Top Reign Takeaways From Seattle’s Home Draw To The Chicago Stars, August 18th, 2025
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Returning home to Lumen Field saw a continuation of defensive issues and difficulty defending set pieces for our Seattle Reign FC, as they split the points with the Chicago Stars for a 3-3 final score. The Reign had seemingly everything working for them through the first 70 minutes of the match: a three-goal lead, a Stars side that was playing short with a few injuries that forced substitutions, and being able to bring some starting level substitutions on themselves late in the game as Seattle wanted to close this match out. The Reign will be incredibly frustrated with this result given the situation that they were in, but it’s a very clear learning opportunity given what the results the last two weeks have told them. Instead of jumping rivals Portland for the fifth seed in the NWSL table, Seattle sits a point below them in sixth. Here are a few takeaways from our seat in the Lumen Field press box following a stunning result.
Scenes from the second and third goals scored by the visiting Chicago Stars in this 3-3 draw against our Seattle Reign FC at Lumen Field on Monday, August 18th, 2025. (Photos by Liz Wolter for Circling Seattle Sports)
Defensive miscues remain
This is a second consecutive disappointing result, both holding a multitude of reasons for why they leave the Reign feeling all sorts of bad emotions. Chicago was able to get in behind Seattle’s back three of Sofia Huerta, Phoebe McClernon, and Shae Holmes on numerous occasions and the Reign held off those efforts initially before the away side broke through. It appeared as though the Seattle back three in this formation got shifted over at times and the opposing side of the one they were shifted to had their winger up too high, leaving plenty of space to run in behind. That sort of shift in formation took advantage of holes in Seattle’s defense and created some new ones, as shown in the first goal of the match for Chicago as Ally Schlegel was able to easily lead Ludmila to an open pathway up along the sideline as the former held up two Reign players. Taylor Malham’s ball on a long rope found Camryn Biegalski on the same sideline Ludmila took advantage of, and her shot was strong enough while taken early enough so that Claudia Dickey was unable to come off her line in any attempt to disrupt the effort, giving Biegalski more space to pick a pocket.
“Definitely different games. I think that Portland was very set piece based, we gave up a lot of goals on set pieces, that’s something we dove into this week. I felt like this game, although we did give up one at the end, I think that we were better, and this game was a completely different reason of why we’re conceding. Every time this kind of happens to us, it gives us a chance to dive into why. Our end goal is playoffs, and I think that’s where we’re looking towards. These games, while it feels terrible to not come away with three points, it gives us these opportunities to grow on different aspects every time something like this happens, so that when the time comes it doesn’t happen again. It gives us a different check into what is breaking down. It’s all you can really look at when you walk away from a game like this. You can only look at what broke us down, what went wrong, and just make sure we don’t do it again. We’re a team that learns from mistakes very well, and we’re able to hold each other accountable, take responsibility when we need to. As long as we hold that attitude, we’re going to come out in a great space. This is going to be another week like that, where it’s a quick turnaround into our next game, and we can just improve from here.”
Less of an issue this week but relevant the last two weeks is Seattle’s problems with defending set pieces, a major problem in last weeks loss to the Thorns on the road. Of course to add to the angry feelings following this match, the equalizing goal scored by the Stars came off a set piece in the former of a corner kick, on the final play of stoppage time no less. In the 90+9 minute, a corner in by a Manaka Hayashi was initially headed towards goal by Julia Grosso, forcing a leaping fingertip save by Dickey. The fingertip save left a rebound in the six-yard box, where ideally it gets cleared and the Reign are able to just barely survive a fiery comeback from Chicago. Instead, the majority of Seattle’s players are standing around in the middle of the 18-yard box which in turn allowed for the Stars to outnumber the home side to the ball, as the replay shows four of their players in close proximity to the ball compared to two for the Reign, not counting Dickey who was sprawled out on the ground after the valiant initial denial. Seattle has plenty of talent defensively, whether it be center backs, outside backs, and down to their goalkeeper position. They’ve done a great job this season at washing away the poor defending year they had in 2024, talking constantly at the film they’ve studied more often to help build off that campaign. It’s up to them again to study the tape and fix the issues plaguing them the last few weeks.
“I think we just lost structure. We lost it, looked like our heads dropped a little bit, and that’s not like us. I think we’ll learn from it, for sure. I know it doesn’t feel great right now, but maybe this is the game that we needed for the future, because it won’t happen again. I think maybe we got a little bit complacent three nil. We thought we’d see out the game, and Chicago are a great team. In the last 30 minutes, I thought they came into the game and they were dangerous. We just have to counteract that and be better individually and collectively as a team to disrupt what they’re good at. I think we just lost that composure, lost that little bit of bite in that last 30 minutes, which cost us the three points.”
There have been four instances in the Reign history where they’ve conceded seven or more goals in a two weeks span: these two weeks, twice last year (May 11th and 19th resulted in seven goals, May 24th and June 9th resulted in eight goals), and way back in the inaugural season of 2013 when the matches combined of May 16th and May 19th totaled seven.
