2025 NWSL Previews: Houston Dash and Seattle Reign
/Hello and welcome to our 2025 NWSL previews. We’ve got some new writers, some old writers, but lots of exciting analytical insights coming at you ahead of a very exciting 2025 season. You can read all of them here!
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Houston Dash: The only way to go is up
The Houston Dash have hit rock bottom. After narrowly avoiding the wooden spoon in 2023 by just 2 points, it seemed like 2024 might be different. They brought on a brand new head coach and signed a historic new contract that made María Sánchez the highest paid player in the league. But things began to unravel when, barely a month into the season, Sánchez requested a trade, and by June, their new head coach had mysteriously disappeared as well. The team never found its rhythm again and continued a slow descent into its worst finish since its inaugural season in 2014.
In addition to finishing last in the league on points, the Dash also scored a measly 20 goals, the fewest of all teams, and conceded the second-most goals in the league (42 vs. Seattle Reign’s 44). Goalkeeper Jane Campbell’s heroics were perhaps the only thing saving them from finishing last in that measure as well (39 goals allowed on 42.6 PSxG faced).
The NWSL saw a shift away from parity in 2024 as clubs like the Washington Spirit, Orlando Pride, and Kansas City Current started reaping the benefits of spending far more resources on roster construction and player well-being and development. The Dash so far have been lucky that Jane Campbell seems to be quite committed to the team, because ownership’s otherwise lack of interest in the women’s side of the club has established the team as one that does not care and will not win. Perhaps the 2024 season was the wake-up call Houston needed to start investing and caring in order to shake off their legacy as a perennial bottom-of-the-table team.
Is the Houston Dash becoming a team that cares?
The Dash made quite a splash in early December when they signed the first player to switch clubs through the new model of free agency. Bringing in a standout midfielder in Delanie Sheehan was the first indication that the Dash ownership are finally interested in winning. Other notable pickups in the offseason include USWNT forward/midfielder Yazmeen Ryan, and 2023 Rookie of the Year finalist Messiah Bright, and 2024 NWSL champion Evelina Duljan. The total of $500,000 (a combination of intra-league transfer funds and allocation money) that the team spent to acquire Ryan and Bright alone was more than the team had spent in trades in the previous two offseasons combined. The Dash’s main weaknesses in 2024 were an aging midfield and an inability to score goals. The way their offseason very precisely addressed these issues with exciting signings indicates a shift in ownership’s mentality towards the team. We’ve heard in a few places at ASA that the Dash have made a more concerted effort to incorporate analytics into their process for 2025.
Wanted: Youth in the midfield
The Dash midfield took many different forms in 2024 to limited success, and by the end of the season was experimenting with 36-year-old Sophie Schmidt and 32-year-old Sarah Puntigam playing a double pivot. Delanie Sheehan is a huge pick up for a team that desperately needed some youth and stability in the midfield.
Sheehan is a true progressive-minded 8, and what this graph doesn’t show is her sheer physical strength. She is an absolute workhorse in the midfield who excels at winning the ball for her team. Dash ranked second-to-last in average possession last year, so having a player who has proven her ability to win the ball back will help the team concede fewer goals. Sheehan also promises to contribute to the team’s attack via her forward progression. Sheehan’s strengths also serve as a nice complement to the Dash’s most likely starting 6, Sophie Schmidt.
Needed: Goals
Perhaps the most notable pickup for the Dash this offseason was Sheehan’s former Gotham FC teammate Yazmeen Ryan. After Midge Purce picked up a season-ending injury in Gotham’s first match of the 2024 season, Ryan stepped up as the starting right-winger for the team and has shown herself to be incredibly productive. While she is exceptional on the right-wing, her strength also lies in her versatility: she can also play in midfield as both a box-to-box type and a more traditional attacking midfielder. This could complement the fluidity of a team that already has strong utility players in the likes of Michelle Alozie and Avery Patterson. Keep an eye on Ryan inverting from wide areas, and Alozie or Patterson getting around on the overlap to impact the final third.
Yazmeen Ryan is especially proficient in chance creation—among 2024 NWSL attacking midfielders and wingers, she ranked in the 83rd percentile for shot-creating actions and in the 88th percentile for goal-creating actions. In contrast, the Houston Dash finished second-to-last in both measures last season. Ryan is a skilled dribbler who can attack at pace, leaving defenders on their back foot. She is particularly good at creating chances for others by setting up pockets of space for other players to play into. On paper, she and Messiah Bright will combine for a lethal attack.
Will the real Messiah Bright please stand up?
Messiah Bright did not have the season expected of her after her 2023 ROTY-nominated campaign, but in her defense, she was playing on what can kindly be described as a bad team. Perhaps more alarmingly, she just couldn’t get on the field. 21 appearances with only seven starts, and fewer than 700 minutes.
