There are few folks with as a lot experience within the NWSL as Laura Harvey, the Seattle Reign head coach who has been in and across the league since its inaugural season in 2013. The three-time Coach of the Yr enters each dialog with the boldness that naturally accompanies that degree of proficiency, a lot in order that she will subject a scorching take with the identical ease and professionalism that she boasts when speaking concerning the common grind of teaching.
“The true, true rivalries, I feel, are Portland-Seattle and LA-San Diego,” she instructed CBS Sports activities forward of the Reign’s rivalry sport on the Portland Thorns on Sunday (4 p.m. ET, CBS, Paramount+). “The remainder of them aren’t true rivalries. That is my very own opinion. I simply do not suppose they’re.”
The Reign’s rivalry with the Thorns is definitely the league’s most storied and oldest, with its forty third version going down this weekend, and has virtually all the time lived as much as the billing largely as a result of each groups have traditionally been two of the NWSL’s greatest. Harvey believes the mixture of qualities has additionally fostered a singular – and wholesome – sense of competitors between the 2 groups.
“It is genuine, proper,” Harvey stated. “And I do suppose it is constructed on respect, truly, which, I feel when folks discuss rivalry, we do not actually essentially all the time present that however I feel the factor that these two golf equipment have finished is whether or not it’s Shields or Championships, there’s not a few years the place both of these groups has been in that dialog and I feel that alone has made the rivalry be much more highlighted.”
When the Reign and the Thorns meet on Sunday, it will likely be a battle between two playoff contenders in fifth and sixth place, respectively, although each are inside touching distance of second place. The Thorns are 4 factors behind the Orlando Satisfaction and the Reign simply two, even when amassing all three factors in Portland seems like an uphill battle after being shut out of their final three journeys south. Harvey’s aspect, although, are in nearly as good a place as any to snap their dropping streak – a number of months faraway from their lowest-ever NWSL end of thirteenth, the Reign are as soon as once more one of many NWSL’s prime groups and are exhibiting no indicators of slowing down.
“We need to solidify a number of the actually good issues we did within the first half of the season,” Harvey stated. “We have modified formation this yr, initially of the yr and actually digging in on what that may appear to be so we generally is a little bit extra unpredictable at instances, I feel, is vital.”
Placing ‘final season to mattress’
If the Reign’s journey from final season to this one seems like an train in contrasts, the transition from 2023 to 2024 is an instance of extremes. In virtually document time, the Reign went from a visit to the 2023 NWSL Championship to coping with a depleted roster, augmented by the retirement of U.S. girls’s nationwide group star Megan Rapinoe and the exit of fellow Girls’s World Cup winners Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett as free brokers. Harvey stated the group was unprepared for the changes that awaited them, worsened by the membership’s sale by France’s OL Groupe to MLS’ Seattle Sounders that dragged out for the opening months of the 2024 season.
“I feel we have been embedded on having folks, gamers, workers who’ve been at this membership for a very long time and step by step, these folks have dwindled away,” Harvey stated, particularly stating Rapinoe, Lauren Barnes and Jess Fishlock as three gamers who had performed for the Reign because the NWSL’s inaugural season in 2013. “Pinoe was most likely one of many three that had been right here for such a very long time and her management and the best way that she operates actually introduced one of the best out of Lu and Jess … The three of them had been a superb group to work off one another and with out form of Pinoe’s affect with the opposite two, that form of factor received misplaced.”
The Reign, although, “had been by no means miles away” from the NWSL’s higher groups in 2024 – at the same time as they notched 15 losses final season, solely 4 had been by a margin of a couple of purpose. There have been crucial changes to be made after a defensively shaky season wherein they averaged 1.69 objectives in opposition to per sport, a departure from a Harvey group’s signature steadiness on the again. The Reign then had their desired offseason with no main departures and a serious incoming in USWNT veteran Lynn Biyendolo, the group collectively stepping as much as the plate individually. Harvey additionally up to date the group’s tactical basis, lining up the group in a 3-5-2 fairly than the 4-2-3-1 from the 2023 season, wherein they made a run to the NWSL Championship.
A few of this was enabled by the Sounders’ June 2024 takeover from France’s OL Groupe, which gave them an early head begin on their 2025 rebuild.
“The factor that we have all the time advocated for right here is that we’re folks first,” Harvey stated. “We care about everyone that is right here. We wish them to really feel like that is their place, their household, their membership. I feel having the French possession made that difficult as a result of there was a bit of disconnect between what that meant, what that had all the time meant and what it now means. Having possession which might be U.S.-based, Seattle-based with regard to how we function day by day, I feel it is enabled us to actually push that on.”
