No player has ever given an NWSL team so much as Jess Fishlock has given the Reign.
Year after year, from the disastrous opening season to the high-flying shield campaigns, from the muddled mediocrity of 2016 to the sneaky-good dark horse team of 2019, from the direst lows of 2024 to the fuck-the-haters revival of 2025 – Jess Fishlock has always been there.
She was the first true international star in our league, the five-tool player who carried the team on her back through good times and bad. The biggest goals, the biggest tackles, the biggest moments, the absolute heartbeat of Reign soccer since the very beginning.
We have never known a Reign team without Jess Fishlock's presence and gravity.
Soon enough, that will be over. A day will come when we must brave that wilderness, when we must venture out into an unknown future.
But it was not this day.
And with everything on the line, playoff qualification on a razor's edge, Jess Fishlock came up huge one more time, adding another brace, another two bangers, another unbelievable performance to a career that defies description.
The win kept the Reign above the line for another week, kept them in control of their playoff fate with four matches to go and the possibilities still unfolding. The loss eliminated the Legacy from playoff contention in their expansion year, a messy and sometimes aimless campaign that nonetheless showcased some intriguing talent. The dividing line between the two, more than any other, was a tiny dragon who refused to be beaten.
Let's fucking go.
Goalkeeper
Claudia Dickey – 8
Plus. Asked to make two big saves in as many minutes, Claudia came up like she has so many times before, slamming the door on Alba Caño's squibbler in the 57th and Aissata Traoré's snap shot in the 59th. The Legacy created little and threatened less over the course of 90 minutes, but for that brief space between minutes 55 and 60, they managed to throw some chaos at the wall and came agonizingly close to erasing the Reign's thin lead. Dickey left them both talking to the claw. Also left to talk to the claw: 10 through balls, three low crosses, two high crosses, and basically every desperate, hopeful ball Boston tried flinging into the area to make something stick.
Minus. Really, the only thing working against her is that she didn't have all that much important work to do. It was a great performance against an opponent with nothing to offer.
Long division. While Dickey covered her penalty area exceedingly well, she did not, in fact, have any touches on the attacking left wing. (But nobody tell Opta, the little hiccup in data entry makes for a hilarious heatmap.)
Defenders
Sofia Huerta – 7
Plus. Sof was a damn machine in possession, driving the ball with relentless purpose. She was constantly in good positions to press the issue and press the attack, even getting a chance of her own in the middle of the six yard box in the 43rd minute. (Tragically, she headed it right to former Reign goalkeeper Casey Murphy.) She put in 9 crosses and created 2 good chances off of them, including one Opta-certified "big" chance. On the ball, she was outright imperious, only once giving it up cheaply and making consistently good choices when looking for her teammates.
Minus. Though she put in a couple absolute beauties, it was on the whole a pretty wasteful night of crossing for Huerta, who overcooked a few, undercooked a few, hit a few to absolutely nobody, and despite getting the open lane time after time, saw far too many promising attacking thrusts fizzle out by getting that final pass a bit wrong.
Jordyn Bugg – 6
Plus. Against Boston, Jordyn Bugg turned in a perfectly serviceable Jordyn Bugg impression, with solid positional defense, 9 defensive contributions, a ton of touches, and passing that while maybe just a bit shakier than we're used to seeing from her, remained mostly effective. With the Reign playing an incredibly – one might even say unhingedly – narrow game in possession, and Boston playing a formation best described in confused expletives, Bugg stepped up, broke things up, and held a high line with McClernon that erased the danger Aïssata and Barbara Olivieri tried to present for basically the entire night.
Minus. The Reign's shape left Bugg with fewer options for her usual line-breaking passes and switches of the field, and though she still looked for them, she completed them infrequently. In the 58th minute, under pressure, she and Huerta combined to immediately give the ball back to Boston, who switched the field and created their only good chance of the match.
Phoebe McClernon – 7
Plus. There are things you just expect from Phoebe McClernon, like 9 clearances, 4 interceptions, and 83% passing while holding a high line and erasing the most dangerous attacker on the opposing team. Actually, no, you maybe don't expect McClernon to hold a high line, but she adjusted to a somewhat unorthodox approach admirably and bossed the back line throughout. Boston generated just 0.42 expected goals, and Phoebe demolishing them on entry approximately 13 times out of every 10 (real true analytical statistic) was the fulcrum on which the match tilted.
Minus. The one time Boston got a real threatening look was in the 59th minute, after Bugg and Huerta combined to give the ball up with no real plan. Four passes later, McClernon found herself defending Aïssata Traoré alone in the area, and Aissata shook her off far too easily, opening up a solid shooting angle. I didn't love it.
