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Kansas City and Seattle look to keep their streaks alive, Hope Solo’s possible return and the Houston Dash finally gets to play a game again.
After a week in which the Seattle Reign were in the news for all the wrong reasons, the NWSL's top team returns home to take on Sky Blue with a chance to bring the perfect season streak to fourteen games. But beyond that, Seattle can keep the gap between it and second place, also-hot Kansas City at a comfortable eight points. Kansas City will take on perpetual freezer-oven combination Portland for the second time this season, with the Thorns looking to recover from a midweek loss to Sky Blue FC. And in Houston, the Dash return from wherever they've been for the past two weeks to face a Washington side that was last seen flattened on the side of the road after being rolled over by a truck with Alex Morgan and Christine Sinclair's faces painted on the side.
FC Kansas City vs. Portland Thorns FC
Verizon Wireless Field Durwood Stadium, Saturday 8:00 PM ET
Portland's up-and-down season continued Wednesday with a 2-1 loss to Sky Blue FC, and now the Thorns hit the road to take on the hottest team in NWSL that's not Seattle. FC Kansas City, now unbeaten in seven, is just eight points behind the Reign for the top spot. A win on Saturday would not only pull the Blues at least temporarily within five of the league-leaders - the closest anyone's been in a long, long time - but would also put a ten point gap between them and both the Thorns and idle Chicago Red Stars.
All this of course depends on which Portland shows up in Kansas City. There's the one that ran over Washington a week ago, setting a record for goals scored in a game with six, and tying Western NY for the largest margin of victory in league history, but there's also the one that was on the other end of that big Western NY win and that also lost to Sky Blue midweek. Scoring - despite that 6-1 win - remains a problem for Portland. On Wednesday the Thorns had plenty of chances, but failed to capitalize, and combined with a few defensive lapses and one seemingly harmless midfield giveaway, it ended up costing them a chance at third on the table. And that was against a team that doesn't even have anyone who's particularly good at scoring goals. The same kind of stuff against a team that includes Amy Rodriguez and Lauren Holiday could make for another ugly outing for the once-mighty Thorns. Portland won the one previous meeting between the two teams, 3-1, back on April 26th.
Houston Dash vs. Washington Spirit
BBVA Compass Stadium, Saturday 9:00 PM ET
If it feels like forever since Houston played a game, it's because it basically has been. After two weeks of throwback pre-Houston NWSL - except for that whole Seattle being in first place thing - the long-idle Dash are finally back in action Saturday. Houston has been locked in a three-team fight with Sky Blue and Boston all season to not be the worst, and the eighth place Dash will have another chance to at least temporarily pull ahead of both of those teams, again. Of course, Houston will have to go through Washington to get there, and the one previous meeting between the Dash and Spirit was a heartbreaker for the expansion club, with Christine Nairn netting the game-winner for D.C. in stoppage time, goal-of-the-year style.
That was against a Washington riding a relative high though. The one the Dash will play on Saturday? The Spirit really took that whole throwback thing to heart. Washington has lost three straight, once to Boston and twice to Portland, by a combined score of 10-1. Washington is still awaiting the debut of German midfielder Kerstin Garefrekes, but did get 45 minutes from the also-recently acquired Lisa De Vanna last week. De Vanna's speed in particular could cause trouble for the Dash depending on what defensive configuration Randy Waldrum rolls out on Saturday. Houston has now had Meghan Klingenberg and Whitney Engen for nearly a month, but with both missing time for USWNT duty and two full weeks without a proper game, just how well they'll fit in remains something of a mystery.
Seattle Reign FC vs. Sky Blue FC
Moda Pitch Memorial Stadium, Saturday 9:00 PM ET
The Reign broke its weeklong silence on the Hope Solo situation on Thursday, posting a message on Facebook laying out the club's innocent-until-proven-guilty position regarding the goalkeeper's arrest last weekend. The Reign say Solo has been training with the team and will be available for selection against Sky Blue, but does Laura Harvey opt to bring the once-again embattled Solo back into the fold as the Reign try to put this whole thing behind them - at least until Solo's due back in court in August - or stick with Hayley Kopmeyer, who's allowed just one goal through two games in Solo's stead? Thus far, if the thing's been any kind of distraction for the Reign, it hasn't shown on the field. Seattle won, in come from behind fashion no less, last week in Western NY, just a day after learning their starting keeper would be spending the weekend in a Seattle-area jail. And Solo herself is no stranger to playing while also surrounded by some sort of controversy or another.
But with all the hullaballoo surrounding Solo, and whether or not Solo should or shouldn't play or whether she'll be a distraction, could the Reign be sleeping on Sky Blue? The Jersey side topped Portland, for the second time this season, on Wednesday, and if there's anything - or one thing - Sky Blue is actually good at, it's stealing games against opponents they have absolutely no business beating. Yes, Sky Blue has lost, and in particularly ugly fashion, twice to Seattle already this season. But both of those games were at Yurcak Field, where Sky Blue is apparently dealing with some kind of force field situation that prevents them from scoring goals. As much as a team that's only won three times all season can be better at anything, it's definitely road games for Sky Blue. Of their 15 points, nine have come away from home.