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3 months ago
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Photo Copyright Stephen Brashear for USA TODAY Sports
After a disappointing first half of the season and the transfer of ownership finally complete, Seattle Reign management has been vocal about actively working to better its roster. While some bigger acquisitions may be delayed until the offseason, the team has begun with several moves in the summer transfer window, and more are expected.
One such move was trading two-time finalist for NWSL Defender of the Year, Alana Cook, to the Kansas City Current. In exchange, the Reign acquired $40,000 in allocation money and $75,000 in intra-league transfer funds, plus an additional $25,000 of the latter if certain performance-based measures are met. The two-time NWSL Best XI First Team selection is set to be officially be available for selection on Aug. 1.
The Current suffered a big loss in defense when Gabrielle Robinson suffered a torn ACL on May 25. Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski said she had been one of the league’s best defenders in 2024 before the injury. Cook fills a positional need with veteran knowledge and experience.
Though she is a veteran defender who went to the 2023 World Cup with the USWNT, Cook has been seeing a dip in both form and playing time in 2024. Perhaps moving to play for the coach who brought her to Australia and New Zealand or just moving to a new place, will see her return to her best.
Cook was also set to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, so it’s a solid monetary return for a player on an expiring contract. However, this leaves the Reign with less defensive depth than they are used to.
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A torn ACL and meniscus sustained by Ryanne Brown in the first half of the team’s first Summer Cup match mean Seattle is also without a young talent who had just begun starting in regular season games. Brown made 10 appearances across all competitions in 2024 but her starts came as the Reign were showing some life before the Olympic break.
The defense remains anchored by exceptionally talented veterans like Sofia Huerta and Lauren Barnes but the rest is quite young. The remaining defenders — Lily Woodham, Julia Lester, Phoebe McClernon, and Shae Holmes — are all 26 or younger. The group got significantly younger with the signing of nearly-18-year-old Jordyn Bugg to a contract through 2027.
Despite her youth, Bugg showed her abilities in the Summer Cup match against Tijuana. Playing as both outside and center back throughout the game, Bugg was good on the ball, made quality tackles, and showed impressive maturity, with Harvey saying post-game, “I thought she was exceptional.”
Emeri Adames was the club’s first-ever U-18 signing at the beginning of this 2024 season but with infrastructure, and ownership, now in place, they wanted to look at young talent. Midfielder Ainsley McCammon, a year younger than Bugg, is the other signing that resulted from this focus.
“We’ve never really had the opportunity to do this before, where you can truly invest in that young talent because we weren’t resourced really to do it,” Harvey said after McCammon’s debut. “And now we are, and I think we’re gonna get resourced even more with the new ownership group. To really know that — is Ainsley going to be who we want them to be today or Jordyn? No. Or Emeri? No.
“But can we provide them with opportunities, development platforms — both with us and at youth national team level — so that they can one day become the next whoever in our team.”
Making young additions follows the current trend in the NWSL and Harvey thinks it represents a greater shift.
“I think the NWSL has always been a place where you have to solve things and you have to solve it now. And I think we’re turning that tide round to seeing long-term vision, long-term planning, and I’m all about that,” Harvey said. “I probably have a reputation that I’m not and I actually really am, but I think before it was tough because the league wasn’t set up for that.”
Both Bugg and McCammon made their professional debuts in the Summer Cup while Adames used the opportunity to score a banger. This summer competition is valuable for these teenagers but also many more.
For the players who rarely, if ever, see the field in the regular season this is their chance to show what they can contribute to a team that needs to make trades, waive players, or loan players out in order to make any more roster additions.
“I think what we have to look at now with all of the players that we have who haven’t had tons of minutes is, when the summer cup ends what does the next six months look like for them,” Harvey said. “And we’ve done it before where we’ve loaned people out and they haven’t appeared back at the club. And we’ve loaned people out … who it was very clear that they were going to come back.”
For others, it is about showing they deserve regular season minutes now through the end of the season.
“I think none of that is decided yet and I think giving them the opportunity to show what they can do in our team right now is really exciting,” Harvey said of all the players vying for field time.
While the Reign are thinking long term they are making some more moves right now. Struggling to score goals throughout the season, the team’s first big move of the summer transfer window was to sign Haitian forward Nérilia Mondésir through the 2026 season, with mutual option for 2027, for an agreed-upon transfer fee.
The first Haitian-born player in league history brings exciting potential and a wealth of international experience, including captaining Haiti in their first-ever appearance at a FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023, at just 25 years old. She also has scored 30 goals in just 25 senior international appearances.
“She is known for her creative ability with her speed of play and has experienced success for both her club and country,” Harvey said in a press release. “We look forward to utilizing her skillset to elevate our attack and help the club reach its goals this season and beyond.”
The attacker comes to Seattle from France where she made 123 appearances, 89 starts, for Montpellier HSC. Mondésir led the team in scoring in 2022 with nine goals but scored 20 total in her career while notching 16 assists.
According to French women’s football journalist and commentator Daniel Marques, Mondésir’s strength is her dribbling into attack but she has a poor conversion rate in front of goal. She is also terrific at winning possession all over the field, but particularly pressing in the final third, and has a strong defensive work-rate — a must when playing for Harvey. If Mondésir can improve her finishing she will reach another level Marques feels she is capable of.
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Don’t expect this to be the last we hear from the Reign this summer. After signing Bugg, McCammon and Mondésir, the team is only roster compliant as long as Quinn and Jordyn Huitema are at the Olympics with Canada. The roster limit is 26 so two players will need to be taken off the active roster for the return of the Canadians.
One move should involve the young Brazilian midfielder Luany who is signed through 2025 but has so far spent her time on loan with Madrid CFF. Her loan ended in June but there has been no indication she will return to Seattle this summer so another loan stint could be upcoming, taking her off the active roster.
While the Reign will unquestionably work to turn their season around and still qualify for playoffs when the regular season resumes, their vision goes far beyond just this season and it has shown itself so far in this summer transfer window.
