ORLANDO, Fla. – Ashlyn Harris had not played in a match since late May, but, in her return, she noticed something about her Orlando Pride teammates.
“…[To] defend with all 11 players, that’s what makes the difference,” Harris said after a 5-0 beating of Sky Blue FC on Aug. 13. “It has very little to do with standard. It has very much so to do with commitment. How are you committing to this team? Not only offensively but defensively.
“And I think that’s where we lacked in previous games. We’ve always had the power to attack, attack, attack, attack. But are we willing to track back and defend? And that’s why you saw Alex [Morgan] tracking back and running players down. And Marta [Vieira da Silva] running players down. Jasmyne [Spencer]. It is a commitment to defend as well as attack, and, if we do both, we will be successful.”
Morgan and Spencer each tallied a tackle, as Marta’s three was the second-most for the Pride. Kristen Edmonds recorded a team-high four.
As for Harris, she helped the Pride to their second-straight clean sheet — third of the season — after suffering a torn quad just 26 minutes into a 1-1 draw with the Seattle Reign on May 21. In the contest, she played all 90 minutes and recorded three saves, as the Pride defense allowed just 11 shots (three on goal) all game.
“…[The] defense tonight was great. I didn’t really have to do anything,” Harris said. “I don’t let them breathe, to be fair. I am on them, barking at them all game, and it’s probably super exhausting for them, but, if I organize and do the small things in front of me, then I shouldn’t have any breakdowns. I don’t recall any time where [Sky Blue] broke us down and got behind us.”
And it’s not like the Pride faced an offensively impaired team. Sky Blue has scored the third-most goals so far this season with 29. Orlando (33) and Seattle (31) narrowly lead the New Jersey side.
Sky Blue also boasts one of the National Women’s Soccer League’s best offensive threats in Australian women’s national teamer Samantha Kerr. So far this season, the 23-year-old has recorded the second-most shots (54), second-most on-target shots (36) and is tied for second-most goals (11) with Marta.
Kerr is not only effective in unloading shots, but she is also efficient. Of the top five shot-takers, Kerr is the most efficient with 66.7 percent of her shots being on-target efforts. The next-highest is a tie between Marta and the Chicago Red Stars’ Christen Press (58.5 percent).
The Pride held Kerr to five shots (two on goal) in the Orlando win.
“I thought we did an unbelievable job on Sam Kerr tonight. I mean, she is an amazing athlete,” Pride head coach Tom Sermanni said after his team’s win. “If you look at the work she put in tonight, I’d like to see how many miles she covered because she was chasing our two center-backs and full-back for most of the night. And, even at the end, she still had enough in her to try and run at us and cause us some problems.
“But what we did tonight, as I say, really well is our defensive shape stayed really good. You know, we kept talking about keeping three players in good defensive positions, and we did that for the whole night. And we were really aware and alert, and, you know, apart from a couple of occasions at the end, you know, basically never let Sam get a run at us at all.”
For Sermanni, he’s finally starting to see qualities in his team’s defensive performances that he and his staff have worked to implement. One of those qualities is a focus on defense while attacking.
“Well I think it’s, you know, we’re beginning to do the things that we’ve worked on for a lot of the season, and the players’ discipline in their defending, I think in the last couple of games, has been really spot on,” the second-year Pride boss said. “And it meant that we haven’t been getting exposed as we were early in the year. So, I think it’s just about, you know, the players staying in there and really focusing on the job and particularly focusing on the job when we’ve got the ball.
“And I think that’s probably the difference over the last couple of games is that we were really focused defensively when we’re actually attacking. And that’s helped eliminate a lot of the hair-raising situations that we’ve had at different times in the season.”
Sitting in sole possession of fourth place in the standings, the Pride look to add to their two-point cushion between themselves and Seattle. That effort begins with an away match on Saturday against the ninth-place Boston Breakers.
For more on the Pride, as they look to solidify their spot in the playoffs, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
