FRISCO - The FC Dallas Women’s team fell 3-0 to the Houston Dash Saturday evening in a hard fought battle in the rain.
Both teams had trouble finding chances to attack until the 14th minute, when Houston managed to find the back of the net with a goal from Melissa Henderson. The rest of the half remained scoreless until Houston’s Kealia Ohai followed up in the 54th minute with another goal to make the score 2-0, and Stephanie Ochs solidified the Dash’s lead with a goal at the 71st minute, bringing the final score to 3-0.
Despite the loss, FCD Women’s Head Coach Ben Waldrum said he was still pleased with the team’s performance.
“We’ve had one game so far, and this team kind of came together within the last couple of weeks so we were concerned with our fitness level and not being together and in rhythm versus a team that’s been going through it,” Waldrum said. “So I think, considering all things, I’m actually quite pleased with the performance. I thought the first one we gave up was a little bit soft from our end, from defending and just not being organized. Collectively knowing that we kind of had to sit off a little bit and drop off a little bit and try to pick our moments to attack, I was actually quite pleased with the performance considering those factors.”
The rain was also a factor in the match and at times affected the speed of the game and the ability of the players to get the ball under control, Waldrum said. He also said the team included four youth players from ECNL teams - two from the U-18’s, one from the U-16’s and one from the U-17’s, as well as 14-year-old Diana Ordonez.
“The overall club philosophy doesn’t change even though it’s the women’s team,” Waldrum said. “We take pride in developing our young players, so I think that’s something that’s really important and we were really pleased to see that all of those players performed really well against full time pros.”
Next, the women will take on FC Austin Elite at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 4, at Tundra Field #2 outside Toyota Stadium in Frisco and at 3 p.m. on Sunday against Pines 1779. Waldrum said if the team can play at the same intensity level and speed that they played with today, then they’ll have a very successful WPSL season.
“We’re going to use this as a springboard going forward and I think for us it was impressive and we really appreciate the crowd that was there,” Waldrum said. “It was pleasing to see. We took a count and I think it was close to 500 that were out there sitting in the pouring rain, so we want to certainly thank them and make sure that message is clear, and we hope to build on that.”