Reign Halftime Observations From Seattle’s Home Matchup Against North Carolina, September 28th, 2025
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - In the final contest of a busy weekend in Seattle sports, our Seattle Reign FC have gone to the halftime break with a scoreless effort against the North Carolina Courage in a crucial contest in relation to the NWSL table. A win for the Reign can see them move up as far as the fourth seed in the table, while a win by the Courage could see them jump Seattle and into a playoff spot. The first 45 minutes of this contest haven’t provided much in terms of goal adjacent action besides two chaotic sequences in the Reign box that Seattle was able to clear, avoiding North Carolina getting on the scoreboard first. Here are a few first half observations from the Lumen Field press box.
Dickey saves Seattle in the 6th minute
In the 6th minute of the match, the Courage had a clear golden opportunity with a wide open header from Manaka Matsukubo that Dickey was able to get part of her right hand on and deflect away from goal. Sofia Huerta and other Reign defenders were able to eventually help clear the ball away from danger despite some of the different numbers that North Carolina had in the ball. This represented the first of two dangerous and chaotic opportunities for the Courage in a quick period of time, both representing a ball in the six-yard box that was waiting for someone to punch it home. Both instances saw Seattle able to make the crucial clearance, but Dickey’s save on that chance in the sixth minute quite literally takes a potential goal away from North Carolina.
A potential penalty not called in the 36th minute
In the 36th minute of the match, Reign defender Madison Curry stole the ball as North Carolina’s Tyler Lussi was trying to retreat and reset from the back, where she started heading towards the box. Curry ran with her right side facing goal, and a sliding tackle by Maycee Bell barely clipped the ball and follow through took Curry out to avoid danger. Further replays look like, while Bell got part of the ball, that the follow through of the swinging kick attempt took out Curry on the way down. According to the broadcast, a VAR check was completed but we will submit for further comment regarding the play itself and why it was deemed as something that didn’t result in a Seattle penalty.
Lack of attack as a whole
This match hasn’t provided much of an offensive punch for either team, as the two sides have combined for 0.66 total expected goals according to FOTMOB and there’s just one shot on target, with the Courage owning that. Seattle has had some solid looking runs made in the first half but they unfortunately haven’t resulted in a good look on goal against Marisa Jordan for North Carolina, while the Courage have five shots so far including some very dangerous possession with those aforementioned chaotic balls into the box. Taking that into consideration and the options that the Reign have on the bench, we’d have to imagine that Seattle will make some changes to boost the group going forward in this second half.
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