OL Reign coach Laura Harvey painted a picture of frustration following her side’s 1-0 defeat to the Washington Spirit in their 2023 NWSL season opener.
“Everyone who knows me knows my pet peeve is when you don’t do defending throw-ins right,” she said, referring to the 54th minute sequence in which Spirit winger Trinity Rodman was allowed to burst away freely into space and score.
While the Reign may not have met Harvey’s exacting standards on Rodman’s goal, Reign players largely did their job out of possession the rest of the night, conceding just 0.77 expected goals. Expected goals, or xG, measure the quality of chances created — the higher the expected goals, the more dangerous a team was. The xG on Rodman’s goal was only 0.03, even if the breakdown leading to the shot was a mistake.
The following week, in Saturday’s 2-0 win against Gotham FC, the Reign looked more like the squad Harvey wanted, maintaining a clean sheet and holding the explosive attack of Lynn Williams and Midge Purce to a paltry 0.52 xG.
Even though the Reign lost their season opener, such impressive underlying numbers reflect a defense that already appears to be…
