Reign vs. Wave: Highlights, stats, quotes

It wasn't necessarily pretty, but it sure was a gritty performance. The Seattle Reign played with 10 players for 100+ minutes and won 2-1 over the San Diego Wave.

Bethany Balcer pressured Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan and poked the ball away before finishing into an open net to open the scoring for the Reign in the first half. Balcer now has three goals in seven games.

Then, in the 89th minute, substitutes Ji So-yun and Veronica Latsko combined on a gorgeous set piece to put the Reign ahead.

The Reign (2-5-0) are back at home on Wednesday night, hosting the Kansas City Current. The match kicks off at 7 PM PT and will air on KONG TV and NWSL+.

Highlights

Stats

SCORING SUMMARY

11' - Kyra Carusa

34' - Bethany Balcer

89' - Veronica Latsko (Assisted by Ji So-Yun)

LINEUPS

9' - Tziarra King red card

52' Substitution - V. Latsko (In)/E. Adames (Out)

67' Substitution - Ji So-Yun (In)/O. Athens (Out); O. Van Der Jagt (In)/B. Balcer (Out)

92' Substitution - M. Weinert (In)/A. James (Out); S. Holmes (In)/P. McClernon (Out)

45' Substitution - J. Shaw (In)/E. Bennett (Out)

63' Substitution - M. Sánchez (In)/K. Carusa (Out)

80' Substitution - A. Ali (In)/M. Doniak (Out)

94' Substitution - M. Jones (In)/E. Van Egmond (Out); K. Ascanio (In)/S. McCaskill (Out)

105' - Kristen McNabb red card

ATTENDANCE

7,030 (Lumen Field, Seattle)

POSSESSION

Reign: 33.3%

Wave: 66.7%

EXPECTED GOALS

Reign: 1.66

Wave: 1.58

TOTAL SHOTS

Reign: 8

Wave: 12

SHOTS ON TARGET

Reign: 3

Wave: 6

SHOTS OFF TARGET

Reign: 4

Wave: 4

SHOTS BLOCKED

Reign: 1

Wave: 2

SHOTS FROM INSIDE THE BOX

Reign: 5

Wave: 9

TOUCHES INSIDE THE OPP. BOX

Reign: 11

Wave: 31

PASSES

Reign: 286

Wave: 560

PASSING ACCURACY

Reign: 62.2%

Wave: 82.5%

PASSES IN FINAL THIRD

Reign: 67

Wave: 134

PASSING ACCURACY IN FINAL THIRD

Reign: 44.8%

Wave: 67.9%

CROSSES (EXCLUDING CORNERS)

Reign: 5

Wave: 17

CORNERS WON

Reign: 0

Wave: 7

OFFSIDES

Reign: 1

Wave: 3

FOULS

Reign: 17

Wave: 18

YELLOW CARDS

Reign: 4

Wave: 4

RED CARDS

Reign: 1

Wave: 1

Quotes

On how crucial it was to get points in this match: "Obviously, when you have someone sent off as early as we did, sort of, the full game plan goes out the window a little bit. But I think we we're still aggressive, we still defended on the front foot, we made it difficult for them, we know we have to give something up. But I thought defensively, we did an unbelievable job of limiting them to chances around our goal, which I think when you play San Diego, you have to do that and obviously, they came here with injuries and stuff like that, but when something happens so early in the game, you can either crumble or you can stand up and fight and be counted. I think it says a lot about the group, about their belief, about who they are, who they want to be that they didn't crumble and they stood up and they fought till the death and one real bit of quality from Ji and Veronica and a really good instinctive press from Balcer to force the goalkeeper into a mistake, gets us a win, which not many people go against San Diego and win, not many people go against San Diego and win with 10 players for 90 minutes. So yeah, I'm really, really proud of the group."

On what this win says about the club from a grit standpoint how the team continues to utilize its depth: "I think, with three games in a week, our plan was to always look at who needed to start tonight, who needed to come on knowing we've got three games in a week. We know that with the results that we've had, with the losses that we've had, we have put ourselves in a tough position, but I will always say, you win three games in this league and your life looks very, very different and there's no better example of that than Gotham from last year - they won three games and they win them at the end of the season and they ended up winning the championship. So, as long as you keep yourself in it and you're process driven, you don't get too high with the highs and you don't get too low with lows, you'll always be able to have a good mentality and I think that's what was shown tonight. I think this group knows that they've always not been that far away and I said to them at the end, at the end of seasons, you can always look back on a game or a performance or a moment that can springboard you, potentially, and maybe this was tonight. I think that this was definitely a turning point from where we were to come out, perform the way we did, to show the mentality we did. I thought Jess and Haz (Angharad James-Turner) were exceptional. I thought Laurel was great. I thought the subs were great when they came on and every single player that walked on that field was going to do everything in their power to make sure we didn't lose that game and as long as we have that mentality, we'll be OK.

On how crucial it was to get a win tonight:

Latsko: "I think it just shows that the team has grit and that's the backbone of a championship kind of team. So, you don't win anything without grit and we showed that for 90 minutes tonight."

Ivory: "I think in all of our performances, our second halves have been really, really good and we've executed the things that we've wanted to execute and I think today, we were tested nine minutes in to see if we were going to execute properly. After every single game, none of us have hung our heads. I know losing five games in a row, the shift in the team determines where the rest of your season is going to go and nobody has been hanging their heads in our locker room, in our facility - every single day, people show up. The people who aren't dressed, they show up every single day and I knew, you could just feel it, we were going to pull something out today."