By Lesley Ryder
The Chicago Stars dropped their home opener 2-1 to the revamped Houston Dash on a blustery, rainy Sunday afternoon.
The match began with a promising press from the Stars, seemingly catching the Dash off guard. Shea Groom’s pestering presence earned an early yellow card off former Red Star Danny Colaprico.
Sam Staab started her first match since tearing her achilles, bringing leadership and organization to the backline.
Jameese Joseph scored the first goal of the Stars 2025 campaign. Bea Franklin sent a long ball that Joseph won the ball off of defender Paige Nielsen, and kept her at bay long enough to put a shot to the left of Jane Campbell.
The lead did not last long. Moments later, the Dash won a corner kick, and Nielsen booted a ricocheted ball past Alyssa Naeher.
The pitch quality deteriorated over the match, notably with Jane Campbell slipping on a patch of grass in front of the south goal with the ball in sight. By halftime, the score remained level.
In the second half, the Dash continued to prod the Chicago defense. A series of substitutions for the Dash seemed to energize the squad. A nifty pass from Evelina Duljan to Yasmeen Ryan sent the ball to the final third. Ryan sent the ball back to Duljan, who passed it to Delanie Sheehan, breaking past the Chicago line. Sheehan drew three defenders and slotted the ball to a wide open Maggie Graham, scoring her second goal in as many matches.
Maitane made her Stars debut, and Manaka Hayashi and Micayla Johnson made their home debuts. The trio of substitutions pushed back on the Dash, with Manaka weaving passes through the Houston defense, and Johnson fearlessly lacing shots from outside the 18-yard box.
But the substitutions couldn’t outrun the clock. At full time, the Stars lost their second match of the season 2-1.
The Houston Dash played like a team reborn from the ashes of their last-place finish in 2024. At times they looked like a team still getting to know each other, but the bones of a contender are there. Former rookie of the year finalist Messiah Bright earned an assist, and made clever runs through the Chicago backline. Maggie Graham has become a spark plug for this squad early in the season, providing near-instant goals off the bench for the Dash.
For the Stars, the rebuild appears to be at a standstill. Wayward passes went out of bounds, and defensively, the Stars lost track of Dash players in dangerous spots.
“We need to be tougher,” said head coach Lorne Donaldson after the match. “We need to be a little more determined to hold on to a lead. We made some silly mistakes, and give them some credit, they found a way to score.”
The Stars weren’t about to blame their loss on the rain. “I think we have to be ready for any environment,” said defender Bea Franklin. “I feel like the rain will honestly help the ball move faster,” Joseph added.
“We have to get that winning mentality back into us,” Donaldson asserted.” I think we lost a little bit of our bite, and we have to get that back.”
Monday March 24th marks the final day of the primary transfer window, and is the last day for teams to acquire new players through the transfer market until July 1st.