With one week left before the Olympic break, the Orlando Pride are one of two teams in the NWSL that are still undefeated this season.
During tonight’s match against Angel City FC, the Pride were led by forward Adriana, who scored a brace in the first half. Adriana’s first goal came only 20 minutes into the game and was instrumental in maintaining the Pride’s momentum for the rest of the game. “This is a tough environment; they have a big crowd that likes to get behind them,” Pride defender Emily Sams shared about coming to Los Angeles. Sams went on to praise Adriana for scoring the first goal early in the game, saying, “That goal was just huge for us so that we could keep the ball rolling.”
Adriana’s second goal came just six minutes later off a rebounded save by Angel City goalkeeper Didi Haračić. The rest of the half went back and forth, with both teams getting opportunities at the goal.
“We go into halftime and it's the same message: two-nil is a dangerous scoreline,” Pride Head Coach Seb Hines said about his halftime speech.
“The next goal really matters, and the players know that. They know they can’t take their foot off the gas; they have to go after it again and put pressure on the opponent.”
The Pride did just that, continuing to create opportunities down the field throughout the second half. Angel City did much better in the second half, holding the Pride to only one goal by Barbra Banda, which came in the 96th minute.
“A message to the group was that I was proud of how hard we pushed in the second half,” Angel City Head Coach Becki Tweed said of the team's mentality.
“We kept ourselves in the game. It would have been easy at halftime to walk in and feel deflated, and we didn’t. We still felt like we had a chance. We showed that we can create chances.”
Angel City’s next game is at home against Gotham FC on July 6th. The Pride will be taking on KC Current, who are also undefeated, at home next week.
