Disorganized Reign Drop to Ninth Place

SEATTLE - It's going down to the wire for the Seattle Reign.

When the 2026 season began, ESPN had Seattle finishing ninth in the NWSL. It was a reflection of the lack of big additions in the offseason and the team's overperformance in 2025, but make no mistake: such a finish would be an incredibly disappointing step back for a team that looked to legitimately enter a contention window this year.

Now with three games left, the Reign are in ninth place, one spot and two points out of the eight-team playoff picture.

Their loss on Friday, Oct. 2 appeared existential in some ways - keeper Claudia Dickey spent much of stoppage time out of net, for example - but in others, the Reign were still disjointed in the same ways they had been for much of the season.

The lone goal for the visitors, three minutes into the second half, wasn't an especially dangerous strike; rather, it was the kind of thing that happens when a team isn't on its A-game.

"I don't feel that we came out the best (in the) first half, to be honest. I think we weren't really winning our 1-v-1 battles, we weren't really connecting our passes," said midfielder Sam Meza. "I mean, the goal didn't really come off a ton, it's not like they completely broke us, but when you don't do the basic things correctly, a goal like that can come in."

Head coach Laura Harvey talked about that issue with the fundamentals, adding that the Reign didn't properly adjust to the team they knew they would be facing.

Even with their issues all game, had the Reign managed to keep one bizarre goal out of the net, they would have walked away with their eighth place playoff spot intact.

Though the first 45 minutes didn't see anyone take the lead, there were bad signs for Seattle.

Ainsley McCammon got dinged for an obvious yellow in the third minute, giving a free kick in Seattle territory. The one set piece became another as the Reign conceded a corner, and as Gianna Paul headed a floater towards the far post, the Reign nearly fell down 1-0 - but the ball caromed off the crossbar and Seattle regained pace. Though the Courage didn't get any shots on net in the first half, that chance was a harbinger of how the game would go.

There were a few opportunities for the Reign in the ensuing 10 minutes, most notably in the fifth minute as Phoebe McClernon barreled through pressure from Evelyn Ijeh and Riley Jackson before initiating a give-and-go with Mia Fishel and finding a window to take a left-footer to net.

Yet her shot didn't get enough daylight from Carolina keeper Kailen Sheridan, who batted it away with her left hand.

Even though it would have been McClernon's first career professional goal, the six-year NWSL veteran said it was a chance she had to convert.

"I need to put that away," McClernon said after the game. "I know I'm a center back and I don't find myself in those positions, but I'm in a 1-v-1 with the keeper ... the ruthlessness in those moments, to finish your opportunities to have them, it matters. That's what makes great teams great. They're not always the best team on the field, necessarily, but they find a way to win, and those are opportunities we need to put in the back of the net."

There is no doubt that such a goal would have changed totally the tenor of the game, but it was back to the drawing board for Seattle.

McClernon and Ryanne Brown both had difficulty repelling a 20th minute run of play in Seattle territory, though Jordyn Bugg simultaneously intercepted it and drew a foul.

Eight minutes later, Brown was the second defender to get a shot on net, acquiring the ball off a Courage rebound (in turn off a cross from Jess Fishlock, but her shot went like McClernon's - right to Sheridan.

Despite the Courage failing to get a shot on net all half, the Reign had precision problems the other way, with quite a few spells of dangerous possession that ended with a late clearance or takeaway less than 10 yards away. Twice the Courage entered the Reign penalty area in the 36th, Bugg took the ball away from Ashley Sanchez on the first entry and the second spell of advanced play ended as Dickey made a high claim.

Despite a bit of late momentum for Seattle, the visitors' early second half goal was enough.

The second half didn't open according to plan for the Reign. Three minutes in, the Courage brought the ball out to the right corner and in for Paul, who fired one at the net. It deflected off McCammon's foot and floated high in the air towards the far post, going over Dickey's jump and falling into the back of the net. It was a bit of an odd way for North Carolina to score, but with Seattle's lack of coordination, something like that was a real risk.

"Yeah, I think the goal was unlucky, but again, I'm going to go back to, if we're not doing the simple things correctly, then something like that happens," Meza said. "A goal like that happens. That's just something we kind of have to take in and be honest about."

Seattle's half-chances and beginning looks didn't look a whole lot different after they went down 1-0, but they did become a little more common as the visitors naturally adopted a more defensive posture. Maddie Mercado fired a left-footed curler just a foot over the crossbar in the 57th, but other than that, there was a lot of frustration, tiltedness, and difficulty turning slight cracks into real windows.

Harvey managed to finally inject some life into her side with a pair of 61st minute substitutions, bringing Nérilia Mondésir and Maddy Curry on for Mia Fishel and Ryanne Brown. Coco created a corner less than a minute after going on and Seattle began holding most of the possession, but as the Reign had all game, they couldn't reliably enter the final third with precision and pace.

McCammon, on a yellow, came off in the 71st for Sally Menti, while the final two swaps were Brittany Ratcliffe for Dahlien and Emeri Adames for Fishlock.

It was a game of inches at times. Mercado tried to control an aerial reception in front of a rather open box at one point but knocked it too far forward, while a 76th minute attempted left-footer from Menti was blocked and Fishlock's attempt to bring it forward on the recovery was easily intercepted.

Menti managed to draw a foul a foot outside the box in the 80th and, with plenty of open space above the Courage wall, Coco sent a screamer for the top rail. By just a hair, however, she got too far under the ball and it bounced off the beam. Adames tried a floater to follow up, but it too went over the goal and the game remained scoreless.

Hesitation from Huerta, Menti, and Coco in turn during the first minute of stoppage left potential mid-range shots off the board, and though a great turn in the box from Menti a half minute later could have led to an equalizer with Mercado up front, the ball had too much juice on it and it became a corner for Seattle.

