When OL Reign clinched their 3rd and astir improbable Shield astatine the extremity of the National Women's Soccer League regular season, they instantly became the favorites successful the playoffs arsenic the No. 1 seed. Now, the Reign are aiming to instrumentality to the NWSL Championship for the archetypal clip since 2015, and volition unfastened their postseason run connected Sunday, when they big the Kansas City Current, the No. 5 seed.
But contrary to what mightiness beryllium suggested by winning the NWSL Shield, the league's grant for the champion squad of the regular season, the Reign didn't predominate their mode done 2022. Unlike the Reign's erstwhile Shield wins successful the NWSL's aboriginal days, this 1 didn't travel easy.
For starters, see however they secured the Shield connected the last time of the season: the Reign defeated the Orlando Pride 3-0 a fewer hours aft their rivals and season-long favorites, the Portland Thorns, stumbled to a 3-3 roadworthy gully astatine last-place NJ/NY Gotham FC.
Portland's effect opened the doorway for the Reign to triumph the Shield by 1 point, portion the Reign had not finished immoderate week anterior this play connected apical of the table.
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The Reign's triumph to adjacent retired the play was a 4th consecutive and an hold of a seven-game unbeaten streak successful league play that helped the Seattle broadside pursuit down the Shield. Their past loss? A 2-1 decision astatine location connected Aug. 7 against the Houston Dash.
In hindsight, that nonaccomplishment appears to person been a turning point. On that day, the Reign led lone 1-0 astatine halftime contempt dominating the Dash. Then, Dash guardant Ebony Salmon scored doubly successful 2 minutes, and the Reign fell to sixth place, conscionable supra the playoff line.
"I consciousness similar this radical had a prime to marque aft the Houston crippled astatine location of: What squad are we going to be?" Reign manager Laura Harvey said recently. "Are we going to beryllium this squad that plays large football, creates a ton of chances, but doesn't rather get there? There was a accidental we weren't going to get into the playoffs...
"I consciousness similar thing changed successful the radical that week wherever determination was a existent mentality displacement of, we cognize that we're good. We cognize we're talented. We cognize that we person the quality to triumph games due to the fact that we'd been doing it. We'd been creating truthful galore chances successful games and not punishing teams. You could person that arsenic your story, right? Didn't marque it due to the fact that we couldn't decorativeness our chances. But since then, we've benignant of turned into a antithetic squad a small bit."
What followed was an emphatic 4-1 triumph implicit struggling Gotham and a trophy successful The Women's Cup, an invitational tourney that included wins for the Reign implicit Mexico's Club America and hosts Racing Louisville. In precocious August, Harvey called the week successful Louisville "one of the proudest moments I person had arsenic a coach."
While the Women's Cup trophy added momentum to the Reign's form, arsenic important successful their tally to the Shield was a dramatic, 2-1 triumph implicit Orlando connected Aug. 26 to extremity a roadworthy trip. Reign guardant Megan Rapinoe scored the game-winner successful second-half stoppage time.
"I mean, I conscionable consciousness similar it's that constituent successful the season," Rapinoe said afterward. "Like, this is our season. We evidently haven't clinched playoffs. We've dropped immoderate important points earlier connected successful the season. This is getting to crunch clip successful the play wherever you either triumph oregon you don't prime up capable points."
The Reign's endowment differential
Rapinoe's relation successful the Reign's turnaround is undeniable.
The 37-year-old played constricted minutes aboriginal successful the play arsenic she battled injuries. The roadworthy backmost made her question, astatine times, whether she should retire. Then, she rejoined the U.S. women's nationalist squad successful June for the CONCACAF W Championship, reestablishing herself arsenic a halfway subordinate of the team arsenic manager Vlatko Andonovski had been casting different veterans aside.
All of Rapinoe's 7 goals and 4 assists for the Reign person travel successful the 9 games since returning from the CONCACAF W Championship successful mid-July.
As was the lawsuit with Rapinoe, a deficiency of endowment was ne'er a occupation -- anterior to their late-summer turnaround, the Reign's results conscionable didn't lucifer their talent.
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Megan Rapinoe scores from the spot to pb OL Reign to a 1-0 triumph implicit Gotham FC successful the NWSL.
The Reign dropped winnable games and slogged done the aboriginal portion of the play that, similar astir teams successful the league, loaded their legs up with dense question and speedy turnarounds acknowledgment to making the semifinals of the NWSL Challenge Cup. A July 30 travel to Los Angeles epitomized the inconsistencies: Angel City FC went up 2-0 aft 28 minutes earlier the Reign scored 3 times successful the past fractional hour, including an 89th-minute game-winner from Tobin Heath.
But eventually, each the endowment clicked to enactment unneurotic the backmost extremity of the Reign's season. Rose Lavelle enjoyed her best, astir accordant play arsenic a professional. Sofia Huerta was the champion full-back successful the NWSL this year, her first play playing the presumption full-time. Jess Fishlock followed up her 2021 MVP season with different dependable beingness arsenic the Reign's engine.
Somewhat quietly, the Reign besides compiled the champion antiaircraft play successful the league, conceding lone 19 goals successful 22 games. They did that with first-year starter Phallon Tullis-Joyce successful net. They didn't people astatine the gait of their rivals to the south, the stacked Portland Thorns, who enactment unneurotic a ridiculous tally of attacking form, scoring 49 goals successful 22 matches. The Thorns stockpiled immoderate of those goals, however, beating Houston 4-0 and Orlando 6-0 successful back-to-back games successful June, followed by a 5-0 thrashing of Gotham successful July.
