Reign Pre-Match Notes (9/12/26): Dickey Out vs. Bay FC, Diallo Joins Club

Reign keeper Claudia Dickey will miss at least one game, coach Laura Harvey said in her pre-match presser on Friday, as she still needs time to recover after colliding quite violently with Ludmila of the San Diego Wave towards the end of Sunday night's 1-0 victory.

"Tomorrow is probably too soon, just with the severity of the cut," Harvey told the media. "But we think it'll just be that she misses tomorrow and then will be available after that."

Cassie Miller will be in net against Bay FC, who sit second-to-last in the NWSL table with a 6-12-4 record and 22 points. That doesn't mean the game will be easy, however, as the visiting side has two dangerous wingers in Racheal Kundananji and Alex Pfeiffer and a six-goal striker in Karlie Lema. And despite being second-to-last in the table, keeper Jordan Silkowitz - the second-best keeper in NWSL according to American Soccer Analysis' goals added (g+) - has kept them to 30 goals conceded, sixth-best in the league.

"The most important game is tomorrow," Harvey said. "Points are a premium, and if we can get another three points, we set ourselves up to get closer to that sort of 42-, 43-point mark that we believe you need to get into eighth place."

With eight fixtures remaining, the Reign need one point per match to get 42 total points on the season. But while making the base playoff benchmark is their first order of business, just a few wins over that benchmark could be enough to earn a home playoff game.

Coming off a one-goal victory where the team found itself more hurt than helped by an opposing red card due solely to its unexpectedness, Harvey's focuses have been twofold though intertwined: one, get the offense back on its multi-goal footing; and two, make her team more adaptable in the face of unusual circumstance. This was something she brought up after the game on Sunday, and in her pre-match presser, she relayed that she had held a meeting with the team over the issue on Tuesday, the first day of this week's training.

We had one of our best meetings I've ever been a part of in this club in the 11 years I've been here on our first day back. It was so amazing to witness the group really dig in on the things that they wanted to get better at, things that would help them provide clarity on those moments.

Obviously, I'm not going to share too much of what was said in the room, but all I will say is there is: such a massive appetite for growth and learning in our locker room, and that was so evident this week in wanting to, you know, solve exactly what you said - when the game plan isn't quite going the way we thought, or the opponent's shifting and changing, or they have a player sent off, whatever it might be - how can we be better in those moments?

And I have no doubt that we've grown from that, just from that one meeting, it was one of the proudest moments of my coaching career.

-Laura Harvey

Brittany Ratcliffe, who also spoke with the media on Friday, talked about the importance of communication as it pertains to adaptability. If cues can find their way across the field faster - and get everyone on the same tactical page - the team can counter opponents' unexpected moves in time to prevent disasters.

"I think that comes with just, one, recognizing on the field and in the moment what's happening, but also communicating," Ratcliffe said. "If I'm on the field, I may might see one thing this way, but the person behind me might see something a different way, and just like having those conversations on the field. Obviously, it's hard in a 90-minute game to have a full-on conversation, but just even the like, 'hey, step right, force right, force left,' just little communication pieces."

Ratcliffe is likely to appear in Saturday's upcoming game as an impact player later on in the match, and she went on to describe a process of implementing needed changes through the substitutions, though she described it overall as a "team effort".

As for Bay, no side gets to the basement without serious weaknesses. While they have an incredible keeper and a solid front three, their quality of play in the back line and the no. 10 are both quite lacking. Attacking midfielder Cristiana Girelli hasn't found her pre-2026 quality on the ball with her new side, weakening the connection that could turn their attacking trio into a truly dangerous unit in the NWSL. Of course, Girelli's prime with Juventus gives her a pedigree that the Reign center backs and defending midfielders cannot ignore, but with Sam Meza's disrupting ability, that area of the pitch is somewhere the Reign likely have the upper hand.

Having just joined team practices, Ami Diallo won't be on the pitch soon.

Ami Diallo - the team's recent transfer from ASEC Mimosas in Côte d'Ivoire - joined practices this week after arriving in the United States last Thursday.

Seattle is looking for a low-risk, high-reward play in signing the Ivorian forward. African women's footy is still something of a wild card, according to Harvey, and the team went on a limb and got someone they had limited film on in the hopes that she might be another Temwa Chaŵinga or Barbra Banda.

