First-year Orlando Pride players Camila Martins Pereira and Chioma Ubogagu have so far had career seasons in their first year in the City Beautiful.

(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)

ORLANDO, Fla. – First-year Orlando Pride players Camila Martins Pereira and Chioma Ubogagu both had previous National Women’s Soccer League stints with the Houston Dash. Camila most recently played with the team in 2015, and Ubogagu was with the Dash last season. Now with the second-year Pride squad, a new sense of freedom and a coaching staff with opportunities abound have helped both players elevate to new levels in their careers.

For Camila, who recorded just seven shots in the 2015 season, head coach Tom Sermanni has given her the freedom to play in positions she’s most comfortable—namely, attacking ones.

“I don’t have anything [bad] to say about [former Dash head coach Randy Waldrum]. Randy was a great coach, and he helped me a lot when I was there,” Camila said, translated from Portuguese, after training Thursday. “But here it’s been kinda different. So I loved it when I got here. I have more freedom. I feel more at home when I’m here. With the teammates, they’re all welcoming really well. Coach Tom is an awesome coach, and he’s been helping me a lot and giving me a lot of freedom when I’m playing.

“So, I don’t have any complaints about here. I love being here, and I’m really happy.”

The relationship between Sermanni and Camila wasn’t always so clear. For starters, Sermanni saw Camila as a full-back when she was first signed, as it was uncertain whether left-back Steph Catley would return to the Pride during the offseason. But the second-year Pride boss quickly saw the Brazilian’s potential in the attack.

“So [Camila’s] been a revelation now,” Sermanni told New Day Review after training Thursday. “She’s adapted in two ways. One, just her sheer ability and what she’s produced for the team but also her flexibility. You know, we played her…as a No. 10; we played her in the right wing; we played her in the left wing; we played her at full-back; we played her just as an orthodox midfield player. So we’ve literally played her anywhere on the field. And she’s just a really good football player and probably could play at center-back if we put her there, except, you know, she doesn’t like to defend too much.”

It’s not only that Camila is playing more freely, but the 22-year-old also said she’s more mature.

“I think it’s totally different [playing in Orlando compared to Houston],” she said. “Now I’m, like, more mature. I have more goals set, and I’m on the right track, so I think it’s been better for me. When I was Dash, I had, like, probably two good games, and then I was on the bench. So I think now it’s totally different for me.”

As for how she is enjoying herself off the field in Orlando, Camila said she’s happy; that, for her, has led to better play on the field. That’s telling simply in the numbers. Compared to her single-digit number of shots in 2015, Camila has so far taken 22 shots (10 on goal) and has recorded three goals and four assists in 2017.

“I feel like when we are happy in the place that we are playing, you know, counting the club and everything off the field, I think it just helps on the field as well,” Camila said. “So it helps with goals, assists and me being happy and doing really well on the field. So then that makes me happy on the field and also makes me happy off the field.”

Ubogagu, on the other hand, has enjoyed the opportunities Sermanni has provided his players. For the 24-year-old, she said Sermanni and his staff gave every player a fair shot at the beginning of the season and that they “aren’t set in their ways.”

“I think it’s a little different. I’m definitely grateful that, you know, Tom’s giving me the opportunity,” Ubogagu said after training Thursday. “I think the opportunities in Houston lacked a little bit… In preseason, Tom made a point to say everyone was gonna get a fair chance, and he just wanted to see who could compete and who could, you know, fight for minutes. So, hearing that is really nice ‘cause coaches aren’t set in their ways, and it’s fair game, so I was really trying to embrace opportunity there.”

The way Sermanni runs his team reminded Ubogagu of how English Premier League teams operated, too.

“Like I said, [Sermanni’s] not set in his ways of, ‘Oh, like, I expect this player to do this thing,’” Ubogagu said. “If someone who maybe wasn’t in the starting 11 had a really good performance in practice, he’s gonna give you an opportunity, you know? And that’s really cool, and I think it kinda mirrors how the EPL is. You see lineups totally different from the FA Cup to an English Premier League game. And I think when we had three games in one week, the lineup was different every time, but we were getting points, and it was working. So I think the coaches did a really good job of managing the players and playing who they think can succeed against the opponent we’re playing.”

As for Sermanni, he had been looking to give Ubogagu an opportunity since before she was even a professional. While Ubogagu was still playing for Stanford University, the then-United States women’s national-team head coach had his eyes on her.

“So what we saw in Chi was potential. I’d watched particularly when I was the national-team coach,” Sermanni said. “Chi was in the under-23 squad. So I saw her at some camps. Then I was staying on the West Coast, so I saw her play Stanford quite a bit. And what I saw was potential but a question mark on the final product. So, you go, and you watch, and she’ll catch your eye every game with a dribble or a shot or, you know, just getting into space… It’s stuff you think, ‘Well, is something going to happen?’ And quite often it would sort of peter out, in a sense, without a real end product.

“Then I saw her in the league at Houston, who are a good side. And, again, she caused us some problems when she was at Houston. So, the potential is all there… So we’re now beginning to see more-consistent end product for that, and I think that’s the key as it goes along is that we start to see more and more end product from our strikers.”

Ubogagu has already produced more this season in about 200 less minutes than she did last season with Houston. So far this year, she has tallied two goals and an assist on 19 shots (nine on goal) in 600 minutes. Last year, she had just one goal and an assist on 16 shots (seven on goal) in 805 minutes.

Perhaps a newly introduced factor in the equation of more goal-scorers for the Pride has helped Sermanni’s side. Five-time FIFA World Player of the Year Marta Vieira da Silva also joined the Pride this season, and Sermanni has partially attributed the newcomers’ successes to the Brazilian.

“I think a great advantage for them is being in a training environment with somebody like Marta, who barely makes a mistake,” Sermanni said. “You know, it’s what I’d probably call the professionalism of players. So you’ve taken all this talent, and you hope then that they keep producing this talent, and then, at the end of it, there’s a product.”

The Pride travel to face the Chicago Red Stars for a 3:30 p.m. matchup on Saturday.

For more on the Pride as they look for their first-ever win against the Red Stars, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.