It was over 100 degrees at kickoff, the sun dropping behind the west side of the stadium just prior, and Dallas Trinity FC spent most of the evening with the ball at their feet. On Saturday night, The Golden Girls finished with one goal, three conceded, and the same problem they carried out of the opener.
Carolina Ascent FC took three of the few clear chances they built, got a standout night from their goalkeeper, and left the Cotton Bowl with a 3-1 win in front of a crowd of 1,449. In a stadium built for tens of thousands, that number is but a whisper.
The heat and the empty concrete gave the night a strange, muffled quality, and the football matched it for long stretches before Carolina made it count.
Back Three and a Familiar Script
Lee Nguyen made changes from the draw with Tampa Bay. Camryn Lancaster earned her first start of the season on the right wing, and Dallas lined up in a 4-2-4 that became a back three in possession. Carissa Boeckmann pushed from right back into midfield alongside Sofia Cedeño and Jamie Shepherd, Seven Castain played alongside Jasmine Hamid, and Lancaster and Onyeka Gamero held the width.
Carolina was content to let them have it. Coach Philip Poole set his side in a 4-4-2, dropped off, and waited. Dallas ended the night with 68 percent of the ball and 645 passes to Carolina’s 313. What they did not have was a way through, and Carolina did not need one.
Baisden on the Break
The first goal, in the 23rd minute, was exactly the kind Carolina trains for. It began with a free kick in their own half, sprung up the right, ran to the byline with barely a challenge, and worked back and over the top to the far post. The cross found Rylee Baisden, who finished low past Neeku Purcell. Trinity huddled around their goalkeeper. Carolina jogged back to halfway.
“We work on transition goals all the time in training, just transitioning and getting to the back post,” Baisden said at the break. “It’s something we train a lot, so I’m just happy I could get there.”
Twenty minutes later, they had a second. Mackenzie George drove up the right channel, got past Sophia Braun, and pulled the ball back across the face of goal. Audrey Coleman met it first time from close range to make it 2-0 headed to the break. Dallas had the better of the ball and the worse of the scoreboard.
Hamid and a Flicker
Trinity came out for the second half on the front foot, and it took three minutes to show. Lancaster won the ball on the right, carried it, and slipped it to Hamid in front of the six-yard box. Hamid finished as she fell to the ground. It was her first goal for Dallas and the 14th of her league career, and for a spell it changed the game.
“All credit to Cam, honestly,” Hamid said. “She won the ball, and all I knew was to get in the box. I couldn’t really see it, to be honest, but it went in.”
The two nearly did it again minutes later, the same run and the same ball into the same space. “I know Jazz is always going to be in the box for any crosses I have,” Lancaster said. Hamid returned the compliment: “Her work rate is amazing. Our connection has been great since I came in April.”
For fifteen minutes it felt like a goal was coming, but the home side just couldn’t find a way through.
Martinez, and the dagger
The reason it did not was Sydney Martinez. Carolina’s goalkeeper had already turned Castain away in the first half, and in the second she was the difference. She saved smartly from a double chance around the 69th minute, and just before it she got across to deny Sydney Cheesman an audacious effort that looked in all the way. There aren’t many other keepers in this league that get to it, but Martinez was able to turn it away.
The dagger came in the 75th minute, and it was cruel. A ball in behind on the right was squared low across the six, and it deflected off Cheesman and in. An own goal, 3-1, and the Cotton Bowl fell quiet.
Cheesman’s night got worse from there. She went down for treatment around the 80th minute and was replaced by Aria Nagai at the 85th. She left the locker room afterward with her knee in KT tape.
The final third, again
The shape of this loss looked a lot like the last one. Dallas out-passed Carolina 645 to 313, out-shot them 15 to 4, and led the count of clear openings four to two. They finished one of theirs. Carolina finished both of theirs and were handed a third.
“That’s football,” Nguyen said. “The team that finishes their chances usually wins. We control the game, but we’ve got to be a little more clinical, a little more quality in the final third.”
He pointed to the heat as part of it, and to his own side’s impatience. “We rushed it at times in the final third, and that puts us in positions where we have to defend against them in this heat. We’re not able to press as hard as we’d want for 90 minutes.”
One call is worth a second look. With Dallas level in momentum if not on the scoreboard, Nguyen withdrew Lancaster in the 62nd minute and Hamid, his goalscorer, in the 74th, the minute before the own goal. He explained the thinking afterward that the team had begun to lose steam and that he wanted fresh legs to attack the space behind Carolina’s high line.
Credit is due at the other end. Carolina are now the only club besides Dallas to reach the playoffs in each of the league’s two seasons, and this result stretched their regular-season road winning streak – a league record – to eight. They did not play the prettier football. They played the more useful kind. Poole and his Ascent squad ascend to 30 victories, a first for manager and club.
Around the League
The rest of Match Week 2 was also kinder to the road teams than the hosts. DC Power overwhelmed Brooklyn FC 4-1 on Friday at Maimonides Park, with Loza Abera scoring twice, to move level with the opening-week winners. On Saturday, Sporting Club Jacksonville edged Tampa Bay Sun 3-2 at Hodges Stadium. Lexington SC and Fort Lauderdale United were off this week.
Carolina sit top of the early table at 2-0-0. Dallas are 0-1-1 and fall down to 6th.
What Comes Next
The Golden Girls hit the road for the first time this season next Saturday, August 29, when they visit Sporting Club Jacksonville at Hodges Stadium at 6 p.m. ET. Two games in, the ball is not the problem. The finishing is.
