Orlando Pride fall further in playoff race with 3-0 rout by OL Reign
The Orlando Pride floundered in a 3-0 loss at OL Reign on Sunday night, dropping into contested position as they chase a playoff spot.
Few teams field a more stacked frontline than OL Reign, even with Megan Rapinoe sidelined due to injury.
Despite acknowledging OL Reign’s dynamic offense heading into the match, interim coach Becky Burleigh shifted the Pride into a different defensive formation and removed one of the centerbacks who normally holds down the team’s five-back shape.
Among Bethany Balcer, Rose Lavelle and Jess Fishlock, the Reign had their pick of options to carve up the Orlando box from the opening whistle. But it was Eugénie Le Sommer who shined for the Reign.
Balcer set the tone in the third minute, slicing through the box to punch in the opening goal. From there, Le Sommer shouldered the scoring.
The forward spotted goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris off her line and chipped an arcing shot over her fingers in the 28th minute, then sped into the box to redirect a pass from Dzsenifer Marozsán into the net five minutes later.
After the match, Burleigh said the game in Tacoma was a learning experience for her coaching staff in their second month in the NWSL.
“Their lineup was so fluid, their movement was so good that it made it a bit of a challenge,” Burleigh said. “Their shape gave us a bit of a problem. I think that was on us as coaches. We have to adjust to that a little bit sooner because their numbers were just overwhelming us particularly in the midfield. We’ve got to do a better job of dealing with that as coaches to put our team in a better position to be successful.”
Le Sommer missed a hat trick by a matter of inches when she rocketed a volley into the crossbar in the first half.
Harris dove to block away three more shots from Lavelle and Le Sommer to prevent the Reign from piling onto the rout. She finished with five saves.
The Pride shifted into a more defensive shape in the second half, reverting to a four-back by swapping in centerback Phoebe McClernon for striker Jodie Taylor. But at that point, the change was too little and much too late to claw back into the match.
With the defense overwhelmed by the Reign’s offensive pressure, strikers Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan spent most of the game isolated at the top of the team’s attack. The Pride placed only three shots on frame, with Leroux producing two of their only scoring chances.
“Even in the second half, there were some times where we’re trying to play a ball into them and there’s not enough support underneath them,” Burleigh said. “We need to have a little bit more sustained possession so that we can get the rest of our unit to catch up with the strikers.”
The loss dropped the Pride closer to the playoff cutoff line as they sit only two points above the cutoff. The next two teams below Orlando in the league table — Washington and Houston — have a game in hand, which means they could surge past the Pride within the next week of play.
The playoff race is tight. The difference between Nos. 2 and 7 is just six points.
With only four matches left, the Pride’s next one against the Chicago Red Stars on Oct. 2 holds greater weight as they chase their first playoff berth since 2017.
“We have to take as many points as possible,” defender Ali Riley said. “We want it to be in our hands; we don’t want it to come down to hoping another team drops points. ... We’re gonna win out. We have to win out.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Julia Poe at jpoe@orlandosentinel.com.
