HOUSTON – The Orlando Pride lost 3-1 Wednesday night in Houston, snapping the team’s six-game road unbeaten streak.
The Pride are now 7-6-4 on the season.
“(It) was a typical 2018 Orlando Pride performance, if I’m being honest. We’d go through spells of the game where we’d really command the game and step up and then spells where we’d take off the pace and get punished for it,” Orlando Pride head coach Tom Sermanni said. “We started the second half off well. I thought for large spells in the second half, once we got back to 2-1, we had numerous spells to get back into the game, but we didn’t put them away. It was a high-quality football game intermingled with passages of mistakes, lethargy and a lack of focus. It’s just very frustrating.”
Thirteen minutes into the match, weather delayed the game for about two hours.
In the 15th minute, Orlando’s Alex Morgan found herself with a one-on-one opportunity against Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell, but the forward’s shot was denied by the far post. Two minutes later, Houston’s Rachel Daly found the back of the net, catching the Pride on the counterattack to make it 1-0.
Daly doubled the host team’s lead in the 50th minute, volleying in a punched save from Harris to complete the brace.
Sydney Leroux later pulled the Pride within one on her sixth goal of the season.
Houston’s Thembi Kgatlana put the game away in the final minute of stoppage time.
The Pride next travel to Utah for the final meeting with the Royals this season, kicking off against the expansion side at 7 p.m. Saturday.