The Orlando Pride lost their inaugural match at Providence Park against the Portland Thorns after being the first to strike. They lost in a 2-1 come-from-behind victory from a late strike by Lindsey Horan. The Pride look to bounce back from that loss against the Houston Dash who had a convincing 3-1 victory against the Chicago Red Stars last weekend.
Orlando got off to a great start in their first match, but could not finish off the game. The new team played in a very skilled and competitive match against the Thorns and Steph Catley made history in the 12th minute with the very first Pride goal. The goal was voted by NWSL fans as the goal of the week.
The team’s overall performance during the game was impressive during their league debut, outshooting the Thorns 15-11 and the backline worked a solid defense, causing the Thorns to be offside seven times. They have a promising outlook on the season and look to score more goals with their strong attack. The club looks to improve on these areas against the Dash this weekend.
Dash looks to keep dominance
The Dash won their first game after falling behind early against the Red Stars when Christen Press found herself one-on-one against goalkeeper Lydia Williams. The Dash bounced back with three goals from NWSL Player of the Week Rachel Daly, Carli Lloyd, and Kealia Ohai.
The midfield of Lloyd and Andressa helped give the Dash control and allowed them to put through efforts into the final third for their young front line. The trio of forwards in Ohai, Daly, and Janine Beckie look to cause trouble for defenders this season.
While they lack age, the trio does not lack experience, as Ohai has been a front-runner for the Dash for the last two years, Beckie has scored seven goals in 11 appearances for the Canadian Women’s National Team, and Daly scored 50 goals for her college side, St. John’s University. It would have been expected for Daly to have some trouble adjusting to the professional level, but she proved that theory wrong with a great strike to level the score last weekend.
Houston looks to push their momentum into the match against the Pride in their first road game of the season. The team dominated the field for most of the match, giving themselves a convincing win.
Set to break records
The Pride are already looking to break the attendance record in their home opener. Portland set the record in the 2015 season after having two sellout crowds of 21,144 people. The Pride has already sold over 20,000 tickets as of Friday morning and expects to break the record by game time on Saturday night.
The game on Saturday starts at 7:30 pm EST at the Citrus Bowl.