> ## 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. # Takeaways: Reign Survive for Draw in Kansas City - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-reign-kansas-city-current-survive-for-draw/ - Published: 2026-08-23T08:16:23.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:10:35.000Z - Author: Qasim Ali - Tags: News, Analysis, Game Day, Reign, Laura Harvey, Jordyn Bugg, Phoebe McClernon, Madison Curry, Claudia Dickey, Mia Fishel The Seattle Reign bounced back from a midweek loss with a 1-1 draw at defending NWSL Shield-winner Kansas City Current on Saturday afternoon, defending chance after chance to split the points. The result, Seattle's first at Kansas City since 2021, moves the eighth-place Reign to 8-8-4, two points ahead of the Houston Dash with 10 games remaining. Getting the point was monumental, as Seattle was left preserving the 1-0 advantage it picked up off an early Kayla Sharples own-goal forced by dangerous service from Seattle defender Sofia Huerta. By the end of KC's onslaught, however, the Reign didn't concede a goal in the run of play. Only when striker Mia Fishel's elbow crept up to make contact with a Current pass in the box in the 51st did Seattle concede a goal off a penalty from star midfielder Debinha. From there, Seattle defended for its life as defensive fixtures Jordyn Bugg (five tackles), Phoebe McClernon (six tackles) and Madison Curry (eight tackles) seemed to only get stronger as the game went on. By the end, KC ended up dwarfing Seattle's 0.7 expected goals with 3.3, but had to split the points. Reign head coach Laura Harvey knew what type of effort she was going to need from her young team without star midfielder Sam Meza (thigh) for a third straight game, and she got it. "We know coming here is really difficult," Harvey said postgame. "There's been moments this season and last season where I think some of our inexperience has shown. And I think tonight we looked like an experienced team at times. "And look. If you'd have said to me before the game started, 'Would you take a point on the road in Kansas?' Probably." Here are some key takeaways from the gritty result. ### Chaos Is Always a Good Policy For Seattle Much like its three games in Spokane earlier this season, Seattle forced the Current into tough defending positions over the first 15 minutes. Maddie Mercado got a shot off in the fifth minute before a corner was taken short by Sally Menti and delivered to Sofia Huerta in the 11th. A ball into the zone from Huerta found McCammon, who laid it off toward KC center back Kayla Sharples in front of goal. Sharples mishit her clearance off her thigh and into the net. It was the Current's 14th set-piece goal allowed of the season, and a lucky break for a Seattle team on the front foot early — there wasn't any Seattle attacker at the back post to make Sharples' mistake necessary. The Reign said postgame they were well aware of KC’s set-piece pitfalls. "It's just gonna cause problems," Harvey said of the early service into the box. "We spoke about it at the end of the game, is we didn't show enough quality in the little glimpses of moments when we could have… but when we did, we caused problems." Indeed, Seattle finished with just 16 touches in the Current's box, lacking the chaos this offense typically runs on to feed its leading scorer Mercado and others. On Mercado, though she wasn't able to contribute much on offense, she went 5-for-5 on ground duels as Seattle narrowly won team duels 32-29\. Those 1-on-1 confrontations ended up deciding the game. ### Lack of Aggression Puts Seattle on the Back Foot; Grit Makes Up for It It's worth prefacing this portion by noting Kansas City is one of the deadliest counterattacking teams in women's soccer, and its individual quality should make teams think twice about pressing the Current ultra aggressively. With that in mind, Harvey revealed postgame that Seattle's respect for KC’s stars was counterintuitive in her evaluation. "I just thought we were a little bit passive and a bit indecisive defensively," Harvey said. "When we're like that, you can give a Croix (Bethune) and a Debinha a half a yard and they're the types of players that are going to punish you in those moments. "But again, when we did that, we worked really hard to try and solve it. But I think there's solutions we can put together to help the players in those moments." As a result of Seattle being on the back foot, Bethune managed a few shots toward the end of the first half and missed the goal narrowly with Seattle keeper Claudia Dickey out of the picture. To make it worse, Lo'eau LaBonta missed off the right post and crossbar on a near-perfect shot while Michelle Cooper barely missed the bottom right corner with no save possible. Seattle was defensively sound late in this one, but luck certainly was on its side early. ### Reign Dealt Kansas City's Best (Sustained) Punch The Reign, missing Meza for a third straight game, struggled to cope with Kansas City's quality on its right side for a majority of the first half, watching as world-class talents like Bethune, Debinha, Cooper and LaBonta put consistent pressure on. Somehow, after weathering those bruising attacks, the Reign actually managed some late momentum toward the 10-minute second-half stoppage period as Huerta and Britanny Ratcliffe managed shots late. "From us scoring (early on) to the last 10-15 minutes of the game, they probably had the momentum. And then that last 10 minutes of the game… we got momentum back," Harvey said. "I said to the players at the end, 'You would have thought they were the team that had played in a midweek game.’” Of course, Seattle was the team coming off a midweek 2-1 loss to Racing Louisville on another hot day down south. The Reign looked, at least defensively, to be in their best collective condition in KC — a solid sign going forward. ### Best to Be Lucky AND Good "We would have liked to have been able to control the tempo of that game a little bit more… We would ideally have executed our game plan a little bit better and a little bit more frequently, but we came off a midweek game," McClernon said. “Coming out of Kansas City with a point, I don't think that's anything to take lightly." As Harvey alluded to, the Reign showed all the signs of an experienced team. They were lucky to not have taken on a deficit in the late first half, but limiting KC to a stark three shots on frame out of 24 attempts is something Dickey (two saves) can live with. "I wasn't making saves; we were blocking shots, shots were going over," Dickey said. "For us to basically have two shots on target and not give up a goal in the run of play, I think it's a credit to how much we've progressed this year." The Reign, of course, came into this game in the middle of the pack with 1.3 goals allowed per 90 minutes. That figure has risen as Seattle has improved its offense to a very passable point since the World Cup point, and the Reign seem to be in the middle of figuring out how to balance a revived offense and typical defensive principles. As McClernon said, getting a point while going through those growing pains is a solid bonus. ### Up Next The Reign will have eight days to prepare for a home match against the Houston Dash next Sunday, hoping Meza will be back from her knock by then.