Forward Chioma Ubogagu has been in and out of the Pride starting lineup so far this season. She has made 10 appearances and 7 starts in the 14 matches the Pride have played so far this season. In those matches, she has scored two goals and earned an assist.
She missed four games due to a left hamstring injury, but made her return last weekend in the match against FC Kansas City. She played 75 minutes in that match, eventually coming off for Kristen Edmonds.
“I think last game I felt fully like myself,” Ubogagu said this week at training. “Which is awesome because hamstrings can be naggy and they tend to linger.”
Head Coach Tom Sermanni sees a lot of potential in Ubogagu, and now that she’s fully healthy, he intends to give her an opportunity to continue the work she started at the beginning of the season.
“A constant improvement. She’s chipped away and improved and improved,” Sermanni said at training. “She had a little bit of a setback with injury, and that got her out of the team for a few weeks. But she’s back fully fit, I think she’s got her confidence back, and when she’s a confident player she’s a confidence player. And when she has that confidence she’s really dangerous. She can dribble at players, she’s got pace, she has a great work rate. So, the key now is putting that together on a more consistent basis.”
Finding that consistency is the next task for Ubogagu. For her, it’s about focusing on the little things and making sure that she’s forming connections with other offensive players. For Sermanni, it means giving her more minutes on the pitch.
“I think I just have to go out every training and just keep doing the little things right,” Ubogagu said. “That’s how you build consistency. Playing with the group that’s consistently starting also helps because then you build chemistry. I think I played a good chunk of minutes with Alex and I think we connected a good amount last game. Hopefully we can keep building a good amount of relationships with her, Rachel, Jas-- anyone up top.”
“It’s probably the more games she gets, the more game time she gets,” Sermanni said. “Then you’ll probably see more consistency in the amount of times she has the ball and what she does with it.”
Ubogagu and the rest of the Pride squad will travel to Chicago this weekend to face off against the Red Stars for the second time this year. The match will be the Lifetime Match of the Week and will kickoff at 3:30pm on Saturday.
