Sunday evening’s 4-0 home loss for the Houston Dash against the Portland Thorns was a reality check and a startling reminder of how the NWSL operates. Anyone can beat anyone, and if one team starts flailing, their opponent will quickly capitalize.
There was nothing much Katie Naughton could have done about the own goal that occurred with a little over thirty seconds gone in the match, but the response from Houston to adversity within the 90 minutes wasn’t good enough.
Sarah Lowdon and her team’s first real test of playing from a deficit was filled with errors and very little attacking soccer. Once the scoreline got to 2-0 in the 23rd minute, getting a result from the match began to feel out of reach for the Dash.
Here’s some takeaways from a comprehensive loss to the Portland Thorns:
Dash get a tactical surprise
Houston got a bit of a taste of their own medicine at PNC Stadium on Sunday. Three weeks ago, it was the Dash who had been the away team showing up with a tweaked formation and personnel change. On Sunday, the Thorns got to catch the home team off guard.
“I think they came out in a different formation than we were expecting from previous games,” Dash midfielder Marisa Viggiano said after the match. “I think stuff is going to happen in the game that you don’t want or are expecting. It’s just how we manage that as a group and push forward.”
Part of why the Thorns’ formation surprised the Dash was because of the late injury to Christen Sinclair. The Canadian was injured in the pre-match warm up and Olivia Moultrie got the go-ahead to play in her place. It was the teenager's first start of the NWSL season.
Although Sincalir can drop deep into the half space between the lines, Moultrie operates far more as a midfielder than Sinclair. That meant that Rhian Wilkinson’s 3-5-2 became more of 3-4-2-1. Sometimes it even resembled more of a back four, when Natalie Kuikka dropped into right back and Janine Beckie moved into the right wing position.
The last time these teams met and the Dash won 2-0, it was Morgan Weaver and Sinclair both starting at center forward in the Thorns common 3-5-2. Yazmeen Ryan and Rocky Rodriguez would then step up into the half space from midfield to be at the bottom of the triangle.
This felt very different on Sunday. Apart from when Portland pressed off the ball, Sophia Smith was almost always the lone forward in the front line when the Thorns attacked. Moultrie was a deeper threat, as she occupied space behind Smith.
As you can see in the frame above, the adapted Portland shape also gave license for midfielders Hina Sugita and Janine Beckie to be the furthest players forward at times. Houston’s back five isn’t naturally picking up the attacks and gets pulled out by Smith. The Dash couldn't patiently pick up its defensive assignment.
It’s a testament to how good Smith is that she was able to cause so many problems leading the line by herself. Portland's redistributed midfield additionally caused the Dash plenty of problems at the back, while perhaps more importantly, also nullified Houston’s midfield from moving the ball up the field. Houston's two forwards Michaela Abam and Shea Groom were isolated for much of the match.
Life without stars
As the Dash embarked on its six-match unbeaten run and surged up the NWSL standings, there was a clear message put out from its acting head coach and goalkeeper: the entire roster contributes.
"All season, it doesn't take just the 11 that start the game," said Jane Campbell after her stunning solo performance in LA on Tuesday night. "It takes all 28 players. Whether they're here or at home, on away trips, everybody is super important and super crucial to our performance. The bench has done amazing."
Against the Thorns, that sentiment was put to the test as Houston played its first match of the season so far without Canadian internationals Nichelle Prince and Sophie Schmidt. The duo's absence also came in addition to Rachel Daly's departure the week before. The England international will be away until August for this summer's UEFA European Championships.
Take away the nine goals scored by that trio, and the Dash have just two goals on the season. Both of those goals, scored by Bri Visalli and Michelle Alozie respectively, came after the 80th minute when Houston already had a lead.
So perhaps it was no surprise that the Dash forced just one save from Bella Bixby and generated an expected goals of 0.47 against the Thorns — its lowest single-game tally of the season.
"This was our first test of a long stretch of games where people are going to have to step up and take on new roles," said Bri Visalli about the forced rotation to the team. "This is an opportunity to be excited for those players, but also something as a team that we have to embrace and come together moving forward."
On Sunday, Makamae Gomera-Stevens got her first minutes of the season, Joelle Anderson played more minutes than she had previously and we saw Natalie Jacobs make her second cameo for the club.
Getting these players acclimatized to the NWSL, Lowdon's system and their teammates' rhythms is so important as the season goes on. Especially as CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers approach in July. Life without Canadians Prince, Schmidt and Chapman, as well as Mexican Maria Sánchez, will result in plenty of changes to the Dash starting lineup.
"It’s an opportunity to look at some different players and different positions that we would like to see and so, again, it’s a great opportunity to see that and like I said, the league is not won and lost in one game," said Lowdon after the defeat on Sunday.
"Some players that got some good opportunities to showcase what they can do and like I said there is positives as well as negatives. We have to create more opportunities and we have to finish them at the end of the day and kind of keep the ball more, which I think has been kind of a trend that I’ve talked about over the last four or five weeks.”
'Our own worst enemy'
Beyond Portland's aptitude and Houston's unavailable talent, Sunday was decided by errors. Something that we haven't seen very much of from the Dash since Lowdon took control of the team.
For many years to come, this match will be remembered for Portland's third goal, when Moultrie became the youngest goalscorer in NWSL history. But the landmark moment occurs because of a sequence of mistakes that Houston fans and defenders will never want to see again.
Just 16 years old. @olivia_moultrie became the youngest @NWSL scorer in history overnight, in a 4-0 @ThornsFC win.
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) June 13, 2022
Cool as you like 😎pic.twitter.com/rJYPi7bpVo
From the start of the regular season until Sunday, the Dash had eradicated these moments of naivety from its defensive game. We have seen a lot of long and safe passes of the backline. In terms of passing, there had been a priority placed on safety rather than accuracy.
Even before Sunday, Lowdon had spoken about needing to take care of the ball better. After the match, both Viggiano and the acting head coach reiterated Houston's inability to keep the ball all that well. "It is something we need to improve on, but it isn’t something that we need to change what we wanted to do going into the game," Viggiano said about keeping the ball.
"I would say, the third goal, we are kind of our own worst enemy at that point. But again, we’ll learn from it, I’ll grow from it. Like I’ve said in the past, you have to learn and respond and we will. I know this team," added Lowdon.
The other act of self-sabotage on Sunday was how the Dash players seemingly reacted to the penalty decision in the match. Shea Groom was booked for dissent in the aftermath of Karen Callado awarding a penalty to Portland. Speaking to Callado after the match, she confirmed it was for a hand "action" that Groom made in the direction of the referee.
It would seem that the penalty call didn't only ruffle Groom's feathers. Visalli spoke to The Striker Texas after the match about how she felt the referee decisions affected her team's performances.
"I hate excuses, but some of the decisions tonight really impacted the game," said Visalli. "It's upsetting in that regard. Typically, you want to get on with the game... but it's a snowball effect. When people are griping and dissenting, it becomes a bit of a distraction. We have to learn, we can't let those decisions really impact the latter part of the game as well."