What The Heart Wants

NWSL 2018 Matchday Three

Matchday Three of the NWSL season started with Lifetime's Game of Week from Orlando City Stadium, as the Pride and the North Carolina Courage met in the first of their three 2018 meetings. Following last week's destruction of the home side by the expansion Philadelphia Hearts, Orlando coach Tom Sermanni decided to insert rookie Veronica Latsko in place of Toni Pressley and move to a 3-5-2.

Harris

Camila--------Menges--------Catley

Weatherholt-------Kennedy

Hill----------------Marta---------------Raso

Leroux------Latsko

As for the Courage, Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak chose to stick with the same first XI that picked up wins over Sky Blue and Washington in Weeks One and Two.

Rowland

Smith------Erceg------S. Johnson------Short

Brian---------Zerboni

O'Reilly--------------------------O'Hara

Williams------McDonald

After a largely defensive battle over the first 45 minutes, Jenn Hildreth and Aly Wagner debated changes the two sides needed to make in order to take the three points today.

Jenn Hildreth: Tom Sermanni needs to think about shuffling the pieces on the field to get Hill and Raso into more dangerous positions alongside Marta, Leroux, and Latsko. Dropping Kennedy to the backline and bringing in someone like Kathellen Sousa to partner with Weatherholt would allow him to push one of the wingers to the front and go 4-3-3.

Aly Wagner: For the Courage, introducing Ashley Hatch and/or Debinha to the proceedings would bring more dynamism into the attack, as right now it's pretty much the Irish soul sisters lumping balls in for McDonald and Williams to re-direct.

Prior to the second-half kickoff, both teams made substitutions, with Hatch replacing Jess McDonald and Sousa coming on for Rachel Hill. The changes loosened up the defensive postures of both teams and led to a trio of goals in the second stanza as Hatch put a pass from O'Reilly past a screened Ashlyn Harris to open the scoring after 59 minutes. The Pride responded at the 64-minute mark when Alanna Kennedy and Marta teamed up on a cheeky free kick originating from outside the box. The 5'11" Australian took up a spot midway between her Brazilian teammate and Abby Erceg, then sent Marta's pass back to her at a slight angle, where she caught Katelyn Rowland sliding forward from the end line to chip it over her head. Debinha was brought on for Heather O'Reilly in the 83rd minute and three minutes later scored the game-winner for last year's NWSL runners-up by splitting Kennedy and Emily Menges to latch onto a Lynn Williams pass and rounded an onrushing Harris to deposit the ball into the net. As the final whistle blew, the two teams' players made their way around the pitch to congratulate and console their opponents. Before ending the broadcast, Hildreth and Wagner discussed the two remaining Eastern Conference games on the slate.

Jenn: In under an hour, the other Eastern Conference match-ups will kick off, with Washington hosting Boston in a battle of winless sides and Sky Blue entertaining this season's early surprise, the 2-0 Philadelphia Hearts. How do you expect the two matches to go, Aly?

Aly: The Spirit right now are still a work-in-progress defensively after the off-season moves by Jim Gabarra, but have enough offensive weapons to take the points tonight against a less-dynamic Breakers team. In Jersey, the game comes down to whether Sky Blue's back four can somehow contain the fire power Erica Dambach has at her disposal. I'd expect both Steph Labbe and Kailen Sheridan to be fairly busy this evening.