The Seattle Reign just dropped a forgettable match on the road against Angel City, a game where everything seemed to go wrong, starting with a flat-out fortunate penalty call that opened the scoring for the opposition. Honestly, Angel City didn’t create much more beyond that, hitting a “flow state” on just a couple of sparse chances, but the Reign created even less. This was a bad performance, plain and simple, and one we’d all just as soon forget.
Dickey’s Tough Night and Defensive Struggles
Goalkeeper Claudia Dickey had a brutal outing, getting a “4 Doom” rating. Angel City took three shots against her, and all three found the back of the net. While they were “well-taken shots,” including the penalty, you just hoped for one of those “immaculate stops” Clauds has given us so many times. The tough truth is, we didn’t get it. On the defensive side, Madison Curry, despite a “5 Doom” rating, was probably the Reign’s second-best player on the pitch. That’s not a compliment in a match like this. She was effective getting the ball forward but then couldn’t nail the next pass or create anything dangerous. Credit where it’s due, Curry was a “wrecking machine,” winning a ton of duels and defensive actions, with Angel City needing luck more than skill to get around her. Meanwhile, Phoebe McClernon, also rated a “5 Doom” before being subbed off at 79 minutes for Emily Mason, struggled with the midfield breakdown in front of her. When we needed her long passing to connect, she managed just one successful attempt to break the lines. Yikes.
Offense Went Missing, Except for One “Banger”
Our offense was nowhere to be found, leaving forwards starved for meaningful touches and resulting in a maddening failure to score on the goal line. We were a Sofia Huerta “banger-of-bangers” away from a complete shutout, which tells you everything about how much we created. Angel City, on the other hand, just kept turning their bad chances into “screaming goals,” leaving us gutted. This was an Angel City team that absolutely had to win to keep their hopes alive, and they played like it, while our Reign looked like the visiting opposition on short rest, which has been a recurring theme this year.
This was a gut-wrenching game, full of rough calls and moments of magic from the opposition. It’s one for the history books to skip. The team has to shake this off fast. We need to make those “pretty, pretty good” distribution choices from Dickey actually matter next time. We can’t afford too many more blips like this.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Sounder at Heart.
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