Houston Dash head coach James Clarkson was surprised when midfielder Gabby Kessler (formerly Seiler) announced her retirement on Monday.

In a media call Tuesday, as teams opened preseason across the NWSL, Clarkson described the situation as “out of the blue.”

“My head is still spinning to be honest,” he said. “Shocked but can only wish her the best. I hope she’s happy and has a really successful life past soccer.”

The loss of Kessler, who joined the Dash in a trade from the Portland Thorns before the 2021 season, adds to the stinging absence of U.S. women’s national team center midfielder Kristie Mewis. The 30-year-old was selected by San Diego Wave FC in the 2022 expansion draft in December and then immediately traded to NJ/NY Gotham FC.

Evidently, the Dash need to rebuild their midfield, and Clarkson has his hopes set on recent signings María Sánchez and Marisa Viggiano filling that role.

“Bringing in some of the players that we have brought in ideally gives us a different feel, a different look,” he said.

Having previously spent a month with Houston on loan in June 2021, Sánchez signed a two-year deal with the Dash earlier in January. She arrived from UANL Tigres in Liga MX Femenil, where she scored five goals in three games as Tigres reached the Liga MX final in late December.

Sánchez, who’s also scored five goals in 29 appearances with the Mexican national team, will be an important piece on the left side for Houston.

“That is a major signing for us,” said Clarkson. “I think that is going to continue to help us create goals, score goals and give us a real opportunity of winning.”

“I mean, hopefully I can just do my part,” Sánchez said. “Obviously, I was brought in, looked at for a reason. So hopefully I can just do my part offensively. I know defensively as well, but hopefully be able to get some assists and goals in and participate offensively in what the team needs me to do.” 

On Friday, the Dash announced they had acquired Viggiano from the Orlando Pride in exchange for defender Megan Montefusco (formerly Oyster), $30,000 in allocation money and their natural third-round pick in the 2023 NWSL Draft.

Entering her fourth season in the NWSL, Viggiano is coming off 21 appearances and 14 starts with the Pride in 2021.

“We would have been really light at midfield, so getting Viggiano has been massive for us,” said Clarkson.

Finishing in seventh place with a record of 9-10-5, Houston missed out on the playoffs in 2021, a year after they won the 2020 Challenge Cup and placed second in the Fall Series.  The Dash will need to figure out a plan for their defense if they want to return to the playoffs. Last year, the team let in as many goals as they scored — which is a lot considering Houston was among the top-three scoring teams with 31 goals.

Clarkson said the key to reaching success this season is for players to develop individually, and then collectively, to put “a winning, exciting team on the field.”

It also helps to have a core of three 2020 Olympic gold medalists in Canadians Allysha Chapman (defense), Sophie Schmidt (midfield) and Nichelle Prince (forward). England national team star Rachel Daly was third in the league in scoring last year with nine goals, but did not report to the first day of preseason on Tuesday.

Joining Prince and Daly in the attacking third will be Paulina Gramaglia, on loan from UAI Urquiza for the 2022 season.

“She’s got huge potential,” Clarkson said of the 18-year-old. “We saw some moments of some real quality today. She had a fantastic assist and had a great little run where there was a nutmeg and smashed one off the crossbar. So there’s some good stuff there, and hopefully we can continue to evolve it, push it. Hopefully we can see some big things from this year.”

The Dash are relying heavily on transfers this season. The team is in the process of bringing in two more — one who won’t arrive until the summer and another who will ideally be ready to play before that.

Houston aims to have 22 players on the main roster and four development players. 

“We’ve got the vast majority of the roster sorted,” Clarkson said. “We’ve still got some spaces that we plan to fill over the next couple of weeks.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

Marisa Viggiano has been acquired by the Houston Dash from the Orlando Pride. In exchange, the Pride will receive defender Megan Montefusco, $30,000 in allocation money and the OL Reign’s third round pick in the 2023 NWSL draft.

The midfielder is a three-year NWSL veteran, appearing in 21 matches for the Pride during the 2021 regular season. Drafted in the fourth round of the 2019 NWSL Draft, Viggiano totaled 47 appearances with Orlando, tallying four goals.

