After earning a 1-0 win against Orlando Pride on Decision Day, Seattle Reign booked the final playoff spot and will travel to face NWSL Shield winners Gotham FC on Sunday, November 8. The NWSL quarterfinal match kicks off bright and early at 9:30 a.m. PT. The game will air on ABC and ESPN Deportes and stream on the ESPN app.
Jess Fishlock, the last remaining Reign OG, will retire at the end of this season, and her teammates are motivated to keep her season going as long as possible. The feeling is familiar to Gotham and the Reign, who both advanced to the 2023 NWSL Championship inspired to win a championship for the retiring Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe, respectively.
"We're carrying a lot more optimism with us right now than maybe we were last season," defender Phoebe McClernon said when asked how the team feels heading into the playoffs this year compared to last year. "The closeness of this group and our willingness to face adversity head-on. We've done it. All throughout the season. I wish you guys could have an inside track on the things that we've gone through. It's been crazy, and I think it's for the best. I think we're prepared for these moments because of what we've been through."
The Reign have a healthy squad heading into their quarterfinal match, and Gotham looks fairly healthy as well, despite their availability report. Jaelin Howell, who left Gotham's Decision Day match with an ankle injury, returned to training and is a game-time decision. While both are listed as questionable, Rose Lavelle and Jaedyn Shaw returned from injury last week and came on as subs.
Good news for Gotham fans: midfielder Jaelin Howell is back in full training ahead of tomorrow’s quarterfinal with Seattle Reign. It’s her first time back in full training since exiting Decision Day with a right ankle injury
— Melanie Anzidei (@melanieanzidei.bsky.social) 8:18 AM · Nov 7, 2026
[image or embed]
Playoff structure
The NWSL playoff features eight teams, with all matches being a single-elimination format. It's win or go home. If a game is tied after 90 minutes of regulation, two 15-minute extra time periods will be played. There are no golden goals. If the score is still tied after extra time, a penalty shoot-out will determine the winner. The winner of the Reign/Gotham match will play the Kansas City Current, who beat Angel City in extra time.
Head-to-Head
- The Reign are 12-12-10 all-time against Gotham FC
- Seattle has scored 46 goals across the series; so has Gotham
- The Reign went 0-2-0 against Gotham this season—losing 2-0 at home and conceding three goals after the 80th minute to fall 3-2 on the road in July
- Gotham is unbeaten in eight consecutive meetings with Seattle Reign dating back to May 2023
2026 record
Seattle Reign FC: 14-11-5 (47 points, 8th place)
Gotham FC: 18-5-7 (61 points, 1st place)
Key stats
- Gotham is 9-1-5 at home | Seattle is 5-7-3 on the road
- Gotham has scored 39 goals and conceded a league-best 23
- Both teams are 3-1-1 in their last five games
- Seattle has scored 37 goals and conceded 33
- The Reign lead the league in accurate crosses (5.7) and long balls (24.4) per game; Gotham is 2nd and 3rd in each category
- Gotham leads the league in possession (60%) and accurate passes per game (418.4), compared to the Reign's 306 passes and 49.3% possession
- Jaedyn Shaw leads Gotham with 11 goals
- Guro Reiten, who has played left back, attacking midfield, and left wing for Gotham, leads the club with six assists
Who to watch
Midge Purce
Midge Purce isn't Gotham's most statistically dominant player. She has a decent four goals and two assists this season, but Purce was also asked to play fullback earlier in the year. Now lining up on the right wing, Purce has been a menace and seems to be in great form heading into the playoffs. She's so dangerous on the dribble—taking defenders to the endline and finding a teammate with a ball across the face of the goal, or cutting back to her left foot to whip in a cross or a shot. Just look at her impact against Utah last week.
The Reign will need to cut off her options higher up the field and put lots of bodies in the box if Purce gets in behind.
Rose Lavelle
In Captain Obvious territory, the Reign will want to limit Rose Lavelle's time on the ball in midfield. The former Reign midfielder leads Gotham in chances created (40) and has scored four goals and added three assists. Lavelle isn't always the one on the scoresheet, but she's definitely the midfielder pulling the strings in Gotham's attack. She's also coming back from an injury; Lavelle played 14 minutes last week after missing the last match with a neck injury. Is she ready to play a full 90 for Gotham this weekend?
Jaedyn Shaw
Jaedyn Shaw also returned from injury last week, playing 30 minutes and scoring the second goal in Gotham's win. Shaw has a team-leading 11 goals and five assists. Shaw is a drifter who reads the game well; she finds space to pop into to either dish the ball off to a teammate or take a shot. She's capable with both feet and can rip a shot from distance or get on the end of crosses into the box. Whether she starts or comes off the bench, she's a game-changer and is yet another Gotham player the Reign will have to mark tightly.
What to watch
Two teams that are tough to break down
Sunday's quarterfinal match will be a battle between two teams that pride themselves on their defensive organization. Gotham has a league-leading 14 clean sheets, while the Reign are close behind in second with 12. While the Reign have given up 10 more goals than Gotham this season, their underlying numbers since the summer break are actually pretty comparable.
