Match preview: Seattle Reign vs. Houston Dash

June Ash Eden -

On the heels of beating the league's best team in a physical and tightly contested match, the Reign return to action, hosting the visiting Houston Dash on Sunday at Lumen Field. The match kicks off at 5 PM Pacific and will air on NWSL+, Paramount+ and FOX 13+.

After finishing in 13th and 14th place last year, separated by just a single win, both the Reign and the Dash made big changes and looked to make a statement in 2025. So far, the Dash have been in many ways the better side on paper, but the Reign's on-field results have them in 8th place with the chance to jump as high as 4th, while the Dash once again find themselves near the bottom of the league. For the Reign, the match is an opportunity to climb the standings and prove that the scrappy wins aren't a flash in the pan, while the Dash will be looking to unlock their talented offseason acquisitions and start the middle third of the season on a stronger footing.

Historically, whether at Lumen Field, Cheney Stadium, or Memorial Stadium, Seattle has been an unkind trip to the Dash, with the visitors managing just one win in 13 visits to the Northwest, but this is a new era for both teams, with Houston bringing in 10 new players in the offseason, and the Reign fielding an extremely young team and often learning on the fly.

"I think right now we're just focusing on doing our best this season," Reign centerback Jordyn Bugg said in the pre-match press conference. "We've gotten so many new players, that we've focused on growing as a group. [...] Just getting comfortable together, and knowing that we can only go up from here."

Meanwhile, Laura Harvey saw some similarities between the Reign and the Dash, and called out that Houston has quality not yet reflected in the standings.

"They move the ball well, they keep possession a lot more than they were, I think similar to us, their main aim is to create and score more goal-scoring opportunities. [...] I think maybe the results don't reflect some of their performances, to be fair. I think they'll be a tough opponent."

Head-to-Head

  • The Reign are 18-5-4 all time against the Dash, including a 10-1-2 home record.
  • The Reign have scored 49 goals against the Dash while conceding 20.

Recent results

  • The Dash sit in 12th place with a 2-4-1 record this season and have scored 6 goals while conceding 10. In their last match, they hosted Racing Louisville, losing 2-1, and they've won just once in their last five outings.
  • The Reign are 3-2-2 on the season. They're currently riding a three game undefeated streak and defeated the visiting Kansas City Current 1-0 in their last match.

2024 results

  • The Dash ended 2024 in 14th place with a 5-16-5 record, scoring 20 goals and conceding 42.
  • The Reign ended in 13th place with a 6-15-5 record.
  • Neither team made the playoffs last season.

Offseason moves

  • Through free agency, trades, and transfers, the Dash have added 10 new players to the roster.
  • Forward Messiah Bright joined the Dash after a tough year at Angel City where she was often dangerous but struggled for minutes and never quite found the finishing touch she showed as a rookie.
  • Rookie midfielder Maggie Graham joined the Dash from Duke. She already looks like a bit of a menace and leads the team in scoring, with 2 goals in 507 minutes played.
  • Midfielder Yazmeen Ryan joined the Dash from Gotham, where she played for two years, including a breakout 5 goal, 5 assist campaign in 2024.
  • Midfielder Delanie Sheehan also jumped from Gotham to Houston and has been one of the primary drivers of the Dash's possession and offense so far.
  • Other additions include forward Evelina Duljan, midfielders Danielle Colaprico and Rebeca, goalkeeper Liz Beardley, and former Reign fullback Christen Westphal. Stalwart central defender Katie Lind also returns to the Dash after missing the 2024 season while on maternity leave.

Dash players to watch

Yazmeen Ryan: A known quantity, Ryan was one of the most dangerous midfielders in the league last year, amongst NWSL's leaders in key passes, completed passes into the penalty area, progressive carries, expected assisted goals, and goal-creating actions. So far in 2025, she hasn't had as much luck with the final product, but her quality of play maintains the bite, and she leads the entire field in xAG. She provides an incisiveness that last year's Dash often lacked and can quickly swing a game with her passing and skill on the ball.

Maggie Graham: The NWSL rookie of the month for March, Graham announced her arrival by scoring in her first two professional matches. Tall, quick, strong in the air, and strong defending one-on-one, Graham provides a number of key attributes for a Dash side under reconstruction. While not a particularly high-volume passer, she can break lines when given the opportunity, and has continued to look dangerous as she grows into her role as an NWSL starter.

Messiah Bright: After a very bright (natch) rookie season, Messiah Bright struggled in her sophomore year, playing inconsistent minutes through nagging injuries and never finding her finishing touch despite the comparatively fairly high quality of her chances. Now with her third team in her third professional season, Bright hasn't had a lot of luck with Houston so far, but she remains technically gifted and aerially dominant. If the Dash can find a way to consistently unlock her and help her translate her skills, she could still become the player she looked like in her first campaign.

What to watch

Finding an identity: The Dash are a new-look team, making big, sweeping changes to the roster over the off season and, on paper, they have a lot of upside. So far this season, they haven't really been able to unlock the talent they've brought in and they have experimented with a number of different shapes and lineups in pursuit of elusive results. New head coach Fabrice Gautrat, previously an assistant coach for the Courage, is still figuring out the roster and how to get strong performances – and most importantly, wins – out of it.

In search of fortune and finishing: On paper, the Dash are a better team than their results – they are good in possession, they create (marginally) better chances than they concede, and while they don't take many shots, the chances they do create tend to be better than average. In practice, this hasn't amounted to goals or wins, and while they've consistently been able to create one big chance in a match, they haven't consistently found a goal from it, and they haven't consistently found second and third bites on the chances they create. While they can find the one big chance, the xDAWG remains lacking.

This is not the chart you'd expect of a team teasing the bottom of the league standings. And yet, there it is:

Injury / Availability Report

Seattle Reign

OUT: Ryanne Brown (SEI – knee), Jess Fishlock (leg), Veronica Latsko (SEI – lower leg), Cassie Miller (leg), Nérilia Mondesir (leg)

Houston Dash

OUT: Ramona Bachmann (parental leave), Allysha Chapman (D45 – wrist), Diana Ordóñez (excused absence)

How to watch

The Reign will face the Houston Dash on Sunday, May 11th, at Lumen Field. The match will air on Paramount+ and NWSL+ globally, along with a local broadcast on FOX 13+ and local streaming on the Fox Local app.