Here are three takeaways from Houston Dash 2-1 home loss to Utah Royals FC:
Costly mistakes
The Houston Dash were 15 minutes from securing a vital three points at home. Three points that could have moved the Dash within striking distance of a playoff positioning, but a couple of mistakes late in the game erased that.
The mistakes weight heavy on Dash head coach Vera Pauw’s mind.
“If we don’t make mistakes, we win. It’s now four games that we have given away, that is 12 points,” Pauw said. “We have given it away ourselves, and that’s with little mistakes and huge mistakes, and every time the same mistakes, and at a professional level you cannot do that – you will not make the playoffs.”
Playoff push mentality
The Dash aren’t out of the playoff race just yet, but the loss does make it tougher to get there. With five games remaining in the season, all of them could be considered ‘must-win’ games and it starts against New Jersey Sky Blue.
“I think these last games are obviously ‘must-win’ games, and I think we need to go into them just thinking we have to get three points in any game that we possibly can,” Dash captain Kealia Ohai said.
“Again, I think it’s those small moments that we need to have a little bit tighter mentality and just don’t let them score. I think we will obviously move forward and bounce back from this but next week is a must-win for us.”
Failure to finish scoring opportunities
Utah Royals scored in the 77th and 83rd minute to go up on the Dash 2-1 but Houston had plenty of opportunities in both halves of the game to be up by more than one score. It’s a point that Veronica Latsko, who scored for the Dash, and Pauw made sure to bring up in the post game.
“I thought that we were the better team. I thought that we had the better chances, and if we finish another one or two of those chances, we put away the game,” Latsko said. ” Obviously, we fought hard, and credit to Utah – they finished the chances they got – and we just need to focus on that going forward, being more efficient and more effective.”
Pauw said the Dash should have had three or four goals by the time Utah got on the scoreboard.
“Until the mistakes, Utah hardly had any chances, and we had the chances and didn’t score,” Pauw said.