Three Stats: OL Reign vs. Portland Thorns

Unpacking a scoreless draw that saw the Reign earn the top seed in the Challenge Cup playoffs.

On Sunday, August 6, OL Reign and the Portland Thorns played to a scoreless draw in front of more than 12,000 fans at Lumen Field. The game marked the Reign’s seventh straight shutout in the NWSL Challenge Cup — dating back to 2022 — an NWSL record.

With the draw, OL Reign earned the top seed for the Challenge Cup playoffs, which means they’ll host a semifinal match on Wednesday, September 6, against Racing Louisville.

Here are three stats from the scoreless home draw.

2

Heading into the match, we knew that Portland was a team that liked to shoot. They lead the NWSL in shots in the regular season and had the second-most shots in the Challenge Cup heading into this weekend.

In addition to holding Portland to just 8 shots — compared to the Reign’s 11 — the Reign defense allowed the Thorns just two shots from inside the box. Both of them were blocked.

The Thorns put just one shot on target all match. On top of that, Portland had zero shots in the second half.

How did OL Reign accomplish this? They let Portland’s backline keep possession while dropping and putting numbers behind the ball — as you can see from Portland’s pass map. Lots of action in their defensive half. Limited connection in their offensive half. Despite having 61% of the possession, Portland had three fewer touches in their box than the Reign.

Possession only matters if you have a purpose, and the Reign prevented the Thorns from doing much with the ball.

18.2

Instead of an intense high press, the Reign stayed organized on defense and worked to prevent balls into Sam Coffey and Taylor Porter in the midfield. The Reign forwards often dropped off Portland’s backline when they had the ball, choosing to step passively at times. When the Thorns moved the ball to the wing and tried to send balls down the flanks, OL Reign’s fullbacks stepped up to pressure or their centerbacks were there to provide cover.

Here’s one stat that demonstrates this approach: OL Reign’s press intensity was 18.2. That means they allowed Portland, on average, to make 18 passes before the Reign tried any kind of defensive action (interception, foul, tackle, etc.).

Below are a couple of examples of how the Reign’s defensive shape limited Portland, despite the minimal pressure, and forced them into mistakes on the wings.

In this example, after Marley Canales stays tight on her mark in the center of the field, Veronica Latsko on the right wing cuts off service into the midfield instead of pressing high, while Ryanne Brown had the winger covered. This forced Thorns left back Meghan Klingenberg to move the ball back across the backline.

In their 2-0 regular-season loss to Portland, where the Reign found success pressing with intensity (but no goal), that number was 9.3 — almost half their total from the weekend.

OL Reign head coach Laura Harvey has tried to mix things up each time the Reign play Portland. Considering they face off against each other four times in the year — twice in the regular season and twice in the Challenge Cup group stage — it’s a smart strategy. She mixed things up defensively again on Sunday, and it worked for the Reign.

19

When facing non-Reign competition in the Challenge Cup West group, the three other teams — Angel City, Portland, and San Diego — scored 19 goals against each other. That’s an average of 1.6 goals per match.

Despite that fairly strong average, no team could score on the Reign. OL Reign set a new record for consecutive Challenge Cup clean sheets and minutes without giving up a goal.

They gave up a league-low 3.9 expected goals (xG) across six matches, averaging 0.65 xG against per game.

This despite Phallon Tullis-Joyce playing zero minutes, Lauren Barnes playing just 96 minutes across six matches, Alana Cook featuring just twice, and Quinn going 134 minutes. OL Reign’s heavily rotated defense stood firm. And when they needed a big save, Laurel Ivory and Claudia Dickey stepped up.

It might not always feel like an action-packed match for fans, but defense wins matches.

OL Reign’s depth shined in the Challenge Cup group stage, and now the team turns to a new phase in the season. OL Reign will be back in action on Friday, August 18, heading on the road to face the Kansas City Current in regular-season play — presumably with most or all of their eight World Cup players available.