The Houston Dash saw their five-game unbeaten streak come to an end on Saturday night following a 3-1 loss to San Diego Wave FC at Torero Stadium in San Diego.
Houston struck first just seven minutes into the match off of a set piece. After the initial delivery from the set piece was cleared, the ball fell to forward Ebony Salmon at the top of the penalty area. Salmon took a touch onto her right foot to create space and scored her eighth goal of the regular season when she struck it past San Diego goalkeeper Carly Telford.
With her goal against San Diego, Salmon has now outscored seven National Women's Soccer League teams since July 16, 2022. The forward is now third in the 2022 Golden Boot race.
Six minutes later San Diego forward Alex Morgan scored the equalizer before the 20-minute mark. The Wave took the lead in the 67th minute after Amirah Ali scored after a ball was loose in the box and the forward scored in traffic. Sofia Jakobsson scored the final goal of the night for San Diego in the 90th minute after beating two defenders and sneaking the ball into the far corner of the net.
Houston's match against San Diego was the third one played in eight days. "We had a strong start to those three games, which is great but weren't able to finish it out," defender Katie Naughton said in post-game media availability. "We're going to use that as fuel moving forward, Now that we have the time to really focus in and make sure that we pay attention to the little things that are going really get us over the finish line."
"I'm gutted for the defeat because I think we deserve much more," interim head coach Juan Carlos Amóros expressed in his post-game media availability. "We played better but we didn't dominate in the boxes and that cost us the game. There were a lot of positives to take from the game. We will look at those things and build on it."
With the result, Houston are now third in the the NWSL standings. They will host the Washington Spirit on Saturday, August 27 at 7:30 p.m. CDT. The match will be streamed on Paramount+ and Twitch. Tickets are available here.
