Houston Dash vs Orlando Pride Preview: Dash look to jump up in standings against Pride

The Houston Dash host the Orlando Pride in their second game of the week on Saturday.

The Dash kept their playoff hopes alive thanks to their mid-week 3-1 win over the Boston Breakers. Kealia Ohai scored a brace in the game and she has been on fire scoring seven goals in the last six games. Also, scoring for the Dash was Carli Lloyd who returned to the lineup for her first game post-Olympics. The Dash held Boston scoreless until stoppage time when they gave up a goal to Natasha Dowie. While the goal didn’t put them in danger of dropping points it did bring up concerns of the Dash’s inability to close out games. Multiple times this season (and in previous seasons) the Dash have struggled to close out games and come away with all three points from a match.

Winning against the Orlando Pride is crucial for the Houston Dash this week. The Pride are one spot above the Dash in the standings with a two point lead. A win would help the Dash switch places with them in the standings. A loss would kill any hope of the Dash getting a playoff spot.

The Pride are coming off a 2-1 loss to the Washington Spirit. Sarah Hagen was able to find the back of the net for the Pride scoring her second goal of the season. The Pride had eleven shots in the game against the Spirit with three shots on goal.

Against the Pride the Dash will need to keep an eye on Kristen Edmonds who leads the team with four goals this season. The Pride just announced this week that they had signed Australian Lisa De Vanna. The strikers is one of Australia's top scorers and will bring more offense to a team that has scored 15 goals this season. She will be joining the team pending her P-1 visa and ITC.

The game kicks off at 7:30 pm CT on Saturday at BBVA Compass Stadium.