Saturday pits two clubs with very different goals against each other. The Portland Thorns look to keep pace with the top clubs in the NWSL, while the Houston Dash look to keep their heads above the water and help Randy Waldrum keep his job.
Thorns still on top
Despite their surprising loss last week to FC Kansas City, the Thorns are still the top team in NWSL with a record of 7-1-5 and 26 points. The only real “thorn” in the side of Mark Parsons and his club is the Rio Olympics and a majority of his players leaving to play in it. Regardless, Parsons must be happy with how his team has played to this point.
Three different players have scored four goals each, Dagny Brynjarsdottir, Lindsey Horan, and Nadia Nadim. While Canadian International Christine Sinclair has casually added three goals of her own. Portland loses out on seven players for the Olympics but does hold onto high-scorers Nadim and Brynjarsdottir, along with Australian Hayley Raso. So, all is not completely and utterly lost for the Thorns whole their arsenal of attackers is off fighting for a gold medal. The Thorns are still a very dangerous club.
Dashing for their lives
Houston is looking for any good piece of news to hold onto at this point in the season. The Dash lost their sixth 1-0 match last week to Sky Blue FC. On top of that, the club also loses seven players to four different teams at the Olympics. The biggest loss out of all is goalkeeper Lydia Williams. Her dynamic play has kept the Dash in all their games this season. Without her in net, things could and likely will go from bad to worse for the Dash.
The elephant in the room, however, is Coach Randy Waldrum. His inability to use the incredible talent around him to form an elite team is making Dash fans enraged. With the Dash sitting in ninth place in the NWSL with a 2-7-1 record on just seven points, it’s only a matter of time before Waldrum starts looking for a change of address forms. The silver lining in all of this chaos Dash fans? At least you aren’t the Boston Breakers. However, they are one win from Boston and suddenly it’s a whole new problem to deal with.
Score Prediction:
Portland Thorns 2, Houston Dash 0