The Orlando Pride have now hit high speed on their soccer motor. But they still haven’t engaged their top gear.
If the Orlando Pride were an industrial motor, they’d be racing at over 100 mph without hitting high gear yet.
They handed Angel City FC their first loss of the season, preserving the Pride’s unbeaten streak at four matches at the time. The final score was 2-1.
The Orlando squad demonstrated that players are collectively seeing a different game on the pitch than their opponents. By their solid defense, they kept the score knotted at 0-0 until the 84th minute.
That’s when Hannah Anderson caught striker Barbra Banda on the left wing for a cross. There was a scramble with several deflections. Haley McCutcheon, known as a defensive midfielder, was watching the ball as if the match had gone into slow motion. She saw that the Angel keeper Angelina Anderson had been neutralized by a collision.
So McCutcheon caught one of the deflections and sent it into the empty space.
The 1-0 lead held until the second minute of final stoppage time. Angel defender Gisele Thompson scored her second goal of the season for the equalizer.
It started as a free kick by Evelyn Shores that was blocked. It caromed to Thompson at the edge of the penalty box, who fired it off the underside of the crossbar past Pride goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse.
But McCutcheon and the Pride weren’t done.
In the 98th minute, Marta sent in a corner that ricocheted off several players. Again, McCutcheon had moved in, watched for the ball, and sent it into the net for the winning goal.
It was McCutcheon’s fourth game-winning goal across all competitions. But it is her first career brace.
She has nine goals across all competitions, tied for sixth in club history with former player Ally Watt.
One of the ways the Pride players keep turning up their game was explained by McCutcheon before the season began. All players will have to stay ready. They’ll have to find where opponents are directing the ball at all times and move to it.
The downfall for Angel City FC began when they maintained their focus on Pride star Barbra Banda. They kept her from getting to the net, so she did everything necessary to get the ball into someone they weren’t so focused upon.
For this match, it was Haley McCutcheon’s turn. Other Pride players will get their turns. That’s because there isn’t just one or two stars on this season’s Orlando Pride. Every player on the pitch gets to become the star.
They’ll just have to keep watching the ball.