Skinner: Pride invigorated by worst NWSL tournament draw

Orlando Pride coach Marc Skinner said his team is invigorated after drawing the toughest NWSL Challenge Cup schedule.

His team will face the top three finishers from the 2019 season in the opening round of NWSL tournament, which kicks off the league’s 2020 season that was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Pride will play the Chicago Red Stars, Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage during the opening eight days of the tournament. Skinner sees this challenge as an opportunity to redeem the team’s bottom-rung finish last year.

“We have things that we have to right from last year, that’s just fuel to our fire,” Skinner said. “It was a favorable draw [because] you want to play the best teams. Our mindset is whoever was picked for us, we’re going to go and give our all to beat them.

After months of quarantine and lack of competition, Skinner suggested every team in the tournament will likely be out of sync at first in Utah.

“It might take a game or two to get into the tournament for everybody,” Skinner said.

The tournament

will

create

a unique challenge for players, who must quickly rebuild their fitness after nearly two months of training moratorium before diving into a fast-paced slate of games. The first round of the tournament will see the Pride play four games in 12 days.

Fatigue will be a common enemy for every team in the tournament. In the first week of full-team training, Skinner said sessions were designed to overload players to simulate late-game exhaustion.

Throughout the 2019 season, Skinner said his team grappled with a lack of toughness needed to grind out wins on the road or erase a deficit. Captain Ashlyn Harris described the team as “soft” and called for a “massive culture change” to address the issue.

Many of Skinner’s offseason acquisitions were made to address the problem — particularly defender Emily Sonnett and midfielder Jade Moore, who he described as scrappy, physical players who can help knit together the rest of the roster.

As the Pride approaches the Challenge Cup, creating physical and mental toughness will remain a focus for the team.

“We had many conversations last year about being tough enough and resilient enough to win games when you don’t really play at your best,” Skinner said. “In tournament football, you will need to do that. Form comes quickly in tournaments and it goes quickly in tournaments.”

Although participation in the tournament is voluntary, every in-market Pride player participated in training this week. The team won’t announce a final roster until June 21, but stars such as Marta, Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger remain active in practice.

With more players participating in preseason training than can make the trip to Utah, Skinner said his selections will come down to both fitness and ability to play multiple positions.

This first week of training has been a balance — Skinner knows his players aren’t in match shape and he said he’s trying to rebuild that endurance quickly without spending too much time on the pitch. Despite the heavy workload, however, he said the training environment was positive throughout the first few days of practice.

“It was a wonderful energy,” Skinner said. “The players have given a lot today. They’re gonna need to be together, they’re gonna need to rely on everybody. I’m already seeing signs of that.”