Though she was drafted and had been training with the Orlando Pride for most of the preseason, rookie Nádia Gomes was not officially signed with the team. However, on Thursday, that changed, as the Pride announced the signing of Gomes and two others as national-team replacement players.
In addition to Gomes, Orlando signed forward Christine Creighton and midfielder Abby Elinsky.
Gomes was the Pride’s lone pick in the 2018 National Women’s Soccer League College Draft, having been selected with the 23rd-overall pick. The 21-year-old played for Brigham Young University and recorded 23 goals and 23 assists in 83 appearances.
Most recently, Gomes made her national-team debut for the Portuguese women’s national team in the 2018 Algarve Cup, scoring her first international goal on March 7.
As for Creighton, her name may be familiar, as she played her last two collegiate seasons at the University of Central Florida. There, she tallied three goals and five assists in 23 appearances for the Knights. Before her time with the Knights, she played two seasons at the University of Tennessee and recorded three goals and two assists in 27 matches.
Creighton joins former Knight and Pride midfielder Bridget Callahan as a national-team replacement player.
Orlando also solidified its rights to another 2018 draftee when the Pride signed Elinsky. The 22-year-old was selected by the Houston Dash with the 30th-overall pick and later began training with the Pride in early March.
In three seasons at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Elinsky tallied three goals and five assists in 52 appearances.
Creighton and Elinsky meet on the pitch, again, but this time as teammates. Last season, Elinsky’s Tar Heels fell to the Knights in double overtime after Creighton scored the game-winner in the 105th minute.
National-team replacement players do not count against the Pride’s 20-player roster limit, and their salaries also do not count toward Orlando’s cap.
Each of the Pride’s four national-team replacement players has the potential to be called up in Orlando’s upcoming matches, as two Australians and three Brazilians have departed for 2019 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. (For information on national-team replacement players, click here.)
For more on the Pride, as they prepare their second match of 2018 and their first road game of the season, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
[…] lack of a full roster has been so apparent that the team has signed four national-team replacement players, signings the Pride did not make in either of their first two […]
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