(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)

Aug. 16, 2017 at Seminole Soccer Complex

Availability: HC Tom Sermanni, DF Ali Krieger

HC Tom Sermanni

With a 5-0 win over Sky Blue FC on Aug. 12, the Pride moved into fourth place of the National Women’s Soccer League standings.

[Training’s] been upbeat, but, in fairness, I think the players have been terrific all season at training. It’s easy to be upbeat when things are going well. We’ve had a, obviously, great week last week with the results—pushed us into the top four. But I think where the players deserve credit is when we’ve been having some tough weeks, and they still turn up at training full of enthusiasm and ready for work.

It’s business as usual, but obviously results do change the environment a little bit. It becomes just that a little bit more relaxed, and you’ve gotta be careful it doesn’t become too relaxed. And, you know, obviously, you feel maybe a little less pressure when you’re getting good results as you do when results aren’t going your way. Well we’ve just gotta keep on top of each other. We’ve gotta make sure that the level of training stays high, so although you can be relaxed when you’re not in that actual training environment—as soon as you walk across that white line, you’ve gotta be ready to go regardless of results are going well, or they’re going badly. And what’s important is that you keep the standard, and that’s up to us as coaches to make sure that we’re on top of our job and to make sure the players are on top of their job.

The Pride didn’t get their first win until the fifth game of the season. Sermanni said his side has hit its stride “results-wise.”

Well, we have [hit our stride] results-wise. Yeah. So, we hope so. I think I’ve said before we’ve had a false stones (?) this season, but we’ve always felt we’ve been getting close, and I think the difference, particularly in the last couple of games, is that we’ve scored goals and got ourselves in front. And I think that’s been a key thing to give us momentum. Because what that does is it means that teams then have to come out and play against us. And when that happens, they become vulnerable, particularly with the potency that we have in attack. Whereas what’s been happening before is that teams basically have been bunkering in and hitting us on the breaks. So, if we can continue to get early goals and get in front, then I think we can keep this momentum going.

Early goals are what have helped Sermanni win games lately. The Pride scored their fastest-ever goal in the fourth minute in the win over Sky Blue, courtesy of Alex Morgan.

Big time. We need to start well. We need to start positively. We need to start quickly, and we need to get straight at Boston and really put them under pressure.

The Pride travel to face the Boston Breakers on Saturday at 8 p.m.

Well-organized team. They’ve been a bit disrupted with injuries, so you kind of—it’s hard to plan right now what they’re going to look like because they picked up a couple of injuries at the weekend. They have a game tonight. So, they’ll be like most of the teams in this league. They’ll be very well-organized, they’ll be hard-working, they’ll be robust, and they’ve got a couple of quality players in the team, particularly Adriana Leon is playing very well up front at the moment, and she’s a handful when she’s playing well. And Rosie White in midfield is very creative. So, those two could cause us some problems.

They’ve tended to play a 4-4-2 or a 4-1-4-1. So something around that kinda system they’ll play in. And I’m assuming they’ll do something similar against us because, you know, what they’ll want to do—again I can’t guarantee this, but if I’m looking at us, what they’ll want to do is not have the game stretched. They won’t want an open game. They’ll want to keep it tight. So I think they’ll sit behind the ball, and they’ll try to hit us in the break.

Boston is No. 9 in the NWSL standings.

Again, it’s one of those—we talk about must-win games. Again, you know, we’re at the stage where these next few games are going to that category. Now, I can’t guarantee we’ll win them, but they go into that category that if, you know, if we can beat Boston and win again next week, you got a chance—then we go on a little bit of a run that we’ve talked about, and then you’ve got a chance of a little bit of separation that gets you in that top four with just a little bit of breathing space. So that’s what’s important about these next couple of games.

Over the Pride’s recent run of form, Sermanni has seen his team’s process yield results.