According to American Soccer Analysis data, the Reign have conceded 17 goals in 18 games, compared to 16 for Gotham. Over the same timeframe, the Reign are actually outperforming Gotham in expected goals against (xGA). The Reign have conceded 23.14 expected goals during that stretch, while Gotham has 25.76 xGA and has goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger to thank for making some great saves.
Both teams like to be unpredictable. Both teams like to get numbers behind the ball. Both teams try to be defensively sound on set pieces. Just like their NWSL championship matchup in 2023, this game could be a tight affair, with both sides working hard to keep the other from getting dangerous goal-scoring chances.
"We know that they're a good team. I think their biggest strength is that they don't concede a lot of goals," head coach Laura Harvey said in the Reign's pre-match press conference. "That's been their number one thing of the year, and we know that's something that we really care about too. We know we can score against them. We proved that. We were a penalty away from arguably the biggest shock of the year, going 3-0 up against them here in July."
How both teams press
Many NWSL commentators predict the Reign will come to Sports Illustrated Stadium, drop deep, and bunker. The Reign learned the hard way that this is a losing strategy against Gotham. In their 3-2 loss back in July, the Reign gave up a 2-0 lead in the final 10 minutes, and every Gotham chance came because the Reign dropped deep and didn't pressure the ball higher up the field. They know they can't do that again.
"We learned a lot from that game in those last 10-15 minutes about ourselves, and we've utilized that a lot throughout the season since that game, and obviously that hasn't happened to us since, and we'll be doing everything in our power to make sure we can try and get in the position we were in in July," Harvey said.
Sitting deep is not really in the Reign's DNA either. Both the Reign and Gotham like to press high and force opponents into traps or mistakes. Gotham is second in the league in possession won in the final third, and first in possession won in the midfield. While Gotham presses high consistently, the Reign have tried to mix things up and catch their opponent off guard. Against the Pride last week, the Reign focused on keeping Orlando wide—limiting their play through the middle. Keep an eye on how the Reign's front four—their attacking trio plus their central attacking midfielder—press as one cohesive unit.
The Reign press for a key reason: they have found success creating chances in transition this season. That transitional play was on display when the Reign nearly pulled off an upset road win against Gotham (see highlights above!). Their first two goals came from long balls in behind Gotham's defense, and the Reign had a chance to go up 3-0 early in the second half after winning a penalty on a play that also started with a transitional opportunity.
Granted, Maddie Dahlien played a huge role in every big chance for the Reign in that game, and Seattle won't have her speed on Sunday after she tore her ACL during international duty in October. But the Reign could still create their own magic in transition against Gotham, who like to push their backline high. If I were the Reign, I'd test Gotham's left back, Leila Ouahabi, who only recently joined the team and looked a little shaky at times in Gotham's last match against Utah. Nérilia Mondésir was dangerous getting in behind Orlando's defense on the right wing. Perhaps that same attacking approach is warranted against Gotham?
"They're a great team in and around the box. So just knowing the ways in which they score and who their threats are, and how we can nullify them, is huge," McClernon said. "They are fallible. They make mistakes. They lose games. They're not perfect, and if we bring our best – because at the end of the day, it's about what product we're putting on the field if we want to get the win."
Playing spoiler
Gotham has proved twice that where you finish in the standings doesn't matter, as long as you make the playoffs. In 2023, when they beat the Reign in the final, they squeaked into the playoffs in 6th place (only six teams made the playoffs that year). Last year, when they defeated the Washington Spirit in the championship, they again finished in the final playoff spot (8th place).
The Reign are now in a position to play spoiler. No NWSL pundit has selected the Reign to win this match. Gotham is selling playoff merchandise with the tagline "Always building, never finished," and a design with an unfilled star that seems to imply they are on their way to a third championship trophy.
If I'm the Reign, I'm hanging that up in the locker room and posting every playoff prediction on their lockers, too, because who doesn't love playing the role of spoiler? Here we come, the underdogs ready to defy expectations and knock any team out of the playoffs. Can the Reign ride that mentality to a high-energy performance against the 2026 NWSL Shield winners?
"Perfect," Harvey said when asked how it feels to be the underdogs heading into the game. "I feel like this group, specifically, when everyone believes that they can't do it, they do it. So I'm absolutely fine with everyone believing that tomorrow will be an easy, run-of-the-mill day for Gotham, and that's our job, to prove everybody wrong."
Kit matchup
Injury / Availability Report
Seattle Reign
OUT: Lynn Biyendolo (Maternity Leave), Maddie Dahlien (Knee - SEI)
Gotham FC
OUT: Bruninha (Knee - SEI), Jordynn Dudley (Foot - SEI), Kayla Duran (Knee - SEI), Emily Sonnett (Knee - SEI)
QUESTIONABLE: Tess Boade (Hamstring), Jaelin Howell (Ankle), Rose Lavelle (Neck), Jaedyn Shaw (Knee)
How to Watch
The Reign kick off against Gotham on Sunday, November 8, at 9:30 a.m. PT. The match will air nationally on ABC and ESPN Deportes and stream on the ESPN app.
