Houston Dash and Racing Louisville Start the Season With a Draw

The Houston Dash and Racing Louisville started the season with a 0-0 draw to earn their first point each of the season.

On Sunday night, Houston received the visit of Racing Louisville as part of Week 1 of the NWSL season.  Both teams are starting this season with a similar mission, which is to qualify for the playoffs. Dash, on one side, wants to validate what they did last season. The Orange finished in third place in the standings, which earned them their first playoff appearance in franchise history. On the other side, Racing is a team who is looking to establish themselves as a winning club in the league and with this, earning for the first time a spot in the playoffs.

Also, the Dash wanted to get a good result in front of their fans under new head coach Sam Laity to gain confidence for the rest of the season. However, two important players were out for the home team. Shea Groom and Katie Lind were not available for this match. So, coach Laity was relying on the other experienced players such as Sophie Schmidt and Jane Campbell to support his young squad.

From the starting whistle both teams showed they wanted to get the victory. It was an even match in all aspects. Both teams tried to pressure in their own half of the field and when they recovered the ball, they generated chances to score. Houston, throughout the match, had more and better chances in offense to get the first goal of the night. Ebony Salmon and Diana Ordonez missed some clear chances in the first half. In the second half, Cameron Tucker came in for Salmon, and she had two chances to score, but she did not capitalize on them. Also, Ryan Gareis was an important part of the Houston offense. Her speed and dynamic game put Racing defense in trouble, but everything was controlled by Louisville backline led by Goalkeeper Katie Lund along with defender Abby Erceg.

The visitors had some chances to score as well. Jessica McDonald on the left side, Shuang Wang on the right wing, and Uchenna Kanu in the center, create opportunities to score, but Houston goalkeeper Jane Campbell and the Dash defense were on point on Sunday night. At the end of the ninety minutes, the 0-0 result looked like the fair result for both squads.

Next, Dash will have two away matches before returning home to start their Challenge Cup participation. Racing Louisville, on the other hand, will host Washington Spirit in Week 2 of the NWSL season.