Alyssa Malonson had a nice welcome gift for her former team Sunday.
An opening goal.
No worries. Reign defender Alana Cook played an unwanted role in giving Bay FC a 3-2 win at PayPal Park — it’s first home victory as a franchise.
Seattle coach Laura Harvey was visibly upset during the virtual postgame news conference. She pressed her cellphone against the camera lens and asked media to tell her if they thought Veronica Latsko was onside for a would-be equalizer late in the second half. The goal was disallowed without review.
“[She’s] definitely onside,” Harvey said with the freeze-frame appearing to support the stance.
Referee Ekaterina Koroleva did add 12 minutes of stoppage time to the match. Seattle couldn’t create another shot to level the score. They headed home with a three-game losing streak.
“We could’ve put our heads down when we went down 2-1,” Reign forward Bethany Balcer said. “We put two more goals in the back of the net and one was unfortunately called back. Our response was good, but we shouldn’t let it get to that point. Overall, it’s just very frustrating and deflating.”
Reign midfielder Ji So-yun used a feather touch to Balcer in the box, the latter swinging the ball into goal to level the score in the 83rd minute. The 2-2 tally seemed a fair result for teams that performed well on both sides of the ball.
But in a random attempt to clear a shot out of the box, Cook stuck her foot out and the deflection bounced into the net for the game-winner in the 87th minute. The goal was credited to Bay midfielder Joelle Anderson.
The crowd of 16,719 celebrated in the lingering San Jose, Calif., sun.
Balcer made sure it was a delayed party. Reign wingback Lily Woodham used an overlapping run to send a textbook cross into the box with Malonson closely marking Balcer. The Bay FC defender got a touch on the ball, but her attempted clearance deflected off her teammate, Kayla Lynne Sharples, for an own goal in the 27th minute.
The play seemed to be an inevitable score. If Malonson wasn’t there, Balcer would’ve scored with an easy tap from inside the keeper’s box.
“I’ve been trying to work on that cross for a while now,” Woodham said of the buildup. “I saw it and I know Boats [Balcer] was going to be in there, so I put my head down and put it in there. Lucky it went in.”
That was the end of Bay’s giving nature in Seattle’s first match against the expansion side.
BFC (2-2) earned a corner kick early in the second half that eventually became the equalizer. In a crowded box, defender Emily Menges lofted a short cross into the air that Sharples headed down past keeper Claudia Dickey for the goal in the 48th minute.
Alex Loera smashed the go-ahead score for Bay into the back of the net in the 58th minute. The shot from distance was initially created from a corner kick.
“I live for those balls that kind of pop out of the box,” Loera said. “So, when it came out, my eyes got big. Thankfully this time it went into the back of the net.”
Aside from the own goal, Bay was doing a better job clogging Seattle’s offensive plans than the Reign in containing attackers Racheal Kundananji and Asisat Oshoala. The pair made their own mistakes in not scoring in the match.
Dickey handled the other chances with four saves. But she needed on-field medical attention after Sharples’ goal and was subbed off for Laurel Ivory after Loera’s screamer. Dickey was able to walk off without assistance.
“We gave them too much opportunity to get momentum on us,” Harvey said. She didn’t have a medical update for Dickey. “The patches of the game where we had really good momentum, we couldn’t keep that going when it became a defending moment, which is frustrating because that’s what builds our base in making us the team that we are.”
Malonson was originally signed by the Reign in 2022. She made nine appearances through all competitions for Seattle and was left unprotected in the expansion draft last winter, where Bay selected her with the No. 1 overall pick.
The defender had daring tackles against Balcer and helped Bay limit the Reign to eight shots, three on-target.
“Even after the disallowed goal by us and in that injury time period, we could’ve made better decisions on the ball to really cause a problem,” Harvey said. “We’ve got to be ruthless.”
Ji, a Korean international, and Welsh internationals Woodham, Jess Fishlock, and Anagharad James-Turner were able to make the starting lineup for the Reign despite heavy travel schedules during the break with their respective national teams. Cook also got the nod after recovering from a knee injury.
The loss ends a three-game road trip for the Reign (1-3). They’ll host the Chicago Red Stars at Lumen Field next week.
“It’s a massive, massive game,” said Harvey, whose team lost 2-1 to the Red Stars last month.
Jayda Evans
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