(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)

Sept. 21, 2017 at Seminole Soccer Complex

Availability: HC Tom Sermanni, GK Ashlyn Harris , F Chioma Ubogagu

The Orlando Pride host the Portland Thorns on Saturday for their final home game of the 2017 regular season.

A win over Portland will give way to the Pride’s first-ever playoff appearance in team history.

If the Pride draw or lose, the fifth-place Seattle Reign will still have a chance to make the playoffs.

Orlando has never beaten the Thorns in its two years of existence, losing all matches by a combined score of 6-2.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “Well, it’s been difficult to judge this week ’cause we’ve had…six players away for the last week and a half. So you’re working with a much more limited squad. Yeah, it’s hard to get a real sense of where we’re at in relation to this game coming up. But throughout the season, we’ve always been, I think, ready to go into games and prepare, and, obviously, this is—these next two games—or, hopefully, just after this game—it’s a critical one. And there always comes those critical times in seasons, and this weekend is one. You just hope that all the players step up for it.” “No, [we don’t feel freer when we play because we control our own destiny]. I think you still feel the same pressure. You still know we’ve gotta get a point—at least a point, anyway. So I don’t think that makes much difference. I think, overall, though, I much prefer to be in our position than to be in Seattle’s position in the sense that they’re waiting and don’t have their…destiny in their own hands. So, I don’t think it poses any particular challenges. You’re always getting different challenges that you’ve gotta go through in the season, and it’s a question of, basically, again, turning up on Saturday and hopefully playing well enough and winning the game.” “Well, part from being a very good team, they’re an experienced team. A very stable team. You know, when you look through their selection over the last two or three years, there hasn’t been that many changes. Occasional changes to strengthen the team, but there hasn’t been, like, wholesale alterations to the team that we’ve had this season. So they’re very stable. They’ve got a very strong dynamic and experienced midfield, and that’s probably where they’re at their strongest and where they’re most dangerous.” “I doubt if they’ll rest players. Players will want to play. It’s hard to rest players. I mean, if I tried to rest Marta [Vieira da Silva], she’d be knocking on my door, and I’m sure [Thorns head coach Mark Parsons’s] got the same with his, you know, big players, key players. They want to play. They want to play games. And, particularly, when you come to our stadium, they want to play in our stadium. So, I don’t think they’ll rest anyone. I think they’ll be at full strength. I think they’ll be keyed up, and they’ll be keen to win the game.” GK ASHLYN HARRIS: “Yeah, we’re feeling really good about this weekend. You know, it’s a must-win for us at this point. We don’t wanna mess around with ties and hoping people lose and all that stuff. We’re coming in Saturday confident and ready to win and get ourself (sic) a playoff spot and, you know, hopefully be in the championship here in our home soil, our home stadium. So that’s what we’re working towards right now one step at a time. We win, we’re in.” “Yeah, I mean, this is what you play for. You know, ideally, you know, it would’ve been maybe a little easier if we didn’t drop points to teams or games we shouldn’t of. But that stuff is in the past. Right now, you know, we’re in a really tough situation. We play two of the top teams who are already in. They have no pressure. They can just come in here and kind of just get their feet wet and continue moving, but we gotta win. And, you know, we gotta deal with the pressure, and that’s part of the position we put ourself (sic) in, and, you know, we’re ready, though.” “I mean, there’s always pressure in this game. You know, that’s part of the sport. Yeah, of course there’s pressure at this point because we want it, and we want it bad. And, you know, we’d be really upset if we weren’t in this playoff spot, so, you know, clearly there’s pressure, but we’ll be able to deal with it. It’s nothing that we can’t handle. We’ve got really experienced players on this team who are willing to step up, and, you know, hopefully we see that on Saturday.” “You know, my mindset’s the same every game is to do what I can do and contribute how I usually contribute, and that’s coming up with one or two big saves that will change the game and making sure I’m communicating and organizing and, you know, getting this team 100 percent ready to produce. You know, I don’t show up any different. I have to do the simple things right and get this team rockin’ these next two days of training and feeling confident and good going into Saturday.” F CHIOMA UBOGAGU: “Yeah, extra excitement, for sure, especially ’cause they’re in Orlando this year. So that’ll be amazing to play in front of the crowds that we keep getting every game, and, you know, hopefully try to get a title. So, extra excitement, for sure, like I said, and we’re just really excited to get everyone back to play this Saturday, do what we have to do and then worry about the future from there.” “I think we all know [that if we win we’re in the playoffs]. So, it hasn’t been, like, too many conversations, but it’s definitely in the back of everyone’s mind. There’s been absolute great intensity at training, and so it’s definitely something we really wanna do. And we’re really excited for Saturday [to] roll around.” “I think just worry about our game [is key to beating Portland for the first time ever]. We know they’re a great team. We know they have great players, but the same can be said about us. We’ve scored a lot of goals this year, and we’ve done a lot better in keeping clean sheets or keeping teams to less goals. So I think we just gotta keep doing what we’re doing.”

