Second-half surge results in deadlock with champs
In the second half of their first and last match of 2020 atExploria Stadium, the Orlando Pride faced an uphill battle.
The team had ceded three goals in the first half to the North Carolina Courage, the reigning league champions whose deadly attacking pair of Debinha and Lynn Williams seemed unstoppable for 45 minutes.
But in the second half the Pride found an answer, with veterans and short-term contract players combining to carve out a 3-3 finish. The match concluded the four-game run of the NWSL Fall Series for the Pride after an emotional and challenging season for the entire club.
“If you believe in fairy tales and stories— obviously, wewould like a winner, but for us to come back in that manner … I think it was a almost a fairy-tale kind ofmoment for the players,” coach Marc
Skinner said. “What I’m really pleased with is the way that we just dug in. We committed.”
Throughout the first half, the Courage caught the Pride defense off guard by slipping balls behind the back line to spring Debinha and Williams free for one-onones with Pride goalkeeper AshlynHarris.
It started in the 19th minute when Debinha streaked into open space off a transition turnover to open the scoring. The Pride fended off the Courage attack for the rest of regular time in the first half, but Williams struck in stoppage time.
She scored in the fifth and sixth minute of extra time, giving the Courage a 3-0 lead heading into halftime.
Despite the deficit, the Pride flipped the intensity of the match when they came out of the locker roomfor the second half.
“It’s definitely been a hard year,” Marta said. “So for the second half, it was a thing about desire. It was to bring something positive out of those games.”
In the first half, Sydney Leroux took an accidental elbow to the head from teammate Abby Elinsky. The collision split open the skin above the bridge of Leroux’s nose, forcing her to wear a mummy-like head wrap for the rest of the match.
But rather than deterring the striker, it sparked an aggressive attacking style that led to the first goal for the Pride.
In the 54th minute, Lerouxworked free in the box and fired off a shot on frame. Courage keeper Katelyn Rowland dove to knock away the ball, but Marisa Viggiano barreled into the box to clean up the rebound.
The goal was her second of the NWSL Fall Series, makingViggiano the only Pride player to score multiple goals this year.
“I absolutely adore Marisa,” Skinner said. “I think she’s genius, and I don’t use that word lightly. She shows maturity above her years. She’s dedicated every single day to be a professional footballer. …
She’s a mouse off the field in stature, but when she comes on the field she’s a lioness.”
Pride veteran Kristen Edmonds was the next to answer, collecting an unmarked ball in the box from rookie Carrie Lawrence in the 71st minute and curling it around Rowland’s fingertips. It was the 10th time Edmonds — who was on the original roster for the Pride’s inaugural NWSL season — has scored for the club.
Despite the second-half flurry of scoring, the Pride still trailed 3-2 during the waning minutes of stoppage time. But that changed when a high-arching free kick from Marta in the fourth minute of extra time found AllyHaran on the back post.
Haran is one of seven players signed to short-term contracts for the NWSL Fall Series, a Wake Forest product who had never played a professional minute before last month. Theinexperience didn’t matter when she connected with the ball for a header, knockinghomethe equalizer inthe final seconds of the match.
“You take every moment that you can and you push as hard as you can,” Haran said. “You try and do every little thing right because every little thing matters.”
The comeback capped a challenging year for the Pride, includingCOVID-19 test results that forced the team to withdraw from the NWSL Challenge Cup. With more than half the team on loan in Europe and Brazil, the Pride relied on rookies and short-term contract players throughout the short run of theNWSL Fall Series.
Following the 3-3 draw, the Pride will now start offseason work and preparation for the upcoming expansion draft.
“We have to come back stronger [and] fitter,” Skinner said. “I just said to them at the end, ‘We’re not coming back next year unless we’re coming to win. We have to come back to win.’ And they all agreed.
“I can see their faces change and they all agree. … I have to go away and digest that nowand thenwe’ll see whowe add.”