'You can just feel the vibe shift': Avery Patterson talks the new Dash

The word 'vibes' gets thrown around a lot these days. I'm not cross about it. It's a great word, and one that helps us to understand a somewhat intangible feeling.

I've never been a professional athlete, so I can only imagine how much the vibes mean amongst a group that spends a season together in such proximity.

This week, Avery Patterson brought up the fresh "vibe" in Houston under new head coach Fabrice Gautraut.

"You can just feel the vibe shift," Patterson told the media on Thursday when asked what Gautraut had brought to the club since arriving in January.

Gautraut has felt like a very football-first hire. The 37-year-old has a demeanor that is understated, sober, and earnest. He likes to talk tactics, systems, and processes.

Alongside the methodical strategy of what Gautraut is building on the pitch, Patterson wanted to emphasize the work he's doing beyond the football too.

"It's also off-field stuff. Because, I mean, it's hard to disclose, without going too much into detail about everything last year, but I mean, everything off the field has – we've all just seen a shift in, in buying in. I mean, there's not many other ways to put it," said Patterson.

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The 2024 Dash season is "hard to disclose" for Houston, or even difficult to sum up with brevity.

Head coach Fran Alonso took a leave of absence in June, then general manager Alex Singer was fired in July, and then Alonso was officially relieved of his duties in October having never returned.

All that after the club's most high-profile player, María Sánchez, turned to social media in April to beg for her transfer request to be granted. Which it was.

It is important to note that there has only been one match in 2025, Gautraut's first-ever as head coach. That 2-1 defeat was at home to the Washington Spirit on opening night. But the Dash did look rather compelling in that one match.

Two errors cost Houston in a first half where the field tilt was very good, and the Spirit struggled to break them down. A renewed Dash were organized, focused, and regimented.

After the break – and after Gautraut confessed to airing his grievances with the goals and showed the players some footage of how they could press better – the Dash ascended to become the better team.

Substitutes made a huge impact: Ryan Gareis knocked down a header for rookie Maggie Graham to score by knocking the ball over the line with her "belly" just 15 minutes into her professional debut. With another new signing, the young Swede Evelina Duljan, also putting in an eye-catching cameo.

The Swiss-Army Knife from Florida

The Dash's first goal of 2025 brings us back to Patterson, though.

The 22-year-old from Jacksonville, Florida, hit a perfect early cross onto the head of Gareis, after some tricky wing play on the right-hand side. While she didn't get the official assist, it was the key pass to create the goal.

Patterson said on Thursday that both crossing early, at the first sight of a target, as well as getting to the touchline and cutting it back for a delayed cross were key parts of her "repertoire."

It is exactly this sort of varied "repertoire" that has made Patterson a key player for the Dash and one to watch in the NWSL at a young age. The former UNC Tarheel can play on either wing – and as a full-back, wing-back, winger or wide forward.

"I think it's allowed me to develop my game in multiple areas, you know. I don't think that one foot is weaker than the other. It has allowed me to become a more complete player," Patterson said of versatility.

In her rookie season, Patterson played 25 matches out of a possible 26, scored once and had two assists. In January, she was called into Emma Hayes' USA 'futures' training camp as an identified prospect.

Patterson called Gautraut an "intelligent tactician" and spoke about how she was itching to keep learning from him.

"Everything that he's done so far, I appreciate more than I can even express. It has been all the practices, all of the film sessions, have been learning opportunities for me and for everyone else," she said.

Patterson grew up playing as a more central attacking midfielder, but said that a former youth coach in Florida shifted her to the wing and told her parents: "You'll thank me, one day." Well, he was right.

For Houston, having a player, like Patterson, who is unpredictable and can be moved like a chess piece is a big asset for how Gautraut wants the team to evolve.

"She's a big part of why we do, and how we do what we do," Gautraut said about Patterson on Thursday. "She's got a really solid base, but I think she's still scratching the surface of who she can really become."