The Pride look to start their path to glory against Carli Lloyd’s Houston Dash in Inaugural Home Opener

Written by George Simon

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The girls in purple will try to get their first win, when they face the Houston Dash this Saturday at the Orlando Citrus Bowl in their inaugural Home opener with kickoff set for  7:30 p.m. ET. The Orlando Pride is looking to recover from their season opening defeat to the Portland Thorns this past weekend. Last Sunday’s loss to the Thorns started well for the Pride, with a free kick goal from Stephanie Catley early on in the 1st half. But two goals from Brynjarsdottir and Horan gave the victory to the Thorns.

The Houston Dash won their first game of the season which was at home against the Chicago Red Stars (3-1), with goals from newcomers, Janine Beckie and Rachel Daly, as well as a goal from the FIFA World Player of the Year, Carli Lloyd.

To win this Saturday, the Pride will need to neutralize Lloyd, and Morgan needs to continue to be a leader for this team and capitalize on opportunities inside the box.  This is the key for the Pride to capture victory.

Coach Tom Sermanni seemed satisfied about the player’s performance last Sunday night despite the defeat. “I got mixed feelings about the game, I feel great about the commitment of the team… I feel that we hurt Portland in many areas… We created great chances, and we were really disappointed about the result. But we are really happy, given the limited preparation, I think we gave a great performance”.

Coach Sermanni also talked about Orlando Pride’s Captain, Alex Morgan, and he said that she has what it takes to continue to be successful in modern soccer, “She is an athlete and she knows where and when to be to score goals”

Sermanni thinks the fans are in for a thriller this weekend when the team opens up the home schedule against Houston, “I think they are a very good team… they have built a great squad, they’ve got player of the year, Carli Lloyd, who is a real threat. I think they have a great offensive team and it’s going to be a really entertaining game”.

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