💬 Kerry Abello: 'Really excited and confident going into the rest of the season' after undefeated Summer Cup

Orlando Pride Head Coach Seb Hines

Opening Statement

“We’ve had a lot of practice with penalties so that puts us in a good position moving forward. I think, looking back it's been a good test for us, especially with so many players away on international duty. It allowed us to give other players an opportunity to go out there and perform and still stay at a high standard and see where players are at. It’s very difficult to try and replicate real games, competitive games, and this time has allowed us to do that. I think we’re in a really good position going into the regular season knowing where everyone is and still continue to have that high standard that we set early on in the season.”

On setting lineups going into NWSL play with returning players

“That’s the challenge, right? I think we just need to get everyone back into our environment. There are still players representing their countries right now and going for gold. But getting them back into the environment and making sure we’re all together in what we want to achieve at the end of the season. It shows that if anything happens, because a lot of things have happened even in this season, players getting injured, suspensions, whatever it is, we’ve got players we can rely on and still do a job. To be fair, that’s happened all season long, but I think getting them more minutes rather than 20 minutes here, 30 minutes here, some players have played full 90s, some have played 70 minutes, so their roles have changed throughout this tournament as well. It’s going to be really important that we have a good core group of players, and I've said from the start it’s not about the 11 players that start, it’s about the full roster and how players can contribute even if it’s five minutes towards the end and we have to see a game out. We’ve got players who we can rely on and get the job done.”

On the play of Cori Dyke and Alex Kerr

“ Cori has probably taken on the Swiss army knife role. She played her debut at left wing, and she’s played midfield, she’s played left back, she’s played right back, and today she played center back and did a tremendous job at center back. She’s a really good footballer. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and she gives maximum effort, but she has a lot of quality as well. Again, we know we can put her in positions and she’s going to give it her all. It can be to her detriment that she can play multiple positions as well, so you never get fixed in one position. I thought she was tremendous this tournament and had some standout performances. Same as Alex. She came in as a striker, she’s played striker and [we’ve] played her at left wing as, well. She had a lot of success on that left wing last week she took that goal really well. We felt it was another opportunity for her to build on that and I thought there were moments in today’s game where she was really good.”

Orlando Pride Defender Kerry Abello

Opening Statement

“Honestly, I think we could have performed better, but I was really proud of the team and the fight. We remain undefeated, and I think that was an important goal for us. We have a lot of new players slotting into new positions and overall, I'm just really proud of the fight of our team to see out the draw. I think we developed a lot over the Summer Cup and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season.”

On added depth and experience heading back to the NWSL season

“It makes me really excited and confident going into the rest of the season. I was so happy to see our whole bench get a lot of minutes, and everyone did so well. It just goes to show the depth that we do have, and I think we’ll use that depth through the remainder of the season. So, I’m excited; I’m excited for those players.”

On setting up Evelina Duljan’s goal

“I knew kind of right when I received that ball I was in one-on-one position, I love to go one-on-one, I don’t get to do that as much at left back. So, I knew I wanted to take that opportunity and get a service off. I kind of slowed it down for a second, but I saw we had runners in the box, and I thought ‘I have to get this service off, I can’t go back now’ because we had numbers. So, I sent it in, and [Evelina] made a great run, great header.”