Ryanne Brown – 6 (off 77' for Madison Curry)
Plus. While on the ball at a much (much) lower volume than her linemates, Brown's scarce touches were remarkably impactful. She completed 12 passes, but progressed the ball with four of them, springing Maddie Dahlien twice and Maddie Mercado and Mia Fishel once each. Playing very high and very narrow as compared to her usual positioning asked new nuances of her passing and she was largely up to the challenge.
Minus. The only Reign player who lost more duels than she won (going 1 of 5 overall), Brown was also guilty of a couple needless fouls and might've been lucky to avoid a yellow card after the last of them in an alternate reality where referee Elton García was remotely interested in showing warranted yellow cards.
Midfielders
Sam Meza – 6 (off 85' for Angharad James-Turner)
Plus. I have to mention it, because it's practically a meme at this point, but y'all, Sam Meza once again just went out onto a professional soccer pitch and won 9 duels in a single game. There just is not another midfielder in the league who throws down at the volume, consistency, and ludicrous intensity that Meza does. The ball is there solely so opponents can experience the despair of Sam taking it from them.
Minus. The way the Reign lined up had some... impact on the holding midfield. Meza loves to hit the ball wide and continue her run. Problem: the Reign were basically ignoring the width for much of the match. Meza hit several passes intended for the wide forwards / wings that, on a normal day, Dahlien or Huerta gobble up and carry forward, but on this day went for long turnovers instead.
Variables. Also 6 tackles and 7 recoveries. Find you someone who loves you as much as Sam Meza loves to beat opposing midfielders to the ball.
Jess Fishlock – 9 (POTM) (off 68' for Sally Menti)
Plus. I mean, let's go over the math. Let's invent entirely new fields of science and mathematics to celebrate her if we have to. Against Boston, it looked a little something like this: 21 touches, 4 shots, 3 on target, 2 absolute goddamn bangers. 100% passing accuracy. 2 free kicks won. 3 of 5 duels won. An uncanny understanding of where to find Maddie Dahlien and Mia Fishel. Always being in the right place to take advantage of a Boston defender out of position, 141-2/3 percent of the time. The numbers didn't lie, and they spelled disaster for the Legacy at Lumen Field.
Minus. Naw, I'm good.
Chaos theory. Okay, so, the weird thing about the Reign's really horizontally compressed approach is, despite the extreme lack of width, Jess Fishlock kept getting approximately infinite space to operate in zone 14 anyway. Playing narrow as fuck generated repeated overloads, which Boston's defenders felt compelled to respond to, repeatedly losing track of Fishlock. This might not work against better teams, but Jess saw opportunity and struck like a coiled dragon.
Ainsley McCammon – 6
Plus. At a glance, this felt like a low-impact match for Ainsley, but the more I dug into it the clearer it became that she was shouldering a ton of the basic buildout for the Reign. To that end, she had 8 progressive passes, 9 passes into the final third, and 6 completed long passes – all tops on the team – along with six recoveries occupying the space between Bugg and McClernon. While she didn't try the killer balls in the way she does in a more traditional attacking shape, around half of her pass attempts were vertical, and around half of those cut out a Legacy defensive block.
Minus. While this approach largely worked against the confused and confusing Legacy, compressing the field for Ainsley takes away some of her best work, limiting the impact that her vision and coverage of every fiber of turn between the touchlines and the penalty boxes provides.
Forwards
Maddie Dahlien – 7 (off 85' for Nérilia Mondésir)
Plus. While several of her teammates had at least a moment or two of struggle with the attacking shape, Dahlien was busy running rampant, racking up 9 touches in the attacking penalty area, 3 chances created, 5 shot-creating actions, winning 3 free kicks and 6 of 8 duels, and, lest anybody forget, delivering an assist for Jess Fishlock. One shot, in the 46th minute, was among the better Reign opportunities from a non-Fishlock foot. She did relatively little wrong, and a whole lot right, creating danger from every angle.
Minus. Every time she touched the ball in the attacking third, it was dangerous, but the Reign could've run away with this one with an extra touch here, a letting-it-run there. The last attacking decision is still a work in progress as she joined Huerta in a very profligate left-side performance. But, you know, you can be profligate if you're also dropping at assist in a 2-0 win.
