Five Houston Dash players will compete in the 2018-19 Australian W-League on loan from the Dash, the club announced today. The five Dash players will play on four teams in the W-League.
Amber Brooks and Veronica Latsko will join Adelaide United for their first campaign in the W-League while Sofia Huerta returns to Australia as she joins Sydney FC. Clare Polkinghorne returns to Brisbane Roar as the team captain for her 10th season with the club. Kyah Simon will return to the defending W-League champions, Melbourne City FC.
Brooks finished the 2018 NWSL season playing every minute (2,160) of every game for Houston, her second consecutive season as the club’s ironwoman. This is the third time the defender has joined a foreign league after spending time in Canada with the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2011 and Germany with Bayern Munich in 2013.
Huerta scored five goals and tallied four assists in 12 games for Houston after joining the Dash in June via a trade with the Chicago Red Stars. The midfielder finished the year with eight goals and six assists overall. Huerta was named the league’s Player of the Month in April after scoring two goals in four games for the Red Stars and earned Team of the Month honors twice, both for Chicago (April) and Houston (August), and was named to the NWSL Second XI in September. This will be the second loan to the W-League for the Boise, Idaho native. She scored eight goals for Adelaide United during the 2016-17 campaign.
Latsko scored four goals and tallied two assists during her rookie season with the Dash. The third-round draft pick scored two game-winning goals this season as Houston secured a 9-10-5 record, the best mark in franchise history.
Polkinghorne joined Houston in June and started in nine games for Houston. The defender has scored 13 goals in 115 appearances for Brisbane Roar in the W-League. In 2017, the defender became the first player in W-League history to play in 100 regular-season games. Polkinghorne has won two Championships with her hometown club and led Brisbane to its third Premiership, finishing as the best regular-season team during the 2017-18 season.
Simon scored two goals and tallied two assists for Houston in 15 appearances last season after returning to the NWSL for the first time since 2016. The forward, a native of Blacktown, Australia, spent the 2017 in Australia where she scored two goals in 14 appearances and won the 2018 W-League Grand Final with Melbourne on Feb. 18.
The Dash contingent will return to Houston prior to the start of the 2019 season.