2023 Messiah Bright was efficient, ranking in the 93rd percentile for goals per shot on target. She is particularly good at taking defenders on, ranking in the 88th percentile for GCA and SCA from take-ons among forwards. 2023 Bright’s statistics justify her rookie of the year nomination in the categories that count for a striker, namely shooting, box activity, and goals added. 2024 Messiah Bright? Just not that. If the Dash are to turn around an abysmal 2024 attack, they’ll be hoping for the 2023 version of Bright to make an appearance in Houston.
The Houston Dash generally preferred to play with two strikers last year, and alongside a Bright revival, they’ll be hoping for similar from Diana Ordóñez. 2024 Ordóñez was one of the least productive strikers in the league in most measures, really her entire Houston tenure. If Houston provides the right resources for a resurgence of the Messiah Bright we saw in 2023, a 4-4-2 with Bright and Ordóñez up top could see a similar return to her 2022 season, where only one world record transfer fee Naomi Girma kept her off the Rookie of the Year award. Playing alongside players like Yazmeen Ryan (who had 5 assists off of 4.7 xAG last year) and Bárbara Olivieri (who ranked in the 94th percentile among forwards for crosses into the penalty area in 2024), both Bright and Ordóñez will have great options to combine with to score goals.
The rest of the offseason
Dash’s other offseason signings are goalkeeper Abby Smith, ACC Midfielder of the Year Maggie Graham, recent NWSL champion Evelina Duljan, and former San Diego teammates Danny Colaprico and Christen Westphal. Smith had an excellent 2023 season before picking up a season-ending injury that ran into late 2024 and is the likely back up goalkeeper for the team this season. Duljan played less than 200 minutes last season and is generally unproven in the NWSL, but can provide depth at the left-wing position. Rookies are always a wild card in the NWSL, but winning ACC Midfielder of the Year is at the very least a good sign of Maggie Graham’s talent. Colaprico should be able to provide good rotation in the 6 position with Sophie Schmidt, and Westphal is the likely starting left back this season, if pre-season friendlies are anything to go by.
The Dash have addressed many of their needs in midfield and in attack, but took a huge hit with the loss of Tarciane to Olympique Lyonnais. The consolation here is that Houston got a decent chunk of change for the transfer but so far Houston has not signed a comparable replacement. As a defender, Tarciane’s impact was clear (see: #3-ranked Gotham not able to score a game-winner until 5 minutes after Tarciane is subbed off in September), and although Houston Dash has a decent back line, they will certainly be missing a CB1 on their depth chart.
Looking forward
The Houston Dash have made a lot of promising moves this offseason, and ownership has indicated that they are finally taking this team seriously. They have done an excellent job of setting up their midfield and forward line for success. By adding exciting rising stars like Yazmeen Ryan and Delanie Sheehan, while retaining solid talent like Bárbara Olivieri and Avery Patterson, the Dash really elevated their ceiling for the 2025 season; for one of the first times in their history as a team, they are likely to make the playoffs. However, several factors will impact just how much they will rise in the ranks. Will the defense continue to pose problems for other teams without Tarciane? Will the team see 2023 or 2024 Messiah Bright, or perhaps an even better 2025 version? What will Fabrice Gautrat’s first head coaching stint translate to? After a rough 2024 season, the Dash has made the investments needed to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself, and that is a huge win in itself. How these uncertainties play out will determine whether Houston will be cruising or sneaking into the playoffs.
Can Lynn Biyendolo do it again? Seattle Reign 2025 Season Preview
By ASA Staff
In January 2023, Biyendolo (then Lynn Williams) was acquired by Gotham FC in a draft day trade with the Kansas City Current. Gotham, who had finished last in the NWSL the previous season, was willing to part ways with the No. 2 overall pick in that year’s draft for Biyendolo’s services.
Passing on taking a highly-touted prospect in Michelle Cooper with that pick was something of a gamble – and it paid off in a serious way. Gotham turned a moribund 2022 campaign into a 2023 that ended in an NWSL championship, with Biyendolo leading the team in goals. Biyendolo only started 10 games for the club in 2024 – she spent much of the summer with the USWNT at the Olympics – but still found time to become the NWSL’s all-time leading scorer.
And now she’s back at square one. This offseason Biyendolo made her way to Seattle (along with goalkeeper Cassie Miller), tasking the veteran forward with once again rejuvenating a bottom-of-the-table squad.
The buck stops here (in net):
Biyendolo isn’t the only piece of the trade that will play a role in the club’s attempt to reverse their fortunes from last year. Last season, no NWSL club conceded more goals in league play than the Reign. However, Seattle’s xG allowed was… midtable level? The Reign finished eighth in the league in xGA, according to FBref.
So was Seattle just getting unlucky, or was it a goalkeeping problem leading to this underperformance? It’s probably somewhere in the middle. The Reign opted to refresh their goalkeeping room by keeping Claudia Dickey – who made 18 starts last season in her first year as a No. 1 – and letting Laurel Ivory walk. Enter Miller as the likely new deputy, who has a proven resume as a solid No. 2 with both the Kansas City Current and Gotham. Seattle will hope for similar reliability behind Dickey, but can perhaps Miller be something more? She’s been more than just a standard backup previously, starting 15 games for the Chicago Red Stars in her first NWSL season and 10 for the Current two years ago. Reign got similar production out of their back up in Laurel Ivory last year, with somewhat better post shot xG numbers in many fewer minutes.
