The Orlando Pride ended a six-match winless streak on Tuesday with a 3-0 victory over Alajuelense.
Now the Pride (8-6-4, 28 points) head to Chicago to take on the Stars (1-9-8, 11 points) on Sunday at 3 p.m. in league play with sights set on a second consecutive victory.
“Chicago has gone through some changes, with the new coach coming in and implementing his ways and getting a positive result away at Washington [Spirit],” Orlando coach Seb Hines said. “We have to focus on ourselves, we have to get back to winning ways. We had a really good result last Tuesday night in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, so we’re looking to build on top of that performance.”
The last time these two teams faced off, Orlando emerged with a 6-0 win in March. The Pride hold an all-time record of 8-12-2 against the Stars but have not lost to their Midwest foes in their last five matches.
Orlando has struggled in front of goal this season, especially since losing Barbra Banda to a season-ending injury. Chicago will be a tougher test than Alajuelense, but the Stars have allowed 36 goals in only 18 matches this season. There will be plenty of opportunities for the Pride to test goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.
“That feeling of the ball hitting the back of the net and having that sort of performance [against Alajuelense] can only build confidence for the rest of the team,” Hines added. “That’s who we are, that’s our identity, and we want to just get back to that sort of standard that we’ve shown all of last year and early on this year.”
The Pride will also hope to keep another clean sheet, but Chicago does have some offensive talent to worry about. Ludmila da Silva leads the team with nine goals this season, while players like forward Allyson Schlegel (2G, 2A) and defender Samantha Staab (1G, 4A) are also capable of contributing to the attack.
