There are few people with as much expertise in the NWSL as Laura Harvey, the Seattle Reign head coach who has been in and around the league since its inaugural season in 2013. The three-time Coach of the Year enters every conversation with the confidence that naturally accompanies that level of proficiency, so much so that she can issue a hot take with the same ease and professionalism that she boasts when talking about the regular grind of coaching.
“The true, true rivalries, I think, are Portland-Seattle and LA-San Diego,” she told CBS Sports ahead of the Reign’s rivalry game at the Portland Thorns on Sunday (4 p.m. ET, CBS, Paramount+). “The rest of them aren’t true rivalries. That’s my own opinion. I just don’t think they are.”
The Reign’s rivalry with the Thorns is easily the league’s most storied and oldest, with its 43rd edition taking place this weekend, and has almost always lived up to the billing in large part because both teams have historically been two of the NWSL’s best. Harvey believes the combination of qualities has also fostered a unique – and healthy – sense of competition between the two teams.
“It’s authentic, right,” Harvey said. “And I do think it’s built on respect, actually, which, I think when people talk about rivalry, we don’t really necessarily always show that but I think the thing that these two clubs have done is whether it be Shields or Championships, there’s not many years where either one of these teams has been in that conversation and I think that alone has made the rivalry be even more highlighted.”
When the Reign and the Thorns meet on Sunday, it will be a battle between two playoff contenders in fifth and sixth place, respectively, though both are within touching distance of second place. The Thorns are four points behind the Orlando Pride and the Reign just two, even if collecting all three points in Portland sounds like an uphill battle after being shut out in their last three trips south. Harvey’s side, though, are in as good a position as any to snap their losing streak – several months removed from their lowest-ever NWSL finish of 13th, the Reign are once again one of the NWSL’s top teams and are showing no signs of slowing down.
“We want to solidify some of the really good things we did in the first half of the season,” Harvey said. “We’ve changed formation this year, at the start of the year and really digging in on what that can look like so we can be a little bit more unpredictable at times, I think, is key.”
Putting ‘last season to bed’
If the Reign’s journey from last season to this one feels like an exercise in contrasts, the transition from 2023 to 2024 is an example of extremes. In almost record time, the Reign went from a trip to the 2023 NWSL Championship to dealing with a depleted roster, augmented by the retirement of U.S. women’s national team star Megan Rapinoe and the exit of fellow Women’s World Cup winners Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett as free agents. Harvey said the team was unprepared for the adjustments that awaited them, worsened by the club’s sale by France’s OL Groupe to MLS’ Seattle Sounders that dragged out for the opening months of the 2024 season.
“I think we’ve been embedded on having people, players, staff who’ve been at this club for a long time and gradually, those people have dwindled away,” Harvey said, specifically pointing out Rapinoe, Lauren Barnes and Jess Fishlock as three players who had played for the Reign since the NWSL’s inaugural season in 2013. “Pinoe was probably one of the three that had been here for such a long time and her leadership and the way that she operates really brought the best out of Lu and Jess … The three of them were a brilliant group to work off each other and without sort of Pinoe’s influence with the other two, that sort of thing got lost.”
The Reign, though, “were never miles away” from the NWSL’s better teams in 2024 – even as they notched 15 losses last season, only four were by a margin of more than one goal. There were necessary adjustments to be made after a defensively shaky season in which they averaged 1.69 goals against per game, a departure from a Harvey team’s signature steadiness at the back. The Reign then had their desired offseason with no major departures and a major incoming in USWNT veteran Lynn Biyendolo, the group collectively stepping up to the plate individually. Harvey also updated the team’s tactical foundation, lining up the group in a 3-5-2 rather than the 4-2-3-1 from the 2023 season, in which they made a run to the NWSL Championship.
Some of this was enabled by the Sounders’ June 2024 takeover from France’s OL Groupe, which gave them an early head start on their 2025 rebuild.
“The thing that we’ve always advocated for here is that we’re people first,” Harvey said. “We care about everybody that’s here. We want them to feel like this is their place, their family, their club. I think having the French ownership made that challenging because there was a little disconnect between what that meant, what that had always meant and what it now means. Having ownership that are U.S.-based, Seattle-based in regards to how we operate every day, I think it’s enabled us to really push that on.”
