Waldrum to stress positive against Reign
With a little more than one month passed since the Dash played Seattle Reign FC, it might make sense for them to watch tape of the game to get some ideas of what will and what will not work.
Dash coach Randy Waldrum is sticking to what he said in the aftermath of that first meeting five weeks ago. He’s leaving the tape in the trash.
Seattle blitzed the Dash 5-1 in Washington on April 22. Until defender Poliana scored in the final minutes, the Dash were on track to set a club record for largest margin of defeat.
The Dash (2-4) will get another crack at Seattle (2-1-3) at 3 p.m. Saturday when the teams meet at BBVA Compass Stadium for the Lifetime Game of the Week.
Rather than opening old wounds, Waldrum said he will focus on the most recent games for both teams and how they might affect Saturday’s match.
“The players know what went wrong,” Waldrum said. “Pulling it out and showing them something this week that is negative is not how we want to build their confidence.
“We’ll use these last couple
of games. That’s what we do every week.”
Forwards Kealia Ohai and Rachel Daly said they have not thought about the 5-1 final, but Ohai said the game did open the players’ eyes. She added that before the first game, the Dash did not realize how good Seattle is.
Perhaps the biggest difference this week, though, is the Dash are healthy in the midfield. Seattle ran over the Dash in that section of the field but did so without having to deal with Andressinha and Morgan Brian.
Those two will not change the result by themselves, but returning to competitive form in the midfield will be an upgrade for the Dash.
“We feel like we are a completely different team,” Ohai said. “We’ve changed a lot since then. (The first game) is not factoring into this week.
“Regardless of that game, Seattle is a great team. They have a great midfield, great players across their team.
“We’re excited to get them on our field and really get redemption from that game.”
Although there are 18 games remaining in the 24game regular season, the Dash cannot afford to drop points at home like they did two weeks ago against Sky Blue FC.
After three weeks, the Dash were in second place in the NWSL standings, but they have dropped to ninth in the 10-team league. The points are there to move up over the course of the season, but digging an early hole can weigh on the minds of the players.
Saturday is not a mustwin, but it could go a long way toward keeping the Dash in the right mindset for the long haul.
“If there are big games early in the season, this clearly is one of them for us,” Waldrum said. “The players understand the urgency and we as a staff do, too. If we can perform like we did on the road last week, I think we’ll have a good opportunity to get something out of this weekend’s game.”