Draw rounds out 4-point homestand
Reign keep Current at bay, tie 0-0
The Seattle Reign came into their game on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, looking to build on their weekend rut-buster. It was a tall order, as they faced off against the Kansas City Current, who started the match in second place in the NWSL with a league-leading goal difference of +9.
The Reign walked away from the game with a 0-0 draw, thanks to a brilliant performance by Laurel Ivory, who saved five shots on target from the Current (and one near-own goal from Sofia Huerta).
Hoping to contain the Current’s swift attack, Laura Harvey set up her side in a defensive formation, ditching her usual 4-3-3 in favor of a 4-4-2. With Zee unavailable due to the red card during the previous game and Claudia, Quinn, and Huitema still injured, this was the starting lineup that Harvey put on the field:
Latsko – Adames
Van der Jagt – Ji – Athens – James-Turner
McClernon – Barnes – Holmes – Huerta
Ivory
Laurel Ivory builds an even more dominant performance
Ivory’s showing in net was one of the key elements of Seattle’s comeback victory the previous match. On Wednesday, Laurel outdid herself, notching the first regular season clean sheet of her career, with 6 saves and 52 touches.
Ivory got her first save just two minutes in, diving to deflect a shot from Current midfielder Bayley Feist. In the 8th minute, Current left winger Michelle Cooper sent a curler towards the top of the goal, but Ivory leaped up to deflect it over the goal.
In the 32nd, Kansas City forward Claire Lavogez sent in a cross from the right side, which Sofia Huerta attempted to deflect outwards, but instead sent right at the goal. Luckily, Ivory was there to keep it from going into the net – her third save of the evening. Ivory got two more saves before the half was over, a diving deflection of a shot from Cooper from the edge of the box in the 44th minute and a diving catch on a short-range Lavogez kick in the 3rd minute of first-half stoppage.
In the second half, the Current only got one shot on target, and it was a slower long ball from Alexa Spaanstra, which Ivory easily scooped up.
Harvey plays it safe and gets the point
Seattle prioritized getting the point over trying to get three. For the whole game, the midfield played back during attacks, looking to prevent a devastating turnaround from Chawinga, DiBernardo, or Debinha. In the second half, Harvey put in some defensive-oriented subs – Woodham for Adames, Stanton for James-Turner – who bolstered the defense-in-depth strategy. This had the intended result of reducing full chances for Kansas City: despite the Current having possession for 64% of the second half, they had only one shot on target. Seattle racked up 25 clearances and 7 interceptions in the half.
Although Harvey de-emphasized scoring in her strategy for the game, she kept attacking players on the pitch to keep the possibility of a goal and a win. Jess Fishlock came into the game in the 78th for Olivia Van der Jagt, and Maddie Mercado made her debut in stoppage time.
“We never really made changes to make it really solid. We actually had plans to do that if we ever got a goal,” Harvey stated. “You just have to have that fine balance against these [excellent players] because they’ve hurt everyone they’ve played in those transitional moments.”
The back line was especially concerned with Kansas City attacker Temwa Chawinga, who came into the match with 5 goals and 3 assists. Luckily for the Reign, not only did McClernon, Barnes, and Holmes do a good job containing her. Chawinga also wasn’t crossing as accurately as usual, even though she had several dangerous breakaways, especially in the first half.
“We had a very specific game plan that involved trying to stop her, which meant we had to give other things up, because we don’t tend to be very shape oriented,” Harvey said.
Moving forward
The draw kept Seattle in fourth-to-last place in the table while moving Kansas City to a well-deserved first.
On Saturday, May 11, 2024, the Reign travel down to Portland for their first Cascadia match of the season, facing off against a solid Thorns team that sits in fourth place in the table and currently has a 4-game winning streak.
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