There is a newfound balance to the Reign when you watch them, though they are still rooted in Harvey’s tried and true principles. Anchored by goalkeeper Claudi Dickey, who USWNT head coach Emma Hayes once described as the best shotsopper in the NWSL, two defenders entering their peak years in Phoebe McClernon and Shae Holmes and 18-year-old rising star Jordyn Bugg, the Reign now average under a goal conceded per game. It has offset the fact that they are not the league’s most dynamic attacking side but they still average 1.36 goals per game, more than the 1.04 average they posted last season. Biyendolo, the USWNT’s ever-reliable veteran, has done the same with two goals and one assist in 10 games for the Reign so far but it is just one of her many strengths.
“Lynn has filled Pinoe’s void and I think she’s not just filled the void,” Harvey said. “She’s also influenced and inspired the other two [Barnes and Fishlock] to really be themselves again, which has been the crux of this club for a long time. Their job now is to make sure the day that they all walk out the door, we don’t get this gulf left again so that’s the culture that we want.”
Biyendolo’s presence, Harvey argues, was something the veterans needed more than the Reign’s rising talents.
“I think the old ones with their experience of last year and not being successful, looking at these young ones and saying, ‘We need to make sure you get on our page quickly because we need you,'” Harvey said. “Then bringing them in quickly, I really think, helped the young players as well to feel part of it real quick.”
The baggage of 2024, though, is finally behind them.
“I think we sort of put last season to bed in the first half of the season,” she said, “and now it’s about we’ve gone through that sort of initial stage of building what team we want to be.”
Reign’s young core lead the way
The USWNT’s “off” years from major competition have ushered in a first-of-its-kind period of transition in the American women’s game, one in which just about everyone is eager in their pursuit of discovering the sport’s next stars. In few places is that truer than Seattle, the Reign relying on a handful of young players to lead the charge as they mount a comeback. Several players, like leading goalscorer Emeri Adames and rookie Maddie Dahlien, are in their first two years as professionals, while Dickey, Bugg and Sam Meza have recently earned their first caps with the USWNT. The Reign’s most exciting up-and-comer, though, is a new recruit – forward Mia Fishel. The 24-year-old made her debut for the Reign in last Friday’s win over Angel City as a substitute, Harvey easing her into the limelight as she looks to build form a year after tearing her ACL.
Harvey had worked with Fishel when she was the head coach of the U-20 USWNT and “got an inkling” last spring that the forward was looking for a move out of Chelsea. Just like many, the Reign have high hopes for Fishel after she signed a deal with the team that keeps her in Seattle through the end of the 2029 NWSL season. Harvey was quick to acknowledge, though, that Fishel has the benefit of time, especially with the Women’s World Cup just under two years away.
“She’s a player that I enjoyed to work with because she wants to learn,” Harvey said. “She wants to be the best she possibly can be. I can work with that all the time. The second layer of that is she has the potential to be a really, really good goalscorer in any league that she’s in. She’s shown that at Tigres, she showed that in the spurts that she had at Chelsea before her injury but also I think what’s exciting is there’s no real expectations on Mia today. We have a roster that means today, she doesn’t need to come in and be amazing right the second. If she is amazing, great. We all want that but there’s no pressure on her to do that and we’re invested in her long term.”
Even though the playoff push is top of mind with 12 games to go in the regular season, Harvey continues to strike the balance between patience and urgency. While Fishel begins to receive that treatment, midfielder Sam Meza has already benefited from it. Meza was drafted by the Reign in 2024 but only made two appearances in her rookie season, both during the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup that took place during a break from the regular season last summer. She went on loan to the USL Super League’s Dallas Trinity last August and used that as the foundation for a breakout season so far with the Reign in 2025.
“For our team, it might have been better for her to stay with us and not go out on loan but for her, I felt it was going to be really important for her development to go and play,” Harvey said. “I didn’t think she was going to get those minutes last year with us and she didn’t really want that, right? She wanted to stay and I understand that but I think taking that risk, which was a risk for her and committing to it, she’s now reaping the reward. That might not happen for everybody but I do think it’s a really cool story to say, take a chance on yourself sometimes.”
The Reign’s players’ involvement with the national team is validation for their bets on themselves, as well as Harvey’s work to foster their growth. She and the Reign have created a symbiotic relationship with Hayes and the USWNT, one that is ultimately a great showcase for the players on the pitch than anything else.
“Me and Emma didn’t really have any previous relationship so getting to see how she works and how she operates has been good,” Harvey said. “She’s very open about what she wants from her players. We’re very open about wanting to take that on and help them any way we can and I’m really happy for all the players … I think the expectation for them is now they’ve seen what it can be like and what it can look like for them and it’s over to them now to make sure that those opportunities keep coming back to them.”
