The Orlando Pride will play their first game in 13 days when they host eight-loss Sky Blue FC on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Thirteen days.

That’s how long it has been since the Orlando Pride played a National Women’s Soccer League match. Fortunately for Orlando (4-3-4, 16 points), that match resulted in a 0-0 draw with Seattle Reign FC, extending the Pride’s unbeaten road streak to five games.

Now, the Central Florida side returns to Orlando City Stadium for its first home bout since May 23 when the Pride fell to the still-undefeated North Carolina Courage in a bitter, 4-3 decision. The Pride will face off against bottom-dwelling Sky Blue FC, which has yet to win a game in 2018, so far.

Historically, Sky Blue (0-8-2, 2 points) and Orlando have mostly played to an even record. Both teams are 2-2-1 against each other in the all-time series. The Pride have won the last two meetings by a combined score of 8-2, including a 5-0 shutout of Sky Blue on Aug. 12, 2017.

Here’s what to expect from Sky Blue when they visit Orlando City Stadium on Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. match. The game will be broadcast on go90.com.

Sky Blue Winless Through 10 Matches

The 2018 season has not been kind to Sky Blue. So far this season, they’ve managed just two results in 10 matches.

Since Orlando joined the NWSL two-and-a-half seasons ago, Sky Blue hasn’t been a perennially powerhouse team, but they have shown improvement. In 2016, Sky Blue finished seventh out of 10 teams with a 7-8-5 record with 26 points. A season later, the New Jersey side finished 10-11-3 and in sixth place.

Despite the team’s shortcomings this season, the Pride are wary of an upset. For utility player Kristen Edmonds, the mentality for the Sky Blue game is the same as for any other team.

“Same mentality, you know, we go into every team [with], especially at home,” Edmonds said after training on June 12. “You know, we wanna go in, get three points and, you know, just kind of move on from one game to the next. So, Sky Blue’s no different.

“You know, whether they’re the No. 1 team or the No. 9 team, we’re still gonna go in, and we have to compete with them because, like I said before, they’re still a good team, and they have some really good players on their team, and we can’t take them lightly at all.”

Carli Lloyd in First Season with Sky Blue

Part of why Sky Blue were as successful as they were over the past two years derives from forward Sam Kerr. The Australian beat out Pride forward Marta Vieira da Silva for the 2017 Golden Boot award, scoring 17 goals last season (Marta had 13).

Kerr was, then, traded to the Chicago Red Stars in a three-team, offseason deal that sent forward Christen Press to Houston (before her departure from the NWSL) and midfielder Carli Lloyd to Sky Blue.

Lloyd has played 720 minutes in eight starts and eight appearances, so far, in 2018. Those are all career-highs for Lloyd in the NWSL over the past three years. Her best season of the three was in 2016 when she scored five goals and recorded three assists in just seven appearances and seven starts.

So far this season, she has scored once and tallied an assist.

The United States women’s national-team regular has made a name for herself mostly on the international stage. In the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, she became the first player to score a hat-trick in a women’s World Cup final, recording her three goals in the first 16 minutes.

Lloyd earned the Golden Ball trophy for the tournament in the United States’ third World Cup title.

“She’s been doing well. I mean, I think, like anything, most of their dangerous situations often come through Carli,” Pride boss Tom Sermanni said after training on June 12. “Because she’s that kind of player who has got the abilities and is a midfield player and an attacking midfield player to actually dribble and to actually get past the defending line.

“So, when you’ve got players that can do that, they’re always very dangerous. And again, Carli’s not used to being on a team that’s losing. So she’ll be highly motivated to make sure she turns that around.”

Sky Blue on Brink of Earning Results

Though Sky Blue have lost eight of their first 10 games this season, their record does not tell the whole story.

In seven of Sky Blue’s eight defeats, they have lost by one goal; their eighth defeat was a 4-1 loss to Seattle on May 12.

Furthermore, Sky Blue have shown they are on the brink of regularly earning results. Their last match was a scoreless draw with the Washington Spirit, their first home result of the season. Sky Blue’s first draw of the season came on the road against Chicago, a 1-1 decision made on April 21.

The ninth-place team has shown it can compete with the league’s best, too. In two matches with the Courage, Sky Blue lost but by decisions of 1-0 on March 31 and 2-1 on May 19. Apart from the three-goal loss, Sky Blue have also competed with Seattle, losing 1-0 on both April 15 and May 26.

“Well, I think, you know, they’ve been struggling results-wise, but, if you look at their last five games, they drew the last game, and the previous four games, they lost by the odd goal,” Sermanni said. “And in each of those games, the game could have actually gone either way.

“So, it’s one of those situations that they’re in at the moment where things just aren’t going right for them. But they’re still a team that are very dangerous; they’re a team that are very well-organized; they’re a team that work very hard, and they’re a team on the cusp of getting a win. So it’s a very dangerous game for us this weekend.”

For more on the Pride, as they look to extend a new unbeaten streak to three games, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.

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