ORLANDO, FL – The Orlando Pride (7-9-1, 22 points) dropped a 2-1 decision toe the San Diego Wave (8-6-3, 27 points)in from of a crowd of 7,556 soccer fans at Exploria Stadium on Friday night.
The Pride, coming off of an impressive drubbing of an impressive 5-0 drubbing of the Chicago Stars, were pushing right at the tip off, having opportunities in the Wave’s half.
San Diego immediately put on their worn aggressive push, fighting every ball, and spending a great deal of time with the ball in Orlando’s End.
In the 7th minute, the Wave mangled to get one in when a corner kick was sent in and bounced around the box. The ball eventually fell to the foot of Abby Dahlkemper who was able to get a shot off that hit the crossbar and went over the line.
Orlando regained composure and managed to push for more pressure on San Diego. getting several chances.
In the total game, the Pride have 17 shots on goal, with 9 on target. They kept Waves’ goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan busy, making 9 saves to keep Sand Diego ahead.
The Pride managed to get one in the net when Marta moved through three San Diego Players to get a cross to Adriana who haded the ball in on the right side for the equalizer.
After the 1-1 halftime break, Orlando kept pushing to gain the lead.
In the 75th minute, San Diego once again took advantage of a brief Orlando lapse in focus on a set play, with Kyra Taylor Carusa heading in a corner kick off of the foot of Makenzy Doniak for the go ahead and eventual winning goal, taking the score to 2-1.
“It is a strange one.” said Pride Head Coach Seb Hines. “I thought we did enough to win the game, but football doesn’t always work out like that. We have been in this situation before or I sat in this seat multiple times where we felt like we had done enough to win the game, it just hasn’t fallen our way. I think the first 20 minutes of the game, we were kind of passive.”
When asked about the Pride giving up two set piece goals:
“It is extremely frustrating. Anytime there is a situation like that, there is sometimes a lapse in concentration or a moment where you relax, and I think they punished us in that moment. Other than that, we were pretty comfortable other than the first 20 minutes. It is frustrating. We will move on, we will learn from it. We all know we can’t allow ourselves to concede in that manner and hopefully that will put us in a good position moving forward.”
The Pride will next travel to Seattle, looking to bounce back against the OL Reign on Sunday, Sept. 3.
