(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)

Sept. 28, 2017 at Seminole Soccer Complex

Availability: HC Tom Sermanni, CB Ali Krieger , RB Kristen Edmonds

The Orlando Pride travel to face the North Carolina Courage on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

So far this season, both teams each have a 3-1 win over the other.

North Carolina won on April 29, the Pride’s third game of the season.

Orlando won on May 14 in their fifth game of the season.

Both teams have solidified two of the four playoff spots in the 2017 National Women’s Soccer League Playoffs.

North Carolina will officially be the No. 1 seed and host their semifinal matchup.

An Orlando win and a Chicago Red Stars loss this weekend would propel the Pride to the No. 3 seed.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “[Playing our bench players is] not so much about giving time. It’s about getting our preparation right for a week [from] Saturday or a week [from] Sunday, depending when the game is. And it’s trying to keep that, you know, the rhythm and the momentum in the team that we’ve had going in the last, you know, seven or eight games. So, it’s more about us sitting down and looking and thinking the key thing for us is to be ready for, as I say, a week [from] Saturday, week [from] Sunday and what do we need to do this weekend to do make sure we do that as best we can.”

“No, [playing non-regular players would] be great. We need to get players playing time. It’s really hard. You know, we’ve got a great—you know, I said it at the start of the season. There are 20 players, and this season’s going to work out differently for all those 20 players. Some are going to exceed their expectations, some are going to get frustrated, some are gonna be bit players. So there’s all that in the team. And, you know, we’ve got a group of players that, you know, of late, in particular, have not had much game time simply because of the circumstances that we’re in. And they’ve been magnificent. Again, turn up to training every day, fully motivated, doing whatever we ask them to do, being really committed to the team, and, hopefully, we’re able to reward that by game time. It’s just sometimes it’s not often possible, but it’s just part of the modern-day game. But, if we can do it, that’d be great.”

“[North Carolina’s] got pace up front. They’re a very direct team. They’re a team that’s used to winning. Again, a team that’s been very stable this year. They don’t give very much away defensively, and they’re just a difficult, physically very, very strong.”

“I think people will know what we’ve got, and we know what they’ve got, so, you know, you might be juggling a player here or there, but I think, ultimately, we will be able to know at least nine of their starting 11, if not 10, if not 11 of their starting 11, and they’ll probably know the same for us. So it’s not really a case of trying to hide things ’cause there’s nothing there to hide. It’s about us sort of going out and continuing to perform like we’ve been doing and playing the type of game that we’ve been trying to play, you know, for most of the season.”

CB ALI KRIEGER: “We’re gonna prepare like normal. We’re gonna go out there…and get the job done and continue on this path that we’ve been on. We don’t really wanna, you know, get out of our game too much, and, mentally, I think it’s really good just to stay on that—on course and on the winning path that we have been, the successful path that we have been. You don’t wanna mess up the lineup too much just to get out of sorts. So I think it’s important to stick to the plan and, you know, stay game fit for everyone and kinda stay focused and keep the team together as much as possible going into the playoffs.”

“Yeah, you know, they’re very athletic, and they’re very fast, especially up top. So, we have to just be prepared, and that’s, you know, be on our back foot so much so—be on our front foot and anticipate those balls that are gonna be coming in behind, and if that’s giving us enough space to drop off and to win those balls or, you know, be there when the ball arrives and to win those tackles and just be on our front foot and be prepared to expect those long balls in behind and just that fast pace up top, and they’re very athletic, so the athleticism is gonna be key to kind of match and the effort for us on our side.” “Really nice [for bench players to get minutes against North Carolina] because they’ve worked so hard this season. You know, they have to work just as hard as we do in order to keep everyone on the same, you know, level of fitness and strength in order to go out there and perform the way that we perform. So, they deserve it, and they deserve the opportunity, and they’ve earned it. They’ve worked, you know, so hard this year and every day in training, coming in on their days off and staying after extra and doing the work, and you really can tell that how much growth those players have had, who haven’t really gotten the minutes, but it doesn’t—I feel like it doesn’t, you know, phase them. They’re here because they know that they deserve to be here, and when they get their opportunity, they’re prepared to step in and get the job done, and that’s what’s so nice to see out of this team, and you’re only as good as your weakest link. So, everyone’s putting fire underneath of everyone else, and I think that that’s been what has been so positive and healthy for us to be in the position that we are this season.”

