Following a disappointing series of results that saw them drop out of the playoff spots, a timely international break last week gave Seattle Reign a chance to regroup, assess their tactics, and plan for a critical final three games of the season. That stretch begins Sunday afternoon in Evanston, Illinois, where the Reign will face off against the lowly Chicago Stars at Martin Stadium.
While the Stars have been eliminated from playoff contention, they have made a number of recent high-profile moves to prepare for the future. First, they hired former Reign and Kansas City coach Vlatko Andonovski as the club’s new Chief Soccer Officer last month. They then transferred midfielder Manaka Hayashi to Juventus and mutually terminated the contract of defender Leila Ouahabi, who the club had only signed in June. Ouahabi was promptly signed by Gotham FC. Finally, just before rosters froze last week, the Stars sent $700,000 in intra-league transfer funds to Bay FC to acquire forward Racheal Kundananji.
This is not the same Stars team that Seattle eked out a 1-0 result against at home in August. However, ESPN reports that Kundananji and her Zambia teammates on other NWSL teams will miss this weekend’s matches, and likely several more, as they go through CDC safety protocols after playing in Uganda during the international break. Uganda is one of three countries in East Africa currently impacted by an Ebola outbreak and has additional screening and travel restrictions in place to reduce the risk of spread.
Seattle didn’t escape the international break completely unscathed, either. During her pregame press conference on Saturday, head coach Laura Harvey revealed that Maddie Dahlien suffered a torn ACL on Tuesday while playing with the US U23 team, meaning her season is done. Harvey was not ready to reveal how the team will adapt to the absence of Dahlien, but Emeri Adames has played many minutes in that role and is a probable candidate to replace her.
Both teams are coming off of losses at home in their most recent game. Seattle fell 1-0 to the North Carolina Courage, while Chicago lost 3-0 to the Denver Summit.
Head-to-Head
- The Reign are 12-12-10 all-time against Chicago, and have a 3-9-3 record on the road.
- Seattle has scored 50 goals across the series; Chicago has scored 48.
- The last meeting came on August 14 at Lumen Field. Seattle won 1-0 thanks to a Maddie Mercado goal.
2026 record
Seattle Reign FC: 12-11-4 (40 points, 9th place)
Chicago Stars: 5-20-2 (17 points, 16th place)
Key stats
- Chicago is 4-7-1 at home
- Seattle is 4-7-2 on the road
- Seattle has scored 33 goals and conceded 32; Chicago has scored 15 and conceded 63 – more than any team in NWSL history.
- Since the two teams last met in mid-August, Chicago has gone 1-6-1 and conceded 29 goals
- Former Reign forward Jordyn Huitema still leads the Stars with 4 goals, despite being out with an ACL injury since mid-July
- Chicago averages 0.6 goals per game (fewest in the league), compared to 1.2 for Seattle (14th)
- Seattle is tied for second with 10 clean sheets on the season, while Chicago has only 3
Who to watch
Mal Swanson
After missing all of 2025 and the start of this season on maternity leave, the US National Team striker has taken some time to rediscover her form amid all the other struggles that Chicago is dealing with. Two goals and one assist in a little over 700 minutes isn’t much to write home about, but when Swanson has gotten on the score sheet good things have happened this year – Chicago has won every game where she has a goal contribution.
She’s still dealing with some fitness issues and hasn’t played a full 90 minutes since July, but she’s regaining her touch and can create danger from almost anywhere if not closed down quickly. Just look at this goal she scored to salvage a point for the USWNT against Spain earlier this week.
MAL IS SO BACK
— andré, but scarier (@andre-carlisle.bsky.social) 5:59 PM · Oct 13, 2026
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Julia Grosso
The Canadian midfielder has been a rare bright spot for Chicago this season, scoring two goals and providing key link-up play to progress the ball for the Stars. She is among the top midfielders in the league when it comes to successful passes (33 per game) and overall accuracy (86.1%) and is rarely dispossessed.