Images of Seattle Reign FC midfielder, captain, and club original Jess Fishlock during the clubs 3-3 draw against the Chicago Stars at Lumen Field on Monday, August 18th, 2025. (Photos by Liz Wolter for Circling Seattle Sports)
Jess Fishlock continues her hot streak
With her goal in the third minute, Seattle midfielder, captain, and club original Jess Fishlock continued a strong run of play since returning to the club from Wales’ run in the EUROs. Fishlock has returned to club play firing, scoring three goals in as many matches played while adding an assist last week in the loss to the Thorns. The level of play has always been there for Fishlock, but she’s dealt with injuries throughout the last few years and has been busy performing as the engine that pushes the club forward when not having to work through ailments. The goal contributions aren’t necessarily the name of her game, but have surely been a welcome sight for the Reign as they’ve represented the opening score in the win over Angel City, a sign of life in the loss to Portland, and the opening score in this contest tonight against the Stars. Fishlock was also instrumental in the second goal of the night for Seattle, feeding an excellent through ball to Maddie Dahlien whose initially shot forced the save by Naeher that led to the chaos ending in Huitema’s goal.
“She’s a phenomenal person, phenomenal footballer, and you can see that. I think the Euros really gave her the spark that she needed. She’s in great shape right now, and she’s playing arguably the best I’ve seen her playing in a long time. I think when we find her in those dangerous pockets, the field lights up. You hear the crowd getting behind, and we are really dangerous in those areas. I think the problem that we’re having at the minute is finding her as often as we’d like. I think we need to find her a little bit more, because I think she created the second one, she scored the first one. She’s dangerous right now, and I think coming since coming back from the EURO, she’s hit great form, and she’s a very important player for us.”
Images of Seattle Reign FC forward Jordyn Huitema during the clubs 3-3 draw against the Chicago Stars at Lumen Field on Monday, August 18th, 2025. (Photos by Liz Wolter for Circling Seattle Sports)
Jordyn Huitema has a strong effort
One of the bright spots from this match was forward Jordyn Huitema’s performance, after many in the clubs fanbase were down on her following the defeat to the Thorns on the road. It hasn’t been the easiest season for Huitema, but she’s been noted as someone dedicated to improving her own product on the field in addition to doing so in anyway that can help the club win matches. This goal + assist performance for Huitema represents the first time she’s been on the scoresheet since the clubs road draw with Bay FC on on April 26th, the lone goal in that match for Seattle. It wasn’t perhaps how you’d expect Jordyn to score, having to pull out a bicycle kick around the six-yard box to put away a bounding ball fresh off hitting the crossbar. The assist was a nice showing of Huitema taking advantage of her surroundings, finding an open pocket of the Stars backline before threading a pass past a Chicago defender to find Fishlock for her goal. Considering the roster that the Reign currently have, it’s enjoyable to see that goals can come from anyone on any given matchday, something that was talked about after this contest.
“It was a little bit of a desperation attempt. I felt like I was just like, ‘don’t kick anyone in the face,’ and your foot can get higher than everyone’s head because you’re quite tall, that was my goal. I wasn’t really thinking. It was just in those moments, you’re just trying to do anything you possibly can to get the ball in the back of the net as a forward. If it’s that way, if it’s off your kneecap, if it’s off whatever, your back, you’re just trying to do anything possible.”
Seattle continues to find the back of the net
Through the first ten matches of this years NWSL campaign, our Reign had scored multiple goals in a match just once, the road victory over the North Carolina Courage back on March 22nd where they scored twice. Since those first ten games of the year, Seattle has found the back of the net on multiple occasions in a match their last six times out, helping them earn points five of those contests with wins in three of them. The defensive issues have been present, as we talked about previously and they’re why the Reign haven’t rattled off a six-match winning streak in that span, but it is nice to see that this Seattle roster with the attacking talent present is putting the work in to terrorize defenses. Again, while it didn’t work out in this match, being able to bring on the likes of Lynn Biyendolo and Mia Fishel late into a game is going to be a headache for defenses in this league throughout the final stretch of the season and that doesn’t include the fact that the Reign had Nérilia Mondésir and Ji So-Yun still available off the bench in this match. The depth of this years club has been well noted by players and coaches alike for Seattle, especially in the forward and midfield groups, so seeing them be able to create a dangerous and versatile attack is very encouraging for the rest of the way.
This is a critical moment for the club
Consider it a cliche or sports trope, but it’s going to be fascinating to watch how this Reign club responds to being figuratively punched in the mouth their last two matches. Losing to your rivals and conceding four goals in a match that saw them jump you in the league table, and then conceding a draw to the team that sits second to last in the standings after having a three-goal lead? That situation on its own is remarkably frustrating, but it gets worse when you consider that this isn’t the Seattle club from last year where they were poor defensively throughout the course of the entire campaign and rather a group that’s largely been considered the “deepest” group the club has had in years, and maybe ever. Adding the fact that the positions in the table from second down through sixth are separated by just four points, and dropping points against one of the “lowly” clubs in the league makes this even more inexcusable.
The positive way to look at it sees this result as a draw, still not a loss, and that it will be a big one for the Reign to learn from with the stretch run still ahead of them. Ten matches sit between Seattle and the end of the regular season, four of them against teams outside of the current playoff standings and a match each against the four teams occupying the top spots in the table. It is quite literally all there for the taking for the Reign to be able to climb up to the second seed in the NWSL, so technically not totally all there given it’d be shocking for the KC Current to fall short of becoming the quickest team in league history to win the shield, but still plenty of opportunity sits at their feet remains the point. With the depth that Seattle has throughout the roster, generally good health (Knock on wood/touch wood) recently, and how opportunities lie ahead of them in regards to upgrading their seeding ahead of a potential playoff run, there’s plenty of reason to feel like this isn’t the end of the world.
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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