Seb Hines’ Team Selection During the Orlando Pride’s Summer Cup Campaign

The NWSL’s status as one of the top destinations in the world for women’s soccer means major tournaments like the Summer Olympics feature a large number of players from the league. For this reason, the NWSL made the decision to take a break during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, ensuring the best teams don’t lose key players for multiple weeks. While its top players are away, the NWSL came together with Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil — an up and coming league — to create a competition that allows its teams to continue playing during the break.

Similar to the previous incarnations of the NWSL Challenge Cup, it’s hard to determine the importance of the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup. There is a trophy at stake, presented to the winner in San Antonio in October, but there are other things for coaches to consider when selecting their teams. Determining how to manage the rosters and protect players for the final stretch of the season while creating momentum is a challenging balance.

The Orlando Pride are in a new situation this season. After finishing out of the playoffs in seven of their first eight years, the team has started this one on a 16-game unbeaten run and sits at the top of the table with 10 games remaining. Seven players from the club are currently at the Olympics, including five regular starters, and goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse was briefly with the England Women’s National Team. This provides Pride Head Coach Seb Hines with decisions to make on team selection.

The Pride’s first starting lineup of the Summer Cup was more of what you would expect with so many players missing. Eight of the 11 players have started multiple games this year and everyone except backup goalkeeper McKinley Crone had played in multiple regular season contests.

The team’s 2-2 draw with CF Monterrey Femenil Saturday night was much different. Hines made six changes from the previous starting lineup, providing extensive playing time for players that have seen few minutes this season. So, how does the Pride boss decide who plays in these games while maintaining the momentum and confidence gathered during the regular season?

There are two considerations for NWSL coaches during the Summer Cup, especially those fighting for playoff spots or the NWSL Shield. The first is providing meaningful minutes to players who haven’t had very much time on the field this year. Depth is key for teams in any league and the NWSL is no different. Those looking to finish strong and make a postseason run will need players further down their roster to play well off the bench.

“It gives players an opportunity to go out there and perform,” Hines said about the Summer Cup. “So, the likes of Cori Dyke coming in and playing left back position. She’s played a couple of times off the bench, but getting the start and rolling in that position was really important for us moving forward into the end of the season. Players like Ally Lemos, she’s had two starts all year, but coming in and starting the game, really important for her development moving forward. Evelina (Duljan), you know, only played 10 minutes last game, but then getting her start and she fully took her opportunity (Saturday). And that was really pleasing to see. So, yeah, we’re going to need players in these last 10 games in the season to make sure that we get ourselves in a position that we all hope for, and what we wanted at the start of the year.”

The other factor in team selection is keeping your players healthy. The players who have started regularly have played a lot this season and their minutes during the league break need to be well managed. It’s inevitable that some have been playing with minor injuries and the break gives them time to get healthy. However, coaches also prefer they don’t go well over a month without playing meaningful minutes.

Left back Kerry Abello and defensive midfielder Haley McCutcheon are two regular starters Hines is trying to protect. Both players are recovering from minor injuries, impacting their playing time during the Summer Cup.

“There’s a few niggles that we don’t want to risk,” Hines said about what impacts his lineup selection. “Haley McCutcheon, Kerry Abello both having niggles and we don’t want to put any of our players at risk.”

McCutcheon played 90 minutes in the Summer Cup opening draw with North Carolina on July 20 before not appearing Saturday night. Meanwhile, Abello didn’t come off the bench in the first game and played the final 30 minutes against Monterrey.

The risk of playing the regulars was seen in the first game when Bri Martinez, who has started eight regular-season games at right back this season, suffered a leg injury that required her to be helped off the field. A primary goal for Hines is to avoid more of those situations.

The result of providing rest to some of the team’s key players is a lineup that hasn’t played together against outside opposition. However, rookie Alex Kerr, who started, played 90 minutes, and scored Saturday night, said this didn’t affect them because of the team’s culture of togetherness.

“We obviously in practice are always together and always working and trying different things,” Kerr said of the group following the most recent draw. “So, it just shows how special this team is, because we have so much depth and we can play with everyone, and we have those relationships on and off the field. So, it’s just such a cool group that we can kind of play with anyone who’s on the field.”

With the exception of Martinez’s injury, it’s been a successful Summer Cup for the Pride. The two draws have extended the team’s unbeaten run to 18 games in all competitions and they’ve provided meaningful minutes for reserve players, increasing the team’s depth. Now the hope is to get the Olympians back healthy, though they don’t have any control over that. Claiming points in these games is a bonus.

Choosing which players to play in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup is a challenge for Hines. Ideally, he can provide minutes for reserves, keep the regular starters fit, and maintain the momentum from the regular season. It’s a potentially difficult balance that will pay dividends when the regular season resumes.