Match Preview: OL Reign vs. Chicago Red Stars
Lumen Field | Seattle, Washington – Friday, September 9 at 10:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
Fresh off being named August’s Player of the Month, eyes are on forward Megan Rapinoe who has played a significant role for club and country in the last few weeks. Rapinoe scored the game-winning goal for the Reign in the second minute of second-half stoppage time against the Pride in their last outing. It was Rapinoe’s second stoppage-time winner of her career, making her the second player in NWSL history with multiple such goals (Jen Hoy).
In Chicago’s attack, forward Mallory Pugh is one of the more dangerous threats as the Red Stars head to Seattle in search of a big result. In the club’s win over Louisville, Pugh became the fourth player in NWSL history to have multiple goals and multiple assists in the same match. Pugh joins Marta (2017), Kelley O’Hara (2014) and Verónica Boquete (2014) as the only players ever to do so.
Match facts: OL Reign return to Lumen Field after a brief stop in Orlando at the end of the month, making this their third home game in the last four outings as they welcome the Red Stars on Friday night. The Reign and Chicago sit neck-and-neck in the standings, with Friday’s hosts holding a one-point advantage over the visitors (27 pts to 26 points) with both sides registering the same amount of games played.
For the 11th time in their club’s history, OL Reign won a match in which it trailed at halftime with their 2-1 win over Orlando. No other NWSL franchise has more than eight wins when trailing at the half (Washington Spirit). The Reign have now won their last two games and have only lost one of their last five matches (3W 1D 1L) dating back to the end of July.
Chicago, though, is also coming off a big win as the club scored three goals in the first 23 minutes of its 4-0 victory over Racing Louisville. Prior to their match against Racing, the quickest from the opening whistle that the Red Stars had scored three goals was 45 minutes in May of 2017 against the Courage.
The Red Stars notched a 1-0 home victory over the Reign in the teams’ lone meeting on the year. The home team has now won 14 of the 24 regular season meetings between the sides (D6 L4), which is tied of the most wins by the home team in any fixture in NWSL history (OL Reign vs. Portland Thorns).
