Sydney Leroux, Marta and Alex Morgan score to lead host Orlando Pride past Racing Louisville
Heading into their match against Racing Louisville, interim coach Becky Burleigh mentioned how she wanted to see the Orlando Pride generate more offensive chances by creating combination plays in the attacking third.
That game plan eventually came to fruition as goals from the Pride’s trio of attacking stars in Sydney Leroux, Marta and Alex Morgan powered Orlando to a 3-1 victory over expansion side Louisville on Saturday night in front of 3,822 in attendance at Exploria Stadium.
“We knew that we needed these three points, especially at home,” Leroux said after the game. “And I feel like that’s it’s a good kind of game to end our little four days off, so we’re really happy about that, and it’s gonna be nice to have a little break.”
Louisville dominated the first 30 minutes, almost opening the scoring on two occasions. The first one came five minutes in when a ball was sent into the box from Savannah McCaskill connected with Nadia Nadim, who headed the ball wide.
The visitors again squandered an opportunity in the 19th minute when a run from Emily Fox saw the right-back defender unleash a shot at goal before a joint-save effort from goalkeeper Erin McLeod and defender Ali Krieger denied Lauren Milliet’s rebound attempt.
The breakthrough for the Pride finally came in the 30th minute when a solo run from Leroux was stopped by Louisville goalkeeper Michelle Betos. Leroux quickly regained possession, and the forward managed to muscle off the approaching defenders before striking the ball past Betos and toward the bottom-right corner to give Orlando the 1-0 lead.
Moments later in the 34th minute, Leroux played a role in Orlando’s second goal when the forward sent a cross into the area. Louisville defender Nealy Martin managed to get a touch, but Marta was left unmarked before striking the bad clearance to double the Pride’s lead before halftime.
Racing Louisville kept deploying its high line, pushing numbers higher up the field, and that paid dividends when in the 51st minute. A ball sent into the area from Yuki Nagasato connected with CeCe Kizer, whose final touch of the ball put Louisville on the scoreboard and cut Orlando’s lead to 2-1.
Two substitutions from Orlando in the 60th minute saw Courtney Petersen and Morgan — both of whom were out with injuries, and the latter also out for national-team duties — return for the Pride.
And it didn’t take long before Morgan found her first goal since May 30, making it 3-1 for Orlando in the 65th minute after striking a ball from Leroux past Betos to restore the Pride’s two-goal lead.
“Every game is so important at this point,” said Morgan. “We want to have the best finish possible to get a high ranking in playoffs, so all the points matter. There’s a lot of ties going on in the league; [OL] Reign just picked up a win from a forfeit off Washington. So we knew that we have to keep climbing the table, getting points that we need, especially at home behind our fans, so this was a very important game for us and it’s just another step for us to take forward under Becky.”
For Burleigh, it was a full team effort that saw Orlando (7-5-7, 28 points) earn another three points.
“This team continues to show their resilience,” Burleigh said. “We gave up a goal but didn’t panic.”
Captain and goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris was ruled out for Saturday’s match after a neck injury during last week’s 1-1 draw against the Houston Dash.
The Pride will travel for their next match against OL Reign, which is scheduled for Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. The match will stream live on Twitch Global.
