Match Forecast: OL Reign Take on the Washington Spirit in the NWSL Semifinals

OL Reign are set to play their first playoff match against the Washington Spirit on Sunday. This NWSL semifinal match determines which team will move on to compete for the NWSL Championship in Louisville on November 20.

WHEN AND WHERE: Kickoff is at 12:00 p.m. PT on Sunday, November 14 at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington

WHERE TO WATCH: The match will be available on CBS Sports in the U.S. and Twitch internationally. Get tickets to attend the game in person here.

2021 REGULAR SEASON RECORDS AND STANDINGS (W-L-D): OL Reign: 13-8-3 (42 points, second place), Washington Spirit: 11-7-6 (39 points, third place)

Key Points Ahead of the Match:

1. LAST MEETING – The last time that OL Reign and Washington Spirit met was October 16, 2021, at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma. The match was OL Reign’s last home game of the 2021 NWSL regular season. Washington came away with a 2-0 win in a hard-fought battle against an OL Reign side that had played three games in one week.

Washington got on the board early, in the 22nd minute. Taylor Aylmer received a ball from Julia Roddar in the box and volleyed it into the top left corner of the goal to put the visitors up 1-0. In the 59th minute, Ashley Hatch doubled Washington’s lead. Hatch dribbled the ball for a few yards before finding a shot from outside the 18-yard box and hitting the lower right corner of the goal. The Reign were left chasing the game and ultimately could not find a goal of their own and conceded their first loss at home since June. Notably, OL Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock earned Save of the Week for her 62nd minute goal line save.

2. SCOUTING WASHINGTON – The Spirit finished the NWSL regular season in third place, just three points behind OL Reign in second place. With their third-place finish, Washington played the North Carolina Courage last weekend to determine who would move on to the semifinal match against OL Reign. The Spirit and Courage were deadlocked 0-0 for all 90 minutes of regulation and were forced to go to extra time. The game was back and forth with both teams desperate to find the game winning goal.

The goal finally came in the 113th minute of the match. 2021 NWSL Golden Boot winner Ashely Hatch was the player to find the back of the net, after following up on a shot attempt from Trinity Rodman. North Carolina was unable to find an equalizer and Washington booked their ticket to the semifinal match in Tacoma.

3. HEAD-TO-HEAD – OL Reign and Washington Spirit have previously met three times this season, including Washington’s forfeit, recorded as a 3-0 win in favor of OL Reign. The other two times that the teams went head-to-head, Washington came out on top. The first match between the two teams was back in May at Cheney Stadium. Washington came away with a narrow 1-0 win. The lone goal of the match was an OL Reign own goal, conceded in the 52nd minute when the 18-yard box became crowded and chaotic. The second meeting between the teams was the October 16 meeting, which ended in a 2-0 loss for OL Reign. Spirit goals were scored by Taylor Aylmer and Ashley Hatch.

OL Reign and Washington also have a history of going head-to-head in the NWSL semifinals. The two sides met in the 2014 and 2015 semifinals consecutively. Both years, the Reign were victorious and moved onto the final. In 2014, the Reign initially went down 1-0 before making an exciting comeback to win 2-1. In 2015, the Reign’s victory was more decisive, with three second-half goals propelling the team to the final.

4. MUST WIN – Though OL Reign has had games that players and fans have considered “must win” throughout the season, the playoffs are actually just that – the team must win or their season ends. For OL Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock, the playoffs are very different from regular season games. Though Washington beat OL Reign the two times the teams played each other, Fishlock is not worried about that and neither is Head Coach Laura Harvey.

“The playoffs are different games. It’s not about a bigger picture of putting on a good performance and getting everything right. It’s about winning. The good thing about this group is we have a lot of winners in it. Players who know how to win games and know what it takes to win games and I think we showed that in Kansas,” said Harvey.

“I think the thing for us too is, yeah we went into win mode early in the season, but nothing is like playoff win mode, until you get to the playoffs. It’s just not,” said Fishlock.

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