Pride Enjoying Fresh Start as Preseason Opens

A new era for the Orlando Pride dawned on the morning of February 1, with a smiling cohort of new players trekking down to the field for their first official training session of the 2022 NWSL preseason at the Orlando Health Training Ground at Sylvan Lake Park.

Gone are veterans who have been with the team for half a decade, players like Alex Morgan, Ashlyn Harris, and Ali Krieger. In are a group of fresh faces, a mix of NWSL veterans and young risers from the college ranks, ready to make a statement under new Head Coach Amanda Cromwell.

“It went really well,” Cromwell told reporters after the day’s training. “The session had great energy. It was fast moving…As a staff, we’re like little kids at the candy shop. For the first day you expect a lot more rust, and you can tell they’ve been training, they’re fit, they’re ready to go.”

After warming up, the players took part in several fitness tests designed to evaluate their physical condition heading into the preseason. This included a quickly-paced long distance run along with multiple strength tests. Afterwards, the players split into small groups for some on-ball training before concluding the session with a brief 11-on-11 scrimmage.

“If you ask any of my players through the years, our training sessions, they’re always going to be competitive, but we want to have fun,” said Cromwell. “We don’t want it to be too serious. Today, they got to compete, they got to go to goal a little bit. That’s what we want. We always want them to feel like they’re on the ball, they’re being challenged, they have to make decisions, but in the end they’re having fun and they have freedom to play.”

Among those returning to the Pride for 2022 are Brazilian legend Marta and forward Sydney Leroux, who finished last season tied for fifth in the NWSL with eight goals. Leroux told us she’s never seen a roster turnover quite this “drastic,” in her words, but she seemed ready to embrace the challenge of bringing a new group together.

“It’s exciting,” Leroux said following the first session. “It’s a completely new team, so we’ll have to get used to each other, but I’m excited…it’s gonna take some time, and we have preseason to do that. I’m hopeful, it’s something different and something new.”

“The leadership, the veterans are huge with that, just with getting the buy-in with the team,” Cromwell added, also pointing to Canadian international goalkeeper Erin McLeod along with Marta and Leroux. “The ones that have been around the block, so to speak, they’ve played internationally, they know what it is to be a true professional, we’re gonna lean on them a lot.”

The Pride will spend the next couple of weeks focusing on increasing the players’ fitness loads, leading to some friendlies later on in the month that will help them prepare for the regular season to come.

“When you come in here, it’s an intense game,” said Leroux, doling out some veteran advice. “This is a really hard league to play in. So I think first and foremost, you work as hard as you possibly can for the people around you. And that’s kind of how we see this year going.

“We’re working for each other, and the team is the biggest thing, and hopefully we can get that going.”