BRIDGEVIEW, ILLINOIS (May 26, 2018) — Sydney Leroux finally has her first goal in purple.
The forward found the back of the net twice in the Orlando Pride’s 5-2 victory over the Chicago Red Stars on Saturday. Leroux’s first goal was assisted by Ali Krieger while her second was unassisted.
The goals were two minutes apart from each other.
Orlando Pride Dominate Chicago Red Stars by a 5-2 Scoreline
The first goals of the match were scored by Rachel Hill and Alex Morgan, though. It only took Hill two minutes to find the back of Alyssa Naeher’s net. Morgan followed up with a goal in the 6th minute.
Orlando’s dominant run finished with an 83rd-minute goal by Dani Weatherholt. Morgan recorded the assist on Weatherholt’s goal.
As for Chicago, Sam Kerr scored two goals in the loss. Both of Kerr’s goals were assisted by fellow forward Yuki Nagasato.
After the match, Pride Head Coach Tom Sermanni called it a “good game.”
“If you’re neutral watching it, I think it was a great game to watch,” Sermanni said. “It ebbed and it flowed, both teams were trying to win the game and it was very competitive. I thought we started very well but dropped off after we went two-nil up and Chicago came back very strongly.”
Sermanni said that he believed the turning point was Orlando’s goals that brought them back in the lead.
“That gave us a buffer, knocked them back a little bit and we were able to go on and win the game,” Sermanni said.
We out here thriving. 🤗 #VamosOrlando pic.twitter.com/1H1GjW4zj8
— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) May 26, 2018
Three Takeaways
- Krieger’s active streak breaks record: Ali Krieger exited the match in the 70th minute in favor of defender Carson Pickett. Krieger’s substitution ended her consecutive minutes streak, which sits at 3,227 minutes. The streak is the longest active streak in the NWSL. How does that add up? Krieger has played every minute since her 2017 trade from the Washington Spirit.
- Naeher looked bad — really bad: Alyssa Naeher might be a U.S. Women’s National Team starter and have loads of experience, but she looked downright bad against Orlando. She couldn’t handle the pressure of three forwards, followed up by attacking midfielders. It might be time for Rory Dames to consider giving backup goalkeeper Emily Boyd a chance.
- Sermanni has Orlando disciplined: The discipline of the Orlando Pride was put on display in this match. No player for Orlando received a yellow or red card. Chicago was fairly on the same track, despite one yellow card to Samantha Johnson.
“We keep moving forward.” -Ashlyn Harris pic.twitter.com/W5o1yJ0Qeo
— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) May 26, 2018
