The Orlando Pride always knew the first few games of the season were going to be difficult.
A slow start to the 2018 National Women’s Soccer League season has the Pride (1-1-2, 5 points) sitting in the sixth place in the standings as they prepare to face 2017 NWSL MVP Sam Kerr and the Chicago Red Stars at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Toyota Park. It kicks off a three-game road trip.
Despite playing with a consistently rotating squad the past few weeks, Pride coach Tom Sermanni emphasized the level of urgency hasn’t been any different leading up to Wednesday’s matchup.
“There’s always urgency,” Sermanni said. “There’s no extra talk of urgency, it’s approaching every game in the same way to try and win it. I say the first five games, we wouldn’t be approaching this [upcoming] game any differently. We want to keep in touch with teams and it’s important to pick up points [whatever] stage of the season it is.”
Sermanni added he still thinks the team is a few weeks away from being a cohesive unit, but a perfect performance with a complete roster isn’t going to happen immediately.
Orlando Pride goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris avoided NWSL disciplinary action after appearing to shove Seattle Reign forward Jodie Taylor to the ground during a match Saturday, but forward Alex Morgan (hyper-extended left knee) and Harris (hyper-extended left elbow) were listed as questionable on the NWSL injury report.
Some international players who just joined the team may need rest after playing Saturday and Brazilian Camila is still recovering from knee surgery.
“When we’re bringing in players, I know people want immediacy these days in every aspect of life, and it doesn’t happen,” Sermanni said. “We were extremely fortunate last year, we brought in five players and all those players came into the team and fitted in virtually straight away and it all went smoothly. We brought in some more new players this year, and then we’ve had disruptions with players being away, so we haven’t quite got that fluency back yet. That takes time for players to get to know each other.”
The Red Stars sit in second place and boast a 2-1-3 (9 points) record.
Despite some obstacles, the Pride won’t be content with a draw Wednesday night, according to defender Ali Krieger.
“We always want to win,” said Krieger. “We play to win, we don’t play to tie or to lose, so that’s our mentality right now and we have to start getting up on the table or else the first teams are going to be a little bit too far and we can’t let that happen. So, luckily, we play those teams three or four times, but we need to start getting these points.”
Going up against the Red Stars isn’t going to be an easy task and containing Kerr is going to be a challenge, Sermanni said.
Kerr, who scored 17 goals in 22 games last season, was traded from Sky Blue FC to Chicago during the offseason.
“Sam Kerr is a major problem with her pace and ability to run-in behind and just a knack of scoring goals,” Sermanni said. “But [Chicago] has improved significantly as a team, they brought in a couple of players. I think a great thing about Chicago has done is keep a very stable squad over the past three or four years and they’re a group of players that are used to playing together.”
Kerr just returned last week from competing for the Australian national team and hasn’t scored yet this season, but she played the full 90 minutes for the Red Stars during a 1-1 draw Saturday against the Washington Spirit.
Pride defender Mônica said it’s just a matter of time before the Australian international gets going, so Orlando has to be prepared.
“I think you have to expect that she’s going to be good in every game,” Mônica said. “So just be prepared and not let her do much things.”
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