Match Forecast: OL Reign Ready for Kansas City on Saturday
OL Reign is set to take on Kansas City NWSL in Kansas City on Saturday. This match will be Head Coach Laura Harvey’s first game with the team since her return to club. The Reign are looking to win their fourth in a row.
WHEN AND WHERE: Kickoff is at 5:00 p.m. PT on Saturday, August 14 at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas
WHERE TO WATCH: The match will be available on Paramount+
2021 RECORDS AND STANDINGS (W-L-D): OL Reign: 6-6-1 (19 points, sixth place), Kansas City NWSL: 0-9-4 (4 points, tenth place)
Key Points Ahead of the Match:
1. LAST MEETING – The last time that OL Reign and Kansas City NWSL met was July 11, 2021, at Cheney Stadium. OL Reign earned three points in the 2-0 victory over Kansas City thanks to a Bethany Balcer brace. OL Reign scored in the third minute of the match, when Balcer intercepted a sloppy short pass from Kansas City goalkeeper, Nicole Barnhart and found the back of the net to put OL Reign up 1-0. In the 29th minute, Sofia Huerta crossed a dangerous ball into the box and Balcer got her head on it, to score her second of the night to put the Reign up 2-0.
OL Reign is 2-0-0 against Kansas City NWSL in all competitions, having played them once in the 2021 regular season and once during the 2021 Challenge Cup, where OL Reign came away with a 2-1 victory after going down 1-0 early in the match.
2. SCOUTING KANSAS CITY – Kansas City are currently in tenth place in the NWSL standings with four points and a 0-9-4 record. Most recently, Kansas City played Racing Louisville, the eighth-place team in the league. Kansas City was dealt their ninth loss of the season after taking a 3-1 hit.
The first goal of the match was scored in the closing minutes of the first half when Ebony Salmon tapped home a cross to put Racing Louisville up 1-0. It wasn’t long until Kansas City responded with one of their own in the last seconds of the first half. Mallory Weber took a shot, but Michelle Betos was able to get a hand on the shot and push it wide. The save landed right at the foot of Darian Jenkins, who tapped the ball into the net to equalize before halftime. The second half saw two more goals for Louisville. The first was a Nadia Nadim header and the second from Matthews, who took advantage of sloppy play from Kansas City.
This Kansas City team is very familiar to OL Reign’s head coach Laura Harvey, as it is a very similar team to the Utah Royals side she coached in 2018-2019.
3. LAURA HARVEY RETURNS – The long-awaited return of Laura Harvey is finally here. The game against Kansas City will be Harvey’s first game back as head coach of OL Reign and she is very focused on the game ahead. Harvey attributes part of her smooth transition into the head coach role at OL Reign to Assistant Coach Sam Laity. The two have worked together previously at the Reign and Laity has been with the Reign since the team was formed. Most importantly, Harvey and the team are staying focused on this week and getting a result against Kansas City.
“I think we are in a great spot,” said Harvey. “Obviously, Sam has done a fantastic job these last few games getting us back on track, which has been fantastic, and I think the big focus has just been continuing that work and continuing to move forward, because this league is unique in that you take your foot off the pedal at all, then it will bite you,” added Harvey. “So, the big focus this week has been about how we can make sure we get everything we need in preparation for this game and then we can go from there.”
4. ALWAYS LOOKING TO BUILD UPON – Though the Reign earned an impressive 5-1 victory and broke the club record for number of goals scored in a single half, the team is still looking to pinpoint ways to improve, especially after the slow start to the season.
“We’ve known the talent all along that we have, it was just always a matter of figuring out what pieces work together and how we could be effective on the field. We knew we had it in us all along. We didn’t really have a great start so we kind of had this whole underdog attitude and now everything is coming together the way want, so we just want to keep progressing,” said OL Reign forward Bethany Balcer.
The team is still looking to carry their strong first half performances into the second half and stay solid all around, on offense and defense.
“This league is unforgiving, so we have to make sure that we keep trending upwards. That’s been the philosophy of the week honestly. We can’t stand still with where we are at. If we stand still where we are at, we will probably do okay, but we’re still not reaching the potential of what this team has,” added Harvey.
MultiCare Injury Report:
OUT
Ally Watt – Right Knee
Rosie White - Illness
QUESTIONABLE
None
INTERNATIONAL DUTY
Quinn
Rose Lavelle
Megan Rapinoe