Following a 2024 season where they finished bottom of the table, there was only one direction for the 2025 Houston Dash to go... up. 

After head coach Fran Alonso went missing part of the way through the 2024 season, Ricky Clarke stepped up as the unofficial interim-head coach, and then once Alonso officially departed, he became the official interim head coach. In December, the Dash front office announced the hiring of Angela Hucles Mangano as the President of Women’s Soccer, and that neither Clarke, nor technical director Pablo Piñones-Arce would be returning for the 2025 season. 

One month later, Fabrice Gautrat was named as the permanent head coach for the 2026 season. 

Throughout the turmoil of the changing front office and technical staff, Houston was fairly active in signing free agents as well as trading for additional players and finished the offseason with eight new players on the roster. The Dash were able to make positive progress compared with 2025, moving up to 10th in the NWSL Table with an additional 3 wins and 1 draw compared to the 2024 season. 

Although the Dash were playing much better football after the summer break, without major moves in the offseason, including some that include current players, between the minimal number of available active roster spots and the changes needed to be more competitive, Houston’s hopes to make it above the playoff line in 2026 may be dashed. 

The Positives

During the 2024-25 offseason, the Dash were able to lock down Avery Patterson to a three-year contract extension through the 2027 season. The defender has been having a breakout year that has her on the shortlist for NWSL Defender of the Year and saw her make her USWNT debut (8 caps, 1 goal).

Maggie Graham was Houston’s first college signing following the new CBA’s removal of the collegiate draft, and following her 3-year contract, she made an immediate impact on the pitch and won Rookie of the Month in March. Although she ended the season on the season-ending injury list following a shoulder injury in September and missed the final six matches.  

Houston’s depth in the goalkeeper position was one of their strengths during the 2025 season with having strong veteran goalkeepers in Jane Campbell and Abby Smith. 

The Negatives

In all of the signing and trades during last offseason, the front office locked players down for longer-term contracts, some of which didn’t even hit 1000 minutes played in 2025. This limits the ability during the current offseason to make as many moves as they likely want. 

The team was also 13th in the league in goals scored (27), and conceded 39 goals, Tied-5th for the most allowed. The other offensive gap is that the 26 goals were really scored by committee with the team’s top goalscorer only having 4 goals and the team having 14 different goalscorers over the season. Scoring by committee isn’t an inherently bad thing as long as the overall number is more than the team is conceding — which the Dash unfortunately isn’t doing.  

Roster Flexibility 

The Dash have 22 players signed through the 2026 season — including the three 2025 season-ending injuries, and two players whose loans don’t end until June of 2026. With a maximum roster size of 26 active players, the Dash will likely need to work to loan out or trade/transfer players in order to be as active as they ought to be in the offseason. 

In terms of international spots, the Dash only have four of their seven being utilized for 2026 leaving them with the opportunity to sign additional players from outside the league. 

Offseason Priorities

The Dash have five free agents heading into the offseason, of which Ryan Gareis and Abby Smith should be the ones for the Dash to keep on their radar for re-signing. However, considering that two of their three 2025 season-ending injuries will likely be back for the start of season, the Dash truly don’t have a lot of open roster spots to sign depth players. 

Regardless, with only two goalkeepers signed for 2026, one of the available spots should be for the third goalkeeper, and then the team should target 3-4 players across the field positions, and use 2-3 short term contracts to add any needed depth. The short-term contracts end dates should overlap with Schmidt’s expected return from her ACL tear and the two loans (Rebeca and Zoe Matthews) returning from Spain in June.