Orlando Pride Head Coach Seb Hines
Opening Statement
“I think when you say defense you’re talking about the whole team because the work that everyone is doing to keep the clean sheet is unbelievable. It starts from the front and having the structure and the organization from the front and reading those triggers. Obviously, you talk about midfield, the backline, and the goalkeeper, it’s a real togetherness to keep the ball out of the net. Bay FC caused a lot of problems in the second half, they started to add more numbers to their attack. I thought our defenders did a terrific job overall. Bay FC created a lot of scoring opportunities, but yeah, it’s a full team effort. It’s nice to come away with another 1-0 win and three points.”
On taking pride in the Pride’s defense
“I think we all take a lot of pride in it. I do like goals as well. I do like us being up more than one goal in a game. I think early on in the game and in the first half, we could have scored a lot more goals and made it a lot more challenging for Bay FC to feel like they could get back into the game. It’s a collective effort. Everyone has to play their part. If they don’t do their job, it becomes an easier decision for me to not allow those players to play. They’re very much bought into the culture and the structure and the physicality of what it takes to win a game of football, especially in this league because it’s so physically demanding.”
On the Pride’s ability to win different ways
“I think it allows us to be somewhat unpredictable. Going back to the North Carolina game, it was very much a transition type of game. Being defensively solid to then transition, whether it’s half a field or a full field transition. We always feel like we can be threatening in the attack. We can add that to our game, build up play and cause problems by our build up play if a team sits off and we find the areas to exploit. It’s a great mix of being adaptable to what the game gives you. Every team is difficult. We were talking about that before the game. This is a tough game for us because it can just change in an instant. You look at Bay FC’s record leading up to the game. I used the term trap game. It could have been one of those games where it doesn’t go your way and the other team wins 1-0. We have to make sure that the players are fully switched on to know what their task is going into the game. They fully executed. Of course, we would have loved to go up in the game by more than one goal but it wasn’t meant to be. You see the grit, the determination towards the end. To get it over line, it means a lot to all of us.”
Orlando Pride Forward Adriana
On coming back from injury and scoring her first goal
“Personally, I’m really happy about coming back to the team and playing again. I’m really happy to start getting minutes again, to play with the team, and most importantly tonight to get the victory. As I’m not just happy with the goal I scored, I feel happier about the win today that we earned as a team.”
On her penalty kick
"First of all when I get the ball for a penalty kick, I just start focusing on the ball and thinking about the ball hitting the back of the net. After those thoughts go through my mind, I tend to think about scoring the goal, after thinking about scoring the goal, I thought about how it would help my team get the victory tonight. After the thoughts finished going through my mind, I simply scored the goal, and I was happy to help our team win tonight.”
On playing with Barbra Banda
“Barbra and I have been able to connect really well, especially in a short amount of time. We have been connecting really well together in training recently. Just trying to learn and understand each other’s style of play. We are working off each other a lot in training and building a really strong connection with one another. Hopefully we can take our connection that are we building with each other and transition that into scoring goals making things happen together and for the team.”
Orlando Pride Defender Kylie Strom
On leading the backline
“Yeah, we take so much pride in our defending. When we get these clean sheets, it’s not just the backline and the goalkeeper, it’s every single player. Our forwards work so hard, our midfielders work so hard, to put some pressure on, make it predictable and make it easy for us to read the play and step in. So, it’s a team effort and it feels so good. That’s a main emphasis for us so hopefully we can keep it going.”
On negating Bay FC’s attackers’ effectiveness
“Yeah, they’re a great team. They have a lot of weapons up front, so we knew we were going to have to be locked in the whole time. All it takes is one chance to switch off and they can punish us. We knew we needed to put pressure on them and control the game in and out of possession and I think we did an overall pretty good job of that.”
On the difference between controlling the possession some games opposed to not
“Yeah, we didn’t really know how they were going to come out. We were kind of prepared for anything. They’ve pressed in certain games and sat back in certain games. They sat back a bit tonight. I think we probably could have been a little more patient in our attack but we found ways to break them. We want to be a team that values the ball and can play and keep possession. A strength of ours is that we can play in behind or we can play in front of you and pick you off. It’s good to have both of those options.”
