Shell Energy Stadium | Houston, Texas – Saturday, August 19 at 8:30 PM ET
Players to watch:
With three goals and four assists already this season, Houston attacker María Sánchez has been involved in half of the Dash’s 14 goals in all competitions thus far. Likely related, Houston has lost only one of the seven matches in which she has been involved in a goal in 2023 (W4 D2).
Washington forward Ashley Hatch has scored 10 goals in all competitions this NWSL season, equaling Portland forward Sophia Smith for the most in the league in 2023. A league-high seven of those goals have been scored on the road, as she’s scored at least once at six of the other 11 teams in the league this year.
Match facts: Regular season play resumes for the first time in over a month as the Houston Dash host the Washington Spirit at Shell Energy Stadium on Saturday night, the third of six games across the league this weekend. The Dash are currently in 9th place with 18 points from 15 games, while Washington sit in 5th place with 24 points from 15 games played.
After winning three of four matches in May to early June, Houston have hit a bit of a rough patch and are winless in their last five regular season games (D3 L2). This is the Dash’s longest regular season winless run within a single season in four years, since a seven game drought (D3 L4) in May to July 2019.
Meanwhile, the Spirit have lost a league-low three times during the 2023 regular season (W6 D6), though two of those defeats came in their last three games (D1). This is the second time the Spirit have just three losses after 15 matches, also doing so in 2016, when they reached the NWSL Championship game.
The Dash haven’t lost any of their last six home matches against the Spirit (W3 D3), though all three meetings in Texas since 2019 have ended in draws. This equals Houston’s longest regular season home unbeaten run against any opponent in the club’s NWSL history (6 vs. Orlando from 2018 to present).
