> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Maddie Mercado Among Young Reign Players Looking to Reignite Offense in 2026 - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/maddie-mercado-seattle-reign-2026-offense/ - Published: 2026-01-24T06:58:56.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:56:42.000Z - Author: Qasim Ali - Tags: News, Analysis, Reign, Maddie Mercado, Mia Fishel, Maddie Dahlien, Emeri Adames, Sam Meza, Jordyn Bugg, Claudia Dickey, Jordyn Huitema, Nerilia Mondesir, Jess Fishlock \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="4656"\] ![ Seattle Reign midfielder Maddie Mercado dribbles the ball during a 2025 NWSL first-round playoff match against the Orlando Pride at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Fla. (Andrea Vilchez / Reign FC Communications) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/credit-seattle-reign-fc-andrea-vilchez_5-format-original.jpg) Seattle Reign midfielder Maddie Mercado dribbles the ball during a 2025 NWSL first-round playoff match against the Orlando Pride at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Fla. (Andrea Vilchez / Reign FC Communications) \[/caption\] TUKWILA, Wash. - Maddie Mercado has seen the process of being a young player in the NWSL from every angle. The five-year Notre Dame standout came into the league as the Seattle Reign’s second-round pick in 2024, fresh off scoring nine goals to lead the Irish as a graduate student. With Mercado heading the attack, Notre Dame made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament as the San Diego native scored three game-winners. Fast forward to her first season with Seattle, a storied side with three shields fresh off the departure of the iconic Megan Rapinoe, and everything changed. Mercado had to fight to get on the pitch, playing just 36 minutes in five matches and notching a single goal. The Reign finished 13th in the league as the squad underwent an ownership change on top of losing Rapinoe and a core that had just gone to the NWSL title game in 2023. The frying pan was well behind Mercado; there was only fire now. "I didn't know any better, because I didn't really know what it was like before," said Mercado on Friday of her first season with the team. While the Reign, buoyed by young breakouts in the form of Sally Menti, Jordyn Bugg, Emeri Adames, Maddie Dahlien and others, started to find points with consistency in 2025, Mercado was still stuck trying to find a niche with the team. She played 11 matches with Seattle at a variety of positions in the midfield before the one-month summer break, and didn't play a game with the team after the hiatus. Instead, GM Lesle Gallimore decided in mid-August to extend Mercado through 2026 with a player option in 2027\. Recognizing that the 24-year-old wasn't getting many game reps as it stood, the Reign decided to loan Mercado to the Gainbridge Super League's Carolina Ascent FC for the remainder of 2025 to get her playing time. "She had to be really patient with us," Reign skipper Laura Harvey said of Mercado. "She didn't have to be patient when she went to Carolina; she went in and did exactly what she wanted to do." Indeed, Mercado, in her debut match with Ascent, scored 43 seconds into the game — the fastest score in the two-year-old league's history. She refused to cool down, scoring three more times over six matches to jump to second place in the league in scoring. As the NWSL playoffs grew closer and forward Lynn Biyendolo announced her pregnancy, Harvey and Gallimore decided to cut Mercado's loan short. "We were like, 'You need to come back, girl, because you are flying,'" Harvey said. For Mercado, the two-month loan had brought back some of the confidence she had found late in her days in South Bend. "It was obviously something I wanted to do, to kind of get back into my game form, and I think the two months that I spent there was perfect, honestly. I think it allowed me to do that," Mercado said. In her first start back against Utah, Mercado looked reborn. She took four shots and was fouled four times trying to work her way through the defense with and without the ball. Both of those numbers were season-highs. A game later, in Seattle's first-round matchup with the Orlando Pride, she was fouled four times again and contributed a season-high two of Seattle's eight shots on target. While Mercado and the Reign didn't score in the 2-0 loss, the former looked like a brand new player. She took the game into her hands, spinning through the defense with the ball in tow and refusing to be denied. \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1228"\] ![ Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey direct training on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026 at Starfire Sports in Tukwila, Wash. (Qasim Ali / Emerald City Spectrum) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/laura-harvey-practice-2-1-23-26-format-original.jpg) Seattle