Match Forecast: OL Reign Set to Open Regular Season Against Washington Spirit — OL REIGN: WE ARE THE BOLD

OL Reign is about to play its first 2023 common season match, on the highway towards the Washington Spirit at Audi Subject in Washington, D.C. That is the primary common season match for each groups and the primary time the 2 sides have met since Might 2022.

WHEN AND WHERE: Kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. PT on Sunday, March 26 at Audi Subject in Washington, D.C. 

WHERE TO WATCH: The match shall be out there on FOX 13+ within the Seattle space, Paramount+ within the U.S. and regionally at Tough & Tumble Pub

2023 NWSL REGULAR SEASON RECORDS AND STANDINGS (W-L-D): OL Reign: 0-0-0, Washington Spirit 0-0-0

Key Factors Forward of the Match:

1. LAST MEETING – Most lately, the groups met in an everyday season match on Might 22, 2022. The groups battled to a 0-0 draw regardless of OL Reign being the dominant workforce all through the whole match. Captain and defender Lu Barnes reached the 15,000-minute milestone throughout the match. Learn the complete recap of that match or watch the highlights right here.

Traditionally, the Reign has confronted off towards the Spirit in two season openers. The primary was in 2018, when the workforce hosted Washington and claimed a 2-1 victory. The second was in 2022, when the Reign traveled to Washington, D.C. and misplaced 1-2. 

2. SCOUTING WASHINGTON – Like OL Reign, that is Washington’s first match of the 2023 common season. The workforce completed the 2022 season in eleventh place however has seen many modifications over the offseason.

Along with retaining 17 gamers from 2022, the Spirit has added a flurry of recent gamers, together with 5 gamers from the NWSL Draft, two participant who initially joined the workforce for preseason as non-roster invitees and two gamers who have been taking part in with groups overseas. Notably, the Spirit signed 15-year-old Chloe Ricketts to a first-team contract by means of the league’s new Underneath-18 Entry Mechanism. On the time of her signing, she was the youngest ever participant to enter the NWSL. The workforce additionally signed midfielder Inès Jaurena from Olympique Lyonnais.

“I really feel just like the narrative across the Spirit will not be correct,” stated OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey. “I really feel like everyone seems to be saying that they’re making modifications that are not to win now. I do not suppose that. I believe they’ve made modifications to do precisely what they suppose they should do to win now. So, I do not fairly agree with the narrative that it is this huge rotational factor to have a future as a result of I do know one factor about (Spirit head coach) Mark (Parsons) – he is aware of how one can win on this league and so they have gamers on the sector who can rating targets, so I believe that that is what we anticipate.”

3.  HEAD-TO-HEAD HISTORY – In complete, OL Reign and the Washington Spirit have met in 28 matches. The Reign have gotten the higher of the Spirit, profitable 13 matches, drawing six matches and dropping 9 matches. The Reign have a constructive 12 targets differential within the sequence, having scored 44 targets and conceded 32. The Reign have earned eight complete clear sheet towards Washington, together with 4 shutout wins.

The Reign and Spirit have an extended historical past of heated battles between the groups, usually assembly in excessive stakes matches. Notably, the groups have clashed in three NWSL semifinal matches and one NWSL Problem Cup semifinal match. Between the 4 matches, the Reign have come away with two wins and two losses.

The 2014 and 2015 semifinal matches noticed the Reign advance to the ultimate, with a 2-1 comeback win and decisive 3-0 win in back-to-back years. The groups didn’t meet within the playoffs once more till 2021, when the Reign misplaced by one purpose. The very subsequent season, the groups met within the Problem Cup semifinal. The extraordinary recreation featured a powerful bodily presence from each groups. The sport went scoreless in regulation and needed to be determined by a penalty kick shootout, which OL Reign ultimately misplaced 8-9.

“We anticipate a workforce that is going to be exhausting to beat as a result of they’re all the time a menace. They’ve gamers on the sector which have confirmed that for some time now who can compete and achieve success at this degree. I believe for us, they have been a workforce that we discovered it exhausting to beat. Since I’ve come again, we’ve not crushed them,” stated Harvey.

“So, I believe that we all know that we have perhaps carried out properly in video games towards them, however we’ve not obtained the consequence that we would like in any of these video games, so I believe our mentality is that we anticipate a very robust recreation out of them, with a coach who is aware of how one can win on this league and we’ve got to exit and get a consequence tomorrow. I believe that is an important factor to us.”

MultiCare Availability Report:

OUT

Angelina (SEI – knee)

Phoebe McClernon (again)

Megan Rapinoe (calf)

QUESTIONABLE

Quinn (decrease higher physique)