This was it. This was the nadir. This was the hardest rewatch of the season. After thinking so many times that at least I had seen the worst the Reign had to offer for 2024, it still came down to this.
The futility, the misery, the absolutely giving up and rolling over.
Cloé Lacasse scored in the third minute. Angharad James-Turner took a yellow card in the 4th minute. Angharad James-Turner took another yellow card in the 16th minute, and received her marching orders. Lacasse scored again four minutes later. By halftime, Lacasse had her hat trick and the Royals were up 3-0.
The Reign took three shots, none from closer than 16 yards, their total combined xG a whopping 0.06.
Whatever next year brings, can it possibly be worse than this?
Goalkeeper
Claudia Dickey – 4
The good. Despite the big blunders, of which she had at least two, Claudia did still show up with five saves on the night, and she was under siege for most of it. It could've genuinely been much worse than it was.
The bad. Yikes, the opening goal. Okay, yes, everyone was bad on it, but on that corner kick, Dickey didn't even give her claws a chance. She was lost on the delivery, got nowhere close to the ball, and let it simply drop into the crowd in her own six, and... well. As the entire Reign defense simply watched, Lacasse poked it home. The third goal was also a bit of a mess all around, down a player and disorganized as hell, but Dickey bottled it when the actual shot came.
Going forward. Claw-dia's got much better in her, but this was a real bad night for making opponents talk to the claw, no argument.
Defense
Shae Holmes – 4
The good. Her three blocks, three interceptions, and two tackles helped keep it from being even worse, and a well-timed pressure on Mina Tanaka may have saved a goal.
The bad. All three Lacasse goals featured misreads, misplays, or outright lethal errors from Shae. Yes, it's fair to point out that all three of them also featured errors from other players, but Holmes really struggled, both before and after the Reign went down a player. 61% passing and a number of mishit clearances didn't help the situation. The Royals got the better of her again and again and again, and she simply could not adapt.
Going forward. This was a bad night for the Shae Holmes Agenda, but given waving vaguely everything else, it's probably safe to consider it an outlier.
Phoebe McClernon – 5
The good. McClernon won two of her three duels, and added two blocks and three interceptions alongside seven recoveries as she spent most of the afternoon Desperation Defending while outnumbered and disorganized. She actually mostly did alright at Desperation Defending, but it's bad to be in that situation at all.
The bad. The first goal was a bleak-ass comedy of errors where Dickey and McClernon crossed wires. And, honestly, that was kind of the story of the day. The usually-solid McClernon couldn't get on the same page as anybody around her. And while her errors weren't Shae Holmes big, they were still frequent. Her passing was shaky. Her clearances too often found a Utah boot in position to apply pressure all over again. A bad, bad night from a normally solid defender.
Going forward. Trust that a real offseason will help everyone reset and get on the same page.
Jordyn Bugg – 6 (POTM)
The good. Jordyn Bugg led the side in touches, led the side in passing accuracy, led the side in clearances, interceptions, and blocked shots, and, generally, led the fucking side. The 18-year-old rookie looked the most composed and determined player on the pitch for the Reign, even as everything fell apart around her.
The bad. Faint praise given how generally poor the team around her was. Bugg was also part of the team-wide furt that led to Utah's opening goal, and while she mostly made the right choice when under pressure and down a player, she did cough the ball up in a dangerous spot a couple different times.
Going forward. In a disaster of a match, Bugg made a strong case that she should be starting at CB regardless of who else is available.
Hanna Glas – 4
The good. Glas showed more of her defensive bite after the Reign went down a player, winning all three of her duels and two additional tackles. She adjusted fairly well after a disastrous opening 20 minutes, and was steady enough to staunch the bleeding that followed.
The bad. Hey, did you know that basically everybody was bad on Utah's opening goal? That also goes for Glas. Lacasse absolutely scorching Hanna was a theme of the first half of the first half, and though Glas adjusted and gave her less as the match went on, you can only give so much credit for the defensive effort and effective adjustments when the league's only hat trick ran rampant down your side of the field for a large portion of the game.
Going forward. It wasn't Hanna's night. It wasn't anybody's night on the Reign side of things. It was Cloé Lacasse's world and the rest of us just had to deal with that. (I did not enjoy dealing with that.)
Midfield
Olivia Athens – 4 (off 74' for Ji So-yun)
The good. Athens was one of very few Reign players on the day who could complete a damned pass, going 15 for 17 and even showing some occasional but genuine interest in getting the ball forward.
The bad. Athens was, despite being able to complete a damned pass, basically invisible after the Reign went down a player, touching the ball just 22 times from the outnumbered midfield and never finding a moment to try to change the narrative. The lack of impact was understandable given the game state, but she coupled that with a real lack of defensive presence, and a real lack of, honestly, finding the game.
Going forward. In a match where the median performance was quite bad, Olivia's didn't stand out as especially so, but the early disaster game state certainly put her limitations on display, as well.
Angharad James-Turner – 2
The good. Unfortunately, no.
The bad. I'm actually somewhat sympathetic. The first yellow card feels a bit phantom. The second yellow card, sure, it's a yellow, but it's frustrating as fuck that similar pulldowns were never shown yellow again across myriad opportunities throughout the match. If Haz were to watch the game film and come away thinking Elvis Osmanovic had a grudge against her, I'd understand that. All that said, you simply cannot make that challenge while already on a yellow and chasing a goal, especially not 15 minutes in and with coverage behind you. Haz put us down to 10 in the 16th minute with that decision. And, well, to quote Lianne Sanderson, "it's bad to go down to 10 players."
Going forward. It's been an up and down season for James-Turner, and, frankly, more down than up to close things out. We'll see what next year brings. Hopefully no performances like this, in any case.
