NWSL Week 4 preview: 4 stories

Chicago heads into Week 4 as one of just two teams yet to lose this season. The Red Stars have a win and a draw through two games, and finish out a three-game homestand -- and the part of the season where they get to have Christen Press -- hosting a Sky Blue FC side they’ve beaten just once in the entire history of NWSL. In case you were wondering, Sky Blue FC has never beaten the Chicago Red Stars. Because through two seasons and five meetings, Chicago and Sky Blue have managed to not tie exactly once.

Sky Blue will be without Christie Rampone and Kelley O’Hara thanks to USWNT duties, while the Red Stars get to keep Press, Lori Chalupny, Julie Johnston and Shannon Boxx for one more week, because everyone gets their USWNT team players for three games, even if they’re not the same three games. Ah, NWSL. If ever there was a place where they could find a way to simultaneously make the entire stadium hold up little placards that just say PARITY! PARITY! PARITY! while also hiring someone whose only job is to just constantly monitor that word’s Wikipedia page, editing and re-editing the definition, it’s probably here.

The Breakers meanwhile, have managed to dig themselves out of the basement thanks to a win last weekend against Houston. Of course, they’ll be without the injured Cat Whitehill and Maddy Evans.

Saturday also marks the home opener for Western NY, a game the Flash has never won. Western NY played to a 1-1 draw with Portland last season and lost 2-1 to Boston in 2013. But this year’s version features a whole Mewis vs. Mewis thing. That’s fun at least. Right? Anyone?

Houston is coming off a tough loss last weekend in Boston -- a Carli Lloyd own goal the difference as the Dash suffered its first defeat of the season. The game wasn’t the only thing Houston lost though, as Stephanie Ochs suffered an ACL injury 19 minutes into the match.

Houston and Kansas City played each other three times last season, with the Blues running over the then-expansion Dash to the tune of 4-0 in the first meeting. The next two games were closer, a 2-2 draw and a 2-1 FCKC win. Thanks to some strange scheduling in 2014, this is the first meeting between the Dash and FCKC since June of last year.

To find the last time Seattle lost two games in a row, you’ve got to go all the way back to 2013, when the Reign were mired in a battle for the bottom of the table, the whole season one long losing streak. But heading into Week 4, that’s exactly where the Reign find themselves; losers of two straight. Seattle dropped its Week 2 meeting with Chicago and followed it up with another defeat last week in Kansas City -- that one a shutout. For some context: the Reign lost only twice in the entire 2014 regular season, and failed to score in just three matches.

If Laura Harvey’s side is hoping to get back on track, they’ll have to do it against a Washington team that got off to a shaky start in Week 1, but has been firing on all cylinders ever since. The Spirit are winners of two straight and currently sitting in second on the table. They’ve also got Crystal Dunn, who’s emerged as one of the league’s best players, earning Player of the Week honors for her two-goal performance last weekend against Sky Blue.

Seattle and Washington met three times during the regular season in 2014, with the Reign winning two and the third ending in a draw. The two also met in the playoffs, where Seattle escaped with a narrow 2-1 victory.