ORLANDO, Fla. (May 25, 2021) - The Orlando Pride (1-0-1, 4 points) begins a two-game home stint at the midweek, set to welcome Portland Thorns FC (1-1-0, 3 points) to Exploria Stadium on Wednesday, May 26 with kickoff slated for 7 p.m. ET.
The match will be available to stream on Paramount+, with international viewers able to tune in on Twitch. Tickets for Wednesday’s contest are available at Orlando-Pride.com or by calling (855) ORL-CITY.
“Another hard game [ahead], a different challenge. [Portland are] simmering in terms of their attacking traits, lots of high quality in advanced areas. Lots of high quality international players and we’re going to have to be at our best again to make sure that we get a chance of getting the result that we want,” Head Coach Marc Skinner said ahead of Wednesday’s match. “We have to go into this game with the same momentum that we created against North Carolina and make sure we give everything in order to pick apart the traits that will be presented by Portland, but also try to defend their very high quality players that they have. It’ll be a tough challenge, but we’ll be ready to go, no doubt about that.”
The Pride enter Wednesday’s match after defeating the North Carolina Courage by a score of 2-1 on Saturday night at WakeMed Soccer Park, the first home loss for the Courage since June of 2018 dating back a total of 23 matches. Sydney Leroux opened the scoring in the 36th minute, followed by a goal from Alex Morgan to double the advantage in the 79th, in what served as the eventual game-winner. Jessica McDonald halved the deficit in the 89th, but the Pride were able to hold off the rally to take home all three points.
With Morgan’s two goals, she sits atop the NWSL leaderboard in goals scored, tied for first with a pair of Portland forwards in Christine Sinclair and Sophia Smith. Taylor Kornieck and Phoebe McClernon currently hold the team-high in assists for the Pride, with one apiece.
Portland comes into the midweek after dropping a 2-1 result in the Cascadia rivalry to OL Reign this past Sunday. All three goals came inside the first 15 minutes of play, with Sinclair opening things up in the fourth minute only to be answered by finishes from Megan Rapinoe and Shirley Cruz in the ninth and 15th minutes, respectively.
To add to the offensive success of Sinclair and Smith to start the year, Portland forward Morgan Weaver holds the league-lead in assists with two thus far in 2021.
Following Wednesday’s match, the Pride will face a quick turnaround, set to host Kansas City on Sunday, May 30 at Exploria Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. ET, with tickets available at Orlando-Pride.com or by calling (855) ORL-CITY.
