Five stats from Seattle Reign's frustrating 2024 season

After heading to the NWSL championship the year prior, the 2024 Seattle Reign season was one to forget. The Reign finished 13th out of 14 teams and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

The Reign (6-15-5) scored 27 goals in 26 games while conceding a league-high 44.

Here are five stats that help bring some of the Reign's struggles in 2024 to life.

25

A significant setback for the Reign in 2024 was the number of times they conceded early goals. The Reign allowed opponents to score a league-high 25 goals in the first half of their games.

On the attacking side, the Reign scored just seven goals in the first 30 minutes of their games. Only the Utah Royals and Houston Dash (4 each) were worse during this timeframe.

That meant the Reign were often chasing. They had to push for an equalizer early in almost every match, allowing their opponents to play with more aggression and confidence.

The Reign led at halftime just four times across 26 games, going 2-1-1 in those matches (7 points). That's 15% of all games. They were level at halftime in 10 games and finished with a 3-3-4 record (13 points). That leaves 12 matches where the Reign were down at halftime. Twelve matches where they had to try to claw their way back and try to get a result. The Reign were 1-11-0 in those games.

The team did show a lot of resilience. Despite giving up so many early goals, they only lost by multiple goals in four games this year. This team had a lot of fight, even when things weren't going right.

31

Another big issue? The Reign were really, really bad on the road. They conceded 31 goals in their 13 road games, the most in the league, and they only secured 7 points on the road, which is tied for the fewest in the league.

The Reign's expected goal differential (expected goals minus expected goals against) across 13 games at home was 1.4 xG, which is not great but was pretty much in the middle of the pack for the league. Defensively, the Reign were strong at home. Seattle conceded an average of one goal per match at home, which was fourth-best in the league.

The Reign's xG differential (xGD) dropped to -8.3 on the road, which was only better than the Dash and Royals. Their actual goal differential on the road was even worse at -15, which tied the Dash for the worst in the league.

The Reign actually scored a decent number of goals on the road (16 compared to just 11 at home), but their defensive numbers were so bad that it didn't matter.

9

The Reign gave up nine goals from set pieces in 2024 – the most in club history since data collection began in 2016. This stat includes direct shots from free kicks, along with goals scored from set piece or corner kick sequences.

You can relive all nine goals the Reign conceded in this video below ... if you'd like.

In 2022, when the Reign won the NWSL Shield, they didn't give up a single set-piece goal all season. That's historic, and it will be hard for any team to match that figure again. The only other team that has accomplished that was the North Carolina Courage in 2019 (at least since 2016).

The Reign jumped from zero to four set-piece goals conceded in 2023, which is still a solid number across a season. Unfortunately, even though the Reign conceded fewer set-piece shots this season (2.35 per match vs. 2.64) and the exact same expected goals total compared to 2023 (o.22 xG against per match), they more than doubled the number of goals they allowed this season.

Whether that's due to the heavy lineup rotation or just a lack of leadership on the field, this is fixable and something the Reign can solve in 2025.

0.12

In 2024, the teams that rose to the top of the league thrived in transitional moments. This is a bit of a departure from the top teams in the last few years, who advanced to the playoffs thanks to great defensive organization and showing quality moments in possession.

American Soccer Analysis has been collecting data on the NWSL since 2016. The five teams that averaged the most shots from fastbreak opportunities per game since 2016 all came this year. Those teams were: Washington Spirit, Kansas City Current, Orlando Pride, Chicago Red Stars, and Utah Royals.

Unfortunately for the Reign, they were on the wrong end of this shift in 2024. According to data from ASA, the Reign averaged just 0.12 shots from fastbreaks per game in 2024. This is the lowest average for any team since 2021.

Opta defines as fastbreak as "an attempt created after a team quickly turns defense into attack, winning the ball in their own half (counter-attack)."

Their best fastbreak opportunities actually came early in the year against the North Carolina Courage, when they had three chances – including this shot from Ji So-yun – off counter-attacks. And this chance was still the result of great combination play instead of a pure counter.

Now, the Reign have never been a team that built their attack around transitional moments, so it isn't a huge surprise to see them low in this stat. But it's still a huge drop from the last two years. According to Wyscout, the Reign had .51 more shots per game from counter-attacks last season and .64 more in 2022.

Historically, the Reign's transitional opportunities came from their high press. The Reign won possession in their attacking third 5.8 times per match this year, 9th best in the league. The Reign were fourth in this category last season, winning possession in their attacking third 7.7 times per match. That jumped to 7.9 in 2022 and was 7.5 in 2021. Seattle had a very consistent pattern until this season when the team struggled to adjust to losing Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle – two keys to their press in prior years.

The Reign conceded 0.58 fastbreak shots per game in 2024 – with many of these chances coming from poor giveaways in the middle of the field. According to Wyscout data, 44% of opponent counter-attacks ended in a shot against the Reign in 2024– a 10 percentage point jump from 2023. In short, the Reign attempted fewer fastbreak shots and conceded more fastbreak shots than in prior years.

Two things can help flip this script in 2025: more speed in the attack, more game minutes for Nérilia Mondésir and Emeri Adames who can bring some of that pace, and a better press from the frontline to the backline.

25

Reign head coach Laura Harvey rolled out 25 different starting formations in 26 matches this year. The only two repeat starting lineups came in the last two matches.

Much of this was due to injuries, as Lauren Barnes and Alana Cook started the preseason and season with injuries, a bad illness washed through the team near the start of the season, and Claudia Dickey, Jess Fishlock, Jordyn Huitema, Olivia Van der Jagt, Quinn, Ryanne Brown, and Barnes all missed significant time at different points in the year with injuries or excused absences.

Harvey also rotated in an attempt to figure out the best lineup to help them score and prevent goals. Lily Woodham and Angharad James-Turner started at the beginning of the season but fell out of the rotation when the Reign began to struggle on the defensive end. The Reign had a really rough May and June in particular, conceding 15 goals across four games.

Another part of this was due to the delay of the sale of the Reign, which limited the team's ability to make significant deals in the offseason. That meant the team was playing catch-up during the summer window. The Reign brought in 13 new players this season, with six of those players arriving in the middle of the season. Most of the other newcomers arrived late in the preseason due to international duty and visa delays. It's not an excuse, but it's hard to integrate so many new players into a team when they don't get a full preseason.

While the team should still make several moves this offseason, here's hoping that they'll have most of their players available and healthy in the preseason so they can be on the same page on day one.