July 29— Jul. 29—TACOMA — Allie Long crumbled to the ground immediately after the final whistle. Visually frustrated, she sat up and held her knees to her chest. She took a couple of moments to pause and compose herself, knowing very well how many eyes were upon her.
It was not the match she, nor her teammates on Reign FC, envisioned for the homecoming Sunday at Cheney Stadium. It was the complete opposite scene from the last time she had heard a final whistle. Three weeks ago, it signified a World Cup championship. Now, it was concluding the Reign’s worst defeat of the season.
“I was just really upset,” Long said. “I was disappointed in myself.”
The Chicago Red Stars (7-5-2) spoiled the Reign’s World Cup welcome-back party, posting a 4-0 victory. The Reign (5-3-5) welcomed back eight international World Cup players to its roster, which was demonstrated by a faint layer of unorganized communication and ultimately kept the team from creating strong scoring opportunities.
The defeat stung even more as it was in front of a club-record crowd of 7,479 people — the stadium’s highest-attended event this year.
“This is my second year and I haven’t felt anything like that,” said Reign defender Steph Catley. “It was a real buzz. It was so loud, every tackle, every pass. We obviously didn’t get the win for them and I’m pretty sad about that. I really wanted to do that for the crowd that came out today, because they were incredible.”
“We had so many people here and we let four goals go in and it was just really upsetting for everyone,” added Long. “I wanted to put on a show today.”
Before the match, the Reign recognized its World Cup players: Rosie White (who played for New Zealand), Jodie Taylor (England), Rumi Utsugi (Japan), Catley (Australia), Rebecca Quinn (Canada), Celia Jimenez Delgado (Spain), Long (USA) and Megan Rapinoe (USA).
Fireworks rocketed from the stadium after the introduction of Rapinoe and Long. For Rapinoe, the recognition continued as she was given a key to the city of Tacoma from Mayor Victoria Woodards and an “Equal Pay” chant began in response.
Rapinoe sat out the game Sunday due to an injured Achilles tendon and exhaustion.
“It sucks not to be able to play,” she said. “You want to play, always first and foremost to be competitive. Obviously, I think the team could have used me out there today. But in the same sense, I know I’m not ready yet. I’m not really one to put myself out there on one and a half legs and try to pretend that it’s fine.”
Despite not being present on the pitch, she remained a focal point throughout the match.
In the stadium’s main concourse, families lined up to pose in front of a large poster of the USWNT’s co-captain, with a handful of little girls holding strong-armed poses in front of the woman who’s quickly become a role model in their eyes.
Before kickoff, The Royal Guard showed its support for Rapinoe with a large tifo of the Reign FC forward. A silhouette of Rapinoe was topped with bright pink hair and matched a colored font along the bottom that read “Be more, be better, be bigger than you’ve ever been before.”
The Red Stars were quick to attack and opened scoring in the fourth minute with a left-footed shot from forward Arin Wright. The team continued the lead at halftime, 2-0, thanks to Vanessa Dibernardo, who added a goal in the 13th minute by completing a cross from NWSL leading scorer Sam Kerr.
Frustration started to sit in for the Reign when Chicago opened the second half with a goal in the 50th minute from Yuki Nagasato on an assist from Casey Short. Kerr capitalized on Reign goalie Casey Murphy one final time in the 81st minute, putting away not only a perfectly timed through ball but also any chance the Reign had of a comeback.
“They were just better than us,” Reign FC coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “They found lots of space between our lines and executed everything that they tried really well. They were getting balls in the pockets and connecting well and beating us to the balls. Just all together, they were the better team.”
Throughout the match, the Reign FC struggled to break through Chicago’s defense, while on the other side of the field, the Red Stars had no problem and outshot the Reign 19-14 and 9-2 in shots on goal.
The Reign was unable to organize any strong momentum around the goal box and had trouble communicating movement around center field. Passes were made too long and shots either missed or were too powerful, flying over the net and into the stands on multiple occasions.
“We’re filtering back in players from the World Cup and sometimes that can be hard and it takes a while to get used to the players you’re playing around again,” Catley said. “But that’s not an excuse. We were not good enough today.”
