Dash at Kansas City Current: Highlights, stats, and quotes
(image via Houston Dash)
The Houston Dash went on the road and picked up a big win Friday night, beating the Kansas City Current 2-0. Diana Ordóñez and Ally Prisock scored the goals for Houston and Jane Campbell became the fifth goalkeeper in league history to play 10,000 minutes with the same team.
MATCH SUMMARY
Kansas City Current 0-2 Houston Dash
Friday, May 26, 2023
Venue: Children’s Mercy Park - Kansas City, Kansas
Referee: Alyssa Nichols
Assistants: Ben Rigal, Chris Schurfranz
Fourth Official: Valimir Stafanovic
VAR: David Barrie
Attendance: 9,897
Weather: 77 degrees, sunny
SCORING SUMMARY
HOU: Diana Ordóñez (María Sánchez) 42’
HOU: Ally Prisock (Caprice Dydasco) 54’
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY
none
LINEUPS & STATS
Kansas City Current: Cassie Miller; Hailie Mace, Gabrielle Robinson, Croix Soto, Jenna Winebrenner (Lo LaBonta 62); Vanessa DiBernardo, Addisyn Merrick, Cece Kizer (Michelle Cooper 46); Debinha, Izzy Rodriguez (Kate Del Fava 62), Mimmi Larsson (Kristen Hamilton 62)
Unused Substitutes: AD Franch, Jordan Silkowitz, Rylan Childers, Chardonnay Curran, Alexa Spaanstra
Total shots: 15
Shots on goal: 5
Fouls: 8
Offside: 5
Corner kicks: 8
Saves: 3
Houston Dash: Jane Campbell; Allysha Chapman, Katie Lind, Ally Prisock, Caprice Dydasco; Sophie Hirst (Lindsi Jennings 90+6), Sophie Schmidt (C), Joelle Anderson (Shea Groom 79); María Sánchez (Ryan Gareis 59), Diana Ordóñez (Ebony Salmon 79), Michelle Alozie (Cameron Tucker 59)
Unused substitutes: Emily Alvarado, Courtney Petersen, Havana Solaun, Marisa Viggiano
Total shots: 11
Shots on goal: 5
Fouls: 15
Offside: 3
Corner kicks: 5
Saves: 5
HOUSTON DASH HEAD COACH SAM LAITY
On thoughts after the win:
"Feel pretty good. Last week there were moments the game that we were happy with. But then there was some massive lessons last week. I said to the team today, actually, that there were lessons that we learned next week that will actually help us out later in the season and I'm glad that we had two big lessons in that game. Hopefully we got those out for the season: giving away a silly early goal and then capitulating after their second goal. Really proud of the performance tonight. The objective today was about putting in a performance that can help us improve and help us do things next week against Orlando and the week after against Gotham. The objective today was purely performance. Let's get performance in that we can be proud of. Let's be on the front foot defensively, offensively and the players did that. I am very proud of them.”
On in-game adjustments:
“They weren't pressed by us. They were allowing us to have the ball. So I wanted us to play the ball behind them more. They weren't pressing Ally (Prisock) or Katie (Lind). The moment that they had the opportunity to play longer diagonal, especially into (María) Sánchez and (Michelle) Alozie, we got in behind them. In that sense, the shape was ineffective for them and we took advantage of that. To recognize that they were not being pressed, not to go side to side too much and get the ball in behind Kansas City a bit more and turn them because they're a transition team. They want you to have the ball at times and then take advantage of that. They often leave four or five players high when they are defending. We spoke about making sure that we were in a position to deal with that when we were in possession. The team did a really good job. Just a couple of tweaks. For individual players, the space might have changed compared to what we thought. We thought maybe a 4-3-2-1 for them and then obviously they switched to a 3-5-2. We anticipated that when we got the line up, but I did not want to change the information that we'd given to the players before the game because I wanted there to be consistency. We had tweak ready on the sideline if they went to a 3-5-2. We tweaked what we were doing little bit. We looked we looked pretty dangerous and got them on the back foot."
On forward Michelle Alozie:
"She's still got a huge ceiling. She's still got a lot of work to do. If she can continue on the path that she's at, then we're going to have a hell of a player on our hands., you know, Part of it is when you're in the game and you're enjoying it -- even last week against the left back for San Diego --she had a lot of joy in that situation. We just didn't put ourselves in situations to take advantage of her passes into the box. It's one of those ones where if you're feeling good and you're having good game, get on the ball and do what you're good at. Let's expose your superpower. If you're having a good game, you're dominating against your opponent -- get after them. Grab the ball, demand the ball, give it to me and I'm going to create something. Good to see her looking to do that. I still think she can do more. When she gets a little bit closer to a ceiling we're going to have a big threat.”