But development from the 25-year-old Dickey is the more likely bet that Seattle is making here. She certainly has the pre-professional pedigree, as the first goalkeeper taken in her NWSL draft class. And the former North Carolina standout clearly has believers outside of the Lumen Field confines – she was one of four goalkeepers called in by Emma Hayes this past January to a USWNT training camp. The question is whether her solid-but-unspectacular 2024 campaign will be the norm for Dickey, or instead a jumping off point for a young ‘keeper gaining ever-so-valuable experience as a starter. If the answer to that question is the latter, it’s not hard to start putting together the case for Seattle making a pretty sizable step forward this season.
Back to Biyendolo:
At risk of putting too much on one player, it’s hard to build much of a serious bull case for the Reign this season without expecting some serious yeowoman’s work from the veteran forward.
There is, of course, precedent for this. Take a look this metrics wheel comparing Gotham before and after Biyendolo’s arrival:
Now, it’s important to note that these graphics also show that Gotham improved basically everywhere else between 2022 and 2023 -- that wasn’t all because Biyendolo showed up. A number of other critical changes occurred that offseason, including a new manager in Juan Carlos Amoros taking charge and a general roster refresh.
But check out that leap in Open Play NPxG. Or that massive jump in final third tackles. That is where Biyendolo specifically helped revitalize Gotham’s attack. Movement is a large part of what makes Biyendolo such an excellent forward -- not only is she great at finding space in a backline and getting shots off, but she’s a pressing menace who is constantly putting pressure on opposing backlines. In the right system, attacking third pressure can be a tremendous means of forcing mistakes and as such generating both cheap and high-value chances.
The exciting news for Reign fans? Few managers have the track record with pressing forwards that Laura Harvey does. Biyendolo adding immediate value to the Reign’s pressing structure is all but a given. What might be even important, though, is if her presence as a running mate can help rejuvenate the attackers around her. Jordyn Huitema, for instance, saw her production dip slightly last season after a 5 goal campaign in her first year as a full-time starter in 2023 -- could working alongside a player of Williams’ pedigree be a catalyst for the 23-year-old’s game making a leap? Plenty more far-fetched things have occurred.
Other odds, ends, and observations from the offseason:
Seattle didn’t do a ton else other than the Biyendolo/Miller trade this offseason in terms of tweaking their roster, but they did make an intriguing under-the-radar add in Madison Curry. Curry entered the NWSL as an interesting prospect -- her underlying numbers in college popped in a major way, but some questions existed about the quality of game-in-game-out opponents she faced at Princeton. Angel City drafted her with the 51st pick in the final NWSL Draft, and she quickly emerged as one of the draft’s most productive late-round players.
All told, Curry led Angel City in duels won, tackles won, and interceptions while totalling just under 1,600 minutes of pitch time in league play. G+ graded her as the fourth best player on the team last year, the 11th best fullback in the league, and had her atop Angel City’s leaderboard in the metric’s “interrupting” category. Pretty good rookie year!
Granted, Angel City’s defense was only one spot above the Reign’s league-worst goals conceded total last season, and it was outright worse in terms of expected goals allowed. But any time you can snag a player who posted a season like Curry did in her rookie year in free agency, it’s probably a pretty dang deal.
Other than Biyendolo, Miller, Curry, and a pair of college signings, though, Seattle will head into 2025 with a roster largely kept intact from last season. 22 of the 27 players on the team’s 2025 preseason roster were with the team last season, not including non-roster invitees. That’s some serious continuity. We’ll see what the on-field product looks like, but it’s all but a guarantee that the Reign will not have much of a chemistry struggle in 2025. Which brings us to…
A two-pronged final verdict:
Call it fence sitting. Call it excessive pragmatism. But this preview will be offering both an optimist and pessimistic prognosis for the Reign’s season. Because, frankly, both of the following paths feel more than attainable.
A pessimist’s prediction:
Biyendolo is great, but she also turns 32 in May. It’s not likely, but a decline is all but inevitable at some point in the next few years. However small the odds that it happens this season, that’s not a risk you usually want to have attached to your crucial new offseason addition. And even if Biyendolo hits, what happens if goals continue to leak at the other end of the pitch? It feels like a stretch to assume Seattle’s problems at both ends of the field will be solved by one addition up front and betting on continuity and improvement to the mean at the back.
An optimist’s prediction:
Harvey is one of the most high-floor coaches in the NWSL -- last season and the Reign’s expansion campaign are the only times in Harvey’s extensive NWSL coaching career that one of her teams finished with fewer than 30 points. She’s earned the benefit of the doubt. Combine that with the arrival of a league legend that recently spearheaded a rapid turnaround at another club and is a theoretical perfect Harvey forward? And a goals allowed record that improves to match the underlying numbers? A lot needs to go right, but there’s a fringe playoff contender at the end of this path.