Goal in first minute difference
The Dash took two weeks of work and threw it all away in 32 seconds on Saturday night.
Some early pressure by visiting Portland that coach James Clarkson said should not have been too much for Houston’s players resulted in a first-minute goal that made the difference in a 1-0 Portland victory at BBVA Stadium.
The Dash (5-5-1, 16 points) were in a position to beat the first-place team on their third consecutive opportunity to do so and move to the top of the table themselves, but Portland (7-3-1, 22 points) made them work harder than they ever expected they would have to by throwing everything at them in the first minute.
Simone Charley pressured right back Haley Hanson and muscled her off the ball. The ball fell to Marissa Everett, who passed ahead to Sophia Smith.
Smith dribbled through centerback Katie Naughton and then tried to shoot. Centerback Megan Oyster was right there to block it, but the ball fell softly closer to the goal, and Smith ran onto it for an uncontested finish past Dash goalkeeper Lindsey Harris.
Clarkson said the Dash had worked on handling that sort of pressure for two weeks, and that they should have dealt with it better Saturday.
“It’s such a bad goal,” he said. “We’ve made poor decisions in possession. We haven’t made tackles. We’ve pulled out of tackles, and we’ve had opportunities to clear that. It wasn’t a particularly big threat. We’ve created it all for them, and it’s incredibly frustrating.”
Although Portland’s pressure didn’t lead to any more goals, it did affect the game in a negative way for Houston. They turned it over more than they’re used to and struggled to create many chances of their own.
Midfielder Emily Ogle said the Dash were flat in the first five minutes and let the Thorns control the pace of the game. Once they did that, the game changed, and the Dash were already facing the tall task of scoring twice if they wanted to win the game.
“We didn’t handle the press at all in the first half,” Clarkson said. “We really struggled with it. We struggled with people wanting to get on the ball and have the ball. I thought we did a much better job in the second half, but it was always going to be a tight game.
“Credit the players. They pushed all the way through that second half. We had a couple of chances, and ultimately it wasn’t good enough.”
The Dash weathered some attacking threats from Portland in the first 15 minutes of the second half before turning the run of play slightly in their favor.
They got forward more often and won some free kicks and corner kicks but never created anything dangerous. In the 76th minute, Dash midfielder Shea Groom connected on a header about 12 yards from the goal, but it was an easy save for goalkeeper Bella Bixby.
In the 85th minute forward Jasmyne Spencer had a unique look on a deflected ball but hit a volley wide of the far post.
In the first minute of added time, Bri Visalli let it rip from outside the penalty area and forced Bixby to punch it over the crossbar.
In the final minute, Spencer jumped for a volley inside the 6-yard box but sent her shot over the bar.
Ally Prisock had been starting at left back in place of Allysha Chapman, who is with the Canadian Olympic team in Tokyo. Prisock was not in the lineup even as a substitute Saturday. When asked after the game, Clarkson said Prisock had left the team and that he didn’t want to talk about it any further.