RB KRISTEN EDMONDS: “Well, I mean, we’re gonna take whatever spot we take because once the playoffs come, whether we play North Carolina or Portland, everybody’s gonna bring their best game. So, obviously, the travel would be better to go to North Carolina, but it’s also gonna be tough if we have to play them back to back. So, whichever team we have to play, we’re gonna go into this weekend trying to get another W so we can bring momentum into the playoffs, and then, if we have to play North Carolina back to back, then this game’s gonna be even more important because whoever wins or has the better game is gonna bring more confidence into the very next one.”

“I mean, they’re very athletic all over the field. Obviously, their speed up top is an issue for any team, and they’re very organized. They don’t let in many goals. I think they might be one of the—they might have one of the lowest goals-against [statistic], as a team, so it’s gonna be a dog fight this weekend, and we’re prepared for it.”

“Yeah, definitely [past success against the Courage gives us confidence]. I mean, the last time we played them, we scored a few. So, I mean, that definitely gives us confidence going into this game, but, also, we’ve been playing really well as a team, and multiple people have been scoring goals. So, we’re going in confident, and we’re gonna bring it to ’em.”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s gonna be good experience for anybody on the field. Obviously, going into playoffs, we want to, you know, kinda tweak what we need to tweak, but, yeah, for anyone who maybe doesn’t have as many minutes and, you know, gets to come on, it’s still a huge game for us this weekend. So, everyone, the 11 playing at the time and then whoever comes in to help us, you know, try to get this victory this weekend is gonna be extremely important.”

“Yeah, I mean, you’re only as strong as your weakest player, so all 20 of us are just as important as No. 1. So, these trainings is where we get better. It doesn’t just happen on the field. You know, we’re out here working every day, so everyone is just as important as the last, even if somebody’s not rostered, and they come in and train with us, they’re just as important when they step on the field with us because everyone’s making everyone else get better and be more competitive as a team.”

“Yeah, I mean, we tried to, you know, get a little bit of rest early this week, but, now, we’re preparing for this weekend, and we’re right back into everything. We travel tomorrow, and we’re gonna get another good training session in so that we’re we’re ready to go on Saturday, ready to go and bring that momentum into the playoffs.”

“I don’t think there’s any ‘taking it easy.’ We’re all extremely competitive, and, regardless of if this game means something or doesn’t, it means something to us. So, you know, we’re all gonna go in and give 100 percent. Nobody wants to come out on the losing end. So, we’re all gonna give it our best.”

Edmonds had been dealing with a calf injury that kept her out for three weeks.

Left-back Steph Catley experienced knee pain that forced her to withdraw from a 0-0 draw with the Portland Thorns early in the second half on Sept. 23.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “Yeah, everybody’s good. I mean, Steph’s knee is, obviously, something that she’s probably going to have to manage from now to the end of her career. But she’s good. Everybody’s healthy. Everybody put in a full session, and everybody survived it so far… So, at this stage in the season, we’re in good shape.”

“We’re still not 100 percent sure of our starting lineup. Again, we’re balancing out whether we safeguard players or whether we keep players in so we keep our rhythm and momentum going. Obviously, when you’re playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, then you’re more inclined to rest players. Sometimes resting players for two full weeks can be actually more detrimental than it can be beneficial.” RB KRISTEN EDMONDS: “Yeah, I feel 100 percent. Calf feels good. Fitness feels good. I was a little tired in the last game, but I just kinda needed to get that one under my belt to, you know, get back into the swing of things, being out three weeks. But I’ve been back with the girls for a while now, and we’re all ready to go.”

Against the Thorns, the Pride suffered 17 fouls compared to committing six of their own.