Jaelin Howell – 5 (off 74' for Nikki Stanton)
The good. While it's damning with some faint praise, Jaelin was certainly the best performance of the starting midfield, leading with 27 touches, some genuine composure on and off the ball, six defensive actions, and, hell, producing more of the Reign's "offense" than anybody else on the pitch.
The bad. The Reign's offense amounted to 0.06 xG, so let's not get ahead of ourselves on that last point above. Howell also, despite her defensive efforts, did just get run through and played around in the midfield too many times. It's bad to go down to 10 players, but the Reign also needed more from their defensive players to hold the ship steady and maybe steal a result. Jaelin couldn't make the difference she needed to.
Going forward. Still one of the better Reign performances of the match, and Howell really does look like she'll bring some xDAWG and Give Me That Ball to the Reign's midfield next season.
Forward
Emeri Adames – 3 (off 65' for Tziarra King)
The good. It's always good to see attacking players winning tackles and picking off passes in the attacking third. In better contexts, that creates chances and goals.
The bad. It did not create chances and goals. Also, Adames was extremely wasteful with possession on the rare moments she did find some. There's no game state that's going to make 21% passing and getting her pocket picked in possession multiple times actually decent, unfortunately.
Going forward. Chalk it up to growing pains in a brutal match and keep giving her minutes. We're all in on the Adames Agenda.
Jordyn Huitema – 4 (off 74' for Nérilia Mondésir)
The good. Huitema might've been the only player mostly getting it right on Utah's opening goal. She's also the only Reign player who put a shot on target. For a moment, it looked like she'd won another penalty out of nothing, but on review, it turned out that Madison Pogarch had, in fact, pulled a Wrestling Maneuver on her while the ball was dead, so it wasn't a PK after all. (Somehow, Pogarch remained on the pitch after this incident. Insufficient brutality, I guess.)
The bad. Like Adames, Huitema was quite wasteful in possession, and lost the ball to bad touches five times besides that. On an afternoon when the Reign really needed their forwards to conjure some magic and help hold up the damn ball, Huitema joined the ranks of forwards who were mostly not up to that task.
Going forward. Despite the bad day at the office, Huitema actually does seem to be growing more confident in simply being a physical menace, which should provide a ton of value next season if she keeps it up.
Ana-Maria Crnogorčević – 4 (off 65' for Veronica Latsko)
The good. The only forward who could complete a pass for the Reign, AMC also led the side in progressive passes (with 3, sigh) and brought her usual tenacity on the press.
The bad. Her usual tenacity on the press was not especially effective for an outnumbered Reign side that could not complete a pass, could not keep a defensive shape, and absolutely would not organize themselves, so even the good things she did largely amounted to nothing. And, while the circumstances were bad, she was unable to create any real danger, and infrequently able to provide any real relief for a besieged defense.
Going forward. AMC does a lot of good and useful things even on her bad starts, and what she did in this match likely would've been better in a game where the team showed up to play and didn't go down to 10 players immediately.
Substitutes
Full Disclosure: I don't know what an 'average' performance in that game state even looks like, but it feels deeply unfair to pin anything that went wrong in this match on the players who came on long after it was already a 3-0 drubbing with a player disadvantage. Instead, I'm simply noting something I liked for all five.
Tziarra King – 5 (on 65' for Emeri Adames)
Zee completed all of her passes AND put in a pretty sick cross! It didn't matter.
Veronica Latsko – 5 (on 65' for Ana-Maria Crnogorčević)
Roni ran hard, dribbled a fool out of her boots, and mixed it up in the air! It didn't matter.
Nérilia Mondésir – 5 (on 74' for Jordyn Huitema)
Coco ran with some real flair and put in more defensive effort than we've seen from her in prior games! It didn't matter.
Ji So-yun – 5 (on 74' for Olivia Athens)
Ji showed a quick, beautiful touch on her long passes and put Zee and Coco into space! It didn't matter.
Nikki Stanton – 5 (on 74' for Jaelin Howell)
Nikki won all of her duels and touched the ball a handful of times! It didn't matter.
Referee
Elvis Osmanovic – 3
The good. Annoyingly, it was the right call according to the rules to not award a penalty for Madison Pogarch's clear-cut, incandescently obvious violent conduct in the 51st minute, as the ball was dead at the time it was committed, and also it wouldn't have really mattered for the final result anyway. However...
The bad. ...okay, look, he's not why we lost (we'd frankly already found a way to do that within five minutes), but – come on. Pogarch got more grace for throwing a whole damned pro wrestling finisher than James-Turner got for existing. This was a messy, uneven, grotesquely badly called game pretty much from the opening whistle. Identical tactical fouls to the one that saw Haz sent off were repeated by Utah numerous times, all mysteriously without bookings to accompany them. There's the stereotype of the ref always looking to even things out after making a big call, but Elvis seemed almost monomaniacally dedicated to not doing that, regardless of what Utah players did to warrant it.
Usually, on a rewatch, I wind up with a more sanguine view of the officiating than I had on the live watch. This time, my word, if anything, the performance was far worse than the temperature of the game threads. Utterly unhinged reffing, both absolutely disinterested in protecting players and absolutely disinterested in maintaining game flow at once.
Going forward. This might well be in contention for worst referee performance of the year, and that's got some stiff competition from the illustrious likes of Danielle "Yellow Cards Record" Chesky, Gerald "It's Not A Foul If You Do It To Balcer" Flores, and Abdou "Chesky Already Used All Our Yellow Cards" Ndiaye. I would like Elvis Osmanovic to do better next time. This seems like a small ask.
And Another Thing..!
After watching this match three times, I am no longer certain I have the capacity to hope or dream.
