Energized after 1st preseason match
Entering her sixth season with the Orlando Pride, Toni Pressley said this year’s roster stands out.
“This might be the best Orlando team that I’ve been on,” said Pressley, who joins captain and goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris as the only two remaining members of the inaugural Pride roster. “And we’ve had some pretty great rosters in the past, which is really exciting for us.”
As the team prepares for its long-awaited debut in the NWSL Challenge Cup, players and coaches alike felt invigorated after their first preseason match Wednesday against Kansas City. And although Orlando fell 1-0, the scoreline wasn’t the focus for coach Marc Skinner.
“Barring the result, it’s a super positive kind of day for us,” Skinner said.
It was the first time this Pride roster had played a full 11v11. Because some players joined their national teams for last month’s SheBelieves Cup, the Orlando Pride had been able to manage numbers only for a 10v10.
Both Pressley and Skinner noted the major impact made by the acquisition of experienced midfielders Gunny Jónsdóttir and Jade Moore. Their presence allowed attacking midfielders such as Marisa Viggiano to push higher up the field, offering support to the forwards to build attacks without the need to sit deep and defend.
Outside of their tactics, Moore and Jónsdóttir bring an important mindset to the midfield — a willingness to body-up to opponents.
Skinner noted the team’s physicality still needed some refining, but the lack of timidity — a weakness of the Pride in years past — was a promising sign for the coach.
“It was probably more fouls than we wanted in that first period,” Skinner said. “But it was aggressive in a really new way. I was really pleased with some of the aggression defending, but also the ability to kind of attack when we get into those zones.”
The first preseason match highlighted two areas for improvement: finishing and fitness.
Although forwards Alex Morgan, Sydney Leroux and Marta each had point-blank scoring opportunities, Skinner wasn’t concerned by the scoreless outing against Kansas City.
Tournaments, injuries and pregnancy have kept the front line of Morgan, Marta and Leroux from ever playing together with Skinner as coach. As they spend more time playing together, he expects finishing to return swiftly for the entire attacking group.
“We will need to refine those finishing movements, refine those finishing touches,” Skinner said.
“But once we get into there, this is the most excited I’ve been as an Orlando Pride coach. We look like we can create chances, and it’s not always been that way, you know. We’ve got the players that can really punish teams.”
After feeling his team wasn’t fit enough to sustain long periods of possession in NWSL play, Skinner will emphasize endurance training for the remaining weeks of preseason.
Morgan was the only player to log 90 minutes, and Skinner said she was nearly match-fit after the SheBelieves Cup. He said Marta was also ready to play a full game, although she was subbed out in the second half to test out Crystal Thomas.
This year’s preseason is the longest in NWSL history, stretching nearly 10 weeks from the start of training to the first match of the Challenge Cup.
Pressley noted this longer preseason schedule is allowing the team to build both fitness and chemistry.
“It’s long and it’s hard and it’s tough, but I think at the end of the day, we’re all going to be so grateful for this time,” Pressley said.