Lumen Field | Seattle, Washington – Saturday, May 6 at 10:00 PM ET
Players to watch:
OL Reign attacker Megan Rapinoe scored a penalty for her side’s first goal in its two-goal comeback draw with Louisville on Saturday. Rapinoe has converted 13 of her 14 penalty attempts in NWSL play (all competitions), with the resulting 92.9% conversion rate the highest of any player with eight or more penalty attempts in league history. However, the team is led in scoring by the duo of forward Bethany Balcer and midfielder Jess Fishlock, both of whom have scored three goals on the year, all six of which were scored in the same two games.
Houston forward Ebony Salmon scored both goals in Houston’s 2-1 win at OL Reign last August. In doing so, Salmon became the first visiting player since Crystal Dunn for North Carolina in 2018 to score multiple goals in a road win at the Reign. The Dash have not won in three regular season matches but have relied on the steady play of attacker María Sánchez, who has been the club’s most consistent attacker threat alongside forward Diana Ordóñez.
Match facts: The OL Reign welcome the Houston Dash to Lumen Field on Saturday night to close a four-game afternoon and evening across the league. The Dash, who have won just one of their five games to date, face a trip to play a Reign side that has lost just once in their five games, winning three of the other four to boot.
The Reign have lost only wo of their last 21 regular season home matches (W15 D4) dating back to July 2021, including opening this season with two straight home wins against San Diego (1-0) and Chicago (5-2). Head coach Laura Harvey’s side have opened a regular season with three straight home wins only once, in 2014 (first 4), with the third of those coming against the Dash. After falling to Washington in the opening match of the year, the Reign won their following three games by a combined 8-2 margin. However, in their last time out, a road trip to Louisville resulted in a late equalizer from forward Jordyn Huitema helping to save a point in a 2-2 draw.
Meanwhile, the Dash are unbeaten in five straight road matches (W3 D2), including earning a win and two draws in its first three away from home this year. This run equals the longest road unbeaten run in team history, matching its five-match run from May to June last year. Though they have only won one of five to start the year as well, they were unbeaten in their first four until a 1-0 loss against North Carolina at home in a weather-shortened encounter.
OL Reign have won 16 of their last 21 league meetings with the Houston Dash (D2 L3), though one of Houston’s three victories came in Seattle last August. The Reign’s 76.2 percent win rate over Houston in regular season play is the highest by a team against a single opponent they’ve met at least 10 times in NWSL history.