Since the Pride’s 1-1 draw with Seattle on Sept. 9, no National Women’s Soccer League teams have played a league match because of international duty.

The Pride were missing six national-team players: Harris, forward Alex Morgan , Marta, defender Monica Hickmann Alves , left-back Steph Catley and midfielder Alanna Kennedy .

, Marta, defender , left-back and midfielder . The Australians returned stateside early Thursday morning.

HC TOM SERMANNI: It just means that you’re obviously limited to some of the tactical work that you might be able to do. You’re limited in the sense of doing things in a bigger area. But, at the same time, with smaller numbers, you’re giving players more and more work with the ball. So they’re getting the benefit of that. So there’s trade-offs in whatever you do.” “We did now, but we had a bit of a scare. I got a text from Alanna Kennedy at nearly midnight on Tuesday night saying that they were on the plane, ready to leave, and one of the foot drops bumped into the engine, and the flight got cancelled, and they had to de-plane, as the modern terminology is. And I thought, ‘Here we go,’ because it’s not like a domestic flight where there’s one and two hours’ time. Fortunately, they got on a flight in about 12 to 14 hours later, and they got here midnight, 1 o’clock this morning.” “Yeah, they’re young. They’re young enough. That’s easy. I mean, I think—you know, science is wonderful with stuff now, but players want to play. And they want to play in big games, and you have to deal with stuff. You never want to put players in any danger, so the welfare of your players is paramount, but players want to play, you know? And, you know, you go back in the day [when] players used to do a day’s work, you know, manual work and then turn up and play a game. We do the best we can, we keep make sure that they’re rested, make sure they’re hydrated. We do all that stuff, and they’ll be ready to play. Definitely.” GK ASHLYN HARRIS: “Well, today, most of the international players have off. So, they haven’t been in. They’re just recovering. A lot of ’em played Tuesday. The Australians just flew in this morning. So it’s a long flight. Just me and Monica are out here today. So, I don’t know. Tomorrow will be—time will tell, but, at this point, for me, I’ll rest when we win.” F CHIOMA UBOGAGU: “Yes, I think [that this team is good enough to overcome not having practiced with national-team players]. I think everyone is the ultimate professional, so whatever situation they’re in, they’re gonna do their best to be prepared for our game. So, the people who were gone, I know they’re focused on, you know, doing well with the national team but staying healthy and staying prepared to come back and, you know, continue where we left off. And the people here didn’t skip a beat. We trained really hard. Got extra touches, so it’s been good.” “I think the team’s still doing what we need to do. I think, you know, the people are still playing the positions that they would normally play in, so it’s just continuing to build the chemistry we built all year and just continuing to keep the intensity, the match fitness, the match intensity, like I said. Like, just everything. Just touches is so important, so I think we’ve been doing a really good job, and I honestly can’t wait ’til Saturday.”

The Pride boast the fourth-best home record in the NWSL, posting a 6-2-3 record so far this season at home.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “Yeah, I think teams come here—they are a little bit intimidated. But I think that’s down to two things, and I think and the ground is part of that. But it can also be an incentive factor as well. Good players come into the stadium—they go, ‘Wow. I’d love to play here.’ So there’s a pro and con for that one. But the other thing is when you look at some of the players that we have in our lineup and the way that Marta’s playing at the moment, the way Alex Morgan’s playing at the moment and several other players, that for me is a bigger fear factor for teams.” “Huge [advantage to play at home]. Like I said, like, our fan base has been amazing. It gets loud in there. So it’s really cool to have that behind you with the adrenaline pushing. So, that’s been super cool, and then as well as that stadium’s unbelievable. So that grass is unbelievable, and we’re used to this heat, so all of that’s advantages for us so we can keep using for Saturday.” GK ASHLYN HARRIS: “I mean, Portland’s gonna be Portland. You know, they’re used to turf. You know, it’s gonna be very different playing on our type of field, and, to be fair, it’s really hard coming to our stadium. It’s not an easy venue to play at. That’s why we’ve been so successful at home. So, the ball’s in our court at this point, and, I mean, if I was them, I would be scared to play us at home.” F CHIOMA UBOGAGU: “Huge [advantage to play at home]. Like I said, like, our fan base has been amazing. It gets loud in there. So it’s really cool to have that behind you with the adrenaline pushing. So, that’s been super cool, and then as well as that stadium’s unbelievable. So that grass is unbelievable, and we’re used to this heat, so all of that’s advantages for us so we can keep using for Saturday.”

