Seattle Reign had an evening to remember in Cary, North Carolina, coming away victorious on Saturday for only the second time ever at the home of the NC Courage, by a score of 2-1. Jess Fishlock made sure her 200th NWSL regular-season appearance was memorable by notching the first goal for the Reign, Jordyn Bugg scored a worldie to double the lead, and Aline Gomes clawed one back for the hosts to complete the scoring.
The Reign made two changes from their lineup on opening weekend. Rookie fullback Emily Mason made her professional debut in place of the unavailable Shae Holmes, and Maddie Mercado started centrally at forward in place of Jordyn Huitema, who was available off the bench but carrying a knock.
What worked
Jess Fishlock, take a bow
It had been 523 days since the tiny dragon last scored for Seattle, and she made up for lost time in style with an excellent finish on a team effort which involved several excellent passing sequences and some alertness by Maddie Mercado to chase down a ball in the corner and find the streaking Fishlock with a cross which split the Courage defense. Fishlock took one touch to settle and calmly slotted the ball past a diving Casey Murphy and into the far upper corner. This was the first time the Reign had ever scored the opening goal during a game at the Courage.
200 matches. Same finish by Jess Fishlock 👏
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) March 22, 2025 at 4:52 PM
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Jordyn Bugg, you are cleared for liftoff
Words really can’t do justice in describing Bugg’s first professional goal, which has immediately set a very high bar by which all other NWSL goal of the year candidates will be judged.
Jordyn Bugg's first NWSL goal and early candidate for goal of the year 😮💨
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) March 22, 2025 at 5:34 PM
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She won’t get credit for an assist, but Fishlock also deserves some kudos for the pressure on the play which forced a rushed Courage clearance to Bugg.
Angharad James-Turner, destroyer of attacking dreams
After a fairly forgettable opening game, Haz came into this match with renewed intensity and focus. She was regularly clogging up passing channels, anticipating passes, and tracking back to provide formidable defensive support, and late on was a calming presence amid a very young squad trying to see the game out. Head coach Laura Harvey called her out by name in her postgame comments, noting “I thought she was very, very good. Does all the dirty work, wins it, gives it to the people she needs to give it to.”
What didn’t work
A 90 minute high press
Seattle controlled the pace and dictated the game for the first hour or so, with the Courage limited to a few low percentage looks on counters. The Reign high press was forcing a lot of poor passes, and when the Courage broke through, the defense was effective in channeling any attacks into wide areas to limit the danger faced by Claudia Dickey. The first half ended with nearly even possession stats, something unheard by any team when facing the Courage on the road.
That all changed at the hour mark, shortly after Bugg’s golazo. A miscommunication and some flukey deflections led to a chaotic sequence and a loose ball in the Reign box, which Courage forward Aline Gomes tapped with the outside of her boot and trickled just inside the goalpost for a consolation goal.
Aline Gomes with just the right touch 🤌
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) March 22, 2025 at 5:38 PM
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From this point on, the Courage had all of the momentum and attacked the Reign in waves. The Reign had Mercado drop back into the midfield to provide more support and cover the middle of the pitch and brought on the fresh legs of Sam Meza to spell a tired Fishlock. Later, Olivia van der Jagt made her return in place of Ji So-yun, but a combination of youthful inexperience and a formation shift left the team struggling to hold the ball as the Courage attack swarmed. Fortunately, Dickey came up with several big stops in the waning minutes to prevent an equalizer.
Quotes
“You have to be aggressive defensively.”
When asked postgame about what she felt the difference was in this game for the Reign to grit out a big win, Laura Harvey noted how much they focused on having aggressive defense to help control the game. “We’ve really worked on that, on trying to control the game on both sides of the ball,” she explained. “My mentality to facing them [NC] is you have to be aggressive defensively, but that’s really hard work. So often when you’re aggressive defensively you can be sloppy in possession, and I think a real development of our team is we want to work hard without the ball, but with the ball we want to control the game, and I thought we did a really good job of that for the first hour... It was a bit of fatigue [after that], a little bit of taking our foot off the gas and not being able to get it back on there, but it's something we can learn from and the best time to learn is when you’ve won.”
“She took shots today.”
After taking no shots last week, Harvey said she told Maddie Dahlien to be more selfish in the future. The lesson was apparently quickly taken to heart, as the first-year forward had a team-high five looks on goal.
“She knew she was coming back to the place she spent a couple of years at college and had been around here and she wanted to put on a show,” Harvey told reporters postgame. “She was very clear about that, ‘I want to show them what they’re missing.’ And I think she did that. She made Casey Murphy pull out some saves, and I just said to her at the end of the game that there are just things we need to keep helping her with because she’s such a threat going forward.”
Seattle Reign remain on the road next week, traveling to southern California to face Angel City FC on Sunday, March 30. That match kicks off at 5 PM Pacific and will air on CBS Sports Network.
