Orlando Pride head coach Seb Hines and defender Kerry Abello shared their thoughts following the team’s recent loss to Racing Louisville. Hines expressed gratitude to the fans and dissatisfaction with the overall team performance. He emphasized that the effort fell short, especially beyond the final minutes of the match, and highlighted the need for improvement moving forward.
“First of all, I just want to thank the fans, they were terrific tonight. They were really loud, hostile, and that’s what we need every week,” Hines said. “I apologize for the performance; they spend their hard-earned money to come out and support us and that performance today wasn’t good enough from everyone, barring the last five to ten minutes. A team like Louisville, who are very aggressive, they like to put pressure on, and we didn’t execute the best that we could have. We were close in moments, but close right now isn’t enough to get us three points. We need to reflect. We need to be better and turn this around.”
On conceding first and its impact on the team, Hines remarked, “You don’t want to concede. It’s never due to a lack of effort. Things just aren’t going in our favor, whether it’s a call or a ball or it hits the post or a crossbar, like it’s just not falling for us right now, but the belief is still there. We have to keep going. We have to keep trying, not get too out of discipline either. I think at moments we lost a little bit of discipline because we were pushing. If you get that next goal, it gives you a foundation. It allows you to push on and gets the crowd off their feet and start getting excited. It can be intimidating in this environment, when the fans are involved as well. When you go down, that next goal is so important and if the other team gets it then it becomes an even bigger mountain to climb.”
Defender Kerry Abello praised the team’s fight late in the game but recognized issues from the start. “I was really proud of our fight in the last 20 minutes or so. Even two goals down, three goals down, we didn’t stop pushing,” Abello said. “But that needs to be who we are from the first minute, and it wasn’t today. I think we were just behind it. We played into their hands a bit. The goals are Louisville’s game: set pieces, long balls and run after it. They’re tall, they’re athletic and we didn’t manage that well today. We weren’t on the front foot, but I’m really proud of the way we fought back, regardless of the scoreline.”
About her goal late in the match, Abello said, “I wish that was the winner and not what it was, but I was just trying to make something happen. I knew that we needed a little bit of life, and honestly, the moment the ball was being passed to me I saw that I had space, and before I even got it, I was like, I know I’m going to touch it and shoot and pick out the top corner, and it came off today. But again, I wish that was the winner.”
Source: Original report