• FINAL STATS

The squad going at it with Carolina at Orlando City Stadium. Catch the action on LifeTime TV! #ORLvNC | #NoExcuses pic.twitter.com/9T8zwWAAgp

— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) June 30, 2018

ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando Pride head coach Tom Sermanni set the bar high for his players in a weekend matchup with the National Women’s Soccer League’s resounding No. 1 team, the North Carolina Courage.

Unfortunately for Sermanni and Orlando (6-5-4, 22 points), the players didn’t meet Sermanni’s expectations in a 3-0, shutout loss to the Courage (11-1-3, 36 points) Saturday afternoon at Orlando City Stadium in front of 4,017 fans.

“[To] be frank, looking through our team today, there’s no player that can, you know, basically look at themselves and say, ‘I should be a definite starter next week,'” Sermanni said after his team’s second-straight loss. “I don’t think anybody played like a star today.”

Looking at the match’s statistics, Sermanni’s team-wide criticism seems harsh. Orlando and North Carolina each tallied 15 shots (five on-goal for the Pride; seven on-goal for the Courage), the Pride recorded more corners (10-3) and more open-play crosses (16-10) and out-possessed the Courage (55 percent-45 percent).

One end-of-half sequence was the difference from a 0-0 halftime score and a three-goal deficit for Orlando, though.

Beginning in the 37th minute, the Courage showed why they are the No. 1 scoring team in the NWSL. North Carolina scored its first of three goals off the foot of Débora Cristiane de Oliveira.

Courage forward Crystal Dunn initiated the effort by chipping the ball into the box between Pride defenders Emily van Egmond and Monica Hickmann Alves. Monica and Debinha both stabbed at the mid-air ball, but Debinha gathered it, turned and fired a low but powerful shot toward goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris.

Harris dropped to her right and managed to get a hand on the ball, but the effort was in vain, as the ball still slowly rolled over the goal line for the first goal of the game.

Two minutes later, the Courage doubled their lead off a shot by right back Merritt Mathias. Pride right back Ali Krieger, who was playing her first minutes after injury in over a month, committed a defensive-third turnover to initiate the quick counterattack.

The ball eventually worked its way to Debinha, who found Mathias moving up the right flank. Mathias’ ensuing shot ricocheted off Orlando left back Poliana Barbosa Medeiros and indefensibly sped by a diving Harris for a 2-0 lead.

North Carolina finished the game’s scoring off an assist by Dunn, the team’s leading scorer with six goals. The first-year Courage forward found space down the heart of the Pride’s defense and slipped a leading pass to fellow forward Jessica McDonald. McDonald let the ball travel a few paces into the box before one-timing a shot past a diving, outstretched Harris for a 3-0 lead.

“Obviously, we need to work on our clearances a little bit better,” Krieger said after the match. “You know, once a ball’s bouncing, you can’t let it bounce in and around the box. We gotta, like, get our foot underneath it, hit it out any way we can and then reorganize.

“But I think we were outnumbered in the midfield at times, and I don’t think that really helped us…”

Orlando fired back early in the second half. In the 57th minute, the Pride had a four-minute sequence in which they tallied four corner kicks. Of those corners, only Poliana was able to make a connection. She unleashed a shot from the right part of the box for that was blocked.

One minute later, forward Alex Morgan produced, perhaps, the Pride’s best scoring chance in the 60th minute. Forward Sydney Leroux crossed the ball high and over the Courage’s defense toward the back post and to Morgan, who took a touch and subsequently a right-footed shot.

Morgan fired to the near post, and Courage keeper Katelyn Rowland dove to her left to tip the ball, which then ricocheted off the post.

“I just think our mentality changed [in the second half], and…we’re not about to roll over and die. We wanna fight ’til the end,” midfielder Alanna Kennedy said after the loss. “But, obviously, I think that needs to happen from the start–not that we didn’t go out and [that] we weren’t prepared and [that] we weren’t mentally ready to give it a go.

“It was more so just that…I felt like it took those goals for us to get that extra gear, and I don’t think that’s what we need to be doing. We need to be starting the game like that.”

Orlando have now lost back-to-back games for the first time since the second and third games of 2018.

Who’s Next?

The Pride will conclude their home stand with a match against the Washington Spirit (2-8-4, 10 points) on July 7 at 7:30 p.m. Both teams met on Jun 23, as Orlando came away with a 1-0 road win.

For more on the Pride, as they look to end their two-game losing streak, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.

To contact Victor, you can email him at vtan@newdayreview.com, or you can tweet at him.