By Liviu Bird
SEATTLE — After two straight wins reversed a troubling trend since the start of its inaugural National Women’s Soccer League season, Seattle Reign FC won again on Monday, in the trade market.
The club acquired forward Renae Cuellar from FC Kansas City, as well as Kansas City’s third-round pick in next year’s college draft. In exchange, Seattle sent Teresa Noyola, the rights to unsigned supplemental draft pick Nikki Krzysik and its second-round 2014 college draft pick to Kansas City.
Both Cuellar and Noyola are league-allocated players from the Mexican national team. Noyola has seen playing time in central midfield and on the wing for the Reign, but with Megan Rapinoe’s NWSL debut and several central players returning from injury and international duty, Noyola has not been able to find the field recently.
Cuellar’s season got off to a fast start, as she scored four goals in the first five games, including the first goal in league history on April 13 against Portland Thorns FC. She scored in two of Kansas City’s three match-ups against Seattle so far in 2013. The 2012 Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year scored in her last start, on June 16, but she has not been in the lineup since then, making three appearances off the bench in a row.
In an unrelated trade, Seattle sent forward and free agent signing Lindsay Taylor and a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2014 college draft to the Washington Spirit for its second-round pick in the same draft.
In head coach and general manager Laura Harvey’s preferred 4-3-3 formation, Taylor primarily played on the right wing. She started four matches and made two substitute appearances, for a total of 343 minutes this season, in which she scored once.
Seattle’s next match is on Wednesday at Starfire Stadium, when it hosts the Boston Breakers at 7 p.m. With the Reign’s recent streak, it is no longer in last place in the NWSL, although the only team below it, Washington by two points, has two games in hand.
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