The Washington Spirit and Seattle Reign will go up against each other on Sunday afternoon in this semifinal matchup in the NWSL Playoffs. This is the 4th time these two teams have played. In this season’s head to head matchups the Reign are 2-1 against the Spirit.  The Reign won the NWSL Shield this year for having the best regular season record in the NWSL.  The Washington Spirit came in 4th place in the NWSL this season.

The key players for the Washington Spirit are Diana Matheson and Crystal Dunn. Dunn was the Golden Boot winner in the regular season so she needs to put a few more in the net in this game in order to take down the NWSL Shield winners. Matheson scored in the last game against Seattle and if she can find the net again but this time not relying on a penalty kick, the Spirit have a good chance to win.

The key players for the Seattle Reign are Hope Solo and Megan Rapinoe. Rapinoe is one of the most popular female soccer players in the world and she is also one of the best. For the Seattle Reign to move onto the next round she has to find the back of the net and carry the Reign.

During Thursday’s teleconference the big news revealed by Spirit manager Mark Parsons was that Spirit star Ali Krieger will not play in the game tomorrow because she will be at her father’s wedding. 

In the last game between the two Matheson scored for the Spirit, and she spoke about how she can score again in the matchup on Saturday: “What do I have to do to replicate that? I have to get another PK and then score again if we are going to replicate that one.”

Parsons talked about what the Spirit have to do better than they did in the two losses to the Reign this season, saying: “Well, it’s a different game because we are not home we are away. I think that both teams know each other very well, so I don’t think you learn more but you see closer. The quality that both teams have, I think for us we literally have this extra bit of hunger, coming off a defeat no matter who you are playing and there is always and you hope there’s not but when you lose the training is a bit spicier, and more competitive, and it has been this week, and when you have the opportunity to play the same team again. I think that’s gonna work in our favor. Regardless tactically, we wanna get our best players the ball in the best areas, and we want to stop their best players from getting on the ball in the best areas they like. I think the two goals for them were very similar, if you remove those it’s close and both teams did a good job getting some opportunities for the quality players  in the final third, we failed to do that and they got goals from it, immediately it’s do a better job of limiting that and then we gotta do a better job of getting our players in the game that doesn’t come from just the high players, it comes from everyone involved.”

On the flip side, Reign manager Laura Harvey talked about the impact the national team players had on the last matchup compared to the first two matchups that these two teams played. She said: “From our perspective, what Hope and Pinoe bring is they bring quality, they bring experience. From Hope’s perspective she’s been there, done it, she gives a lot of confidence to the backline and she’s been rewarded with everything she possibly can be from a goalkeeping perspective. Megan had a fantastic World Cup. They bring exactly what you’d expect: ability, experience and they are both winners, which is exactly what you need to be part of a team.”

Reign midfielder Keelin Winters answered the same question, by sayin: “I think that whenever you're missing a national team player it’s not so much you're focusing on the lack of a player but rather a player who is going to be coming off the bench or getting starts, getting more experience and I think everybody who came off the bench onto the pitch, did a really good job of stepping up and doing what we were asking them to do, so with that said everybody is going to be here on Sunday, and ready to go.”

This matchup between two of the top NWSL teams should be a good one to watch out for on Fox Sports 1 on Sunday afternoon.