Heading out on the road, the Reign had everything going their way. A four-point lead for the last playoff spot. Two matches against their nearest rivals for it to secure things. A series of results around the league that left the door open for a huge jump in the standings.
They categorically failed to take advantage.
And yeah, the travel was rough, the team was clearly gassed, both Angel City and Denver had extra days of rest on them, and the absence of Ainsley McCammon was felt more keenly than perhaps anybody watching would have expected. There's context. There's reasons.
Nobody's going to care about the context or the reasons.
Much like against Angel City, the Reign weren't exactly speedbagged by Denver, and the goals they gave up were bangers, and they gave up relatively few clear-cut chances. But again, much like against Angel City, they created even less, found themselves on the wrong side of some killer finishes, and were out of the match looking for a way back in with only their own play to blame.
It wasn't a disaster, but the Reign's pathway to a playoff spot – let alone a good seed for the postseason, let alone a home game – got much, much narrower. They're on the outside looking in, and they'll need to put together much better results, and much better performances, to get back into the conversation.
Goalkeeper
Claudia Dickey – 7 (POTM)
Good. When you think of Claudia Dickey, think of that 83rd minute save on Tash Flint, off her right foot from six yards and central. That shot had an xGOT of 0.95. Claudia just went and casually saved it anyway, getting a hand down behind her to stop the ball slipping through her legs and sitting on it to secure it. It looked kind of awkward and therefore won't get much attention for how good a stop it actually was, but it fuckin' should.
Bad. While I have very few deep criticisms of Dickey's game in this one, she was too indecisive in distribution, losing the opportunity to either build out or break lines by taking too long to get the ball off her foot. It's a tendency that also allows the opposition to pressure her aggressively, which Denver did on several occasions.
Ugly. The last four goals Claudia Dickey has conceded have had a combined xG of 0.34. Two matches in a row, she's faced some wickedly good finishing through crowds and from hard angles. What are bad-to-mid chances on an ordinary day have been turning into improbable bangers instead. Hate to see it for her.
Defenders
Ryanne Brown – 4 (off 79' for Madison Curry)
Good. Brown connected 10 progressive passes, and in the 66th minute, she got up aggressively and won a header in the attacking penalty area. Flashed it wide, but the end-to-end effort trying to get a point back was nice to see, and Brown can be a sneaky good option in the box when chasing a goal.
Bad. This was, all around, possibly Ryanne's roughest outing since returning from injury. Every pass she completed put the Reign into a better position, but she completed just half of her attempts while leaving way too much space behind defensively. If I were to sum her match up in one stat, it's this: she turned the ball over in possession 13 times on 46 touches. Ouch.
Ugly. The midfield folded under pressure, and Brown had to eat more of that pressure than she was ready or able to.
Phoebe McClernon – 6
Good. The most reliable standard-bearer of the Reign's defense for several years running, McClernon was once again a huge reason this game stayed in hand. She had the joint-most defensive contributions, the most clearances, completed the second-most passes, and put in a really picture-perfect play-breaking tackle to keep the game at 2-1 late.
Bad. Though she didn't lose to her attacker often, she gave Flint way too much leeway in the 50th minute, and Flint responded by drilling a shot from a what should have been a covered position directly into the top corner. Annoying.
Ugly. She was whistled for just one foul, a yeah-fair-enough heel clip defending Lindsey Heaps in holdup that Heaps made a meal of. Not content to simply whistle the free kick, Danielle Chesky showed her a card for it, and I still am really not sure where it came from, especially given the enormous physicality shown elsewhere on the pitch without the benefit of a cheese.
Jordyn Bugg – 6
Good. Speaking of reliability, Bugg was even more omnipresent than Phoebs in cleanup, joining her for most defensive contributions and adding the team's cleanest and most creative passing by a significant margin. Her long passing was particularly exquisite, exactly the texture that she couldn't find against Angel City, completing 8 of 9 long passes and finding both Coco and Danger Maddie on the run repeatedly.
Bad. There were so many little things that went wrong along the way to Denver's second goal, and Bugg stepping up to deliver a long ball, then not dropping in to help cover the Summit's counter after the turnover, unfortunately stands out on that list.
Ugly. Completing 8 of 9 long passes is, unfortunately, less effective when the team is on two days' rest, at altitude, against a highly energetic home side that can reliably blunt the Reign's significant speed and trickery on the wings.
Sofia Huerta – 5
Good. A ball-progressing machine, Huerta once again drove the Reign forward whenever she got the ball at her foot, finding ways to advance with her dribbling, her passing, her overlapping, and even a couple of long switches to open the opposite field. She was mostly very good at maintaining possession, supporting the buildup, and finding the right space to cross or slip a through ball.
Bad. And then she wasted every crossing opportunity she got with overcooked balls. Some of that's the altitude, some of that's the short rest leaving her runners a step slower than she might've expected, and a whole lot of that's just failing to adapt to the circumstances of the game.