That corner provided the Reign their best chance of the game, as although the first service was repelled, Huerta sent a cross over to Bugg by the far post. Had she gotten a foot on it a split second quicker, it would have been an equalizer from the center back, but it instead went across the mouth of the net and Seattle remained scoreless.

There were a couple more set piece opportunities in the seven minutes of stoppage, and on each of them, Dickey left the net to bring up another player.

"We're losing 1-0 with seven minutes to go, why not?" Harvey said of the move.

But it mattered not. When the whistle blew, the Reign had lost their 27th game of the season and fallen behind the Courage in the table.

"When things don't work once, we stop doing it": Seattle had issues keeping a level head.

Like a lot of losses, there could be plenty of blame to go around. Just one goal makes it a tie and keeps Seattle ahead of North Carolina; a save from Dickey in the 48th does the same. Some better touches in the box, a couple more clearances, you name it: it was a game lost on the edge.

But it was also a game defined by team-wide lack of sharpness.

"I think it was probably a confluence of factors," McClernon said. "I don't think you could isolate it to one thing. There were instances where our quality let us down, there were instances where, tactically, it let us down, there were instances where we just didn't have the mentality, and that let us down. But in any regard, there's just a lot we can learn from this game."

According to Harvey, part of it stemmed from a perhaps overly-reactive response to adverse results.

"I don't doubt that our players give effort, never. But I think when things don't work once, we stop doing it. And it's not necessarily, the reason it didn't work is the decision that you made," Harvey said. "And we fall into the trap of that too much at times."

Phoebe McClernon attributed this not to a lack of in-game tenacity but instead to a propensity to immediately assume that a bad outcome was resultant of bad process.

"I don't know if I would equate those two points ... I don't know if that's necessarily our tenacity," McClernon said. "I think it's hard in games, when you try to do something and it doesn't come off, and I think as Sam (Meza) said, we are quick to look internally, like 'did I make a mistake on that?' and I think that can stand in your way. Because it isn't always 'oh, I played a bad ball and that's why that happened,' it can be a million different things that lead to why maybe that didn't come off. And I think that we need to have the ability to zoom out and see the bigger picture and understand that that space is a space to exploit, we can keep doing that."

It's the classic difference between the 10-foot view and the 10,000-foot view. I'm not sure of what cues they can use in training; if the team knew, they would probably already be in use.

But that issue is disappointing for Seattle, who at other points have shown great strides in how they analyze their own game and learn from mistakes. Since the summer, it seems the difference has been between learning over training and learning in-game - players have talked about a difficulty in dealing with adverse momentum.

Over the next weeks of training, the Reign will have to be looking for ways to slow the game down in their heads as they are playing.

Seattle got shut out for the first time since May 15.

Between the Reign's 2-0 loss to Gotham on the Ides of May and their 1-0 loss to North Carolina on Friday, the team had gone 17 straight games with at least one goal. During that time, they were 9-6-2, logging 1.71 points per game and scoring 1.53 goals per game.

But the later half of that streak saw a lot more one-goal showings than the first eight; particularly, the team had five straight games of scoring two or more between July 12 and Aug. 9. And between July 4 and Sept. 12, Seattle logged 1.9 xG per game, up there with some of the best in the business.

In their four games their 3-1 Sept. 16 loss at Angel City, however, the Reign haven't put up more than 0.98 xG in any fixture.

Part of it is a paucity of goal-dangerous options at times. Jess Fishlock can be hit-or-miss at her age, especially when put in games for longer periods of time as on Friday. Mia Fishel showed spurts of the promise that brought her to the Reign, but the striker has had issues in reaction time up front and thus often misses opportunities to shoot.

Maddie Dahlien has a clearly high ceiling, but when up against a right back as fast as she is, the Reign can have issues doing much at all on the attack if they keep trying to play it up for her. This is what happened on Friday against North Carolina's Ryan Williams, who consistently plugged any gaps that Dahlien might have had on that side of the pitch. Once Harvey moved her over to the right side, she began to create more chances for Seattle, but she still didn't make the kind of splashes she had against Bay.

There were a couple moments where Maddie Mercado could have made an impact with a better touch - and the game would have been tied had she been given a better ball from Menti late in the second half - but without a strong game from anyone up top, the Reign were far less dangerous in the box than they would have liked.

And since they had connection issues even getting there (they only had 19 touches in the penalty area), this lack of precision wasn't going to be overcome with the law of large numbers.

Seattle needs a surge in their final three fixtures.

Though Harvey had estimated that 42 or 43 points would be enough to get Seattle to the postseason, the Courage are now pacing 47 points on the year. With the Reign at 40, they would have to win all three remaining games to best that pace. Otherwise, they can expect to be at the mercy of waiting on another team to lose.

Seattle doesn't resume play until Oct. 18, when they begin a two-game road trip against the Chicago Stars and Utah Royals. While the Stars are the worst team in the league at 5-20-2, the Royals currently sit fourth in the table with 46 points and a +9 goal difference.

After that, they return home for the regular season finale on Nov. 1 against the Orlando Pride.

For now, however, it is about recouping from their loss and finding a way forward as they enter a half-month break.

"That was pretty gutting," McClernon said of her team's Friday defeat. "I think losing on a goal like that is obviously gonna hurt. I think we're disappointed in the way that we came out in the first 15 or so. But there's still everything to play for. I don't think that we feel defeated by this loss. You've seen our mentality on the stage this whole season, when we get knocked down, we get back up and we come back stronger. And I think this is just another opportunity to do that. We're gonna full send it for the rest of the season."