After a long, tumultuous week in which their former head coach resigned the day before the match at Houston Dash, OL Reign returned to the friendly confines of Cheney Stadium to take on Kansas City. With a full week of training where the theme was focusing on individual performances, OL Reign forward Bethany Balcer secured her first brace as a professional, as part of the team’s collective effort in a 2-0 victory over Kansas City.
It was shaping up to be a solid team performance from opening kick to full time, but a straight red card to goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity saw OL Reign down to 10 players for roughly the final 20 minutes of the match.