Club not looking ahead with title shot near
This season’s Dash team has gone further than any other in the franchise’s six seasons.
As the Dash prepare for Wednesday’s semifinal against the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League Challenge Cup at Herriman, Utah, coach James Clarkson says his team has unfinished business.
“I don’t think many people were anticipating we’d be here,” Clarkson said. “We are, and we want to stay here until Monday and that’s the goal, but we’re focused on Wednesday at the moment.”
Before the coronavirus pandemic stalled sports across the world, and before the NWSL created the Challenge Cup to showcase competition despite its spread, the Dash were intent on change.
That became clear in January, when they traded the club’s firstever draft pick, forward Kealia Ohai Watt, to Chicago for defender Katie Naughton and a secondround draft pick.
Clarkson doubled down ahead of the Challenge Cup when he described the tournament as an opportunity to show that the Dash can be competitive on the field and a desirable place to play off it.
With a potential two games remaining and no confirmed plans for the league to continue its season beyond July, Clarkson says the Dash have accomplished part of their mission. Regardless of Wednesday’s result, he called the team’s performances a “building block for us and a step in the right direction.”
“Ideally it would be great,” he said of an extended season, “but the health and safety of the players come first.”
Portland entered the semifinal after stunning the top-seeded North Carolina Courage. The Dash grinded out a quarterfinal victory over Utah Royals FC on penalty kicks — thanks to a pair of Jane Campbell saves.
Despite Campbell’s inconsistencies prior to those stops, the Dash’s strong defensive showings have highlighted their growth. Naughton and defender Megan Oyster have helped bolster that effort although Oyster is listed as questionable for Wednesday after suffering a thorax (rib cage) injury against Utah.
“She’s participated in training for the last two days, it’s just whether there’s enough time for it to be strong enough, good enough to play on Wednesday,” Clarkson said.
“We wanted to get through today’s training session to make sure everybody else is healthy because we want to avoid moving too many parts so, ideally if Megan’s not available, we can do a straight swap.”
Through their first two games of the abridged season, the Dash’s attack seems to have rediscovered itself, too. Forward Rachel Daly and midfielder Shea Groom are still tied for second in the tournament with a pair of goals scored.
But the Dash have failed to score in their last three matches. They would like to snap that streak Wednesday,
although Clarkson has said he’s comfortable having to lean on Campbell in penalty kicks if necessary.
“Although we haven’t scored in the last few games, I think we’ve had some chances and we’re just kind of missing that final piece,” Groom said. “I think that’s been something that we’re going to hone in on these next couple of days for this game against Portland.”
Dash players are focused on Wednesday and don’t intend to overlook a Portland team that earned its first win in last week’s quarterfinal—all eight competing teams automatically qualified for the postseason.
One game away from a chance at a first championship, Dash players are gunning for hardware and respect.
“Respect is earned on the field, and I think we’ve shown that we’re capable of getting that respect,” Daly said. “We’ve obviously missed the back of the net a couple times in the last few games but we’re where we want to be right now. We want to be in the semifinal, we want to be playing against the best teams and for us to take that forward, now we have to keep building the momentum … and make the final.”