"Honestly, kind of feels like a loss."
Orlando Pride midfielder Erika Tymrak started her media availability following Sunday night's scoreless draw against Gotham FC with the same thoughts that all the coaches and players for the team had.
After a dominant performance on the road against one the NWSL's top teams in the standings, the game felt like it was there for the taking for the Pride.
"Getting a point on the road is always a positive, getting a shutout is always a positive and the team put in a pretty complete 90 [minutes]," Tymrak said. "We just have to have that last piece of finishing."
With the Pride doubling up the shots that Gotham took and getting six shots on frame to Gotham's one, it's understandable the team feels disappointed they weren't coming back to Orlando with all three points.
As this is a young, developing team, it's part of the growing pains that they will go through over the course of the year. The performance on its own, however, shows just how much growth the team has experienced in a still early season.
For Tymrak, who just celebrated her 175th game in the league dating back to the NWSL's foundation in 2013, it's been an experience to see the young team grow as the season goes on.
“I just think we put in so much training preparation that when we don't get three points, it hurts, and we take it personal," she said. "Seb’s created that environment where we're always wanting more and always hungry for more. But again, we keep moving forward and we've grown every game and we've put together three really solid regular season performances. So, like I said, there's a lot of good takeaways but we definitely want more moving forward.”
The environment that Tymrak mentioned has been something head coach Seb Hines has talked about since taking over the team in the interim during the middle of last year. It's carefully evolved over time, being cultivated and nurtured by the entire coaching staff to create a mindset amongst the younger players that they shouldn't be settling for just a draw.
They should want more.
“Any professional, you are never settled on what you have right now," Hines said. "You're always searching for more. You always want more. Looking back at the start the year, we lost a lot of points and now we have to get them back. I thought last game at home, Gotham stole points off us and that was the message going into this game, we need to get these points back. The attitude of the players has been first-class. They're always wanting to push the boundaries, they want to work hard, they want to work for each other.
"Again it goes back to the culture of the team, the culture is we got to earn it, earn every point that's there for us. So to walk away tonight disappointed is a positive because the players put in so much work. We actually played as well tonight, we played some nice football. We created some good opportunities in this game, the hardest thing is scoring goals. So again there's a lot of positives from this performance and we have to take it into the next game against Washington next week in front of our fans.”
As that mindset continues to resonate with the team, the performances will continue to improve as the Pride now look to build into a three-point performance on Saturday against Washington.
Orlando Pride (2-4-1, 7 points) vs. Washington Spirit (4-0-3, 15 points)
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Where: Exploria Stadium, Orlando
TV: Paramount+
Tickets: View seats
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