Team didn’t meet expectations under GM Alex Singer

The Dash fired general manager Alex Singer after just under two years on the job because the team wasn’t meeting expectations, team president Jessica O’Neill said on Friday.

“Over the past two years, we’re not meeting our expectations of how the team is performing,” O’Neill said. “Ultimately, we arrived at a difficult decision that we needed to make a change in leadership. That’s a role that oversees the entire soccer operation, and an important one.”

The Dash are 12th in the 14-team NWSL.

The decision to part ways with Singer was finalized on Thursday. O’Neill met with players after the change was made.

“It’s a fairly quick process from a timing perspective, but the decision to arrive at that point is not something that we take lightly,” O’Neill said. “There’s a thorough review of the organization and the pieces around the team prior to deciding that we needed to make a change.”

O’Neill said the Dash appreciated the commitment that Singer had brought to Houston, but the results didn’t match.

“She cares deeply about the growth of the women’s game, and had committed herself to elevating the Houston Dash, which she did in many ways,” O’Neill said. “It’s a performance-related role, especially the positions around the team and she understands that.”

The team has started a search.

“We don’t have somebody in mind currently, 24 hours post, but we’ve got a lot of good initial names and conversations that we’ve started having and will continue to have,” O’Neill said. “There’s so much talent across the women’s game.”

In the meantime, the leadership for the Dash will be a collaborative effort.

“We have a technical director and an acting head coach that I will work very closely with on a day-to-day basis to make sure that the team has what they need on and off the field,” O’Neil said. “So, it’ll be a group of us with input from our head of sports science and head of medical and our operations folks to make sure that we don’t let anything fall by the wayside.”

Coach Francisco Alonso has been out for almost a month but the Dash hasn’t said anything beyond that Alonso is ill. Assistant Ricky Clarke has been acting head coach since June 28.

O’Neill said the Dash hope to be a destination of choice for the world’s best soccer players because of the investment from majority owner Ted Segal.

“We made good progress in doing that over the past couple years, but we want to see that translate into results on the field,” O’Neill said. “(Including) consistent playoff appearances and ultimately, championships for the city of Houston that we know are possible with this organization.”