Pride feel rejuvenated after international break
With daily practices and weekly games, free time can be pretty rare for professional soccer players. Thanks to an international break, the Orlando Pride got several days off last week and midfielder Kristen Edmonds took the opportunity to head home to New Jersey.
“I just wanted to get home and see some friends that I don’t get to see a lot,” she said. “It was nice to just get away from everything and clear my head for the weekend.”
With the team back on the training field on Monday, the Pride feel rejuvenated and are ready to start preparing for this weekend’s game against the Houston Dash.
“I think it was a perfect time to have a break,” Edmonds said. “Everybody’s back, we’re regenerated; everybody’s having fun in training so I think the break did good.”
Despite a rocky start to the season, the Pride are feeling especially confident after their last game when they shut out the Boston Breakers to earn a 2-0 victory. That win also left the Pride just a few points away from a playoff spot.
“It’s huge. I mean not just a shutout but the whole team performance. We were hitting on every backline, midfield, forward, everyone was connected,” Edmonds said. “To go into a break after that game gives you a positive coming back from break. So, you go into break happy and then you regroup and you come back and now we’re ready to get back to work.”
With three of their next five games coming against the two worst teams in the league, the Pride are looking to capitalize on the easy schedule.
“Our last game, we played really well so if we can just continue that, I think we have a really good stretch of games coming up that we can get a lot of points from,” Edmonds said. “If we could stay on the track that we’re going, I think we’ll be fine.”
With temperature rising around the country during the summer, the National Women’s Soccer League announced new kickoff times for 23 league games Monday. The changes were made to keep teams from playing during the hottest parts of the day. The league also added hydration breaks.
“The safety of everyone involved with the execution of NWSL matches, including players, referees and fans, is paramount,” NWSL managing director of operations Amanda Duffy said in a news release. “These are important measures that will help to ensure the safest environment possible at all league matches, and we will continue to evaluate steps that can be taken in the future.”
Eight of the Pride’s 16 remaining games have been rescheduled, including five matches at Orlando City Stadium. Temperatures are often in the high 80s in Orlando during the summer and hydration breaks have already been a common occurrence at Pride games this season.
As Orlando marked the Pulse nightclub shooting one-year anniversary, the Pride also honored the 49 victims of the attack. Several of the players were slated to attend the Lake Eola vigil Monday night.
“A few of us might head down to that,” Edmonds said after training and before the evening vigil. “Other than that, it’s really just a day to remember all the victims, the 49 victims that we lost and just remember how close this community is and how resilient and that we’re just one giant family.”