Ugly. With the midfield unable to progress the ball forward and constantly outbattled by Lindsey Heaps and Delanie Sheehan, Huerta started opting to ignore her own midfielders, bypassing them on passes, bypassing them on throws, taking big risks because passing the ball centrally seemed like a bigger one. It's not a knock on Huerta specifically, but it's emblematic of how the game played out.
Midfielders
Angharad James-Turner – 5 (off 89' for Holly Ward)
Good. More active than usual, James-Turner was clean on the ball, completed passes, won the overwhelming majority of her duels, and seldom put her teammates in a bad spot with her choices. These are all good things, and enough to help the team get some points on a typical evening.
Bad. And yet the Summit were content to let her on the ball in midfield, because she rarely progressed it, rarely put the Reign into a better position to attack from. The caution was not a mistake, per se, but it was not what the Reign needed at really any point in the match; with so little threat out of the middle, the Summit were able to compress the field, win more turnovers, and dictate the pace.
Ugly. In general, it feels bad to blame Haz for not being Ainsley McCammon, a phenom who has grown into an indispensable pace-setter for the Reign's midfield. But... as much as she's contributed to the team, as good as it is to have her available to eat these minutes, she's not Ainsley, and the Reign's midfield collapse over the past two matches hinges heavily on that simple reality.
Sam Meza – 5
Good. As expected of Samantha "Duelz (with a Z)" Meza, she got into it and scrapped, won her duels, won her challenges, and periodically made life really hard on Heaps in a way that analysts can only describe as 'hilarious'. Tidy on the ball, she seldom turned it over and was strong in shielding off challengers.
Bad. And she was, like Haz, exceedingly cautious with it. The Reign collectively got the ball in midfield around 110 times, and collectively attempted to progress it forward... 11. Meza's caution was, again, largely understandable, but it didn't help the Reign's position, leaving players like Fishel (early) and Mercado (late) on an island for the back line to try to hit with low-percentage killers.
Ugly. Even Meza, last year's absolute revelation at holding mid, struggles so much more with McCammon out of the lineup. Absent Ainsley, Sam has to do so much more just to keep things steady, and it detracts from the phenomenal.
Sally Menti – 4
Good. Occasionally, on the ball, Menti just looked unstoppable: beautiful dribbles, quick touches to draw free kicks, slick give-and-goes with Coco and Danger Maddie. A shot from a great spot in the 66th minute, an excellent chance created in the 25th off a fucking spectacular field-switching ball on the counter, bending around the last defender to find Dahlien in her stride. The good moments were some good, good shit.
Bad. More often, though, it was easy to forget Menti was playing at all. The low-volume false 10 role can be – has been! – ridiculously dangerous, but it relies on midfield influence the Reign simply did not have, and Sally did little to adapt to the game as it was played. Two Big Moments, and a lot of not much happening here.
Ugly. Menti, more than anybody else on the pitch, is lesser for the lack of McCammon. Ainsley's quickness in coverage and ability to break lines opens up so much of what Menti does well off the ball. Without her, Menti has to spend a lot more time doing things she's considerably less good at.
Forwards
Nérilia Mondésir – 4 (off 54' for Brittany Ratcliffe)
Good. In a very physical match, Coco was one of the strongest players on the pitch and played like it, shrugging off attempts to outright mug her repeatedly. She got out on the run and made the Summit beat her, meeting the energy of the match like few other players on the team.
Bad. In the moment the Reign most needed her to shrug off a challenge, she went down, and while it's not really her fault (she was both fouled and off-balance), it cascaded into a two-goal advantage for Denver. And while her energy throughout was great, the usual outcome of making the Summit beat her was the Summit beating her; she received the ball on the run often and made something of it once.
Ugly. The Summit's second goal started with Coco turning it over around the midfield line. She was pretty clearly fouled on the play, with Emma Ragen tugging her as she turned and Janine Sonis clipping her foot to win the ball, but Chesky was presumably busy reliving that time she set the record for cards shown in a single match rather than watching for those little fouls in the moment.
Mia Fishel – 4 (off 54' for Maddie Mercado)
Good. The Reign's lone first-half chance, a great look by Maddie Dahlien off an even better ball by Sally Menti, starts with Mia Fishel's quick transition recovery-turn-strike to put the ball into space. I love the way she does that every time I see it. Really, really do. One of several really tidy passes Fishel turned in on the moments she actually saw the ball.
Bad. She basically never saw the ball. Starved for service, Fishel dropped way too deep into an overrun midfield, where she still couldn't really get touches and didn't really help a beleaguered middle, instead giving them even fewer opportunities to put the ball forward. The Reign need Fishel high up the pitch, finding runs and touches in dangerous places. They got neither.
Ugly. An ineffective shift ended early with a substitute for Maddie Mercado, who was also largely ineffective, albeit in a different way.
