The Houston Dash are coming off of a busy week in which they added three players and said goodbye to another. Thursday’s announcement of the signing of Brazilian national team player’s Rosana and Poliana was followed by the announcement on Friday of the acquisition of Ashley Nick from Sky Blue FC. Released in order to make room for the new signings was Nigerian center back Osi Ohale.

I think our fans really were upset about the Romero trade, but if you keep Ohale and Romero you are at 11 players potentially missing for the World Cup

Dash head coach Randy Waldrum was in a buoyant mood Friday afternoon about the additions, particularly the two Brazilians, “We picked up two world class players. Last year we didn’t have enough ability to generate really consistent attacks. We didn’t score enough goals or create enough and Rosana can certainly do that, more in terms of creating opportunities for others than in scoring goals herself.”

Rosana is a player who can play in the midfield, just underneath the forwards or on the left wing providing for some versatility in attack. As is the case with Poliana, the Brazilian midfielder is a skillful and technical player who can open up opposing defenses to create scoring opportunities for her teammates.

As for Poliana, as Waldrum puts it she is “the up and coming right back for Brazil at the moment”. Her play over the past year has meant that she has likely locked down the right side of the Brazilian defense. She is a true threat going forward, “The thing I like about her is she can attack coming out of the back and can actually even score goals coming out of the back,” says Waldrum.

“In a pinch she can also play up front on the right wing. She’s creative, it is not just get forward running up and down vertically, she has the ability to take players on and beat you off the dribble. My hope is these signings are going to really change the dynamics of our attack. When you think about getting the #1 draft pick, we’ve brought in Rachael Axon, we’ll have [Brittany] Bock back and we’ve thrown in Carli Lloyd; we are going to have players who are going to create and we will have opportunities to score more goals.”

If adding Rosana and Poliana is about improving the overall quality of the team, trading for Nick is about depth and the World Cup period. “If you look at our team during the World Cup, in that 1st half of the season the midfield players we really have are Jordan [Jackson], [Rachael] Axon and Bock.

“So that move just made really good sense to us because I think it gets harder and harder for your draft choices to make rosters given there are so few teams and the league gets stronger each year. We felt like looking at the #10 pick and what will be available at #13 is not that much different so we felt like dropping down a few spots we were going to get at #13 what we were going to get at #10. As result, we felt it was a no brainer to take Ashley,” explains Walrum.

Nick is an experienced player who filled the holding midfielder spot for Sky Blue but can play in multiple positions across the midfield and could drop in to center back in a crunch of the Dash needed it.

With so many players who are predominantly midfielders on the roster now (Rosana, Nick, Bock, Jackson, Axon, Lloyd, Kaylyn Kyle, Kelly McFarlane) it begs the obvious question as to whether Waldrum intends to stick with his 4-3-3 tactical formation or change to a different set-up in order to make full use of the tools he has at hand.

“You know, I probably won’t have that answered until we get everybody here in pre-season. We’ll do whatever formation it takes to get our best 11 on the field,” says Waldrum, “We’ve acquired a lot of midfield players but most all of these players can play in multiple places. I think we’ve got some flexibility with how we’ll play players. I think the key is once we get them all together is seeing if 4-3-3 works best or if we need to be into something that gives us more numbers in midfield.”

An unfortunate casualty of the Rosana and Poliana move was Ohale. The decision to release her was in part driven by salary cap considerations as well as the fact that the Brazilian pair is viewed as being much farther along as international players who can help the Dash in bigger ways than Ohale could.

The other issue that comes into play in every move the Dash make this offseason is concern over the number of Dash players who will be away for the World Cup. This played heavily into the decision to trade Ari Romero to the Washington Spirit for Niki Cross as well.

“I think our fans really were upset about the Romero trade, but if you keep Ohale and Romero you are at 11 players potentially missing for the World Cup and we can’t fill that out with pros, only with amateurs. So, we weren’t going to have enough players to have an 11 person roster in the 1st half of the season,” notes Waldrum.

“We have to look at which players are out there that are more important to us and what are the moves we could make in order to make sure we can acquire those players. The other part of it comes down to what other teams want. One thing a lot of fans may not know is you can’t just cut an allocated player. You either have that player or you trade them. They are guaranteed a spot, so when you look to make moves it also has a lot to do with who else wants your players.

“Fortunately for us, Washington wanted Ari. So it made that move – as much as I didn’t want to lose her – it made that move manageable because they wanted her. We also felt like Niki Cross would bring some experience to that back line.”

Releasing Ohale also frees up another international slot, although the Dash may not use that immediately. Waldrum indicates the the Dash will be choosy about using the international slot; if they can find the right player now, they will sign them. However, if not then they will hold the slot open until after the World Cup is over when it may become easier to sign top international players.

In the meantime, the Dash still have a need for a player who can score 10+ goals per season – Rosana is not that player – as well as help at the back, particularly center back.

Says Waldrum, “I don’t think you’ve seen the end of our moves. We are working on both of those areas right now. But I do think at least on the attacking side of the ball we are getting closer to where we need to be.”