‘We Were Cruising Until We Weren’t’: Reign Lose Three-Goal Lead In Home Draw Against Chicago Stars
By Becca Weinberg, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - In what was hoped to be a rebound match against the Chicago Stars, who are still searching for their second win of the 2025 season, Seattle Reign FC lost an early 3-0 lead and found themselves facing a 3-3 draw. A late-game collapse of chaotic nature led to a panicked Reign defense and a disappointing result for a playoff-hopeful team.
Scenes from the first two goals of the match for our Seattle Reign FC in their 3-3 draw with the visiting Chicago Stars at Lumen Field on Monday, August 18th, 2025. (Photos by Sam Hotaling for Circling Seattle Sports)
Starting out strong, Seattle scored in the first three minutes for the second match in a row as midfielder Jess Fishlock snuck a shot past Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher. Forward Emeri Adames collected the ball and threaded it between the Chicago back line to forward Jordyn Huitema, who had time to pick her head up and find Fishlock in the middle of the box to put the Reign up 1-0.
The Stars increased their high pressure after the early goal and put a few scoring chances together but were forced to use multiple subs after two different injury stoppages. The Reign didn’t let up, and scored their second goal in the 34th minute. Fishlock played a slotted ball into the box to forward Maddie Dahlien, who ripped a shot into the top corner that was punched out by Naeher. The ball landed at defender Madison Curry’s feet, who shot a laser of her own but hit the edge of the crossbar. Finally, the deflection found Huitema, who executed a perfect bicycle kick to put Seattle up 2-0 before halftime.
“I wasn’t really thinking, it was just in those moments, you’re trying to do anything you possibly can to get the ball in the back of the net as a forward,” said Huitema. She described her height as a key factor in the play with her ability to get her foot higher than everyone's heads to connect with the ball.
With continued momentum as the second half began, the Reign extended their lead just ten seconds in. Adames connected with a long ball from goalkeeper Claudia Dickey off the kickoff for her team-leading sixth goal of the season, creating a 3-0 lead in the 46th minute for Seattle. Three, high-impact subs came on in the 66th minute as defender Jordyn Bugg and forwards Mia Fishel and Lynn Biyendolo took the places of Curry, Dahlien, and Huitema.
However, it wasn’t long after until Chicago’s comeback began. In the 73rd minute, forward Ludmila beat the Reign back line into the box and slotted the ball past Dickey for the Stars’ first goal of the game. Just five minutes later, defender Camryn Biegalski scored from nearly the same spot after collecting a switching ball past the Reign back line again to bring the score to 3-2. The Stars’ final goal would come in stoppage time, with a bouncing ball in the box from a corner kick that found Naeher’s feet for her first-ever NWSL goal in a dramatic, late-game equalizer.
Scenes from the visiting Chicago Stars goals in the 3-3 draw against the Seattle Reign at Lumen Field on Monday, August 18th, 2025. (Photos by Sam Hotaling for Circling Seattle Sports)
“Two goals again tonight have come off set pieces: a quick restart and a corner,” said head coach Laura Harvey postgame. “And last week, they were all restarts. So that’s six goals in two games off restarts. You can’t expect to win futbol matches if you concede that amount of goals in that way.
“I think there was a little bit of a disconnect between how we were closing out the game, which kind of created gaps,” said Huitema of the team’s second half collapse. “Some people still were very front-footed while others were dropping, which created pockets in the midfield where they could turn and kind of take advantage of that.”
Quick Reign notes
7,290 was the announced attendance at Lumen Field for this NWSL regular season match between the visiting Chicago Stars and our Seattle Reign FC.
With tonight’s result, Reign FC holds a record of 11-12-10 against Chicago Stars FC across all NWSL competitions.
Reign FC now has four different players who have recorded both a goal and an assist in a single game this season – Maddie Dahlien, Jess Fishlock, Jordyn Huitema and Ji So-Yun. The only other NWSL club with at least four such players in 2025 is the Kansas City Current.
For the first time in club history, Reign FC has scored multiple goals in six consecutive matches. Previously, the longest streak was five straight matches, achieved three times (twice in 2014 and once in 2015), both during the Shield-winning seasons.
Reign forward Emeri Adames struck just seconds into the second half, scoring in the 46th minute for Seattle’s third goal of the night. The 19-year-old attacker now has five goals in her last six matches and leads the team with six goals this season.
Adames’ six goals in 2025 tie the NWSL single-season record for the most goals by a teenager, joining Sam Kerr (2013), Mallory Swanson (2017), Trinity Rodman (2021) and Jaedyn Shaw (2023).
Reign midfielder and club original Jess Fishlock opened the scoring in the third minute, her fourth goal of the season and 46th of her NWSL career.
The Welsh midfielder has now contributed to a goal in four consecutive appearances, the longest streak by a Reign player since Megan Rapinoe’s run of seven straight in 2022. Against the Stars, Fishlock has scored a head-to-head best eight goals and contributed to 11 overall across all competitions.
Reign forward Jordyn Huitema assisted Fishlock’s opener in the third minute before doubling the lead with a goal of her own in the 34th.
This is the second time in her NWSL career that Huitema has recorded both a goal and an assist in the same match.
What’s next?
Following tonight’s home draw with the Chicago Stars, our Seattle Reign FC continue a long stretch of the season that sees them play on and off home and road matches until a two-game “homestand” in the beginning of October. The next contest in that stretch is a road match against the Houston Dash on Sunday, August 24th with a kickoff time of 4PM PDT. That match against the Dash, which will be broadcast live on NWSL+ and Paramount+, sees the Reign looking to avenge their "Mother’s Day Match” loss to the Dash back on May 11th. Houston has some strong form lately, having won two of their last three and recording points in those last three following wins over NJ/NY and North Carolina with a draw against Bay FC. The Dash have gotten big results over the two teams just ahead of them in the league table, and sit just three points out of the final NWSL playoff spot.
Seattle has put up consecutive frustrating results following a nice stretch in their season that saw them go undefeated in five of six matches, winning four of them. It hasn’t been back-to-back losses, but with how the match ended and where their opponents sit in the table, it surely has felt like it.
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Check out our previous Seattle Reign FC articles here.
Check out our previous articles with writing for CSS by Becca Weinberg here, and her work with Lookout Landing here.
Check out our previous articles with photography by Sam Hotaling here, and his portfolio here.
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