Houston Dash (W)
- Houston have won two and lost three of their last five matches in all competitions.
- Houston set up in a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 and have played with a higher line since Fabrice Gautrat took over on 2 January 2025.
- The Dash's style is to play an aggressive press, sit in a mid-block and wait for turnovers to hit the Royals on the counter.
- Houston have conceded 1.18 goals per home game on average in NWSL 2026 but have scored 1.73 per, so they have created plenty of chances and have been susceptible to goals at home.
Utah Royals (W)
- Utah have won two and lost three of their last five in all competitions.
- Utah, on the other hand, play a 4-3-3 that is built to play the counter attack and get in behind the opposition with direct, vertical attacks.
- Jimmy Coenraets has done a good job since taking over on 3 July 2024, and his Royals have a disciplined, press-on-the-trigger mentality where the whole team is in unison when pressing and then they defend with a compact, disciplined four.
- Utah have won five, drawn three and lost four on the road, so they have had a solid return on their travels, keeping them in the upper reaches of the table.
Head-to-Head
Utah have won the last head-to-head meeting between these two sides 2-0, keeping a clean sheet at home four months ago and they have a better record in the matchup over the past few years with three wins, one defeat and a tie in the five meetings.
Key Players
Mina Tanaka has been the Royals' hot hand, scoring three of Utah's nine goals across the last five games.
Betting Insights
- Under 2.5 goals is 2.27.
- Over 2.5 is 1.55.
- Both teams to score does look liveable at 1.44.
- Utah have conceded 17 times on their travels in NWSL 2026, an average of 1.42 per road game which should give Houston plenty of opportunity to nick the odd goal.
Prediction
- Both teams to score does look liveable at 1.44, but I will be on Utah to just edge this out.
- The away side look the sharper of the two teams on paper and should have too much for Houston, who are a good team but are coming into this after three straight losses.