For a club that is coming off of back to back seasons of winning the NWSL Shield and playing in the NWSL Championship, Seattle Reign FC are a club with many lingering questions going into 2024.
The retirement of Megan Rapinoe and the high profile departures of Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett has given the Reign fan base an offseason of angst. The pending sale of the club is still not yet final or announced, adding to that angst.
Yet, this is a side that returns eight starters and most rotation players from the championship final side. The back four returns along with the goalkeeping corps, the strikers, and veteran center midfielder Jess Fishlock. The 2023 side spent much of the season without Rapinoe and Lavelle and have returning players like Canadian internationals Jordyn Huitema and Quinn, along with the steady goalscoring of Bethany Balcer. Much of the rotation in the side was highly successful starting in the 2023 Challenge Cup, keeping six clean sheets and not losing in group play.
But, perception is important, and you simply do not just replace players as dynamic as Lavelle and Rapinoe that easily. The club has recently announced the signings of Ji So-Yun, Lily Woodham, and Angharad James from Korea and Wales to counter those losses. Promptly addressing those losses with quality international signings shows the club was ready to move forward with the potential losses to free agency. Head coach Laura Harvey said bringing in the wave of new internationals was “not something we have done in a while.”
Claudia Dickey emerged as the starter late in 2023 and has had her contract extended through 2025. The NWSL Reign and MLS Sounders are both set in the goal in Seattle with the Sounders extending veteran Stefan Frei through 2025 , although both keepers are at opposite ends of their respective career arcs.
Reign head coach Laura Harvey is known for her teams playing a pressing style and her willingness to plug in and play young players without changing those tactics. The development of the Reign depth over the past two seasons has enabled players like Olivia Van der Jagt to emerge. NWSL veterans like Sofia Huerta, Veronica Latsko, and Tziarra King have been valuable to the club’s winning ways.
The Reign is also taking over the Starfire training spaces previously occupied by the MLS Sounders and seem entrenched in Lumen Field as a home. After a decade of stadium moves and various training spaces, the apparent new stability cannot do anything but continue to help build the club.
WIll the club contend for a fourth NWSL Shield? Is a return to the NWSL Championship to finally win that elusive trophy a viable possibility? That is the bar that the Reign have set for themselves.
Seattle Reign FC begins the 2024 season March 17 against Washington Spirit at Lumen Field in Seattle.
