2015 NWSL season preview: Looking at all the teams before Friday’s kickoff

Head Coach: Randy Waldrum, second season.

Houston, we still have a problem: Erin McLeod didn’t have a great first season in Houston, but it wasn’t entirely her fault. The Dash defense wasn’t great, and its luck was even worse. The Dash started the season without Meghan Klingenberg and Whitney Engen, both finishing out Champions League commitments in Sweden, and Lauren Sesselmann, who injured her ACL in a training camp with Canada. That left Houston with a cobbled together back line that could never totally get its act together. A season later, Klingenberg is in the USWNT picture, Engen was traded back to Western NY and while Sesselmann is back training, she’s also a Canadian international. That leaves a pair of former Washington Spirit defenders in Niki Cross and the returning Stephanie Ochs, and Canadian international and NWSL newcomer Allysha Chapman.

Head coach: Mark Parsons, third season

Where we left off: The Spirit finished the regular season with a 10-9-5 record, good for fourth on the table and the final playoff spot, a season after finishing dead last. Washington couldn’t finish the worst-to-first run though, knocked out in the semifinals by top seed and eventual championship match loser Seattle.

Head coach: Aaran Lines, third season

New: Coming off a stellar rookie season in 2013, 2014 was supposed to be the year that Adriana Franch cemented her place as one of NWSL’s top keepers. Instead, Franch suffered a season-ending injury before the season even started, and never played a single minute in 2014. Enter Kelsey Wys and Lydia Williams, who split time in-net a season ago in Franch’s stead. Neither had particularly great seasons, and neither will be back for a second try this year. Franch now plays in Norway. Instead, Western NY has tapped former Washington backup Chantel Jones and third-round draft pick Sabrina D’Angelo. Jones made five appearances in Washington in 2014 -- four losses and a draw -- and allowed 12 goals.

Head coach: Jim Gabarra, third season

Let the Jenni Branam tribute commence!: Somehow Sky Blue has always looked more comfortable with a keeper who’s not afraid to take a little mid-game constitutional among the grasses and pretty white painted lines. Brittany Cameron doesn’t have quite the adventuring spirit that Jenni “Ferdinand Magellan” Branam did, but she’s way closer to it than Jill Loyden was. Last season, with Loyden and her more stay-at-home style back in the starting lineup, the Jersey defense never looked totally comfortable or confident the way they had in front of Cameron in 2013. Now, Loyden has retired, leaving Cameron to fire up the old Branam nostalgia machine full-time. Except ...

Head coach: Laura Harvey, third season, did not make a trade on Thursday.

Solid: Defensively, Seattle was the stingiest team in the league. They not only allowed an NWSL-low 20 goals in 2014, but just 198 shots total. That’s at least 44 less than any other team (Kansas City was next with 242 shots allowed). The Reign’s entire defensive corps returns for 2015, with the exception of Kate Deines who was traded to Kansas City in November, but decided to retire anyway so you win again Laura Harvey, and Amanda Frisbie, who was traded to Western NY but never played in 2014 due to injury anyway, so...

Head Coach: Rory Dames, third season.

Where have all the goalkeepers gone?: Chicago allowed just 26 goals in 2014, worse than only than the league-leading Reign. Karina LeBlanc carried most of the goalkeeping load for Chicago, appearing 21 times, with Taylor Vancil working as her backup. Fast forward to this season; LeBlanc will miss some time as a part of the Canada WNT, and Vancil announced her retirement in early March. The Red Stars did pick up a pair of NWSL newcomers in Michele Dalton and Monica Gonyo, and one of them is going to have some big shoes to fill in LeBlanc’s absence.

Head Coach: Vlatko Andonovski, third season.

Staying home: While it’s still possible we could see Nicole Barnhart in the red, white and blue again, the long time USWNT keeper seems to have fallen out of favor with Jill Ellis. Ellis has opted to bring Ashlyn Harris and Alyssa Naeher into the last few camps as backups to Hope Solo, leaving Barnhart with plenty of time to backstop FCKC full-time. That’s good news for the Blues in a season where they’ll be doing the revolving door thing pretty much everywhere else on the field.

Head coach: Paul Riley, second season.

Hey! We still have a German: Nadine Angerer coming to Portland a season ago was a big deal, and not just for the Thorns. For the league as a whole, Germans had long been some magical out-of-reach thing, unattainable to an American league. Enter Angerer, 2013 FIFA World Player of the Year and Germany’s captain and no. 1 keeper. In her first season in NWSL, Angerer made 22 appearances -- all starts -- earning four clean sheets and one red card. She’ll be back for a second season under Riley, as will Angerer’s backup from a year ago, Michelle Betos. Betos made two starts and three appearances in 2014, but will likely see some significant time this season with Angerer away with the German WNT.