Just continuity. I think we’re beginning to see players really more comfortable playing with each other. And that, you know, that’s a process. It takes time. And then eventually, you hope that it starts to click, and I think what I’ve seen in the last few games is that clicking. So the timing of our passing, the rhythm, the support play has all been much better. And, again, that just is about players becoming more familiar with what other players are going to do. So, you know, if we can keep that continuity, we’ve also been fortunate that we’ve had virtually a fully fit squad for a long period of time. So that helps build that consistency. So if we can keep that up, I think we can keep building and getting better.

For Sermanni, who’s seen his team win the last two of three matches, the difference between the beginning of the season and the Pride’s current form is “consistency.”

Consistency. Two things. Probably more than two things. Obviously two things and then list three or four. I think consistency. We’re more consistent in our performances. Our defensive discipline has been better and more switched on in that areas. And I think our, if you like, big players have really turned up on stage now and produced the goods for us. And when you put all those factors together, then results usually come.

Morgan and Marta Vieira da Silva played together in 2011 for the Western New York Flash.

I would say it’s had to be renewed. You go back to 2011. That’s a long time ago. Probably a different style of football to what we play. So, you know, that’s one of those things where we say you need time to build up these things. And so they’ve started now to play a few more games together, and, you know, if you look at the last two games, they’re really, very much on the same page. And then what that does is that fosters other sort of relationships around those two, and if you see that now with Jas Spencer the other night. So, it looks like all the players are on the same page and in the same rhythm. So that’s what we’re beginning to see now, and, as I say, with Marta and Alex being able to do that, we’ve got a really potent strike force.

The Pride’s win over Sky Blue was their highest-scoring performance in team history.

I don’t know. I think if you look at it in terms of results, certainly, obviously it is. And finishing the game off early. And I think what we did after we finished the game off after that 55 or 60 minutes is where I think was our best performance is that we killed the game after that. I thought we managed the game extremely well. So that was, I think—you know, if you look at all those factors, it was probably our most complete performance.

DF Ali Krieger

The Pride were given Sunday and Monday off after a week of three games.

Really good. Really good. We’ve had a great week of training so far. Obviously, we had off on Sunday and Monday to kinda recharge ’cause the last week was, you know, three games in a week, so that was really tough for us. So I think we needed that to recharge and re-energize. And we came into training yesterday and today just 100 percent, and everyone’s ready to go and continuing on this winning streak and excited for our trip to Boston.

I personally had a beach day just to relax. I went to St. Pete, so that was really exciting. And just refresh and get away sometimes. That’s helps me, personally, so that was nice to just kind of get away and maybe outside of this environment a little bit to mentally refresh and then kinda come back into it 100 percent.

For Krieger, continuing to score is the Pride’s key to beating Boston. So far this season, the Pride have scored the most goals in the NWSL.

Just be consistent and confident and continue our success in the final third that we’ve had in the past two games, and I think that we’ve done such a good job of just finally coming together and really playing the way that we wanna play and in organized fashion, managing the games and doing really well just possessionally and keeping the ball. And playing the way that we’ve envisioned this entire season that we’ve wanted to play. And it’s all finally coming together, so it’s just to continue that and be consistent and confident.

As she has gotten older, Krieger said she needs to focus more on physical recovery. But she emphasizes mental recovery is just as important.

It just depends. Sometimes a little bit of both. Obviously, you know, as I get older, I gotta take care of my body a lot more than maybe when I was younger. So I do the proper recovery in the morning, and then, you know, get the rest of my day going. But a mental break is obviously just as important when you, you know, are just kinda stressed and thinking about football and everything around it so much that, you know, sometimes you just get too stressed and maybe anxious. And so I think that kind of getting your mind off of things and the stressful moment because you’re under pressure so often. Obviously we can thrive in those moments, but then you need to refresh and get the energy back in order to continue the next, hopefully, seven games.

This week in training, Krieger has seen her team excited from the movement in the standings, but she’s also seen her team handle the success professionally.

