A week following what coach Laura Harvey classified as possibly the best her squad has turned in came one she tersely described as “among the worst.” Particularly in the final third, Harvey’s Seattle Reign failed to find the finishing touch against an NWSL-leading Chicago Red Stars team which came into Moda Pitch at Memorial Stadium absent eight starters off for duty in the Women’s World Cup, which opens this weekend in Canada.
Despite directing thirteen shots at Chicago goalkeeper Michele Dalton, starting in place of Katrina LeBlanc— who is off with the host Canadian national team for the tournament, the Reign were unable to coax a single ball past Dalton and into the twine.
Chicago Red Stars goalkeeper Michele Dalton registers one of her seven saves, pushing this Keelin Winters headed shot just over the crossbar.
Dalton finished the evening with seven saves. Not to be outdone, at the other end Haley Kopmeyer— Seattle’s de facto starter in the absence of US National team starting netminder Hope Solo— matched the clean sheet with one of her own, the first such registered by the Reign during the 2015 campaign.
There were a pair of changes from the Reign’s last NWSL match – a 1:1 draw on the road against Sky Blue FC. First, midfielder Jess Fishlock was consigned to mark the team’s Twitter account while serving a single-game suspension for a highly dubious red card issued for an alleged handled ball in the penalty area in the waning minutes of the Sky Blue match, the accompanying penalty kick from which robbed two points from the visitors as it turned a 1:0 Seattle advantage into a 1:1 draw. Fishlock was replaced in the starting XI by Amber Brooks, a capable enough midfielder, but without Fishlock’s innate ability to attack defenders on the ball. Less notably, but perhaps just as significant in the end, the forward trio in the Reign 4-3-3 were shuffled from the last two matches, with Merritt Mathias shifting back to the right side from the left; Danielle Foxhoven moving from the right into the middle; and Beverly Yanez moving back to the left side where she played last season from the centre, where she has tallied a trio of goals, tying her for the team lead in the category.
At times during the match, it was apparent that it was a duel between the majority of the Reign starters and many of the Red Stars’ reserves, with the visitors unable to forge a way to sustain an entry into the attacking third for long stretches of the game, leaving star rookie Sofia Huerta limited to only a single shot on frame and the three other Chicago efforts parried by Kopmeyer coming from the midfield trio of Vanessa DiBernardo, Alyssa Mautz, and Mary Luba. Seattle managed to sustain pressure for the latter two-thirds of the opening frame, and carried play to the Red Stars almost exclusively for the final fifteen minutes of the match.
Amber Brooks is taken to the ground inside the 6-yard box by a Red Stars defender on the corner kick.
The chances came fairly regularly for the Reign during the opening frame, with Dalton battling both the Seattle attack and the sun as it set. The story of some of these encapsulates the whole of the Reign offensive effort in the match: frequent, but not fruitful. Starting in the twelfth minute, Dani Foxhoven crept through a seam between the Red Stars central defenders, only to have Kim Little’s cutting pass roll inches out of her reach. Less than a minute later, Foxhoven would successfully get to another Little through-ball and touch it over to Merritt Mathias, who couldn’t get a clean enough shot to beat Dalton near-post. In the 23rd, Little somehow manoeuvres through four Chicago defenders at the top of the penalty area only to play the ball just behind Yanez.
Counterattacking in the 29th, Elli Reed, in what may have been her best performance in a Reign kit, played a long ball over the top which Yanez gave a yeoman effort in bringing down and controlling between two rapidly closing Chicago defenders, only to have the chance go just wide right. Two minutes later, Amber Brooks would supply service into the box, with Yanez’ shot saved at the near post. The efforts continued futilely, with Little turning on her left foot in the box only to be taken hard to the turf by a combination of a trip by Taryn Hemmings and a forearm shiver in the mid back from Samantha Johnson- neither of which caught the notice of the referee some eight yards away. Throughout the remainder of the half, the pitch would seemingly tilt in the Reign’s favour, with matching possession, but still a lack of completion as the half drew to a close.
Merritt Mathias threads the needle between a pair of Chicago Red Stars defenders.
The second half would follow much of the blueprint of the first: Chicago not bunkering, but struggling to do much in transition from the back forward in their 4-4-2 and pressed closely by the back four of Kendall Fletcher, Elli Reed, Lauren Barnes, and Steph Cox when they did get forward, but just as often intercepted or turned away by Keelin Winters or Amber Brooks; while the Reign possessed, controlled, and somehow couldn’t find the final touches
Kenfall Fletcher wins the ball in the air, but her header goes just wide across the face of Dalton’s goal.
To join the significant possession advantage, the Reign had a number of set-pieces, registering six corner kicks and nine of thirteen free kicks within the attacking third, but even when winning the ball in the mixer, shots found a way just wide or high, or into the gloves of Dalton. From the seventieth minute, with Chicago visibly starting to tire and trying to slow the pace, Harvey would shake up the formation even more pushing for the winner, bringing Foxhoven off for Mariah Nogueira., As a result, Yanez moved back to the middle, Mathias switched to the left, and Kim Little moved forward on the right side— but at the cost of leaving a midfield of Keelin Winters, Brooks, and Nogueira, all of whom tend toward playing defensive or box-to-box midfield although Winters has stepped into the more attacking role while on loan with the Western Sydney Wanderers of Australia’s W-League. The wing backs would jump in more as well, particularly on the corners. Stephanie Cox floated two attempts far post, with Brooks catching the outside of the net in the 73rd minute and Mathias redirecting to Dalton in the 75th. Mathias would later take a little diagonal pass from Kim Little in the 76th and have the misfortune to squarely ring it off the junction of upright and crossbar.
Another Cox corner fell to Brooks in the 80th, with Brooks crashing to the ground with a tug of the shoulder, allowing Chicago to clear. Opening the 82nd, Little picked out Mathias, only to have her shot slightly deflected by Danielle Colaprico. As the clock ticked onward into stoppage time, the attack would continue to press, but just as consistently fail to finish, as the final whistle drew the match to a scoreless close.
Little’s goal drought continues, although the Scottish international continues to be dangerous every time she touches the ball. Perhaps Kim is carrying a little deeper into the attacking zones than last season, leaving tougher looks on goal and more acute shooting angles than during her Golden Boot and Player of the Year campaign, but her work rate and sheer ability to turn defenders
