It was a beautiful afternoon in Central Florida and The Orlando Pride faced Kansas City Current in a must win match at Inter&Co Stadium in front of 8,414 fans in attendance. But unfortunately, those fans had to witness the Orlando Pride losing against their arch rival The Current.
Seb Hines lined up the same lineup vs. NC Courage.
From the beginning, The Orlando Pride looked like the double winners of last year. Their hard press and fast transitions were overbearing for the Current. Less than 5 minutes into the match, Barbra Banda was close to score the 1st one for the Pride but her shot was easily caught by Lorena. Then, Haley McCutcheon had a shot from distance and was also saved by the KC Goalkeeper.
In the 9th minute after a wonderful transition from Debinha that went past all Pride defenders, Anna Moorhouse had a tremendous save. Chawinga ended up 1v1 with the British goalkeeper and she delivered big time and came clutch with the save. The Pride backline was able then to clear the ball efficiently and neutralized The Current’s chances.
The Orlando Pride turned over the ball constantly in the mid and caused for KC to start creating chances and holding possession of the ball. In less than 16 minutes of play KC showed why the are top contenders in the league, Chawinga had two clear chances but fortunately, the Orlando Pride backline delivered and were able to clear the ball at times.
Before the end of the half, Orlando Pride had a few chances but KC’s well positioned backline was able to stop Banda and Angelina in transition. As well, Anna Moorhouse had two big saves vs. Chawinga. The game was back and forth for both squads but you could see KC with a slight edge due to Chawinga’s excellent form. After the hydration break both teams were trying to out do each other, both possessed the ball and had equal chances to score. It seemed the game was poised for whomever scored first. Orlando attempted to create chances but more than often they resulted in the extra pass or passing it back due to KC’s great defense. The ref added 4 minutes of added time before the end of the first half. The half ended scoreless.
In the second half, in the 52nd minute, Chawinga scored a banger past Moorhouse after the Pride’s backline fell asleep and left her wide open to score. The Wall went silent. Banda looked frustrated as Chawinga celebrated. It was a tale of momentums, on one side you had Chawinga in the race for the golden boot and Banda being figured out by mainly everyone in the NWSL. You certainly do not leave Chawinga such open space to score. Easy goal by KC. It seemed the Pride had time to turn the tide. After KC’s goal, the game was yet again back and forth and Seb Hines subbed out Morgan Gautrat for Ally Watt. Coach Hines wanted to give the team more of an attacking presence since The Current raised their momentum. In the 69th minute, there was a bad clearance from Sams and Chawinga was 1v1 with Moorhouse and the Pride GK again came up big for the Orlando Pride and had a HUGE save. So far Moorhouse had 4 key saves, she was the Pride’s MVP, no doubt. In the 85th minute a beautiful free kick shot by Pickett that Banda could not connect, it was the chance the Pride looked for the entire second half to tied the game unfortunately it went wide. The ref indicated 12 minutes of added time, INSANITY. Regardless, there was plenty of time to turn the tide in 12 minutes, the Pride had several set piece chances through Pickett but all went nowhere, they were all wasted chances. Unfortunately, the Orlando Pride lost its second home game of the year and fell to 3rd place into the NWSL Standings. They have now a week to regroup and hit reset and they will face the Utah Royals on Friday May 23rd at America First Field in UT.
Until then,
Vamos Pride!
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