Reign head coach Laura Harvey direct training on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026 at Starfire Sports in Tukwila, Wash. (Qasim Ali / Emerald City Spectrum) \[/caption\] For a Reign (fifth place in 2025) squad that was among the least productive expected-goal teams in the NWSL in 2025, Harvey needs more of that refusal to quit in 2026\. The league's winningest coach, whose squad returned to training on Thursday, won't have to wait to install that mentality this go-around with 22 returners rostered. "Last year, I feel we basically had a blank sheet of paper, and we were starting from scratch. Even though there was obviously returning players, it felt like we were a new team," Harvey said. "We don't feel that way this year. So coming in, you don't have to revisit things at a really basic level … that's enabled us to just get into it very quickly." \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="4752"\] ![ Seattle Reign midfielder Maddie Mercado runs to strike a ball during training on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026 at Starfire Sports in Tukwila, Wash. (Qasim Ali / Emerald City Spectrum) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/maddie-mercado-1-23-26-format-original.jpg) Seattle Reign midfielder Maddie Mercado runs to strike a ball during training on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026 at Starfire Sports in Tukwila, Wash. (Qasim Ali / Emerald City Spectrum) \[/caption\] Among the drills the Reign participated in on Friday was one where players shot rolling balls in stride off the first touch. While plenty of shots were saved or lobbed into the welcoming greenery surrounding the Starfire Sports complex in Tukwila, Harvey is only trying to open her players' minds to the idea of creating more looks. "We have a group, because they're young and they're talented, they're like perfectionists. Well, we're sort of saying it doesn't have to be perfect, but the more you go at it, the more you take that first-time shot in training and you miss 10, but suddenly now on the 12th one it goes in … if you keep training that way, you're gonna get better," Harvey said. The potential of the Reign in 2026 may have been indicated by who wasn't on the pitch on Friday morning, though. Five Seattle players received call-ups to join the U.S. Women's National Team in California for training and friendlies on Jan. 24 and Jan. 27 before they are expected to rejoin the roster on the week of Feb. 2\. That group comprises Menti, Dahlien, Bugg, Sam Meza and keeper Claudia Dickey. The Reign will then head down to California as a team on Feb. 8 for additional training and a friendly against Angel City on Feb. 21. Dahlien, 21, the scorer of four result-changing goals in her rookie season of 2025, figures to lead the effort to get Seattle's offense back on track alongside the squad's leading scorer, the 19-year-old Adames. Some wild cards in this narrative include club legend Jess Fishlock, who tied Adames in goals scored last season and was among the league's most efficient scorers, and Chelsea transfer Mia Fishel. \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="4752"\] ![ Seattle Reign forward Mia Fishel works past the keeper during training on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026 at Starfire Sports in Tukwila, Wash. (Qasim Ali / Emerald City Spectrum) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/mia-fishel-practice-1-23-26-format-original.jpg) Seattle Reign forward Mia Fishel works past the keeper during training on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026 at Starfire Sports in Tukwila, Wash. (Qasim Ali / Emerald City Spectrum) \[/caption\] Fishel, who joined the team last season after the July break, started four matches and didn't score, but started to gain more chances at striker as the season came to a close. While Harvey was insistent that the coaching staff had no expectations for the 24-year-old with phenomenal dribbling skills in 2025, the training wheels are off now. "She's very keen on proving where she's at and how much she's improved," Harvey said of Fishel. "Playing and training consistently, she hadn't done that for year. So now it's like a blank sheet of paper." Between a renewed Mercado, a veteran Fishlock, young guns looking to prove more in Dahlien, Adames and Fishel, and other attackers like Jordyn Huitema and Coco Mondesir, Harvey and Gallimore have gone all in on what they have. Outside of the recent signing of veteran forward Brittany Ratcliffe, the attack is practically the same as it was at the conclusion of last year. Harvey is set on letting competition and the individual development of the team’s youth do the rest. "I think it'll be interesting how they all individually respond to that, and which ones do step up and go, 'Yeah it's me, I want it to be me,'" Harvey said.