“Beyond Marisa’s unquestioned ability on the pitch, she is, more importantly, simply a wonderful person and I’m honored to have worked with her over the past year,” said Pride general manager Ian Fleming in a release. “I want to wish her a tremendous amount of luck and success in Houston, and I look forward to crossing paths many times in the future.”

Viggiano had previously signed a contract with the Pride through the 2022 season.

Montefusco is a seven-year NWSL veteran who has been with Houston for the past two seasons. She made 32 appearances for the club, helping lead the Dash to seven shutouts and the 2020 Challenge Cup title. She has 133 total NWSL appearances since being drafted No. 13 overall by the Washington Spirit in 2015, tallying two goals and four assists.

“Megan is a proven talent in this league and we are very happy to add a player of her quality to our backline. The stability that she brings, along with her natural affinity to be a modern ball-playing center back, are not coincidental to the past successes of the teams she’s played for,” said Fleming. “As we continue to build a new Pride that can consistently challenge for honors in our league, we expect that Megan will be an important part of that path forward.”

A seasoned defender, Montefusco has ranked among the league’s best since the NWSL began tracking statistics in 2016. She’s totaled 400 clearances, 202 interceptions and a 75.2 percent tackle success rate.

She’ll reunite with Amanda Cromwell in Orlando, having played at UCLA from 2011-14.

The trade comes on the heels of the Pride sending defender Ali Riley to Angel City FC.

Marisa Viggiano is a midfielder for the Orlando Pride of the NWSL. Ahead of her club’s first match in nearly a year (Saturday, 9/19, against North Carolina), she spoke with JWS about expectations and goals for this NWSL Fall Series.

Can you talk a bit about this long, extended offseason and what it’s been like for you mentally and physically?

I think when we play this week it’ll be almost a year since we’ve stepped on the field, which is kind of crazy to think about. It’s felt like a prolonged offseason with a couple of different preseasons mixed into it. But yeah, mentally, it has definitely been tough because as athletes, we like to perform and be out on the field, in live game settings.

There’s a lot going on in the world right now, so just having my teammates, my family, and friends all there as great support systems through this time has been so amazing. I’m so grateful for all of them and our staff, who have been wonderful throughout this all. I think we’re all just so eager and excited to get back out there this weekend.

As you finish up your third ‘preseason,’ what is the team’s mindset going into this Fall Series? Do you approach this week any differently than, say, in March or in July before the Challenge Cup?

I don’t think so. I think there’s a lot more excitement this time around because it has been so long. But really, we’re just preparing to face the Courage by going over film, positional play, and all of that stuff.  So, it’s typically the same things that we probably would have been doing back in March or before the Challenge Cup, just a bit more eagerness.

Everyone’s really excited to be back and to have the opportunity to play in these four games. Practices have been really good, really competitive, and at a high level. So yeah, we just want to get out there and compete. It’s been a really long time.

There are a lot of players from around the league that have either been loaned to teams in Europe or signed there. How do you think that will affect the Fall Series?

We do have a lot of new faces, especially younger players. For the players who have been here, we’re just trying to bring them in, make them feel comfortable, and just be there as a support system.

It’s obviously going to be different having new faces out there, but we’re not expecting this next game to go perfectly. I think we really just want to focus on progressing throughout these four games, gaining confidence and experience.

As a whole, I don’t think the league will be affected too much. Even last week’s game, between Sky Blue and the Spirit, was still super competitive and went down to stoppage time with that final goal. So I think there will still be high-level soccer within this Fall Series, which is a testament to the league and all of the players involved.

What can we expect from the Orlando Pride during this Fall Series?

We’re going to go out there and just kind of run around and be excited. But once we settle down, we still want to implement our style of being aggressive and just playing good football.

Over these last few weeks, we’ve been really focusing on being more assertive and more aggressive, especially in the final third and in our defending. So I think you’ll see that translate onto the field over these next four games.

And what can we expect from you during these four games?

I think the biggest thing for me is just continuing to get experience at this level and to continue getting minutes. And I think that will help grow my confidence. It’s only my second year, so I still get nerves going into games and everything, but I think these four games will really allow me to kind of situate myself, gain confidence, and try new things out.

Anything else you’d like to mention?

Just be ready for us. That’s the biggest thing.