The session started off with the question of how the team dealt with the loss of Veronica Latsko and Nichelle Prince to season-ending knee injuries. Clarkson responded by saying that both were huge losses and having them back healthy is a huge upbeat.
Another question that was asked is how the style of play will change now that Clarkson has been allowed to start building his own team. His response was that he was going to recruit players who fit his style of play which is to play more downfield and attack the net. He also talked about grabbing strategic targets, such as players who have already been playing professional soccer.
I asked Coach Clarkson how he sees the team being a contender for the National Women's Soccer League Cup in the future. Since their inception, the Dash have never even made the playoffs. "The team wants to contend. With the offseason moves, the team is stronger. The players want to succeed and we will help them do that," Coach Clarkson told me. "We have a long-term plan to add players from the U.S. Women's National Team as well. We want the best defenders possible."
I also asked how he will improve the defense, which struggled during the 2019 season. "We needed a center back, a right back, and a left back. We feel we got some experienced center backs right now," Clarkson said. "We upgraded our defense by adding some depth," he told me. "We need to have a positive goal difference by scoring more goals than we concede. Last season we had a lot of shutouts, but still gave up a lot of goals."
My final question was how will he improve on last year's record of 7-5-12? "We need to score goals and not give up so many. We scored two goals in four of our games, but also missed opportunities to score more goals," he told me. "We need to win at home and keep the lead no matter what. Our record was not good enough. We could have won more games than we did."
Another fan asked about the home-grown rule, which allows a team to add players from that team's respective market to the roster. "It has to happen. We want those players. Having a platform for those prospects is key."
When asked about how he feels going into his second season, Clarkson responded that it's difficult to judge a coach on their first year since they're working with the previous coach's roster. "What do we want to focus on? How do we achieve it? The answer to these questions will be key to determining how the second season goes." He also said that the players must believe and that the team needs to learn from their mistakes.
When asked about the main aspects of the team culture, Coach Clarkson responded by saying that the team currently has no U.S. Women's National Team players on the roster. "Having players from the National Team on the roster is huge since they bring a lot of experience and depth to the roster." He also said that without any National Team players, the current roster is not as strong as it could be.
One of the new players to the team, Shea Groom, came about in an interesting way. "There was no player who went to Texas A&M on the roster, so we were excited to bring her in. She's a game changer."
One thing Coach Clarkson emphasized is that the team needs to defend home turf and be a dangerous force.
As for the officials, Clarkson said that they were doing a good job. "It's very difficult since there is no Video Assisted Review and many officials do not have a lot of professional experience."
Will the Dash be a contender in the 2021 season? Only time will tell.