Chaŵinga and Banda come from Malawi and Zambia, respectively: both Anglophone countries. Diallo hails from the Françafrique Côte d'Ivoire, however, and thus there is an added language barrier between the mostly English-speaking Reign team and the French-speaking Diallo. Fellow forward Nérilia Mondésir also speaks French, but since the Reign aren't looking to burden their players with the extra translation job all the time, Diallo talked with the media through a translator on Tuesday.

When asked if the language barrier was the biggest obstacle, Diallo answered in the affirmative. Despite this, however, she had only positives to give the press about her first few days with the Reign.

"The team welcomed me very well and I'm very happy about that," Diallo said through her translator.

Diallo was quite soft-spoken and kept things short during her first media appearance, though it's hard to tell whether that is a reflection of a naturally quiet personality or if it's a result of being thrown into a completely new situation in a completely new country. Or maybe it's both.

Either way, Diallo's presence on the field will be far more important than the intricacy of her press room responses. Though Harvey mentioned that she had limited footage of the incoming Ivorian, I asked her on Tuesday what she could glean from what tape she had seen.

"Obviously, she's a physical presence, you can see that. She has a eye for goal, she can finish," Harvey said. "And I think what we've been, not surprised about, but we've been really happy about, is she's good technically. She can handle small spaces. And you can see, she fits a little bit into the style of play that we like to have."

Still, it's unclear how long exactly it might take for the Ivorian to be ready for NWSL game time, and Harvey ruled out a Saturday debut for Diallo.

"Probably not ready to be part of the roster right now, but every day she's getting more acclimatized to being in Seattle, being with the group, learning how we play, all those types of things," Harvey said on Friday. "So she'll come on the road with us over the next week, which will be great, so she can get really part of the group and see how we operate on the road. So yeah, so far so good, but like we've said quite a lot, it's not going to be a quick process."

There isn't a real debut timetable here, but the wording of "see how [the Reign] operate on the road" might suggest a debut in Seattle's next home game, slated for Sept. 25 against Boston Legacy FC. But that's just slightly informed speculation on my part, so don't go making any narratives with it.

Diallo's favorite NWSL players before the Reign's move had been Brazilian star attacking midfielder Marta and Seattle's own Maddie Mercado.

Maddie Mercado's minutes-based player option triggered on Tuesday, keeping her in Seattle for another year.

Not that Diallo's praise was the only reason Mercado took questions from the press on Tuesday.

Seattle's top 2026 goal scorer is going to be in Rain City for at least another NWSL season, with a player option going into effect this week as she met an indeterminate minutes requirement (probably in the 1,750 or 1,800 minutes ballpark, given that she is now at 1,805 minutes after Sunday's game).

Of course, the lone goal on Sunday was a Mercado header, her eighth goal of the season. The score moved her into a tie for 10th place in the league with eight goals, a number she shares with Mina Tanaka and Aissata Traoré.

"This year is the first year where people have seen what I'm capable of on the field, especially from a contribution standpoint," Mercado told the media on Tuesday. "I think I will continue to score goals and create goals for my team."

This time last year, Mercado was in the middle of a loan to Carolina Ascent FC, a USL Super League side, where she scored four goals in six games played before the Reign recalled her in October 2025.

"The loan was something for me, at the time, I wanted to do to kind of get back to get into game form. I think that's important for me as a player, is I got out of that a little bit ... I got some games there, got some goals under me, got back into soccer shape, so that was great," Mercado said. "Obviously for me, it was 'how can I continue to emulate and bring that sort of difference I was making at Carolina back into the Reign environment?' and I think I was able to do that, and I hope I continue to do that."

Like the rest of her team, Mercado is looking for consistency. Confidence, she says, is fleeting, but by building up consistency, she believes in her ability to continue landing chances for Seattle.

Seattle, after all, needs more production up top, whether they are facing Bay or a far better side. Whether it comes from Mercado or Mia Fishel or Maddie Dahlien or Jess Fishlock or, at some point, Ami Diallo - the Reign need to put together the kind of sustained attacking prowess they have shown at times post-World Cup.