Seattle Reign: Player Ratings vs. Western New York Flash

A horrible night for the Seattle Reign, and the NWSL, as they lose 3-2 on an embarrassing pitch in Rochester.

The story of the match begins and ends with the unexcuseable conditions the NWSL put the players in on Saturday night. This picture of last night’s field says it all. Just take a moment to review the distance between the sideline and the box.

The head coach, the Reign players, the supporters group The Royal Guard, and many players from the league ripped into the decision to allow them to play on a field that was 100 by 58. A tough loss and potentially serious injury. There is sure to be more developments on this story in the coming weeks, but for now on to the player ratings.

DEFENSE

• KOPMEYER (7): Had a few good saves in the opening 30 minutes, and helped the team set a new NWSL record for number of consecutive minutes without letting in a goal. Injured late in the first half, likely due to the poorly managed and cut grass. No word on her injury at the time of writing.
• BARNES (6): Everyone was forced to play on the tough conditions, and with the field shrunken Barnes just wasn’t able to create and movement up the flanks.
• FLETCHER (8): Considering two of the three goals were off set pieces – one when Kopmeyer went down with her injury and another where Tostanoski simply missed, the center backs did a solid job stopping the leagues hottest attack.
• CORSIE (8): Same as Fletcher, held up well given how much action occurred in the box and with an inexperienced goalie. Difficult to stop WNY for 90 minutes given it seemed like a match of indoor soccer.
• REED (7): Excellent goal line save early on. Similar to Barnes, very limited offensively due to the compact game.
• TOSTANOSKI (5): Difficult position to come into. Completely missed on the second goal for the Flash. Had a few solid saves, but at times was completely out of her box. If Kopmeyer is injured for the rest of July, and with Solo with the Olympic team, will be interesting to see what the Reign do for the GK position.

MIDFIELDERS

• LITTLE (6): A difficult night for Little to have an off night. The play was colapsed
• FISHLOCK (7): Created chances and clogged up the midfield well. Tried to get more aggressive in the second half at times and likely could have used more of that. Just an off night on the creative side for everyone given the odd environment.
• WINTERS (7): Same as Fishlock, both were floating in the same role all night with the width of the pitch.
• UTSUGI (8): Seem to lift the team off the bench. Great effort on the Reign’s second goal. Curious to see if she gets a start against WNY next Saturday. Linked up well with Naho along that sideline.

OFFENSE

• KAWASUMI (8): The class of the team for the second week running. Third goal in two weeks sees her already tied for the most this season for the Reign. Very creative, and on another night (on a regular pitch) could have seen multiple goals and a road win.
• YANEZ (6): Works well to hold up the ball at times and track back to defend, but another week without much creativity from the forward. Now on 1 goal after 12 matches.
• MELIS (7): Gets the edge over Yanez for the assist in the first goal. With two forwards basically resulting in the same good effort, minimal goals, I would like to see coach Harvey sit one and maybe try 5 in the midfield.
• MATHIAS (6): Came on in the 59th minute, and the game might as well have been over. Similar to the other two forwards, wasn’t able to add anything new to the match that was compact. Needed to force chances rather than link up.

Next: NWSL News: Weekend Stories

If you missed the match I would normally suggest you check out the highlights, but the league couldn’t even bother to post a working video of that. At the time of writting, the highlight video had no audio. Instead, below is the full match video from the NWSL YouTube Channel.

What were your thoughts on the Seattle Reign’s player performances against the Flash on Saturday night? How about the insane field the league approved to play on? The Reign return to action on July 16th at home against the Western New York Flash.