The Orlando Pride are back under the Friday night lights as they prepare to host high-flying Angel City FC in a critical early-season matchup that could serve as a statement victory.<\/p>\n
The Pride (1-1-2, 5 points) take on Angel City (3-0-0, 9 points) at Inter&Co Stadium on Friday at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cAngel City [is] a team that\u2019s got a lot of good momentum right now, obviously sitting top of the table, three wins after three games. So they\u2019ll come with the expectations that they can go 4-for-4, and we have to stop that,\u201d Orlando coach Seb Hines said. \u201cOf course, we want to get off to a good start as well. Being back at home in front of our own fans, we\u2019ve had a good road trip as well, four points in two games. To finish this part of the season with a win at home is where our minds are at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angel City has been unstoppable so far this season, scoring nine goals in only three games. Sveind\u00eds J\u00f3nsd\u00f3ttir has three goals and two assists in those matches, making her an early front-runner for league MVP. Orlando\u2019s backline has steadied itself with back-to-back clean sheets, but Friday presents a much tougher test.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a pretty good attack. They obviously have scored a lot of goals and not let a lot of goals in,\u201d Orlando defender Hailie Mace said. \u201cSo I think just sticking to our principles and doing what we do best\u2026 we\u2019ll be ready for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hines knows his team can go pound-for-pound with Angel City in the attack. Barbra Banda has three goals this season, while Jacquie Ovalle has a goal and two assists. Those two will set the tone for Orlando and remain crucial to earning three points at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got a forward who\u2019s on form as of now, and so do we. I think they\u2019ll be as mindful of us as we are of them,\u201d Hines added. \u201c[If] we can negate any sort of clear-cut opportunities, execute our opportunities, and stay locked in and solid, I think it poses a good game for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Pride are back under the Friday night lights as they prepare to host high-flying Angel City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,1335,139,141,140,3968,2062,76046,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-216302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-orange-county","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news","13":"tag-orlando-pride","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-social-sports","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}