Despite the large discrepancy in fouls conceded, both teams each received one yellow.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “That wasn’t more so—I mean, there’s always questionable offside [calls]. And I feel sorry for assistant referees in a lot of offsides. They’re difficult ones. It’s actually—it was more the lack of monitoring the game, if you like. You know, we—Camila [Martins Pereira], in particular, Alex [Morgan] and Marta [Vieira da Silva], a little bit less so, you know, were giving up some absolutely brutal treatment in the game. Portland committed 17 fouls to six. Both teams come away with one yellow card. They probably were seven or eight, at least, fouls that were deliberate fouls from behind that, in the modern-day game, are virtually automatic yellow cards. And we need our—you know, we try to go out there. We try to play football, we try to keep the ball moving, and teams—are they going to get away with deliberately fouling you and disrupting you, then the officiating needs to seriously look at that and start coming in line with what is expected in the modern game.”

After finishing second-to-last in the 2016 NWSL table, the Pride have changed their fortunes in just one year.

Orlando is now poised to make its first-ever playoff appearance in the NWSL, the first playoff appearance for a major Orlando sports team since the Orlando Magic made the playoffs in the 2011-12 season.

In addition to compiling the fourth-best record with one game to go, the Pride lead the league in scoring with 42 goals and have the third-best goal differential (13).

The University of Central Florida won its first and only BCS bowl in the 2014 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “Yeah, [this is a special team]. And I have seen [a unique commitment by players]. You know, and you see it with the way that players have come back to the team. Often, when players are on, say, international duty and gone away to places, particularly if they’re going to home, they want to actually spend an extra day there or just little things like that. The players get back here straight away. Want to come in here, want to come into the environment, want to train, and that really helps. And when your senior and your key players, you know, like Alex and Marta and Steph Catley lead that, then that’s an example to everybody, and I think that’s what I’ve seen this year that has been really, really positive is that the commitment from our senior players to the team.” CB ALI KRIEGER: “Yeah, absolutely [I see a unique commitment from this team]. You know, at the beginning of the season, we all kind of had to just take a deep breath and not get too down on ourselves because we weren’t in maybe the best decision that we thought we could be in at the very beginning. But, you know, during the season, you never wanna play your best at the very beginning of the season and then go downhill. You always wanna keep climbing and climbing, and I think that’s—we’ve done that perfectly, and we still have the energy to keep going even after these next three games. So I think that we’ve managed everyone really well. You know, we’ve had the focus of these three games in the back of our minds, and, now, I know this weekend—we don’t wanna just sit back and just, you know, blow the game. That’s not our focus. We wanna make sure that we keep on the path that we have been on and stay game-fit and keep to our plan and, you know, just continue down the path that we’ve envisioned, which is being in the playoffs and being successful this season and, ultimately, coming back here to win the championship.”

“[Regarding playoffs, change-wise], I guess it’s the team that I’m on, you know, which I’m so happy that that happened this year. I’m grateful for the players that I’m surrounded by every day and with, and I’ve learned a lot from, you know, playing on different teams, or two teams in this league. And I think that this has been my favorite experience just because of the caliber of players, the experience of players, the years that all of us have been playing football that I think that, you know, coming together, I learn something new every single day. And, you know, going into the playoffs with a different mentality, maybe just wearing a different color, but I have a certain confidence on this team…”

“Like I said, we didn’t necessarily start the way we wanted, but we finished on the path that we assumed we would be on. So, I think that that is something that I’m very grateful for and being on this team in the playoff run, and I think that’s probably one of the biggest differences.” RB KRISTEN EDMONDS: “Yeah, I mean, just being able to extend our season. You know, the goal’s always to make playoffs, and now that we’ve made it, our goal is to be in that championship game and then win that championship. Obviously, last year, we were unable to do that, but, you know, going into the last game of the season, knowing that we’ve already clinched, our next goal is a championship.”

“Obviously, you know, bringing in more quality players [has helped us be more successful in 2017], but, also, we’re all on the same page, and we’re clicking really well. You know, you can have, on paper, the best players in the world, but if the 11 on the field and the 20 on the roster don’t fit well together, it’s not gonna work, and we’re able to be—we’re able to do that. You know, we all play really well together. We know everybody’s tendencies. A lot of people, like I said before, are scoring goals, having assists—we’re able to get shutouts, so we’re clicking on all cylinders, so it definitely helps us bring that into the playoffs, and it’s something that we weren’t able to do last year, but we’re definitely able to do that this year.”

