Life goes on despite a positive test
A week before the Houston Dash were set to resume their schedule at home, the threat of a positive COVID-19 case first emerged.
A Dash player’s test returned inconclusive last Thursday. She was isolated from the team, separated from her housemate — a Dash teammate — and retested twice more before each cameback with a positive result.
The result stalled Dash (0-1-0, 0 points) practice ahead of their first home game since Sept. 25, 2019. They hostOrlando Pride (00-1, 1 point) on Saturday.
“It came as a shock,” coach James Clarkson said. “We’re able to get back to it (on Thursday), and that will be the first time obviously in over a week that we’ve been able to train.”
Clarkson knows the delay isn’t ideal, but he’s not using it as an excuse with at least twodays to prepare on the field. As for the player who tested positive, he said “speaking to her, I think she’s more disappointed. In the end, she feels she’s let the let the team down, but she hasn’t. These things happen. They’re happening everywhere. It’s unfortunate, but we want to make sure that she makes a full recovery.”
Following her red card dismissal, which strained Houston in its 4-3 loss to North Carolina on Sept. 12, the Dashwill be without defender Allysha Chapman. The team temporarily parted ways with forwards Rachel Daly and CeCe Kizer, who are both on loan in Europe, and will also play without forward Kayla McCoy, who suffered a seasonending knee injury.
“If you go to North Carolina and you score three goals, you would fully expect to win,” Clarkson said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t. I thought first half, we were excellent. We really should have finished the game off.
“To have (Chapman) missing for almost the whole of the second half and then this weekend is big loss. We’re looking at a couple of options to see how we fill that gap and a lot will depend on what happens in training.”
The North Carolina match offered Dash players the chance to reassert their Challenge Cup form against the 2019 league champion. They’ll have another chance Oct. 4 at home.
Games against the Courage and the Pride are significant for Dash players two months removed from their Challenge Cup title. They are the two teams Houston didn’t face on the road to its title, which some have dismissed as illegitimate because some of the league’s top players did not compete in the tournament.
“I think we’ve been a team for years that’s kind of been doubted,” forward Nichelle Prince said. “We’ve kind of been underdogs for a really long time. I think even after winning the Challenge Cup, people still had these comments that maybe we weren’t the best team in the tournament. So I think we’re coming out playing these games and really trying to make a point.”
Players can make that point in front of a limited number of fans on Saturday. Following the team’s socially distanced championship parade this summer, Clarkson said next season’s opener will be more focused on celebrating with fans, rather than Saturday’s game.
“I think the biggest celebration will probably be the first game of next season,” he said. “Hopefully we’re through this and we can have as many fans in as possible and things are coming back to some sort of a normal.”