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Aug. 29, 2017 at Seminole Soccer Complex

HC Tom Sermanni

The Orlando Pride extended their winning streak to four games with a 2-1 win over FC Kansas City on Aug. 26.

Orlando won courtesy of a game-winner by Alex Morgan in the 87th minute.

No, we always knew how good a striker she was, and when strikers of her caliber get on a roll, they look like they’re going to score in every game, and, you know, it’s such an instinctive finish that when we play at that sort of caliber and that goal-scoring ability can come out.

Dating back to Aug. 5, when the Pride recorded their first-ever non-loss against the Chicago Red Stars, the Pride have five-game unbeaten streak.

(jokingly) Must’ve been putting more in the plate in Sunday at mass. I don’t know.

You know, we kind of—we felt a times this season we’ve been on a brink of going on a run, and we sort of targeted those three home games at the sort of beginning of August as real-critical games. And we had a couple of meetings and really, you know, as a group, really, I think we were all kind of were on the same page, knew how important they were. And I think when we came out the end of that with seven points out of nine, we felt really confident in the good possession, and then, you know, it’s like anything, when you’re on a good run, things start to for you. And the opposite tends to happen when you’re on a bad run. So, you know, that’s kinda happened. It builds up their confidence, and we’ve always known that we’ve got a team that are capable of scoring and creating goals, particularly when we’re playing well. So that’s happened. And I think to help reinforce that and to make that more productive is that I think defensively we’ve tightened up considerably. You know, I did a little bit of looking at the number of games. In the last five games, we’ve conceded three goals. In the previous groups of five games, we conceded an average of seven goals. So, not conceding goals combined with us scoring goals, again, you know, helps us go on this run and boosts the confidence.

Definitely. [The offense] boosts everybody ’cause it’s about everybody doing their jobs. And I think, you know, at one end of the field, the defenders the team scoring, they get more focused at their end of the field that nothing goes in the net at our end.

Orlando has just four games left in the regular season.

Very important. I think—you know, we talked about the August games being critical, and then this little run of three games—the Kansas game that we’ve just had and these two home games—for me, are really, really critical. If we can get two wins in these games, it sees us really close to the finish line. So, I”m not looking ahead at the Portland or the North Carolina game at this stage. I think these two games at home have become really critical games ’cause they can decide if we virtually get in there or if the last two games are really gonna be pressured games.

So far this season, the Pride have recorded a 2-0-0 record against the Boston Breakers.

Both teams will meet again when Orlando hosts the Breakers on Saturday.

Like all this team in this league, they’re well-organized. And, you know, what we’re finding now is because of the run of form we’re in, because of the players that we’ve got, we are becoming the team that teams want to play against, but they’re really keyed up to play against because they know that with Marta in the form she’s in and Alex in the form she’s in and our other players, they really need to be on their game. So, the teams that we’re playing against. It’s almost like a cup final for them. So we’re having to raise our game even higher. And then what also teams are doing is they’re taking much more tactical care when they play against us, whatever those tactics are. So, for example, when we played Boston last week, they played five at the back. So they’re keeping things really, really tight. Some other teams are coming out and pressed us really high because we play out of the back. So what we’re finding now—and Boston will be a classic example of that—is that teams coming up against us are putting extra preparation to play against us and to nullify us.

Last season, Morgan recorded four goals and an assist while starting all 15 of her appearances.

This season, she has scored eight goals and tallied two assists in eight starts and nine appearances.

Pretty much hands-off. You know, I think when things are going well, you’ve gotta keep an eye on—there’s times when things are going well, but you know things are about to collapse. So you maybe, you know, get in a run of results, but your team’s not playing well, or they’ve got really glaring weaknesses, and you know that those weaknesses will come back to bite you. So, when you’re in that situation, you need to be cautious about what you do. The situation we’re in at the moment and the form we’re in at the moment and the continuity and the consistency we have—you know, the focus, for us, now, is concentrating on how we play, and then that’s what we’ve gotta keep doing over, I think, over these next four games.

Training players Jocelyn “Jo” Blankenship and Jordan O’Brien were signed to the team on Tuesday.

Well, like all the players, you know, you’ve got a group of players that are starters, you’ve got a group of players that are players that are starters sometimes and sometimes comes off the bench, the players that come off the bench and the players that are squad players that need to fulfill a whole variety of roles. And Jo and Jordan have been magnificent for us last year and this year, have come into training every day and fulfilling every role that we’ve asked them to do. You know, Jordan, in particular, I think has played everywhere from right-back to left wing. So they just bring that, again, the consistency in the squad, as in the people that we are familiar with, they’re familiar with the team, they’re familiar with how they play, they’re familiar with how we train. They do everything at a good level. So, it makes a lot of sense in the situation that we’re in now to bring them into bolster our squad.

Everybody’s available for selection. I mean, it’s as simple as that. Obviously, every week, we want to put out the best team that we can put out and pick the best squad that we can pick. And we’ve got 18 outfield players, now, to pick from.

With the club’s Major League Soccer side on the brink of missing the playoffs and the Orlando Magic in the midst of a rebuild, the Pride could be considered the best professional team in the city.

I hope [our winning is a pick-me-up for the city]. I hope it’s a—when there’s difficult times, and we’ve gone through our difficult times at the start of the season, and it’s great when, you know, Orlando City were winning and do really well then. So that helps, and you hope it helps, and you hope it helps create a positive environment around our working environment. And you’re contributing to the team and to the club. And that’s important for us. As I say, we hope all teams are—Orlando B are obviously doing very well, and Orlando City are on that cusp. I feel like—I think they’re doing what we were early in the season. They’re so close to getting on a run, and, you know, hopefully, our results might, in some way, bring a positive environment amongst the whole club.