On the team’s mentality:
“We're sitting on 12 points right now. We haven't spoken about this but we had a pretty difficult schedule at the start of the year. The first eight games have been pretty challenging for us. We had a poor performance in San Diego. Seattle wasn't great. We can't forget that we did well in Chicago. We did really well in Portland we took points. Won points at home against Portland. We took points off Washington away. I wouldn't say that we were poor earlier in the season. We were grinding out results on the road against teams that tend to take a lot of points. We played a slightly different system then, which a didn't get us points. Those performances, while they weren't necessarily pretty, they were they were effective. Now that we've got through that little period. We've got to a relatively consistent system now that we've got a couple of players back from injury that really, really make the system click. We're going to start seeing a little bit more of out of our identity in a system that we played all the way through preseason. We are far, far away from where I think we can be and the players know that. The start the season actually just hasn't been too bad for us. Perhaps a little bit overdramatic sometimes from people when you see the result against San Diego and the result in Seattle. Apart from that, you've got 12 points this time of the season then you take that. Now it's about performance, building upon these points, building upon these performances and then and getting home and picking up three points and being difficult to be at home. That's the next objective we will draw a line under this game tonight. Tomorrow and Monday, it's all about being difficult against Orlando.”
On midfielder Shea Groom’s return to play:
"She did really well in her first minutes. She hasn't been in a couple of squads because she wasn't quite ready. She's still got some way to go to be in contention to be starting games from a physical perspective. She's missed seven weeks, part of that being preseason, that's a big chunk of time and a bad time to miss training. You know she brings aggression, which you saw tonight. Her ability in the air and her ability on the dribble. She's a dynamic player. She's a gamer for sure. We needed a little bit of what Shea Groom can bring. Every team in the league will need a little bit of what she can bring when she's at her best. She's far off where she needs to be, and where we want her to In the meantime, we're going to take advantage of where she's at and try and use her to the advantage to the team and to the benefit of herself."
HOUSTON DASH GOALKEEPER JANE CAMPBELL
On her reaction to the win:
“That was a huge result. The last few games, we've had a lot of ups and downs and lots of big highs but also lots of big, big blows. I think coming here, you know, to win a game, it's tough to play Kansas City and especially away. They’re a good team and we just needed a result. We needed to play better and raise our standards. I thought we did that. When we say raise the standards, you know, it's been just in response to the last week or the season in general. When we play opponents, sometimes I think we have been getting too focused on what they're going to present to us. At the end of the day, if we play with grit and hard work, attitude and effort for all 90 minutes, I think the game will take care of itself. There have been moments in each of the games this year where maybe we lapse a little bit or maybe we lose concentration. I think this game, Sam really emphasized that this was just about us and that Kansas City was going to play however they played. They could have switched it up or kept it the same, but it didn't really matter to us. This is a great w and we're really proud of it.”
On reaching the 10,000 minute milestone:
“I'm really honored. I'm more so honored that it's been all with Houston. They took a chance on me in 2017. The theories say out there that I wasn't even supposed to be here. So I'm honored that they took me in 2017. And, you know, I'm just really thankful and fortunate that, you know, they've stuck with me all this time. I love the city and I love the club. Anytime I get a chance to even just wear the jersey, I'm honored. I’m really honored to play for my teammates and represent them and represent the city of Houston. I'm just very, very thankful and you know, here's to 10,000 more.”
On the team creating chances:
“I don't think we're close yet. Not in a bad way. I just think we're not ready to peak yet and we don't want to peak. The goal is to be in the championship in November. If we peak now, we'd be a little early. I think we have tons of room to grow, which is really exciting. I think Kansas City's game plan in the first half was to give us the ball, so that poses us a different problem. A lot of times we're pressed and that's a different problem we have to face. But Kansas City gave us something different and we did have a lot of the ball. You know, possession is something we need to harp on every week and I think teams know that. I thought we did really well in the first half to move Kansas City and exploit certain spaces that we created when we did move the ball and players move. I thought it was a really exciting first half, and like you said, they did show a ton of potential for this team I thought the second half was super gritty. Kansas City came out flying and when their subs came on, our subs came on, everybody had fresh legs and it just got even crazier. So the first half, I think we're really proud of it. Sam said at halftime that once the second half begins, the first half is out the window and everyone's going to forget about it. It’s definitely a proud, you know, first half of the game. The sky is the limit for this team. We just want to keep growing every week.”
