Written by George Simon
The Orlando Pride gets their 2nd win of the season at home, with a convincing performance by all the team, especially Sarah Hagen, Lianne Sanderson and Alex Morgan. Orlando Pride reaches 6 points and reaches Seattle Reign on the 5th place. Next Week the Orlando Pride receives the West New York Flash at Camping World Stadium before going out on the road for the next 4 games.
The head coach of the Orlando Pride, Tom Sermanni, has been trying to find a game identity for this team after trying different systems during the first 4 games. For this game, Sermanni played with a 4-4-2 formation with Sarah Hagen, as the forward reference, and Alex Morgan, with a free position around Hagen. This formation gave Orlando the control of the game with 4 midfielders constantly helping in defense and playing long balls to Hagen and Morgan, which end up in the first goal of the game in the 12th minute, after a sensational cross from Alex Morgan, Sarah Hagen scored from a header were Hope Solo, US International, couldn’t do anything to save it.
The Orlando Pride control most of the game and the Reign felt harmless during the first half and most of the second half, the only chances that they got end up in offside, thanks to Sermanni’s tactical decision of using a high defense line.
During the second half, Orlando Pride kept creating opportunities out of the midfield recoveries and almost scored the second one after a deep through ball from Alloway founded Catley and her shot ended up hitting the bar. On the 57th minute of the game Sermanni’s put on Lianne Sanderson for Sarah Hagen. Sanderson made a big offensive impact on the game, helping Orlando create more chances that ended up in corner kicks or Hope Solo’s saves.
It was not until the 87th minute of the game when Pride’s high pressure paid the effort when Alex Morgan stole a ball from Seattle’s defender and went for a one on one situation with Solo, which Solo saved but the second shot from Sanderson ended up on the back of the net. With the 2-goal advantage, Orlando Pride took the control of the game during and got the 2nd home victory of the season.
During the postgame presser, Orlando Pride’s coach Tom Sermanni addressed about his game plan and his future plans for the next games “I think we are in a phase of not sitting down and say that we are definitively going to play with this system… I think with Seattle upfront we thought that this was the best way to go, with Alex (Morgan) and Sarah (Hagen) upfront, because when she’s (Alex Morgan) got a partner upfront she is more dangerous also with a lot of pace and mobility of the flanks which we got… We are a very flexible team, with flexible players we can afford to change systems”
Sarah Hagen, the player of the match of today’s game, talked about her first goal with the Orlando Pride “It felt great scoring this goal after 2 days of a very special day for me (11th year Cancer Free)… she (Alex Morgan) knew that one of my strengths was, which is finishing in the air, she put it on a platter for me, and all I had to do is tap it in”
Today was a special day for Orlando Pride’s goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, whose grandmother was watching her play “My Grandmother was in the stands and she hasn’t seen me play in a long time and she is fighting cancer… and if you guys ask me where my strengths come from, every single day putting everything on the line, is because of that woman, she is incredible, she is a survivor of breast cancer and she still keeps fighting, and she came to support me especially today on mother’s day.”