“I mean, it is one [game] at a time, but, at the same time, we do believe that we have one at a time leading up to those three games. Obviously, knowing that the championship’s gonna be played in our home, we obviously wanna be in it, and all of our fans are gonna be there supporting us, you know, if we’re able to get there. We’re focused on this Saturday, but this Saturday—and then we wanna have two more after that, so yeah.”

Krieger has so far played every minute of every game in the NWSL’s newly extended, 24-game season.

The 33-year-old has recorded two assists in her 23 starts and 2,070 minutes of action.

CB ALI KRIEGER: “You know, Tom’s really put me to work—in a good way. I guess minutes, to me, it’s not really what matters. You know, I don’t really think about that. I just wanna help the team win and be successful, so I’ll do anything that he’s, you know, has asked of me, from the coaching staff, along with the players. But, you know, it’s obviously—I feel good every game, and I really take good care of my body, especially that I’ve gotten older. I think that I focus more on my recovery now to get that extra two percent, to be able to play every minute in every game, and I really think that has paid off this season for me. No, I haven’t done that previous years, but I think that’s just because of the national team, and, you know, this is kind of an off year for the national team, so I’ve been able to have a lot more time, but, previous years, you know, with Olympics and World Cups and just different tournaments…you know, it’s a lot on your body, so I think I would take games here and there, depending on how we were doing in the season. So, now, I’ve, you know, I’ve felt really good, taking good care of my body and, obviously, able to do what’s asked of me if I’m 100 percent fit and healthy.”

“Yeah, I hope [to play all 90 minutes against North Carolina on Saturday]. I think—you know, I want to, and I’m just gonna play however many minutes that the team needs me. If that’s 90, great. If that’s 45, that’s great. But whatever’s asked of me, I’ll get the job done and hopefully—I feel like I’m—you know, in the back, I feel really comfortable and confident in being that support for the team and try and holding the back-line together because we’ve been doing so well these past games in the few weeks. So I think that—you know, I don’t want to change up too much, and so we’ve been doing well, and I’ll just continue that path.” RB KRISTEN EDMONDS: “Yeah, I mean, besides her quality, you know, she is a great leader, like you said. You know, she brings our back-line together. She’s very vocal, and then her—she reads the game really well. So, she definitely helps me and our entire back-line being back there. You know, we know that we can rely on her. You know, she’s gonna win those battles, those 1-v-1 battles, and she’s gonna lead our back-line and everybody going forward. So it’s definitely nice to have her back there with us.”

On Sept. 27, Orlando City SC scored a club-record six goals in a 6-1 win over the New England Revolution.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “I did [watch the 6-1, Orlando City SC win over the New England Revolution]. It was fantastic. We got some breaks, at last, you know? The breaks have been going against the lads, you know, in many games this season, and that happens when things aren’t going right. So it was fantastic to see a game where the breaks started going forwards, players started scoring goals. I mean, you saw them—when you saw that happening and the confidence building, you started to see the real ability in the team because, you know, we’ve worked—we’re closely together in this club. And so it impacts all of us—the results of all the teams. And it’s just fantastic to give everybody a boost to see the guys getting that deserved result.”

President Donald Trump recently called for the firing of any National Football League player who kneels for the national anthem.

CB ALI KRIEGER: “I don’t know if I really wanna comment too much on [President Trump’s calling for the firing of NFL players who kneel for the national anthem]. I just think we need to stay unified and just have equality and be unified as a country, whether that is, you know, what the protests are about or not. But I think that we need to—this is a time for all of us to come together ’cause I’ve never felt so separated from, you know—or divided in a country, and that’s so sad to me, but I know that everyone is searching for love and happiness in this world, and I think that we all are very like-minded in that way, and little do we know it. And I think that, you know, it’s the perfect time to kind of bring all of us together and unified and just spread love and equality and diversity and really give each other a chance because we need each other in this world, and I think that’s what’s most important.”

For more on the Pride, as they prepare for their final regular-season match against the No. 1 team in the NWSL, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.