Seattle Reign FC 0
Kansas City Current 0
May 8, 2024
Lumen Field – Seattle, WA
NWSL Regular Season
Seattle Reign FC hosted Kansas City Current Wednesday night in Seattle.
The host Reign had the chance to grab three more points after a cathartic win over the weekend pulled them up out of the cellar. Wednesday’s match with KC is the second of three matches in nine days for the Reign.
Kansas City entered the match with the opportunity to tie or go top of the table with one or three points. KC also enters the match on short rest, having played away at Houston on Sunday.
Short rest and midweek match ups are a test of roster depth for clubs, and squad rotation was in full swing with the starting elevens.
The match was also a return to Seattle for Current head Coach Vlatko Andonovski. Andonovski was the Reign FC head coach in 2018 and 2019 prior to his stint with the USWNT, winning league coach of the year in 2019. Even with all the shifting and changing in between of stadiums and coaches, the match was essentially a Seattle versus KC with Harvey versus Andonovski like in the 2014 and 2015 NWSL Championship matches.
The early minutes saw the Current on the front foot, trying to press for an early goal. The Reign was without late scratch Alana Cook, but the defense was still primarily those that have played much of the minutes this season. Seattle was also starting goalkeeper Laurel Ivory for the fourth consecutive match. Ivory came up big over the weekend and was called upon early in this match.
The Current entered the match with the league best goal scoring offense, but also one of the most porous defenses. Seattle appeared willing to absorb and counter in the early going as the KC offense continued to look for openings and through balls. Reign teams have long preferred to play the ball out of the back.
Disaster nearly struck for the Reign in the 32nd minute as a Current cross deflected off two Reign defenders, but was cleared off the line by Ivory with a fantastic reflex save. Seattle had worked themselves into the match, but the later stages of the half saw KC once again on their front foot, pushing hard against the Reign defense.
Moving into the interval level and goalless seemed against the run of play; as KC had really tested the Seattle defense, and Seattle had a few nice opportunities on the counter. However, it was Ivory with several first half saves that was keeping her side in the match.
The Current front foot on the gas approach continued in the second half. KC continually put pressure on Seattle, but as the second half progressed the match remained a goalless affair.
Stoppage time found Seattle with some opportunities up front, but the Current defense also held tight. In the end, it was a hard fought goalless draw.
Defender Sofia Huerta was proud of how the Reign has responded to adversity early in this season. “I think tonight’s performance was big. I mean, we’re playing, right now, the best team in the league. We had a slow start to the season, but like we know, people who have been in this league for a long time, as you guys know, since you’ve been observing for a long time, the league is wild. You can’t let the losses get you down, you just have to turn them into lessons and I think we’ve done a really good job at not getting down. To not win five games in a row is really challenging as a team. So, to go down a man versus San Diego and then concede a goal immediately after, come back and score two goals in that game and win was a big game for us and I think we just got confidence after that game.”
Kansas City only grabs two points from the two matches on the road. These are two matches they dominated statistically, but just ended up drawing.
Seattle grabbed four gritty points from the two home matches and finds itself in much better position going into the Cascadia Derby match in Portland Saturday.
LINK For Photog Album Nate Koppelman
BOX
Scoring Summary
SEA: None
KC: None
Discipline
SEA: None
KC: None
Lineups
SEA: GK Ivory, D Huerta, D Barnes (c), D Holmes, D McClernon, M Athens (Balcer 62’), M Van der Jagt (Fishlock 78’), M James-Turner (Stanton 61’), F Ji (Mercado 90+6’), F Latsko, F Adames (Woodham 61’)
Unused substitutes: GK Perez, D Brown, D Lester, F Weinert,
Total Shots: 5 (Ji – 2)
Shots on Goal: 1 (Ji– 1)
Fouls: 4 (James-Turner – 2)
Offsides: 0
Corner Kicks: 2
Saves: 5 (Ivory – 5)
KC: GK Franch (c), D Rodriguez, D Robinson, S Ballisager Pedersen, D Steigleder (Mace 46’), M Feist, M Hutton (LaBonta 75’), M DiBernardo (Spaanstra 75’), F Chawinga, F Cooper (Pfeiffer 89’), F Lavogez (Debinha 65’)
Unused substitutes: D Wheeler, D Ball, M Scott, GK Silkowitz
Total Shots: 19 (Cooper – 5)
Shots on Goal: 5 (Cooper – 2)
Fouls: 6 (Cooper – 3)
Offsides: 1
Corner Kicks: 7
Saves: 1 (Franch – 1)
Referee: Anya Voigt
Assistant Referee 1: Art Arustamyan
Assistant Referee 2: Matthew Schwartz
4th Official: Kelsey Harms
VAR: Shawn Tehini
AVAR: Tom Felice
