SANFORD, Fla. -- With any young team, there's going to be some growing pains.
The Orlando Pride are going through those now, following inconsistent performances in their last three matches. A win against the top team in the NWSL, the Portland Thorns, was bookended by losses on the road to the Houston Dash and North Carolina Courage.
Now, as the team prepares to face the Kansas City Current, a team that sits at the bottom of the standings, head coach Seb Hines believes finding balance will be the key to righting the ship.
"We put so much work and effort into the Portland game and you set a standard and you can't let that standard drop, regardless of the opponent," he said, "Anyone can beat anyone on their day in this league. It's the most competitive league within women's football. So it's just building that consistency, showing the good things that we did well, the things that we can improve on and keeping everyone hungry for more.
"We're looking up. We're looking at positions that are in front of us and we're not settled on the position we're in. We want to be higher in the table. That's the message. You have to have that hunger and desire to get there. It takes each game, each training day for everyone to buy into that and I think the players are fully bought into what we're trying to do."
With the team looking ahead to their match against the Current on Saturday, it's an opportunity for a bit of payback for the Pride, who lost to Kansas City in Missouri back at the end of April.
"You always want to beat any team, but because they beat us earlier on in the season, we want to beat them a little bit more," Goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse said. "But it’s just another game that we need to win. It doesn't matter who we play, we need to win every game."
Both the Pride and the Courage have changed a lot since that last matchup, with both teams getting players back from injury and finding their forms on the field. With that in mind, Hines and his coaching staff believe the focus should be more on the Pride themselves, rather than their opponent.
"Early on in the season, we were still try to find ourselves," he said, "They've had a lot of injuries early on this season, they start to get players back from injury, change formation. So I think the main focus is on ourselves. Bouncing back from last week's result, it was disappointing because the highs of beating Portland at home and then it's a roller coaster of emotions.
"We can't take Kansas for granted on their position and where they are at within the league. They've got some good players and we have to be mindful of that and if we stick to our game plan, we stick to what we've shown at home, then we'll put ourselves in a good position to get the three points."
Orlando Pride (4-7-1, 13 points) vs Kansas City Current (3-9-0, 9 points)
When: Saturday, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Exploria Stadium, Orlando, Fla.
TV: FOX35 PLUS (local), Paramount+ (subscription required)