F Marta Vieira da Silva

(translated from Portuguese)

Marta assisted on Morgan’s game-winner against Kansas City.

We’ve been training that a lot. So I pretty much know her runs. So I was kinda looking for her. I know where she was supposed to be, so I looked on the first post. That was a great goal. Gave us a lot of confidence, and then we could just end up with a win.

For Marta, she said the team needs to stay focused during its unbeaten streak.

The team is doing really well, but the thing is that we can’t lose focus right now, so we gotta know that even though things are going well, we have a lot to get better on and develop. But, now, with one more game at home, that’s a great opportunity. So we just gotta take advantage of it and make sure we do things right.

The Pride will have a three-game home stand to begin the last four games of the regular season.

That home stand begins on Saturday against Boston.

We’re in a much better situation than we were a couple games ago. But we know that even though we’re doing well right now, all the teams behind us—a lot of them still have good chances, and they’re fighting hard to make the playoffs as well. So we gotta make sure we do things right and really finish strong the next couple games, the next four games, and now that things just depend on us, we know that we can do it, and we gotta keep focus.

Now we look at the table, and we know our situation, and, more than that, we know that things depend on us. A couple games ago, it was a lot of ups and downs, so sometimes we were there, and we were, like, above the line and sometimes not, so that gives you that confidence that doesn’t give you the confidence that we do have now to finish strong.

In August, the Pride out-scored their opponents 13-3.

Yes, there were many, many things, but the fact that we had many games in August, it felt better and improved in many, many fronts. There isn’t one specific thing but many things that made a difference. Now, confidence is the big thing. So we got better, and we now obviously score goals than we take, which is, you know, awesome, but the fact that we’re now more confident than we were before August is what makes the huge difference.

Marta and Morgan played together with the Western New York Flash in 2011.

The fact that Alex always does her best is great and give us a lot of confidence knowing that we can create as many chances as we can. And she will fight for every single ball. She’s always there. She believes that every single ball is possible, so that makes our work even better knowing that we can fight hard and do whatever we can to get her the ball, and then she will always be there and try to score. The fact that she faces every single game, like, really seriously and knowing that affects all the group, that spreads throughout the group, is a great asset for us.

MF Alanna Kennedy

In addition to Morgan’s game-winning performance against Kansas City, Kennedy is also a goal-scorer.

She’s notched three goals this season.

Yeah, I believe I actually followed it up. I was right in line with it. Yeah, it was just a little flick on it at the near post and a great goal for us in at a crucial time in the game. So, big players show up in those moments, and that’s what Alex did.

For Kennedy, the team’s recent form has been attributed to the team’s ability to finish games.

I think we have the belief that we can finish out games now. I think Tom said earlier this morning, you know, those types of games early in the season, we struggled to finish and to hold teams out or to get that last goal. So, I think that’s great to see that we’re doing that now.

Yeah, I think it’s just the results that we’ve had and seeing the team really come together and gel. Obviously, we didn’t have the start that we had hoped for, and it was a frustrating first half of the season. So I think that confidence has definitely come from the results and the goals and the clean sheets. Yeah, it’s just a different attitude overall.

Kennedy hadn’t heard fans say the Pride are the best team in Orlando, but she welcomes the sentiment.

Yeah, I mean, that’s the first I’ve heard. But I guess that’s nice to hear, especially, like you said, a city full of such great teams and professional teams. So I think that’s great for us. We always wanna keep our fans happy here in Orlando, so I think, yeah, that’s a nice thing to hear.

Kennedy said that teammates have been holding each other to a higher standard during the team’s recent stretch of five games unbeaten.

Yeah, I think the training has been great. Each week, obviously, we have to manage our load, but every session is intense, and we’re demanding more from each other and holding a higher standard, which I think is what you need in teams like this in a professional environment. So, yeah, everyone’s obviously looking after their recovery and taking good care of their bodies. Everyone’s fit and healthy, so I think that’s good and good time in the season for us to be getting these results.

The Pride first beat the Breakers 2-0 on June 3 and 2-1 on Aug. 19.

I think we just need to carry the momentum through. We need to—obviously, Boston, we’ve won against them twice, now, I believe, so—but I know [Boston head coach Matt Beard], and I know he’ll wanna keep trying to play in, find a way for them to get a win. So we’ve gotta prepare for that, but I think, for us, it’s important to focus on us and to just get those goals early and sort of just shut down any chance for them to gain some confidence or look to play and just play our game. The possession that we’ve been playing all season has been great. We’ve out-possessed teams every single game, so we’re looking to keep that up.

The National Women’s Soccer League Championship Game will be played at Orlando City Stadium on Oct. 14.

I think that’s huge. Obviously, we haven’t focused too far ahead, but that’s been in the back of our minds for a while now and probably has been thrown around a little bit more now that we’ve been playing better, or we’ve been getting results. I think to play in front of our home fans and in that stadium would be great, and I think that’s a huge advantage. And it’s something that we’ve talked about, and we’re definitely driving to be there in the final, and a home semi would be great as well.

Blankenship and O’Brien have been training with the team since the 2016 season.

Yeah, obviously, I’m very happy for them both. I think they’ve played a huge role in our team since the start of the season, and it can be hard turning up to training and not being able out there with us or not being able to travel. So I think that’s—it’s huge for them, and I think they really deserve it, and it’s good to see them getting rewarded for the work they’ve put into the team, and, yeah, they both deserve it.

For more on the Pride, as they look to solidify their spot in the playoffs for the first time in their brief history, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.