Thrilled to finally play a match after delays lasting nearly a year
The Orlando Pride have waited too long.
It’s been 343 days since the team last took the pitch for a match. For players who battled cancer and recovered from pregnancy, the wait lasted longer. Veteran defender Toni Pressley has only played 18 minutes during the past 426 days. Star striker Sydney Leroux hasn’t started a match in two years.
The days separating Orlando from the pitch have been hard. A withdrawal from the NWSL Challenge Cup and COVID-19 scares following inconsistent test results. Protests against racial injustice. Three separate, grueling rounds of preseason workouts.
During their match at North Carolina, which will kick off at 1 p.m. and be broadcast nationally on CBS (WKMG-Channel 6), Orlando Pride players are hungry to make the wait worth it.
“A lot of us have kind of a chip on our shoulder,” Pressley said. “With COVID, with the current climate of social justice issues in our country, I think a lot of things combined have kind of fired a lot of people up. When I join training, I’m just raring to go. A fire has been lit for a lot of reasons.”
With13 players on loan abroad in Europe and Brazil, the Pride will rely on a younger group in North Carolina. The Courage, however, will have a limited lineup as well.
Stars Crystal Dunn, Abby Erceg, Jaelene Daniels, Kristen Hamilton and Jessica McDonald opted out of the Fall Series. Additionally, Lindsay Agnew, Hailie Mace and Denise O’Sullivan went out on loan for the year, while star midfielder Sam Mewis signed with Manchester
City. The team will also miss Merritt Mathias and Ally Watt due to injury.
Even without those stars, the Courage were still able to beat NWSL Challenge Cup champion Houston Dash during a 4-3 thriller last week. North Carolina will continue to be lifted by the dynamic offensive presence of Lynn Williams and Debinha, who combined for three goals during the win.
The Courage will provide a test for the rookies and short-term players making up a bulk of the Pride’s roster.
“I expect some players to have a lot of nerves,” Orlando coach Marc Skinner said. “Some players to show me if they can deal with those nerves or whether they need a little longer bit of time to do that.”
For the Pride veterans and Skinner, the key to the NWSL Fall Series matches will be patience.
With 19 players on the roster, the team hasn’t been able to practice with full-sided scrimmages. Eleven of the players are either rookies or short-term contracted players who have little to no prior experience in the NWSL.
“What we’ve asked is that they show the best of themselves and they don’t try and be something different,” Skinner said. “We’re going to expect them to make some mistakes, and we’re going to support them through that process but also then hope to teach them on every single game, every single minute.”
North Carolina’s offensive firepower will particularly test rookie defenders Konya Plummer and Courtney Petersen, who will assume a larger role in the backline during their professional debuts.
Both players bring proven talent and experience to the backline — Plummer captained the Jamaican national team during the 2019 FIFA World Cup and Petersen
was a stand-out starter during her four years at powerhouse college program Virginia.
“You see their talent, right off the bat you can see the experience there,” Pressley said. “Just being in and around training, they’re great people, which I think always helps the team. You want to play with these girls.”
This isn’t how the veteran core remaining in Orlando pictured the 2020 season.
During the preseason, Pressley said excitement ran high throughout the Pride roster. Along with Leroux and Pressley returning to play, the roster was bolstered by offseason moves to acquire Emily Sonnett and Taylor Kornieck.
After the coronavirus shutdown and ahead of the Challenge Cup, Pressley and Skinner both felt the Pride could take on any team in the league.
“We were feeling so good,” Pressley said. “I was like, ‘Wow, we have a really freaking great team, we’re gonna do so well this
season.’ I was so looking forward to that happening and then it didn’t. So coming back, that just added more fuel to the fire.”
The setbacks added an edge to a Pride team that still believes it can compete even despite the adversity of the year and finishing the 2019 season in last place.
It’s been a challenge for Pride leaders Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger, who are working to quickly mold a cohesive identity for a team that has barely trained together.
“This is one of those moments where you just have to dig even deeper,” Krieger said. “In front of those younger players, we have to be really strong.”
The Pride still field a dangerous lineup — top-round draft picks, three World Cup champions, the greatest women’s player in Brazilian history. The team’s competitiveness will rely on its ability to maintain defensive composure, particularly when the other team holds possession.
Against North Carolina, it will be critical for the Pride to challenge the Courage rather than letting the game come to them.
“We want to play our style of football,” Pride midfielder Marisa Viggiano said. “I think the biggest thing is we just want to get out on the front foot, to be aggressive in our attack and be aggressive when we’re on defense.”
On Saturday, Skinner and Krieger said there’s one other important focus for the Pride — enjoying the moment.
Every player on the team desperately missed the game during the months of suspension and quarantine. On Saturday, Skinner hopes to see new and returning players bring a “vibrancy” to the pitch after months away.
“This year is a turning point for this club,” Pressley said. “You’re going to see a lot of players who have a whole lot to prove.”