Maddie Dahlien – 6
Good. When you have one of the best chances and your cross creates the only goal, you can be forgiven for some messy play. Dahlien was great receiving the ball and running for the endline, even if she couldn't often break past Natalie Means – she still got off four shots and created a couple great chances. When she actually ran at her mark and made them defend on the back foot, good things happened.
Bad. She couldn't break past Natalie Means often. Though she was very positive receiving and progressing the ball, she didn't have the breakaway speed she normally has, and, quickly covered on most of her opportunities to run, settled for recycling the ball more often than attacking with it.
Ugly. Dahlien and Huerta combined to take a bunch of crosses and put them nowhere, and combined to progress the ball to the endline a bunch of times only to recycle it. Not ideal.
Substitutes
Brittany Ratcliffe – 6 (on 54' for Nérilia Mondésir)
If you come on in a negative game state and instantly score a goal, all I have to say about that is hell yeah. Completed passes? 2. Shots? 1. Goals? Also 1.
...to go a little deeper, Ratcliffe didn't actually solve the Reign's problems in attacking possession, and while they were able to manufacture a goal almost instantly with their New Look line change in the 55th minute, Ratcliffe faded into ineffectiveness after that, starved for service just like the forwards before her. But still, 1 shot 1 goal. That's efficiency.
Maddie Mercado – 4 (on 54' for Mia Fishel)
Replacing an ineffective Mia Fishel early in the second half, Maddie Mercado had a pretty good moment that ultimately helped set up the Reign's goal (she received the ball off a hotly contested throw-in and booted it WAY back to the defensive end, where McClernon was able to do something productive with it), but was mostly ineffective herself after that.
The names changed, the details varied, but the situation remained the same: the Reign couldn't control the ball in the midfield, and couldn't get it to their forwards enough for them to do anything useful with it.
Madison Curry – 4 (on 79' for Ryanne Brown)
Replacing an ineffective Ryanne Brown late in the second half, Madison Curry had a pretty sweet interception that she turned into a pretty sweet ball forward to Ratcliffe, but didn't touch the stats sheet much aside from that. The Reign were spent by the time Curry came on, and she wasn't able to either get on the ball or turn in the sort of crunching defense-to-offense moment that could change that situation.
Jess Fishlock – 4 (on 79' for Sally Menti)
As good as she can be as an impact sub, Fishlock was a non-factor for the 15-ish minutes she played, touching the ball just three times and living mostly on a forgotten island in one of the high mountain lakes. One of those touches was a key clearance to break up a spell of Denver pressure, though, so there is that.
Holly Ward – N/A (on 89' for Angharad James-Turner)
Though she only played a few minutes of garbage time, Holly instantly turned and ran for the opposition penalty area, and both of her two touches were in dangerous spots. Didn't amount to much of anything, but she had a spring in her step and in retrospect, given some of the technical quality we've seen from her and given the Reign's ineffective outing overall... maybe could've started over one of various More Exhausted players.
Summit POTM
Janine Sonis
With 95 touches, 5 key passes, 8 shot-creating actions, an assist, exquisite long-ball service, and just too much going on on both sides of the ball for the Reign to handle, Janine Sonis was a standout on a Summit side that played a good game and came away with a deserved win.
Referee
Danielle Chesky – 4
We meet again, Danielle "The Card" Chesky. I did not enjoy rewatching the game she called, results notwithstanding, but I will keep it to three points.
Good. Yellow cards shown to Menti and especially Huerta were well-earned. Not every PRO ref has the poise to actually show a card after a scuffle like the one Huerta and Jaeden Shaw got into, but Shaw's physicality leading into the moment doesn't make Huerta's hard foul in response any less of a card.
Bad. Whistling just 15 fouls total, 7 on the Summit and 8 on the Reign, in one of the more physical matches we've watched in some time, was a choice. I do not think it was a good choice. There were so many moments warranting a whistle that was never forthcoming, and it made for a choppier and less flowing game. That probably benefited the Reign, who were the less creative team, but... ugly as heck to watch.
Ugly. This one's not her fault, really, but I struggle to see the difference between the handling committed by the Summit in this one, uncalled, and the handling committed by the Reign against Angel City, called instantaneously. Handling remains a bad rule that arbitrarily and inconsistently warps game outcomes, and the Reign have now been burned by both sides of it in consecutive games.
And Another Thing!
Despite dropping both matches against our immediate competition for a playoff spot, all the Reign needed to hold on to 8th place through the week was for a very good Utah side to not completely melt down against Angel City.
...naturally, the Royals took two red cards and conceded a penalty inside 25 minutes.
Basically every result that mattered went against the Reign over an eight day window, including two big losses when even a single point would've carried them. So now it's on the team to dig deep, do the hard work, and fight back into the conversation. They've done it twice this season while being written off already, so let's just do it a third time and get the vibes back where they belong.