Mia Fishel – 6 (off 77' for Brittany Ratcliffe)
Plus. The 58th minute, an inside-out run pulling (stop me if you've heard this before) multiple defenders with her and leaving Mercado barely marked on the far post. Small wonder Maddie and Mia keep doing this, since it keeps working. Barely touching the ball right up until she was flashing across the six for one of the best looks on goal all night. A lovely dribble to create her own space. A bunch of crashing and scrapping with Deja Davis, who had to play very cautious with her. Having a hit from near the top of the box, the arc beautiful, the trajectory seemingly destined for the cop corner...
Minus. ...until it crashed the corner of the woodwork. Almost doesn't count for much in footie, disappointing as it is. Though Fishel was effective out of possession and once again repeatedly drew defenders away from Mercado and Fishlock, she completed just 4 passes and took just 2 shots, neither forcing a save from Murphy. Another performance where she had plenty of off-ball impact, but couldn't get one over the line, didn't do much on the ball, and probably didn't change anybody's assessment of her play, for better or worse.
Maddie Mercado – 6
Plus. Mercado put in some really solid work as the right head of a two-pronged spear, finding 8 touches in the attacking penalty area, creating a big chance, and putting in 4 shot-creating actions. That near-miss header on the far post. A fucking beautiful early cross on a quick break that could've been a sweet damn goal. That soft touch and repeatedly excellent choice of pass. Every shift, Maddie puts in the work, and she's been getting her rewards for it. Even in a bit of a weird one like this.
Minus. The most consistent shooters-shoot shooter on the Reign, Mercado managed just 2 shots in the match, and 1 from inside the penalty area, on a well-worked 58th minute counterattack. Maddie got into the attacking area repeatedly but basically never managed to get off a shot out of it. A few times, it went for a chance for someone else instead, and that's great, but more times it went for nothing of particular interest at all.
Substitutes
Sally Menti – 5 (on 68' for Jess Fishlock)
After Jess Fishlock delivered the goods, Sally Menti came on to help secure them, and put in a good, solid shift to do so, and bizarrely was the Reign player who had the highest percentage of her touches in wide areas. Yeah, I don't get it either. No real shade for a solid and still growing player who came in, kept things under control, and helped see out a win.
Madison Curry – 5 (on 77' for Ryanne Brown)
Fifteen minutes to play, a two-goal lead to protect, one Madi Curry ready to make the most of her 13 touches to emphatically deny the Legacy's application. All told, she won 2 duels, 2 tackles, and 1 body check that I'm astonished wasn't a foul along the way. Hey, if the system works, right?
Brittany Ratcliffe – 5 (on 77' for Mia Fishel)
So, Ratcliffe touched the ball one time in 13-plus minutes, but that touch came in the attacking penalty area, went for a key pass, and was worth bonus points for being instant and high-effort. All in all, it's always a disappointment when Ratcliffe doesn't beat the entire defense and score a banger, but we live with disappointment, and she put in the hard, professional work to see things out, which is more important.
Nérilia Mondésir – N/A (on 85' for Maddie Dahlien)
Speaking of hard, professional work, Coco played just five-plus minutes but made the most of them, completing 4 passes and 2 progressive passes en route to ensuring the minutes ticked away where Boston couldn't make them hurt. These sorts of minutes tend to be thankless, and it's worth noting when someone plays them pretty close to perfectly.
Angharad James-Turner – N/A (on 85' for Sam Meza)
Rounding out those thankless minutes, Haz contributed a few touches of her own, completed a pass, and took a fun (but ultimately very unlikely to score) shot from way downtown. No shade, victory secured.
Legacy POTM
Aïssata Traoré
But she can't do it alone.
Referee
Elton García – 5
True to his documented history, Elton García did not want to show a yellow card, even when a yellow card was truly, deeply warranted. After an early cheese to Deja Davis where he really had no choice (a Mia Fishel special put Dahlien on the break, and Davis took out a lot of Dahlien to stop her), Elton fastidiously did not show another card, and barely used his whistle. Even with that qualifier, Barbara Olivieri, Aïssata Traoré, and Ryanne Brown were all probably lucky to escape a cheesing of their own.
I do not like the game Elton calls. I do not want to watch games where the ref refuses to referee. But mercifully, he was not asked to make any Big Damn Decisions, and everything that annoyed me about him remains in the territory of subjective decisions and style preferences, so... we try to be fair about that.
And Another Thing!
Formation is fake, but oh my god, seriously, the Reign's formation in possession was unhinged. I thought it must've been a weird data artifact when I looked at the heatmaps and passing networks. And then I rewatched the game, and rewatched it again, and scratched my head in confusion.
Obviously it worked, though.
Let go and let Harvs, as they say.
