NWSL Mini-Previews: Washington SpiriT and Houston Dash
/By Arielle Dror (@arielle_dror) and Lydia Vandenbergh (@lvanden)
The time has come. This weekend, the NWSL will return as the first professional sports league in the United States to take the field since the COVID-19 pandemic began. After writing previews since before the Challenge Cup was even announced (here are parts one and two), we’re excited to share our final set on the last three teams in the league.
Orlando Pride
Orlando Pride’s 2019 season was nothing short of pitiful. The Pride struggled to score (24 goals, seventh out of nine teams), though their biggest issue was undoubtedly defensive. The team conceded 53 goals in 24 games, tied with the 2014 Boston Breakers for the most conceded in league history. We had hundreds of words written about how terrible the Pride were last season, and how tough it would be for them in the Challenge Cup, and even some pretty charts and graphs to prove it. Then on Monday they dropped the news that 10 people from the organization have tested positive for COVID-19 and the team won’t be participating.
Here’s to all of them getting healthy. Don’t go to bars during a pandemic. And speaking of bars, let’s hope this is as low as Orlando’s gets.
Washington Spirit
The Washington Spirit finished the 2019 season one spot out of the playoffs. Much could be said about those four points which ultimately put them behind OL Reign and out of a chance at the Championship. The Spirit began the 2019 season strong, only losing one game in the first nine matches. They then lost six of the next seven matches and never really recovered from there.
This season several familiar faces return for the Spirit. If you remember from our first preview, the Spirit had the third-highest percentage of returning players with 76.7%. This is good news according to head coach Richie Burke who will enter his second season. Burke mentioned his returning players have matured over the years and the investment has paid off but having new, inexperienced players how they will do in the tournament will be a roll of the dice.
Defensively, Samantha Staab played every minute of every game in her rookie season last year. The center back, who is highly involved and likes to start play out of the back doesn't rank high in defensive actions or recoveries. Last season, Staab was so integral to the Spirit’s success that she ultimately earned a Rookie of the Year nomination. In the Challenge Cup, she will play a vital role in the backline once again.
We can’t talk about the backline without mentioning 2019 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year, Aubrey Bledsoe. Bledsoe tied Utah’s Nicole Barnhart for the highest number of clean sheets (10). She faced 111 shots on goal and made 86 saves, a 77.5% success rate. She tied Sky Blue’s Kailen Sheridan with that save percentage which was 2nd best in the league.
Two notable additions to the roster this season are Kumi Yokoyama, the Japanese international, and UCLA standout Ashley Sanchez. Yokoyama is quick and clever on and off the ball. For Japan, Yokoyama has 43 caps and 17 goals. How quickly she will adapt to the style of play will be the question. Sanchez on the other hand, is tipped to be an impactful rookie and assuming Malory Pugh’s replacement. Over her three year career at UCLA she scored 23 goals and tailed 42 assists. The majority of the Spirit’s goals are assisted from multiple players. The highest number of assists one player had last season was three and it was defender Tori Huster. The Spirit desperately need a playmaker higher up the pitch. If Sanchez can quickly adapt to the transition she could be the answer. It could also be in Rose Lavelle. Lavelle, who only played in a handful of games in 2018 and 2019 due to injury and the World Cup, could be a player the Spirit will look to in the Challenge Cup.
The pride were really bad last season.
Last season, when the Spirit scored first, they won only 66.7% of the time. In fact, all but one game that the Spirit won last season was when they scored first. Washington will need to score first or learn to come from behind more often if they are going to pick up points.
Unfortunately for the Spirit, they have possibly the most difficult schedule of any team. Washington begins against Chicago, followed by North Carolina, then Portland. If they can survive that gauntlet of the top three teams from 2019 then they might be able to catch their breath against Houston in the final game.
Houston Dash
The 2019 Houston Dash continued the team’s track record of being a bottom-tier team. The team’s best finish was 5th place in 2015, but the Dash has primarily held spots at the bottom third of the table since its inception, and 2019 was no different.The team conceded the second most goals and scored the second fewest goals in the league (36 and 21, respectively), which was good for seventh place in the standings.
Houston allowed goals to be scored on them early and often in 2019.
As a team, Houston struggled to start games off on the right foot, conceding nearly 50% of their goals within the first 30 minutes of matches. Goalkeeper Jane Campbell was often very busy, facing the third highest number of shots, yet, had one of the lowest save percentages in the league.
Offensively, finishing was a struggle for the Dash; their conversion rate of 10.1% was the lowest in the league. The team especially struggled to finish shots in easier areas, having the lowest conversion rates in the league in both the six and eighteen yard boxes. However, the Dash had the highest conversion rate among all teams for shots outside of the eighteen, with 5.88%. 28.6% of Houston’s goals came from outside the box, by far the highest in the league (the next highest was the Orlando Pride with 18.2%). It is clear that the Dash need to improve their finishing, especially in the box.
Houston saw the departure of several key players in the offseason. Attacker Kealia Ohai Watt, widely seen as the face of the team and the team’s first ever draft pick in 2014, is now in Chicago after requesting a trade. Another original member of the squad, Amber Brooks, was traded to OL Reign. Sofia Huerta, the player responsible for much of the offensive production last season, was traded too. In their absence comes the arrival of new faces. Center backs Katie Naughton (Chicago) and Megan Oyster (OL Reign), and forwards Katie Stengel (Utah) and Shea Groom (OL Reign) will likely play important roles for the Dash. The team has also signed several American players who have spent the past few seasons in Europe: defender Erin Simon and midfielder Brianna Visalli from West Ham, and Fiorentina midfielder Maegan Kelly. Notably, Simon was an undrafted rookie in 2016, who went on to earn a contract with Sky Blue FC and play the most minutes of any undrafted rookie ever (1590 minutes). The Dash will also see the return of a few injured players from last season, namely forward Veronica Latsko. Latsko tore her ACL early in the 2019 season, but in her 2018 rookie season, she scored four goals, mainly off the bench.
Of all the departures, midfielder Huerta’s will probably be felt most strongly. In her two years with Houston, Huerta could be relied upon as a key goalscorer and playmaker. In 2018, Huerta’s five goals and four assists meant she was involved in over a quarter of the team’s 34 goals, despite not joining the team until she was traded in mid-June. In 2019, she was involved in 38% of Houston’s 21 goals, with five goals and three assists. No player on the Dash had more than two assists on the season, and it’s not immediately clear who will be the player who can create chances for others.
With Brooks’ departure, Coach James Clarkson will now have the opportunity to pick a new center back pairing, which will most likely be Naughton and Oyster. Both are regarded as some of the strongest non-National Team center backs in the league, though Naughton did see a decrease in playing time last season. The duo could potentially add strength where the other is weak, though the fact that both rank low amongst league center backs for keeping possession of the ball and could be a cause for concern. Ally Prisock, who saw a lot of playing time in the back half of the 2019 season as a rookie, can provide depth and allow for rotation in the lineup, which will be helpful in the tournament structure.
With several key roster changes, it will probably take more time than the Challenge Cup for the Dash to gel. They have a pretty challenging schedule with games scheduled against mainly top of the table teams: North Carolina Courage, Chicago Red Stars, Sky Blue FC, and the Washington Spirit. If they’re able to win a knockout round game then the tournament should be considered a great success.
The Challenge Cup is shaping up to be an exciting restart to American sports. With most teams seeing significant roster and coaching changes in the offseason, combined with the shortened tournament format, we’re looking forward to seeing how the teams look when they take the field.