Match Forecast: OL Reign Set to Host San Diego
OL Reign and San Diego Wave FC are set to meet for the first time in the 2022 regular season, to wrap up OL Reign’s three game homestand this week. The Reign will look to pick up their second win of the season and take seven from nine points available this week.
WHEN AND WHERE: Kickoff is at 12:00 p.m. PT on Sunday, May 29 at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington
WHERE TO WATCH: The match will be available on Paramount+ in the U.S. and Twitch internationally
2022 REGULAR SEASON RECORDS AND STANDINGS (W-L-D): OL Reign: 1-1-3 (6 points, 9th place), San Diego Wave FC 4-1-0 (12 points, 1st place)
Key Points Ahead of the Match:
1. LAST MEETING –OL Reign and San Diego Wave FC are set to meet again in 2022. The teams were in the same Challenge Cup group but are meeting for the first time during the regular season. During the Challenge Cup, OL Reign beat San Diego 3-1 at Lumen Field and later traveled to Torero Stadium in San Diego and drew 1-1. The 3-1 win featured three OL Reign goals in the first 11 minutes of the match. Midfielder Nikki Stanton opened the scoring just two minutes in and forward Bethany Balcer doubled the lead in the eighth minute. Defender Sam Hiatt scored OL Reign's final goal in the 11th minute of the match. San Diego found one goal back in the 24th minute, thanks to forward Alex Morgan.
The 1-1 draw featured two first half goals. OL Reign forward Ally Watt scored her first goal for the team to get the Reign on the board in the 13th minute, but Morgan leveled the score just before half time. As San Diego is a 2022 expansion team, this will be just the third meeting between the two teams. The Reign have never lost to San Diego and are still unbeaten at Lumen Field.
2. SCOUTING KANSAS CITY – San Diego have started the season off strong, with a record of four wins and one loss. After missing out on the Challenge Cup semifinals, the Wave are in the first place in the NWSL, with 12 total points. The team also has a goal differential of six – the best of any team in the league.
The Wave’s one loss came to Racing Louisville on May 18, by a score of 1-0. Most recently, San Diego won 1-0 against North Carolina, on an Alex Morgan goal in the 41st minute.
3. HARD TO BEAT – Coming off a 1-0 win, OL Reign have struggled to score goals this week, but have succeeded in keeping a clean sheet. It’s important to the team that they remain hard to beat.
“I think we always try and pride ourselves on being hard to beat and that has a big overarching view of what we want to be. It stems from… it's twofold. I think one is we're starting to understand our biggest strengths more which makes us hard to break down. I think there's a desire and a willingness of the players to make that a priority and I think obviously there's another element to it really where we haven't scored a ton of goals of late, so I think we just know how important it is to keep clean,” said OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey.
4. READY FOR ANYTHING – Recently, San Diego had been in good form, but OL Reign is ready to take the team on, regardless of if they look the same or different than they did in the Challenge Cup.
“I think the way that they try and play, the things that they try and do and the things they have been successful at have continued from Challenge Cup into the regular season. They’ve sort of gone and played a lot of new teams that they haven’t played before and this is probably the first time they’ve played someone that they’ve already played,” said Harvey.
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