The Orlando Pride announced today the signing of Australian international Lisa De Vanna. The forward has featured in the National Women's Soccer League in previous seasons for Sky Blue FC, the Boston Breakers and the Washington Spirit so she is a familiar face for many fans. The Pride will be hoping that her vast experience and talent will help provide the goals that Orlando need and relieve some of the goal scoring burden off of Alex Morgan's shoulders.
De Vanna happy to link up with Sermanni again
De Vanna will join the team which is currently under Tom Sermanni's leadership and the two are quiet familiar with each other as Sermanni worked with De Vanna during his tenure as Australia's head coach. In fact, Sermanni was the one to bring De Vanna back into the national team setup after she had disciplinary issues with the previous head coach. This familiarity will now doubt help De Vanna adapt to the setup in Orlando fairly quickly.
Speaking to the Pride's official site, De Vanna stated that she was "incredibly happy" to be joining the Pride and "keen to be working with Tommy [Sermanni] again”. De Vanna also let it be known that it was "exciting to be a part of a new team" and she was willing to be at her best to "help the squad for the rest of the season".
Coach Sermanni also spoke to the official website about the signing. The head coach felt that signing someone of De Vanna's quality "would add to the depth of the team" and the attacking intent of the Pride. Sermanni also added that De Vanna was "a world-class player, a game-changer" and that he was looking forward to working with her again.
De Vanna's career in the NWSL so far
In the inaugural season of the NWSL, Lisa De Vanna signed with Sky Blue in February 2013. During her time with Sky Blue, De Vanna made 16 appearances, scoring five goals and garnering two assists. She would also be nominated for the FIFA Puskás Award that same year after scoring a spectacular overhead kick for Sky Blue.
During the offseason following that year, De Vanna was traded to the Boston Breakers and only featured six times for the Breakers, with one assist to her name, before being traded once again to the Washington Spirit. De Vanna made 11 appearances for the Spirit, scoring one goal but providing her team with four assists during the regular season. She then missed the post season with the Spirit due to some internal matters and departed from the team and the league after that.
This will be De Vanna's first appearance in the league since then, and after a very good showing at the 2016 Rio Olympics for Australia, she is poised to help the Pride for the rest of the season and beyond if she decided to stay with the team for the foreseeable future.