There’s a newfound stability to the Reign while you watch them, although they’re nonetheless rooted in Harvey’s tried and true ideas. Anchored by goalkeeper Claudi Dickey, who USWNT head coach Emma Hayes once described as the best shotsopper in the NWSL, two defenders getting into their peak years in Phoebe McClernon and Shae Holmes and 18-year-old rising star Jordyn Bugg, the Reign now common underneath a purpose conceded per sport. It has offset the truth that they aren’t the league’s most dynamic attacking aspect however they nonetheless common 1.36 objectives per sport, greater than the 1.04 common they posted final season. Biyendolo, the USWNT’s ever-reliable veteran, has finished the identical with two objectives and one help in 10 video games for the Reign thus far nevertheless it is only one of her many strengths.
“Lynn has stuffed Pinoe’s void and I feel she’s not simply stuffed the void,” Harvey stated. “She’s additionally influenced and impressed the opposite two [Barnes and Fishlock] to actually be themselves once more, which has been the crux of this membership for a very long time. Their job now could be to verify the day that all of them stroll out the door, we do not get this gulf left once more so that is the tradition that we wish.”
Biyendolo’s presence, Harvey argues, was one thing the veterans wanted greater than the Reign’s rising abilities.
“I feel the previous ones with their expertise of final yr and never being profitable, these younger ones and saying, ‘We have to be sure to get on our web page shortly as a result of we want you,'” Harvey stated. “Then bringing them in shortly, I actually suppose, helped the younger gamers as effectively to really feel a part of it actual fast.”
The bags of 2024, although, is lastly behind them.
“I feel we form of put final season to mattress within the first half of the season,” she stated, “and now it is about we have gone by means of that form of preliminary stage of constructing what group we need to be.”
Reign’s younger core paved the way
The USWNT’s “off” years from main competitors have ushered in a first-of-its-kind interval of transition within the American girls’s sport, one wherein nearly everybody is keen of their pursuit of discovering the game’s subsequent stars. In few locations is that more true than Seattle, the Reign counting on a handful of younger gamers to guide the cost as they mount a comeback. A number of gamers, like main goalscorer Emeri Adames and rookie Maddie Dahlien, are of their first two years as professionals, whereas Dickey, Bugg and Sam Meza have lately earned their first caps with the USWNT. The Reign’s most enjoyable up-and-comer, although, is a brand new recruit – ahead Mia Fishel. The 24-year-old made her debut for the Reign in final Friday’s win over Angel Metropolis in its place, Harvey easing her into the limelight as she seems to construct type a yr after tearing her ACL.
Harvey had labored with Fishel when she was the pinnacle coach of the U-20 USWNT and “received an inkling” final spring that the ahead was searching for a transfer out of Chelsea. Identical to many, the Reign have excessive hopes for Fishel after she signed a cope with the group that retains her in Seattle by means of the top of the 2029 NWSL season. Harvey was fast to acknowledge, although, that Fishel has the advantage of time, particularly with the Girls’s World Cup just below two years away.
“She’s a participant that I loved to work with as a result of she desires to study,” Harvey stated. “She desires to be one of the best she presumably could be. I can work with that on a regular basis. The second layer of that’s she has the potential to be a extremely, actually good goalscorer in any league that she’s in. She’s proven that at Tigres, she confirmed that within the spurts that she had at Chelsea earlier than her damage but additionally I feel what’s thrilling is there is no actual expectations on Mia immediately. Now we have a roster which means immediately, she does not want to return in and be superb proper the second. If she is superb, nice. All of us need that however there is no stress on her to do this and we’re invested in her long run.”
Despite the fact that the playoff push is prime of thoughts with 12 video games to go within the common season, Harvey continues to strike the stability between endurance and urgency. Whereas Fishel begins to obtain that remedy, midfielder Sam Meza has already benefited from it. Meza was drafted by the Reign in 2024 however solely made two appearances in her rookie season, each throughout the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer season Cup that happened throughout a break from the common season final summer time. She went on mortgage to the USL Tremendous League’s Dallas Trinity final August and used that as the muse for a breakout season thus far with the Reign in 2025.
“For our group, it may need been higher for her to stick with us and never exit on mortgage however for her, I felt it was going to be actually essential for her improvement to go and play,” Harvey stated. “I did not suppose she was going to get these minutes final yr with us and she or he did not really need that, proper? She needed to remain and I perceive that however I feel taking that threat, which was a threat for her and committing to it, she’s now reaping the reward. Which may not occur for everyone however I do suppose it is a actually cool story to say, take an opportunity on your self generally.”
The Reign’s gamers’ involvement with the nationwide group is validation for his or her bets on themselves, in addition to Harvey’s work to foster their development. She and the Reign have created a symbiotic relationship with Hayes and the USWNT, one that’s finally a fantastic showcase for the gamers on the pitch than the rest.
“Me and Emma did not actually have any earlier relationship so attending to see how she works and the way she operates has been good,” Harvey stated. “She’s very open about what she desires from her gamers. We’re very open about eager to take that on and assist them any means we will and I am actually glad for all of the gamers … I feel the expectation for them is now they’ve seen what it may be like and what it will probably appear to be for them and it is over to them now to be sure that these alternatives preserve coming again to them.”