The Orlando Pride earned their first win of the season on Sunday at home against the North Carolina Courage, who came into this week undefeated and sitting at the top of the table. The Pride played the Courage just a few weeks ago, and lost 3-1 on the road. But for this match, the Pride stepped up their defensive efforts as a team, and knew that if they could stop the Carolina offense from getting behind them, they could control the match.
They did exactly that.
“The key thing-- and again that was part of the defensive set-up in the first half-- is that against Carolina you cannot afford to get stretched. And I think when we played them up there the game was stretched from end to end,” Head Coach Tom Sermanni said after the match. “And we created a considerable number of chances doing that, but they’re such a potent strike force, and so quick and so strong and dynamic up front that they also created a lot of chances against us. So, our game plan this time was to make sure we kept it really tight in the back and try to keep it tight between our lines. And I think we did that because I don’t think they really got in behind us at all today. Anything that they did, they had to do from in front of us and I think that was the difference.”
“We didn’t want them to play through us. We wanted them to play around and up top was okay. Obviously, we just wanted to stay compact, we wanted to have good communication, not allow them to run free on the ball because on transition, that’s what they do best,” Ali Krieger said. “So, we were just trying to disrupt them in any way possible and I think we did a good job of that. Obviously, the first half maybe not so much as the second half but we fixed that halfway through the first half and then at halftime we spoke and we said ‘Look, this needs to get better and in order for us to have a great opportunity and create chances is defensively staying compact and tight and organized. And everything else will follow suit.’ So, that was the plan and we stuck to it and in time, we knew that we were going to create chances and score goals.”
The game remained tight in the first half, and both teams went into the halftime locker room scoreless. But the first fifteen minutes of the second half proved to be exciting, with two goals scored by the Pride, another scored by the Courage, and North Carolina Captain Abby Erceg being sent off with a second yellow card. Once the Pride got the lead, they were able to control the match and stop the Courage from creating strong scoring chances. Jasmyne Spencer came in as a substitute and shut down the game with a third goal that secured the Pride victory.
“Great to get the first win against, at the moment, the best team in the league and the most difficult team in the league to play against,” Sermanni said. “So, really delighted with the effort of the players and the focus today and the way they defended because playing North Carolina, you need to do a lot of defending from throw-ins, corner kicks, and other things coming into the box-- it’s like the Land of the Jolly Green Giants trying to defend against them. So, I thought we did that exceptionally well. We were probably a little bit passive in the first half. We talked about defending a bit deeper, and I knew the danger of that is that you start defending too deep and you don’t actually go win the ball and close the ball the down. So, we ended up getting players behind the ball, but I don’t think we did a good enough job at actually going out there and competing in the first half. However, we defended very, very well. Coming in nil-nil was good. So, we were a little bit more aggressive in the second half, we felt we had shown them maybe too much respect, and I think obviously the two early goals at the start of the second half turned things around for us.”
The Pride will look to continue their momentum-- and their successful defensive formation-- when they travel to take on the Seattle Reign next Sunday.
