable 2-0 home field win.

It all started out a little wobbly – the Legacy came out of the gate with more energy and much more possession, and the first shot of the match fell to Barbara Olivieri just inside the penalty area. She had a hit, but it was harmlessly blocked out by Phoebe McClernon. It was the only shot Boston would muster in the first half.

By the 20th minute, the Reign had taken over. While Boston still managed plenty of possession, they couldn't get it into dangerous areas, and the Reign turned them over seemingly at will, producing a series of half-chances and near-misses as Boston's defense progressively withdrew deeper. The breakthrough came in the 23rd minute. Maddie Dahlien won the ball in the middle of the park, putting it forward for Fishlock. Though Dahlien was fouled on the play, referee Elton Garcia signaled advantage as Fishlock touched the ball forward then laced it from 28 yards, beating Casey Murphy to the far bottom corner with a knuckling finish.

Up a goal and with the confidence flowing free, the Reign took over the game for the rest of the half. Mia Fishel got her head to the ball from six yards out off a 37th minute corner, flashing it across the face of goal, but no Reign player could find the touch to finish it. Sofia Huerta got a free look off a cross herself in the 43rd, but headed it directly into Casey Murphy's foot, and the Reign were forced to settle for a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.

The second half started with more of the same, the Reign nearly doubling their lead in the 46th minute as Dahlien cut in from the wing, but her top-shelf strike was corralled by Murphy again. Boston started finding their way back into the game, trying to take the shots the Reign were offering them, but only two – a 57th minute strike by Alba Caño directly off a throw-in and a 59th minute breakout by Aïssata – forced Dickey into action.

Desperately chasing hopeful balls searching for the equalizer, both Aïssata and Sammy Smith fouled Dickey in the course of a few minutes, and Garcia briefly paused play while her hand was taped up. When play resumed, the Reign broke up Boston's spell of pressure and secured their second goal. In the 63rd minute, Fishlock clipped the ball to Ainsley McCammon, who found Dahlien on the run. Fishlock, trailing Dahlien, made herself available for the cutback pass, and struck it quickly to the top corner from just outside the penalty box.

Suddenly, Boston's half-chances didn't look so threatening, and the Reign were comfortably in control.

For the last half hour of the match, the Reign continued to control things. Boston managed just one more shot, from well outside the penalty area, while the Reign had numerous opportunities to add a third. None looked better than Fishel's effort in the 71st minute, where she quickly controlled the ball and, seeing Murphy off her line, put a beautiful arc on her chip, only to watch it glance harmlessly off the corner of the woodwork.

While Boston got Aïssata out on the run a couple more times, the Reign handled them admirably, and saw the last few minutes of the match out professionally. Garcia blew the whistle for full time, and the Reign banked another big home win, both eliminating the Legacy from playoff contention and propelling themselves back above the playoff line for the moment.

WHAT WORKED: Fishlock flair

Jess Fishlock needed just 21 touches and two looks from downtown to define the game. The first goal was a beautiful example of doing more with less, coming just a few touches after Dahlien did the work (and ate the contact) to force a dangerous turnover:

The second came on a quick counter, and both started and finished with Fishlock. She found Ainsley McCammon and continued her run nearly the length of the field before collecting the ball from Dahlien and beating Casey Murphy from range a second time:

She also became the Reign's all-time leading regular-season goalscorer with 52 career tallies, and the oldest NWSL player to record a brace in league play, breaking Christine Sinclair's record.

WHAT WORKED: Defending as a unit

The Reign held the Legacy to 8 shots and just 0.42 expected goals, allowing the visiting side plenty of possession but almost nothing productive to do with it. While Claudia Dickey was called into action twice in quick succession in the second half, and put her body on the line and absorbed the foul three times in the last half hour, Boston's attack could never get going for long, and the Reign always looked more likely to score when they broke out than to concede when they recovered.

This has been a familiar pattern for the Reign, who have weathered pressure and fought for the clean sheet time after time on their home pitch. It was the Reign's fifth consecutive shutout at Lumen, and stretches their home shutout streak to 468 minutes overall. The last time a team scored against the Reign at Lumen Field was Prisca Chilufya for Angel City on August 9th.

WHAT (ALMOST) DIDN'T WORK: Containing Aïssata

The Legacy didn't have many big moments, but every time Aïssata Traoré got out on the run, she looked like the real deal, giving Jordyn Bugg and Phoebe McClernon all they could handle. She beat McClernon cold in the 18th minute, and Phoebe was lucky not to see a card for the foul that stopped her attack. In the 59th minute, she beat the Reign's line again, easily the closest the Legacy got to scoring. Later, both Bugg and McClernon had to come up with big defensive plays to turn her back and preserve the shutout.

The Reign were able to keep her contained, but it was the work of multiple defenders coming up big and a narrow escape to get there.

"I can't wait to text her and tell her"

After breaking the club’s regular-season goals record, Jess Fishlock first laughed off passing Megan Rapinoe in the record books before taking focus back to the team's season journey:

"Well, firstly, I can't wait to text her and tell [Rapinoe], unfortunately, I broke your record. Look, to be honest, I don't even know these stats when I go into games. Obviously, it's nice to just know that, you know, I've played for so long and I'm doing something useful. But it's more about the team and what we were able to do today. We were disappointed in ourselves last week, and this was a chance for us to bounce back and react in the ways that we know we can.

"So yes, I scored the goal, I got the record, which is super fun. But we got the three points, and I think we put on a good performance today. So that's what I think is the most important."

"I mean, she leaves me speechless a lot of the time," Maddie Dahlien followed up. "She's one of the best players I've ever played with, and to play alongside her is just such an honor. I'm learning from her every day, and I'm going to be so emotional when she leaves. It's really great to be able to learn from her. And – I have no doubt in my mind when I pass her the ball, she's going to put it in the back of the net."

"I told you I was ready"

"Yeah that was a good one," Laura Harvey snickered about Jess Fishlock's 2015 game-tying header in the rain against Sky Blue, before jumping into a response about Fishlock's big moments, and managing the emotions after she'd delivered yet another one but there was still half an hour of game to play.

"She'd changed the game at that point. She'd done her job. She came off and she said, literally, in the hug, I told you I was ready. And I'm like, yeah, you did, you showed it, can't argue with it. That's sort of the relationship that I've had with Jess, and that I've had with a lot of players – I trust them. I think they trust me. Jess' role has changed over the last two years, and I think that was challenging for her initially. There's no doubt that she's so impactful coming off the bench, but it's important that if we need her and she's available, she can start.

"I felt all week that once she felt good, she was able to wrap her head around what she needed to do, and she was able to execute it, she was pretty much the first name in that front four that went down. She was playing herself into it.

"We want to send her off the right way, and I'm glad she was able to give us a really good chance to do that again tonight."

Up next, the Reign host the North Carolina Courage at Lumen Field in a match with massive playoff implications. The match will take place on Friday, October 2nd at 7:00 PM Pacific, and will stream on NWSL+.