Pride say focus is key to their success

Star forward

says there is something special about this year’s Orlando Pride squad.

While she acknowledges everyone would love to win a championship, Morgan said the team’s commitment to the work it takes to be successful stands out.

“I don't know, I feel like there's something unique about this group,” she said.

“I feel like in years past, it's been difficult to get players excited for an extension for the season, to play a couple of weeks extra. I know a lot of players are tired by the end of season, they want to go see their families which are somewhere other than the city they play in, typically. This year just seems different. This year just seems like everyone’s invested. No one has talked what they're doing come Oct. 15 or anything like that.

“Everyone just wants to like be in it, be here in Orlando, and I think that's pretty unique because a lot of times players’ minds are all over the place and that's pretty unique.” Pride coach

said Morgan is right and there’s special buy-in from this year’s Pride roster, noting veterans

and Morgan set the tone for the team.

“You see that with the way players come back to the team,” he said. “Often when players are on national-team duty and are gone away to places, particularly they’re going away to home, they want to spend an extra day there — just little things like that.

“The players get back here straight away, wanting to come back here, wanting to come into the environment, wanting to train.

“And that really helps and when your senior and your key players, like Alex, Marta and Steph Catley lead that, that's an example to everybody. And I think that's what I’ve seen this year that has been really, really positive is the commitment of our senior players to the team.”

Krieger said it took distinctive effort for the group to overcome an early slide that had the Pride stuck near the bottom of the NWSL table. The team never wavered in its belief in Sermanni’s system and rallied to go on a ninegame unbeaten streak, closing the regular season in third place and clinching the first playoff bid in franchise history.

Now Orlando is set to play on the road against the Portland Thorns Saturday. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. and the game will air on Lifetime.

“At the beginning of the season, we all had to just kind of take a deep breath and not get down on ourselves because we weren't in the best position we could have been,” Krieger said.

“During the season, you never want to play your best at the beginning of the season and then go downhill. You always want to keep climbing and climbing. And I think we've done that perfect. We still have the energy to keep going.”

After leading the Orlando Pride to their first playoff berth in its second season, the club has has extended Sermanni’s contract.

Terms of the deal were not released.

“Keeping Tom was a no-brainer for our club,” Orlando City Soccer Club CEO said. “He is one of, if not the, most accomplished coaches in soccer. His track record speaks for itself. I can’t wait to see what Tom and the Pride do in the upcoming NWSL playoffs and beyond.”