Dash rally to hand Portland first loss of season
(image via Houston Dash)
The Houston Dash handed the Portland Thorns their first regular season with a 2-1 win at Shell Energy Stadium Friday night. It was the first time Portland had lost a game when leading at halftime since the 2017 season.
Earlier this week, head coach Sam Laity said that the team needed start to getting results and to expect more rotation with players coming back from injuries. Unfortunately, the day before the match, Diana Ordóñez and Ally Prisock listed on the availability report as questionable due to illness. It gave Laity the opportunity to put Ebony Salmon as the lone striker with Barbara Olivieri to support her on the wing. Katie Lind was back to support the defense in place of Prisock. Before the game, Sophie Schmidt was celebrated her 100th appearance for the NWSL. Fellow Canadian Allysha Chapman joined her in the 100 club with her appearance against Portland. Goalkeeper Jane Campbell also reached 10,000 minutes of NWSL league play during the match.
It was a very close battle for both teams early in the first half. A quick transition from the Thorns had Olivia Moultrie through on the wing where shed squared the ball to the direction to Sophia Smith. The ball deflected to Crystal Dunn who put the ball in the net, but the linesman had the flag up for offside in the 12th minute. Both teams had rough challenges and both teams received knocks. Olivia Moultrie received treatment after a tackle from Chapman in the 17th minute. Olivieri got a bad knock and was forced to be subbed out early in the 29th minute for Michelle Alozie.
The knocks didn’t discourage the Thorns to continue pressing the Dash. Moultrie went through the Houston defense in the box to set up Rocky Rodriguez and she made no mistake with her shot to give the Thorns the lead in the 34th minute. Even being one goal down, the Dash had great attempts from Ebony Salmon and a Sophie Hirst header. With many last-minute efforts, the first half ended 1-0, with the Thorns in front.
At half time, the game didn’t look in favor for the Dash, on the scoreboard or in the stats. Houston had 40% of the ball and only one shot on target with their five shots. Laiity knew things weren’t going in his team’s favor and he made a half time substitution of Joelle Anderson for Marisa Viggiano to add more attacking pieces in the midfield.
Laity’s message at half time played a huge difference in the second half. The Dash came out with passion and determination, especially from Alozie. Many chances early on came through Alozie on the wing. Alozie set up Salmon with a pasin the box, Salmon shot from a tough angle on the right and Thorns goalkeeper Bella Bixby pushed the ball away to her right. The rebound fell to Joelle Anderson who slotted it into the empty net. "It has been a while for me, just getting that confidence back,” Anderson said after the win. “Getting that goal meant a lot for me, to show that I missed being out there with the girls. It was a really big goal for me and I got a lot of confidence from it.” The game was now tied at 1-1 in the 59th minute and the Dash didn’t stop there.
The equalizer kicked off the energy inside the stadium for the Dash to get more, and that’s just what they would do. In a quick counterattack, Maria Sanchez sent Salmon off and running. She beat the defender with a skillful turn to give her a one on one with the goalkeeper. Salmon curved her shot into the bottom right corner to give Houston the lead in the 71st minute. It was Salmon’s first goal for the season. It was a relief for Salmon and she laid on the field in celebration. "For me, that was the first goal of the season. It has been very frustrating the past few games as a forward and not scoring,” Salmon said after the match. “I have been getting in the right positions and today I got into good positions again. Just to take that goal, the winning goal is really exciting.” For her head coach, it was about time. “Well, for me, it's about bloody time,” Laity joked after the match. “I'm sure Ebony (Salmon) will say the same thing. I'm sure that will take the pressure off. We talked about getting in the right areas and trying to make the right decisions. I think sometimes when you're a bit of force you rush things in and around the box. You take shots from areas that you wouldn't normally take and I think that was the case. That was a really important goal for us and a really important goal for her. That will help push her on to score more, she's a player that tends to score goals in waves so expect to see more of that.”
Houston was able to see things out over the final 20 plus minutes and the game ended in a 2-1 win for the Dash. Houston ended Portland’s unbeaten streak to begin the season and the three points helped move the Dash up the table and into the playoff positions. It was a great turnaround for Houston from the first half.
(image via Houston Dash)
Laity was proud of his team and their effort. “I’m proud of the team and very satisfied with their mentality to grind that out sets the players into the game,” the Dash head coach said after the match. “I’m really proud of the team, it was an absolute warrior effort. Bárbara Olivieri came off with an injury, so we had to make the adjustment and that gave us a chance to tweak the system and massive credit to the players for change into a system that we'd that we were predominately used in preseason but haven't used in the game now in the regular season. Great credit to the players that was incredibly fun”
The Dash will play at home again at Shell Energy Stadium, next Saturday against the San Diego Wave. The game will be streamed on Paramount + with kickoff set for 7:30 PM.