The Pride are in an unprecedented form, staying unbeaten over their last seven games.

During that seven-game stretch, Orlando has won five of those matches, outscoring their opponents 16-4.

Orlando also recorded two clean sheets during the unbeaten streak.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “(jokingly) Yeah, I’ve had good teams every now and then.” “It’s been a real good stretch. That’s a really, really, really good—I have over the—you know, when you’ve coached as long as I have, you’ve had times when you’ve had those runs, and you’ve had times when you’ve had the opposite runs. So, yeah, and let me tell you, going through the run we are at at the moment, you sleep a lot better at night than the opposite. So, I’ve had ’em, but I don’t think—you know, it’s a long time since I can remember having a team quite as dynamic as a team that we’ve got now, and if we get it all together at the right day and the right time, you know, we’ve got a tremendous of group players, and, hopefully, going into this part of the season, we can keep that run going and become more dynamic over the last few games.” “I think [we are the best team in the league]. I think we’re the best. I think we’re definitely the best attacking team in the league. I think we’re the most potent team in the league. I think we’re the team that creates [the] most chances than any other team in the league. So when our players are on, you know, we’ve got some unbelievable attacking weapons in our team. You know, we’ve got two full-backs that are virtually wingers. We’ve got—you know, we’ve had 11 players score goals this year. So I think that in itself tells you what kind of team we are.” GK ASHLYN HARRIS: “You know, we were in a really good position. The problem is is we had an international break, and we have, you know, a lot of players flying in from Australia. A lot of us, you know, U.S. players flying in from Ohio, and we haven’t been able to train with the team, so, you know, those things kind of break the momentum, but it’s good to be back in training today, you know, get that familiarity and those bonds connecting and continue just winning games at this point. That’s what it’s about. But we’ll be ready for it.”

Portland midfielder and United States women’s national-team star Tobin Heath is expected to make her first appearance of the 2017 NWSL season after suffering a back injury in early March that has kept her out since.

is expected to make her first appearance of the 2017 NWSL season after suffering a back injury in early March that has kept her out since. Heath played her first minutes of 2017 for the USWNT in a 5-0 friendly win over the New Zealand women’s national team when she subbed into the game in the 72nd minute.

HC TOM SERMANNI: “(jokingly) I’ve told Ash to give her some raw chicken and things like that and not cook it properly. Might get a little bit of Salmonella.” “Well it’s great to have Tobin back in the league. Obviously, you know, you need to be very aware of her, and your one-on-one defending needs to be right, spot-on. It’s as simple as that. If your one-on-one defending isn’t up to scratch, she’ll cause major problems.” GK ASHLYN HARRIS: “Yeah, of course I [talk to Heath]. I mean, we talk crap all the time. That’s what we do. She’s supposed to stay at my house the next two days, and I told her I was gonna give her food poisoning. Yeah, it’s all banter. You know, it’s so good to see her back. I’m really happy she’s back, and that’s gonna present us with a whole different challenge because she was rocking in camp. No matter how many months she’s been out, she was the best player on the field every day. So, she’s gonna be a handful. But, yeah, that’s what we want. We wanna play teams that we play good football, and we deserve to win. And there’s no better team than the last two being the top two teams in the league, and, you know, we play two good teams, we’re confident going into that, having two quality matches. That just helps us in the playoffs. Rolling through teams we can be 4-0, 5-0 isn’t going to prepare us for the big show.”

The North Carolina Courage and Portland have already solidified the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, in the 2017 NWSL Playoffs.

Orlando will play Portland on Saturday and travel to face North Carolina on Sept. 30.

GK ASHLYN HARRIS: “You know, I haven’t thought that far in advance. You know, that’s gonna present some different challenges. But we’re up for it. For me, it’s, right now, Portland’s my priority. Not the playoffs or not the next game or not North Carolina. Like, my focus is on Portland. We have to win this game. We have to put all of our energy into winning this game, and then whatever comes after it, we’ll have to deal with then.” F CHIOMA UBOGAGU: “I think it’s just something we can’t worry about. I think Saturday, we gotta come in, we gotta focus, we gotta get three points. Last game against Seattle, we could’ve clinched it. Unfortunately, we got point. So, I think we just gotta focus on Saturday, focus on that team at hand, and then once we do that, we, you know, we’ll look to who we’re playing next.”

For more on the Pride, as they try to clinch a playoff spot in Saturday’s game against Portland, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.