While everyone was enthralled with the rivalry between San Diego Wave FC and Angel City FC as both teams played their NWSL inaugural seasons, the most memorable matches undoubtedly came against the eventual league champion Portland Thorns.

With the 2023 regular season less than two months away, the Thorns have made the task of being dethroned that much harder for all teams, including the San Diego Wave, with the signing of Mexican national team and University of Alabama defender Reyna Reyes in the first round of the NWSL Draft.

“I feel that any game here in the NWSL is going to be a good match,” said Reyes. Before playing her first game for the Crimson Tide on Aug. 23, Reyes made 15 appearances for the Mexican U17 and U19 women’s teams following that up with six appearances for the U20 team in 2020.

The following year she joined the El Tri femenil senior squad competing in several matches including two friendlies against the USMNT on July 1, 2021, coming in as a substitute, and four days later with Reyes as a starter.

“Being able to be on the Mexican national team and play all these different countries, I feel that every country has its own style, but in the end soccer is soccer,” she added. “Getting to travel the world playing all these different countries, I think that made my level of soccer grow and mature a lot. Being on the national team is the highest peak that you can be at in soccer.”

Now in the NWSL, the 21-year-old who turns 22 on Feb. 16, Reyes will get to play alongside fellow defender and USWNT captain Becky Sauerbrunn, Canadian national team captain Christine Sinclair and Japanese national team midfielder Hina Sugita in a team that finished with a +25 goal differential during the 2022 regular season on their way to a third NWSL title.

San Diego Wave played the Thorns five times last year, which included two Challenge Cup games and two more times during the regular season before their fifth and climactic match in the NWSL semifinals that Portland won 2-1 on a 93rd-minute golazo by midfielder Crystal Dunn.

“I’m excited to see what comes from the NWSL,” said Reyes. “There are women from all these different countries playing in the NWSL now. Anything is possible as long as you keep working, I know a lot of people might think this is cliche, but the work that you do outside of soccer when nobody is watching really does count.”