With single-game tickets on sale next Thursday, February 6 (watch this space), AngelCity.com is reviewing some key home matchups you won’t want to miss. This week, we look at three teams whose disappointing finishes last year led them to make big moves in the offseason: Houston Dash, Utah Royals, and Seattle Reign.
Seattle Reign FC: Sunday, March 30, 5:00 p.m.
One of the NWSL’s original eight teams, Seattle Reign had their worst finish since the league’s inaugural 2013 season last year, placing 13th out of 14 teams and allowing a worst-in-the-league 44 goals.
Last year was something of a surprise for the Reign, who have made the playoffs in all but three other seasons. Their poor defensive record in 2024 is especially striking, as the team has only allowed more than 25 goals in a season in three other years. Contributing to their defensive woes, Reign’s back line also lost two experienced players, Sofia Huerta and Alana Cook, midway through the season.
This offseason, Head Coach Laura Harvey brought in two new players to help address the team’s defensive woes. One is Emily Mason, a rookie out of Rutgers who, as a first-year starter, helped her team reach the NCAA tournament semifinal, their best finish ever. The other is former Angel City standout Madison Curry, who, after becoming the only one of the team’s 2024 draft picks to earn a contract, quietly had an excellent rookie season, landing in the top 10 leaguewide for interceptions and tackles won.
The team’s headline signing, though, is Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams), who comes to Seattle via trade with Gotham. Biyendolo is the league’s all-time second-most prolific scorer after Chelsea superstar Sam Kerr, with 68 regular-season goals in her 10 years in the league, and a four-time NWSL champion and three-time Shield winner. Alongside rookie Maddie Dahlien, a 2024 NCAA champion with UNC who appeared at the USWNT’s recent Futures camp, Harvey will look to Biyendolo to restore the offensive punch the team lost in parting ways with former top scorer Bethany Balcer last year.
Angel City have had a mixed record against Seattle, recording a win and a loss against them last season. This game will be an early chance to see how ACFC stacks up against a historically evenly matched opponent.
Utah Royals: Friday, May 9, 7:30 p.m.
A rocky first year back in the league (the Royals initially joined the NWSL in 2018, ceased operations in 2020, and were resurrected by Real Salt Lake ownership before the 2024 season) saw Utah go 2–11–2 (W–L–D) to start the season before parting ways with Head Coach Amy Rodriguez. Assistant Coach Jimmy Coenraets stepped in as interim, ultimately leading the team to a 5–4–2 record in the last 11 games of 2024.
The club’s offseason started, in a sense, just before the season wrapped up as in late October, Coenraets was promoted from interim to permanent head coach. Before his time at Utah, the Belgian spent four seasons at OH Leuven, taking them from the bottom of the table to three consecutive second-place finishes in the Belgian top flight.
Coenraets has been busy in the offseason, bringing in a mix of established NWSL and international players and promising young talent from the US and abroad.
Defenders Tatumn Milazzo and Alex Loera come to Utah from Chicago and Bay FC, respectively, helping to shore up a defense that conceded 40 goals in 2024. Also joining the defensive corps is Colombian international Ana María Guzmán, a 19-year-old who helped her country make it to the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Cup, their best finish ever in the tournament.
The club’s other signings so far aim to address the flip side of their -18 goal differential. Forward Aisha Solórzano is a 26-year-old Guatemala international who was most recently a standout for Tijuana in Liga MX Femenil, scoring 16 goals in her 16 appearances with the team. Finally, Utah is looking to the future with 15-year-old KK Ream, a forward who spent time in Real Salt Lake’s academy system while she lived in Arizona. Like Angel City’s Alyssa and Gisele Thompson, Ream has played on boys’ clubs, both in ECNL and MLS Next, as well as having played with girls in older age groups. In 2025, she helped the US to a U-15 CONCACAF championship win.
With a winning half-season under their belt under Coenraets and a list of promising new signings, the Royals look set to pose a new challenge for Angel City in 2025.
Houston Dash: Sunday, October 12, 5:00 p.m.
Of the three teams discussed here, Houston has made the most changes on both the player and staff sides. The Dash are looking to bounce back from their worst season ever in 2024, which they finished in last place with just 20 goals.
After parting ways with manager Fran Alonso in October of last year, one of the first orders of business for the Dash was to build out their staff. Former Angel City general manager Angela Hucles Mangano was named president of women’s soccer in December, who led a coaching search that ended with the club hiring former Chicago and North Carolina assistant Fabrice Gautrat.
The club has brought in six new players, the first of whom, midfielder Delanie Sheehan, was signed shortly before Hucles Mangano’s hiring. Sheehan, an attacking mid, was previously with NJ/NY Gotham, where she was an important part of that team’s 2023 championship run, including scoring the game-winner in their opening-round playoff game against the Courage.
Sheehan was just the first addition to a Houston midfield in need of a remodel. In the weeks that followed, the club also added rookie Maggie Graham out of Duke, signed former Wave midfielder Danny Colaprico out of free agency, and traded with Gotham for Yazmeen Ryan. All four will be strong additions in creating opportunities for forwards like Diana Ordóñez and Michelle Alozie, who are proven scoring threats—in addition to Messiah Bright, who recently made the move from Angel City to be closer to her native Dallas.
On the back line, Houston added league veteran Christen Westphal; goalkeeper Abby Smith also joins the team, likely as a strong no. 2 to Jane Campbell.
All in all, the Dash have filled major gaps in their roster and look poised to improve over their disappointing 2024 showing.
Be there to see how Angel City stacks up against all three teams by buying single-game tickets when they go on sale here next Thursday.
