Dash look to bounce back in trip to KC: What to watch for

(image via Houston Dash)

The Houston Dash are on the road tonight to face the Kansas City Current at Children’s Mercy Park. The Dash are looking to rebound from a 3-0 loss at home against San Diego Wave last weekend. KC Current are on a four game losing streak, most recently falling 2-0 against Racing Louisville this past Saturday.

When: Friday, May 25 | 7:00 PM CT kickoff

Where: Children’s Mercy Park; Kansas City, Kansas

TV/Stream: Paramount +/ AT&T SportsNet SW Alternate

Strong Mentality

In the last few games, we’ve seen the Dash with slow starts that hurt them, especially last time out against San Diego, giving up a goal within two minutes. In a league like NWSL, it can punish you and cost you points. Head coach Sam Laity spoke about what the team has to do to get off on a better foot. "Psychologically don't start games like that,” Laity said yesterday. “You cannot start games, in this league, against any opponent, in the manner that we did. I would like to think that we've addressed that. It's psychological for me. We have to be on the front foot. We haven't started very quickly in games. We've done some deep diving as to why we think that's the case. You can't start games like that because then you're then you're chasing it and on the back foot.” Getting points isn’t easy, but any points are crucial and can make the difference in making the playoffs and not.

Finish your chances

Many people are still scratching their heads about the attacking power that isn’t producing any goals, with the front three only producing four goals in eight games. Laity spoke yesterday about the team creating a number of shots but not resulting in goals. "It's actually a bit of everything. Number one: it's about being in better positions. We have been and felt this way for a number of weeks. Now that we're getting the ball into dangerous areas, we're not making the right type of run around the box. I said to the players over last couple days: 'We can get you to the box and we can give you ideas as to how we think we're going to break the opponent down, but when the ball gets into the box, there's got to be a desire to make runs, to separate yourself from the opponent and to create space for teammates.' We just haven't had that. We have to solve that very, very quickly. If we can do that, we have to start doing it and it needs to be from tomorrow onwards because we can't get into good situations in the opponent's box or the opponent's half, with some of the personnel that we've got and not look dangerous. We've gotten into decent areas, but not look dangerous enough because we haven't had either enough bodies in the box or we've not had players making quite tough runs. That has been a huge message, not just this week but also last week." The Dash have done extremely well in the counter attack and build up play but just haven’t been able to pay those off with goals. Laity mentioned that the build-up play is 7/10 while the finishing inside the box is a 1/10. It’s something the team has been drilling and working on in training to produce on game day. Hopefully they can do that against this Current side who are in poor form.

Jump start the season

With KC having a bad run as of late this will be a major opportunity for the Dash to take points and go on a run from here on until the Women’s World Cup starts. Laity mentioned that KC has a lot of changes of late, new forwards and of course a new manager, but that doesn’t mean that KC can’t still be a threat. "They've got world class players,” Laity said. “They obviously have imported a lot of players in the attacking area of the field and you can see that. We have to be very wary when we have the ball, especially that we know where the Debhina's and the Cece Kizer's are in this world. We need to know where they are at all times, because in transition they can cause a big problem. Debhina can cause you problems regardless of it being in transition. Knowing where they are in transition especially is something that we sort of driven home this week.” A win tonight can push the Dash back into playoff positions with a lot of the season still to play.

Availability Report

Houston Dash - Out: Nichelle Prince (Achilles - season-ending injury),  Ella Dederick (right knee - season-ending injury), Emily Curran (left knee - season-ending injury), Makamae Gomera-Stevens (left knee - season-ending injury), Annika Creel (right knee - season-ending injury), Devon Kerr (excused absence), Natalie Jacobs (head)

Kansas City Current: Out: Morgan Gautrat (calf), Hanna Glas (knee - season-ending injury), Claire Lavogez (knee - season-ending injury), Alex Loera (foot), Sam Mewis (knee - season-ending injury), Desiree Scott (knee - season-ending injury), Mallory Weber (knee - season-ending injury); Questionable: Elizabeth Ball (hamstring)

Predicted Lineup