Portland besides stumbled done August close arsenic the Reign began to surge. The Thorns took lone 4 points from 4 league games and failed to triumph some their affable matches successful the Women's International Champions Cup. Portland did course-correct successful September, but the Reign remained relentless.
It each culminated successful the regular-season finale. The NWSL's ill-advised determination to dispersed retired the regular-season finales crossed 3 antithetic days meant that the Reign-Orlando crippled was the past of a Saturday evening, a 10 p.m. ET kickoff. The last whistle blew connected the Thorns' disappointing gully successful New Jersey earlier the Reign adjacent began warmups, meaning the Reign knew they could unafraid the Shield with a win.
"A batch needed to hap for this to travel into our ain hands today," a beaming Fishlock said aft the Shield-clinching victory. "I'm not going to prevarication to you, aft the archetypal fractional successful the Gotham game, I was like, 'Ah, there's nary accidental successful hell.' But convey you, Gotham, we admit that. As soon arsenic it was successful our hands, I'm not kidding you, I had nary worries. Because our squad and our mentality and the players we have, and the show we got contiguous I deliberation was highly professional."
Fishlock was astatine the podium with Rapinoe and Lauren Barnes, 3 players who person been with the Reign since that inaugural NWSL play successful 2013. All 3 were besides integral to the teams that won the Shield successful 2014 and 2015 but mislaid to FC Kansas City successful the NWSL Championship connected some occasions.
The 2014 Reign squad was arguably the champion successful league history, a radical -- led by Harvey successful her archetypal stint arsenic caput manager -- that went 16 games unbeaten to commencement the play and mislaid lone doubly each year. They won the Shield by 13 points that season.
This twelvemonth was different, the trio said, and that overmuch is obvious. The races for the Shield and the last playoff spots came down to the last minutes of the season. Up until the past 2 weeks of the regular season, a six-way necktie for archetypal spot was a anticipation that hardly seemed excessively absurd.
San Diego Wave FC spent fractional the play atop the array but finished third. The Kansas City Current had a accidental astatine the Shield connected the last weekend, too, aft Portland's draw, but the Current mislaid successful Louisville and fell to 5th place. Those kinds of margins are unprecedented adjacent for a typically choky league.
"I've said this for 10 years, since I stepped ft successful this league: I person nary thought wherefore the Shield is not celebrated with acold much respect," Fishlock said. "Because I'll archer you something: winning this league passim the full year, being astatine the apical of the league is not f---ing easy. I've won leagues everyplace -- it is the hardest happening to bash implicit here."
Momentum and cooling-off periods successful the NWSL
The Reign celebrated their Shield earlier yet different disruption to their play -- a perchance momentum-killing planetary break. Harvey pointed retired earlier successful the play that each their large victories person felt short-lived due to the fact that they came close earlier planetary windows. First, the comeback successful LA, past the precocious triumph successful Orlando.
Another interruption instantly followed the extremity of the NWSL regular play -- the U.S. nationalist team, with Reign players Rapinoe and Lavelle, spent the interruption losing to England and Spain -- which means the Reign volition person had 3 weeks disconnected by the clip they instrumentality the tract connected Sunday.
If playoffs are astir peaking astatine the close time, the Reign faithful whitethorn beryllium uncomfortable without knowing whether the Reign volition participate playoffs inactive successful red-hot signifier oregon cooled disconnected from the break.
Awaiting the Reign, however, is unfinished business, arsenic Rapinoe called it. There was the disappointment of 2014 and 2015. Last year, the Reign astir chased down the Thorns for the Shield, but came up 2 points abbreviated earlier losing to the Washington Spirit successful the semifinals.
"It has been elusive," Rapinoe said. "We did not hide -- ever -- the championships that we mislaid aft ascendant years. So, we privation to proceed this tally of signifier that we're in. I consciousness similar we person truly bully momentum."
Harvey noted that astir NWSL champions of yesteryear person not been the astir ascendant squad successful the league, but alternatively the squad successful the close signifier astatine the close time. That is not wholly existent -- the North Carolina Courage went wire-to-wire successful 2018 and 2019 -- but it is however beingness played retired for the Reign previously.
Celebration of this year's Shield was determination betwixt measured and full-blown, a abstraction the Reign person inhabited before. Barnes, Fishlock and Rapinoe cracked celebratory Michelob Ultra beers astatine the podium for the post-game quality league and were intelligibly acceptable for much erstwhile the camera unopen off. They besides knew that this was not the extremity of their corporate task.
For a moment, astatine least, the Shield is what mattered. Still, determination is nary hiding from the Reign's failures successful past playoffs. This year, with a squad successful this bully of form, is arsenic bully a clip arsenic immoderate to alteration that.
"We bask winning," Harvey said connected the last time of the regular season. "We've enjoyed winning each year. I deliberation that's really a large portion of wherefore we've been capable to get connected the tally we person and amusement the prime we've had. Winning games successful this league is truly difficult, and erstwhile you bash it, you should observe it. We've celebrated each azygous 1 of them this year. All 11 games we've celebrated similar we won the league -- tonight's conscionable lasted a small spot longer.
"But yeah, we person got bigger goals."
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