A little bit of both. You know, obviously, we’re really excited to be in the position that we are right now in fourth place, and that’s exactly where we’ve envisioned our team to be, and this is exciting for us. We just have to keep on that track and not lose that momentum. You know, we can’t just, like, be satisfied with where we’re at right now. We have to continue to get better every single day, continue to want more and continue to win. And continue to be in the top four, and that’s now being consistent and confident all the way through and really taking these games and building off of them. And maybe next game scores six goals, seven goals and continue to just get better as a group. But it’s obviously bringing that happiness and energy, but you’re also—this is business, and this is, you know, a winning team, and where we wanna be is on that platform at the end of the year, so every single training, you have to put everything into it and stay focused for the next match on Saturday.

For Krieger, finding consistent personnel has helped the Pride have the success they are having in the end of the season.

It’s a little bit of personnel as well. I think also just gelling together. It takes a little bit of time. Obviously, from last year to this year, there’s, you know, maybe very few or a handful of players that were here last year. So, I think it’s really tough at the beginning of the season to kind of bring everyone together and expect you to, you know, be phenomenal at the very beginning of the season. So I think as long as you’re building up, and you’re going up, up, up instead of maybe starting high and then going low, I think that is, you know—and the place that we’re at right now is exactly where Tom and the team, you know, I think needs to be and wants to be, and we all have a really great mentality. We all knew the final plan. This is what we envisioned as a group, and this is how we’re gonna get there. So now we’re just continuing that each week, and I think we’re definitely all bought in mentally, physically, emotionally, and all of our energy, as a group, is put into these games and to the training up into these games and matches. And we understand that every single one of these games is very important, and the most important game of the season. So that’s how we’re kind of envisioning that and mentally preparing and staying confident.

Goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris returned for her first game since May 21 in the win over Sky Blue. In her stead, Aubrey Bledsoe worked between the posts, averaging just 1.4 goals against per game.

You know, I have to credit all of our goalkeepers. They’ve all done a tremendous job and especially with Aubrey just jumping in and doing her job. That’s what she has to do, and that’s what she’s ready for, for those 10, 11 games that she played for was tremendous to have her in. And you have this feeling that, you know, such depth within the goalkeepers. But, you know, obviously, with Ashlyn’s leadership, her confidence, her organizing, just her natural attitude, that is unmatched, and I think that that is something that is really healthy coming out of the back. I, obviously, was losing my voice every single game. I know Aubrey—Aubrey might have, you know, had lost her’s as well. But, you know, I felt like I was screaming so much, and it’s so nice to have another leadership voice back there to help organize and, yeah, just that confidence. But both goalkeepers, obviously, or all three or four of our goalkeepers, have done a tremendous job this season. And that’s what their job is. Their job is to come in, to play their role, to give it their best, and, obviously, Aubrey has done that really well, and Ashlyn is now back in that confident leadership role back there, which has helped tremendously in this game moving forward.

Krieger has seen the Pride’s forwards step up throughout the season.

You know, obviously, at the beginning of the season, not having her here, you can see that that, you know, was a little bit frustrating with, you know, not having maybe that power up top along with Marta and our other forwards that we have. So now having her in and kind of seeing her build her confidence, especially just coming back from an injury. That’s always difficult as well. But once she starts scoring and has that breakaway game, then, each game, you know, you’re wanting more and more, and she’s getting confidence and, you know, building so much leadership into that role, which helps in the front. And then it’s just magic between Marta and her and Chi [Ubogagu] and Jas and Jamia [Fields] and, you know, Rachel [Hill] and all the forwards that are around them. They’re just making each other look really good, and that’s exactly what we wanna do. You have to make your teammates look good and, you know, be consistent and confident, and I think that they’ve done a tremendous job. She’s obviously built her confidence the past two, three games, and she’s just kind of moving forward and scoring goals, and that’s what we need her to do, and that’s her job, and she knows it. So she’s gonna—every chance she gets in front of the goal, she’s gonna try and put it away.

For more on the Pride, as they look to create some separation between themselves and the bottom six of the NWSL, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.