\n Orlando Pride Head Coach Seb Hines<\/p>\n
\u201cNo better\u00a0[birthday]\u00a0gift than a 3-1 victory at home in front of our fans, so\u00a0credit to\u00a0the players for putting that performance together.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0always nice to take the lead early, but there was disappointment with how quickly we conceded after scoring. I thought the first half was\u00a0fairly even, and I knew we could go to another level. We\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0quite show that\u00a0immediately\u00a0after conceding, but I thought we managed the second half well,\u00a0possessed\u00a0the ball better, earned the rewards for\u00a0it\u00a0and created some good opportunities. Overall,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0really pleased to head into the break with three points.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On\u00a0Cori Dyke\u2019s\u00a0impact\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s\u00a0been phenomenal all season long.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0moved across the back line, starting in a left-sided role early on before shifting to center back and now finishing at right back. Her attitude and professionalism have stood out\u2014it\u2019s\u00a0never \u2018why am I playing there?\u2019 She embraces every role, and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0really pleased\u00a0for\u00a0her. I said to her during the game, great goal, but I was even more impressed by her defensive effort to stop\u00a0[Rachel]\u00a0Kundananji. That was a pivotal moment, and it could have been\u00a0a very different\u00a0outcome without her willingness to get back and make that block.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0incredibly proud of her. She fully deserves this break, and hopefully she can kick on to another level in the second half of the season.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On\u00a0importance of the win\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think it matters how we win\u2014we just want to be on the right side of the result. It feels great to end this stretch on a high.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0been a bit of an up-and-down season as\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0worked to find consistency, so\u00a0to secure\u00a0back-to-back victories for the first time this year is a\u00a0really positive\u00a0step. You can see the impact of getting players back from injury, and we want to continue turning this stadium into a fortress. I thought our second-half performance showed real dominance. We put the opponent under pressure, created chances and controlled possession more effectively, and you could see them wear down as the match went on. Even going down to 10 players late, the grit,\u00a0determination\u00a0and resilience were clear. There were no excuses. We stayed organized, committed to keeping the ball out of our net and\u00a0saw out\u00a0the win.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0one of the most pleasing aspects of the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Orlando Pride Defender Cori Dyke<\/p>\n
\u201cJust really pleased with the win. I thought the team fought hard and brought great intensity tonight. Obviously,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0disappointed to concede in the first half, but I thought our response was excellent, and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a great way\u00a0to head into the break.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On\u00a0scoring\u00a0almost a\u00a0year to the date of her last goal\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s\u00a0kind of crazy.\u00a0I\u00a0don’t\u00a0know,\u00a0it’s\u00a0super exciting.\u00a0I mean,\u00a0obviously Barbra\u00a0[Banda]\u00a0played me a great pass.\u00a0I saw her get the ball in the box and was just trying to join as fast as I could. Yes, she gave me a great\u00a0ball\u00a0and I just tried to get it on frame and hit it hard and good things happened, and\u00a0it’s\u00a0just super fun to score tonight,\u00a0but more importantly,\u00a0to do that for the team.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On\u00a0playing different roles\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u00a0are confident with anybody in those positions.\u00a0We know in any given night anyone can step up as we move things around,\u00a0and yes,\u00a0tonight,\u00a0I think regardless of where I am,\u00a0I just\u00a0try to do my role for the team whatever that looks like,\u00a0whether that’s central or wide,\u00a0and so in both situations,\u00a0I just try to focus on doing my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Orlando Pride Midfielder Luana<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u00a0was a great result and\u00a0a great way\u00a0to finish this part of the season with a win at home. I thought we were consistent\u00a0throughout.\u00a0We took the chances we created,\u00a0which is\u00a0very important\u00a0for us. In the\u00a0end,\u00a0we were able to secure all three points.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0very happy\u00a0with the result and with the opportunity to be on the field today.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On\u00a0getting the start\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0been seven or eight months of\u00a0hard work\u00a0to be able to compete and play in this league again.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0challenging and demands a lot, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0grateful to the staff and my teammates who have been by my side,\u00a0patient with me and giving me the confidence to be myself on the field and contribute to the team.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On\u00a0the team’s approach\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cI think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0something we focus on when we play at home,\u00a0that we need to start strong and not give the opponent too much time to settle when they come onto our field.\u00a0I thought we did a great job early on, which led to the first goal.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0something\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0worked on in training, and we were prepared to execute.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando Pride Head Coach Seb Hines \u201cNo better\u00a0[birthday]\u00a0gift than a 3-1 victory at home in front of our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64805,26193,115,139,141,140,3968,121804,96736],"class_list":["post-289866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-cori-dyke","tag-luana","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-pride","tag-orlvsbay-05-29-2026","tag-they-said-it"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289866","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=289866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}