On Saturday night, the Orlando Pride faced off against the Western New York Flash in the team’s third home match of the season. The Pride won the game 1-0, thanks to a breakaway goal by team captain Alex Morgan in the 79th minute.
“I’ve scored a couple of goals like that,” Morgan said after the match. “When I got the ball behind I took a look up and I saw her immediately off her line… I had two players creeping up on me but the faster I could get off my foot the better… I felt comfortable and went ahead and got it.”
This is not the first time this season that Morgan has scored goals and created scoring opportunities. Last week, she assisted Sarah Hagen and helped create the opportunity for Lianne Sanderson to score against the Seattle Reign. And Morgan scored in the first home match of the season, adding to the Pride’s tally of three goals to one against the Houston Dash. “I want to help create goals and obviously I want to score goals as well,” Morgan said. “I want to create as many chances as I can for us to score.”
“In any team, you have those ‘million dollar’ kind of players and she’s definitely one of them,” Head Coach Tom Sermanni said. “Those players change games. They make games and they win games for you.”
Morgan has had incredible success this season with both Orlando Pride and the U.S Women’s National Team. Some have said that she is playing the best game of her life. Coach Sermanni certainly seems to agree.
“That was classic Alex Morgan for you tonight,” Sermanni said after the match. “When that one opportunity came, she took it and that’s why she’s such a valuable player.”
