Coach’s Corner
Seattle Reign FC ended their seven match world cup run without Hope Solo and Megan Rapinoe with a 1-1 draw away to Western New York Flash on Friday July 3. The seven matches provided the Reign with 15 points and a place at the top of the table.
Every team in the NWSL has gone without national team players during this stretch, but the Reign played the roster game smart by only facing the loss of two players. Make what you will of the Leroux for the rights to Abby Wambach deal, but it set the club up to be minimally affected by missing players as it allowed for another roster spot to be filled while they wait for a club career decision by Wambach. Rival Portland has been without several players and a few other teams have had mixed results during the world cup stretch of the season. Oddly enough, the team Seattle shares the mountain top with in Chicago manged to get by the same stretch with the loss of eight starters.
Looking back at the recent stretch one might not have expected nearly the success Seattle has found. The Reign began the season with a resounding 5-1 win, but followed that with a brutal road trip with late goals and ineffective finishing sending them into the world cup stretch with a 1-2 record and some real questions. However, Seattle coach Laura Harvey has not been shy to shuffle the line up to find the right combination. Rachel Corsie is now starting with Elli Reed playing as a fifth defender as a defensive substitute. Kendall Fletcher is now on the outside. Kim Little has found her scoring touch. Players off the bench like Dani Foxhoven have provided energy and quality play. Haley Kopmeyer has been solid in the nets. Bev Yanez has provided quality finishing. Offensively and defensively, home and road, things are clicking for the Reign.
Seattle went in this stretch facing adversity, even ending up with additional adversity with a controversial late penalty at Sky Blue and the subsequent suspension of Jess Fishlock. Yet, players like Mariah Bullock and Amber Brooks have provided quality cover. Keelin Winters has been her usual steady self in front of Lauren Barnes, Stephanie Cox, and the Reign D and the results were 4-0-3 and 15 points. Included in those 15 points is a late goal road win at Boston Breakers which seems to have exorcised some of the early season road demons.
During the world cup, attendance rose about 1,000 from Chicago to Sky Blue. With a match six days after the final with WNY Flash and then a two week build before Portland arrives good seats in Memorial seem likely to be harder to find as the summer progresses.
Seattle now gets Solo and Rapinoe back, a sudden television deal placing northwest derby matches on Fox Sports, a team playing well, and the possibility of a much larger spotlight moving forward. Solo and Rapinoe return to what has become Fortress Memorial, a home pitch yet to be sullied by a visiting team leaving with three points in the year and a half the Reign FC have called it home. Kansas City, Chicago, Washington, and others have failed to crack the Fortress Memorial mystique.
2014 saw Seattle roar out of the gate, take the shield, but lose in the final. Perhaps the slow start could lead to a different result in 2015.
Photos by Vanya Tucherov