If there’s a negative to her game this season, it’s that her passes rarely lead to chances on goal for the Stars, but that has been more a symptom of missing support up top than anything Grosso is doing herself. In Canada’s match against Denmark last weekend, Grosso earned an assist, created another chance and had a shot of her own saved in just 27 minutes on the field.
What to watch
Stars playing for pride
It’s really hard to overstate just how bad Chicago has been this season, both in the standings and in nearly all statistical categories. They have the fewest expected goals (21.8), the fewest shots on goal per game (3.0), fewest touches in the opposition box (468), fewest big chances created (24), and the third-least average possession (45.6%).
Stats like that usually indicate a team that likes to either spring quick counter-attacks or to press high to win the ball in the attacking third and take shots quickly. But Chicago also has the second-fewest successful long balls per match (17.0; Seattle is second-best with 24.1) and fewest possessions won in the final third per game (3.7).
In a nutshell, they don’t do a lot and the things they do are generally done poorly. It’s probably far too soon to see how Andonovski’s new vision will translate to the Stars roster, particularly before the club hires a permanent head coach and makes some more offseason changes to the roster, but the addition of Kundananji gives a hint that they want to become more of a countering team. Chicago might not have anything left to play for this season, but this is a roster in transition and every player is auditioning to remain a part of the new vision going forward.
“Laura was honest about finishing our opportunities in training and making sure we make every opportunity count, and that's going to be huge for our game against Chicago,” forward Mia Fishel told reporters pregame. “We know they're going to come out strong. They have nothing to lose, and that's always a scary situation. So as long as we keep pushing and finishing opportunities, I think we'll be good.”
The Reign must be careful to not take this game for granted and look past it toward the challenges that await them in the final two games, particularly since...
Curse of Chicago?
The Reign have historically struggled in the Windy City. No matter how they or the (Red) Stars have been faring in a given season, points have been hard to come by for Seattle. The last time they won a game at Chicago was in 2023, and before that all the way back in 2019. Even during their legendary 2014 run to the Shield, they stumbled in Chicago for one of only two losses that year.
The team has tried all sorts of things to shake off the funk – traveling earlier than usual, traveling closer to game time, adjusting training in the lead-up, all without much success. This year the weather should be just about perfect, with a forecast of clear skies and 60° at kickoff. The biggest challenge for Seattle will be that some of their players who were away on international duty only rejoined the team in Illinois, with shorter rest and limited prep time with their club teammates. On top of that, Chicago is in a new venue on the other side of the city from where they played for 12 seasons, so everything about the experience is new and unfamiliar.
“There’s a lot of new things this year with Chicago,” Harvey told reporters pregame. “We’re in a new hotel, we’re staying in a completely different area than we normally would stay, we’re actually training at the stadium today. They play on turf now, there’s a lot of new things that are different about Chicago. We’ve tried to make sure that we are not walking into the stadium tomorrow and everything feeling brand new. That was a concerted decision that we made, which is why we’re training later in the day today.
“This has historically been a tough place for us to come, but I remember the game in 2023 when we knew that we had to win to get into the playoffs, and it’s not the last game of the season but it feels like a similar type of picture for us today. And we turned up in that game and we were excellent. Hopefully that’s something we can take into tomorrow, is we know the gravity of where we’re at, and it’s a different gravity of what the opponent is dealing with, and we’ve got to go out and put a performance together that gets the result that we need.”
Defending set pieces
The Stars don’t score often, but when they do find the back of the net it often comes off set pieces. Seven of Chicago’s 15 goals this year have been scored in that way, tied for sixth-most in the league. The Reign, meanwhile, are tied for third-worst set-piece defense, with 9 goals conceded. Seattle will need to be tidy and avoid fouls in dangerous areas near their goal, and limit the number of corner opportunities conceded to the Stars.
Kit matchup
Injury / Availability Report
Seattle Reign
Pending league availability report
Chicago Stars
Pending league availability report
How to Watch
The Reign face the Chicago Stars on Sunday, October 18, at 4 p.m. PT. The game will air on the Roku Channel.
