USL Super League | Saturday, September 5, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. CT | Cotton Bowl, Dallas, TX | Broadcast: Peacock
Dallas Trinity FC returns to the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, looking up from seventh place. Brooklyn FC arrives bottom of the table and still without a point of their own.
This is the kind of fixture that is supposed to settle a struggling home side. Brooklyn’s record against Dallas argues against that – the clubs met three times in 2026, and Brooklyn lost none of them, winning once and drawing twice – but both clubs look much different than they did when the season came to a close earlier this year.
The Recovery Report
Dallas
Heather Stainbrook is OUT (leg)
Lauren Flynn is OUT (lower leg)
Heather McNab is OUT (lower leg)
Ally Cook has been downgraded to OUT for the season with a lower leg injury
Rajanah Reed & Chioma Ubogagu are out for the season
Brooklyn
Laila Booker is OUT (upper body injury)
Rebecca Cooke is OUT (torn ACL, out for the season)
The Bigger Picture
The Fall 2026 season is a 14-game sprint, eight teams, seven home and seven away, running to November 28 with the top four into a December playoff. In a bridge season this short, a home match against the club directly below you is worth more than its place on the calendar suggests. We’re a quarter of the way through, and neither side has much to show for it coming into this one.
Dallas come in off the flattest performance of their short history, a 2-0 loss at Sporting JAX that was the first time the club has finished a league match without a shot on target. The result didn’t come from being overrun. The Golden Girls had 58 percent of the ball in Jacksonville, as they have had the majority in every match this fall, but didn’t manage to force a save.
Manager Lee Nguyen spent the week on the passing game and on getting into the final third, the phase where possession has stopped turning into chances.
Captain Sophia Braun framed the target after training. “A win is the expectation,” she said, “and a shutout is the goal.”
Brooklyn is carrying a heavier history. They finished sixth in 2024-25 and seventh in 2025-26, missed the playoffs both times, and opened this season with three defeats to Lexington SC, DC Power FC and Fort Lauderdale United, the first club to lose its opening three matches of a Super League season. The Fort Lauderdale loss was a bit closer than the score. Brooklyn had two-thirds of the ball and lost 1-0, the same problem Dallas has had all fall.
The all-time record between them is even at 3-3-2, and Trinity own the biggest result in the series, a 6-0 at the Cotton Bowl in March 2025 that stands as the largest win in club history.
Dallas Trinity
Trinity’s chances have been coming from the wrong places. Carissa Boeckmann was named the league’s Assist of the Month for August and leads the club in chances created, and Sofia Cedeño earned the league’s August bench selection while adding four of her own. Both play in midfield.
The forwards have not matched them. Jasmine Hamid, the striker who arrived from Fort Lauderdale last season, has just one goal and a missed penalty through three games. Seven Castain, a TCU product on loan from the Orlando Pride, scored on her debut in the opener and has been the most direct runner in the front line since.
The defending that needs fixing is on restarts. Both goals in Jacksonville came from dead balls and transition, as did the stoppage-time equalizer Tampa Bay took in the opener. Braun, who has moved from midfield into central defense this season, has described those goals as details rather than a talent gap, and Nguyen’s week of work was aimed at both ends of that argument.
Players to Watch: Dallas Trinity
Sofia Cedeño – The August bench honoree sets the tempo and carries a share of the creation. The work Nguyen put in this week on final-third entry runs through her more than anyone. If she gets creative from midfield, the front four should be able to finish against a weaker Brooklyn side.
Sophia Braun – The captain named the shutout as the goal, and she anchors the back line that has to stop conceding from set pieces. Brooklyn’s only goalscorer so far is a defender who lives on those moments. If the defensive line holds, it’ll be because she was the steady voice.
Seven Castain – A local product out of TCU and Trinity’s most vertical forward. Brooklyn have conceded eight in three matches, and the space in behind is where Castain does her damage. Castain has an opportunity to showcase her class against a defense that has been porous thus far.
Brooklyn FC
Brooklyn’s season looks a lot like Dallas’. They keep the ball but don’t score with it. Their lone goal of the fall came from defender Jordan Thompson, who moved into the starting eleven and finished in the loss at DC Power. The forwards, Tziarra King, Catherine Zimmerman and Carlee Giammona, have created without converting, and the midfield steadied when Jennifer Cudjoe made her season debut at Fort Lauderdale.
The passing hub is Jilly Shimkin, third in the league in chances created and behind only two DC Power players. Shimkin is one of two University of Texas products in the squad, along with winger Ashlyn Miller, and both are back in the state where they played their college soccer. Shimkin spent last season as a rookie at Tampa Bay Sun before signing in Brooklyn in August.
The visitors carry one more Dallas thread. Trinity keeper Neeku Purcell, on loan from the Seattle Reign, played for Brooklyn earlier in her career and meets her former club this weekend.
Players to Watch: Brooklyn FC
Jilly Shimkin – Third in the league in chances created and the source of most of what Brooklyn builds. She is also coming home to Texas, which gives the visitors their clearest storyline of the night. Shimkin’s passes can be streaky, and the defensive line must keep her from breaking through.
Jordan Thompson – A center-back who is also the team’s only scorer this season and a set-piece threat against a Dallas side that keeps giving up goals on restarts.
Tziarra King – With Cooke out for the year, the veteran winger becomes Brooklyn’s most experienced forward and one of three still looking for a first goal of the fall.
What’s at Stake
For Dallas, the stake is evidence. Our preseason projection had Trinity finishing fourth and back in the playoffs, and three weeks of dominant-on-the-ball defeats have put that read under pressure. A win lifts them off a single point and off the bottom two before a second straight home game, and a night that finally turns possession into shots on target would answer the question the first three matches raised.
For Brooklyn, the stake is a first win and the end of an unwanted record. They have already shown they can win in this building, a 3-0 here in April.
Projected XIs
Dallas Trinity (4-2-3-1): Neeku Purcell; Carissa Boeckmann, Sydney Cheesman, Sophia Braun, Cyera Hintzen; Jamie Shepherd, Sofia Cedeño; Camryn Lancaster, Seven Castain, Onyeka Gamero; Jasmine Hamid.
Brooklyn FC (projected): Bre Norris; Jackie Richards, Annie Williams-Arlington, Jordan Thompson, Lauren Gogal; Jennifer Cudjoe, Jilly Shimkin; Tziarra King, Sara D’Appolonia, Ashlyn Miller; Catherine Zimmerman.
Saturday is also Dallas Trinity FC’s Pride Night at the Cotton Bowl. Trinity stays home afterward, hosting DC Power FC on Sunday, September 13th, for College Night before a four-game road trip.