On Thursday the Reign season continued stumbling on as the side lost at home 4-2 to Washington, a team that had previously scored 5 goals all season, and who were just shut out today by Portland. The good news is that they have a chance to wash that sour taste from their mouth quickly with another home match today. The bad news is that it's against the league leaders.
The other bad news is that they'll likely have to do it without center back Kate Deines, who left the Washington game early with an ankle injury. That was the point at which the game started to go sour for the Reign, who had a 1 goal lead at the time. To give up 4 more in 60 minutes to an offense as parsimonious as the Spirit's took a defense in total disarray. To get anything from this match, head coach Laura Harvey will have to figure out how to get a different performance on the field.
Sky Blue are coming in off of a victory over the Thorns at Jeld-Wen, which this season is likely to be a pretty rare accomplishment. Their leading goal scorer is Sydney Leroux, who will be very familiar with the Starfire environs after playing for the Sounders Women last season (Update Derp. Leroux's playing for Boston. Their leading scorer is actually Canadian midfielder Sophie Schmidt). But their real strength is in defense, where they've only given up 4 goals all season. That will be a particular challenge for a Reign team that's struggled all season to generate offense.
If Seattle does get a result in this match, it's likely to be a low scoring affair with some desperate defending. Hanging 2 or 3 goals on Sky Blue doesn't look very likely. It'll be a match to hang on and try to scratch out the team's first result at home and their first points since game one of the season.