Pride lament facing Dash in extreme heat
Orlando Pride defender Ali Krieger suggested the National Women’s Soccer League needs to further alter its schedules due to extreme summer heat.
After Houston Dash forward Rachel Daly collapsed during her team’s game against the Seattle Reign and was treated at a hospital for heat illness in May, the NWSL announced it was moving Lifetime Game of the Week kickoff times from 2:50 p.m. to 3:50 p.m. and adding hydration breaks when the field temperature hits 82 degrees.
While no players were hospitalized after the Orlando Pride’s 2-0 loss to the Houston Dash on Saturday, Pride players said the hot conditions had an adverse impact on their play.
“We could’ve played tonight at like 7 or 8 p.m.,” Krieger said. “… Unfortunately, we had to play at 3:50. I still don’t understand that. I think they need to re-adjust it, in my opinion.”
During the May 28 game in Houston when Daly collapsed, the temperature was 92 degrees at the listed 3 p.m. kickoff.
The kickoff temperature during the Pride’s game against the Dash Saturday was 95 degrees.
While Pride coach Tom Sermanni and his players stressed they did not want to use the heat as an excuse for the result, Orlando’s play did noticeably drop off after the first hydration break.
“I think the water break’s definitely necessary. When you get to the water breaks, you definitely need to drink and it helps you keep going,” Pride defender Steph Catley said. “But we’ve got to learn to, as I said before, come back from that and not switch off and not change how we’re playing because we’ve had a break.”
Lineup changes loom
Orlando’s loss to Houston was the first time the Pride have dropped points since switching up the lineup a few weeks ago.
While the lineup already was going to be shuffled due to a busy week featuring three games, Sermanni said he will need to do something to address the players’ lack of effort during the loss to Houston.
“I just think we had too many players that played poorly. It’s as simple as that,” he said. “The tactics weren’t an issue. … We had too many players who were poor, didn’t keep the ball well, weren’t aggressive enough with the runs. We didn’t move the ball quickly enough and just on the day, we just didn’t play well.”
Regardless of the players’ performance against Houston, Sermanni will inevitably have to use more of his bench with Orlando slated to play at Sky Blue FC Wednesday before returning home to take on the Chicago Red Stars Saturday.
“This is where you kind of need to go away with a cooler, saner head and not make decisions in the heat of the moment after the game,” Sermanni said. “Obviously, it becomes a bit more difficult when, as I say, I felt today we had so many players that just didn’t play very well. So, you’ve got to try and take a step back now, put your sensible head on and say, ‘OK, what’s our best team for Wednesday?’ ”
Back to work
Despite the tough loss, Orlando will have a chance to redeem itself just a few days later thanks to a midweek game, but that can be both a good and bad thing.
“Sometimes, you want to get up, you want to get out there and try and rectify things straight away. Sometimes, you want time because you need to get on the training field,” Sermanni said. “Hopefully it’s a good thing that we get back on the field and that players want to prove that we’re a better team than we showed today.”
Despite having suffered their first home loss of the season, the players did not want to waste any time before starting to prepare for Wednesday’s match.
“Every minute counts now, every second counts in order to be 100 percent,” Krieger said. “We just start the recovery process right now, get our legs back and get prepared for Wednesday.”