Orlando Pride vs. Kansas City Current: A Tactical Deep Dive

Friday night, nearly 10,000 fans packed Inter&Co Stadium to watch the much-anticipated rematch of two of the top teams in the NWSL. After a red card, a road win, and exuberant celebrations by the Orlando Pride at the Kansas City Current, the latter hoped for revenge in Orlando. Instead, the match played out more like a finely balanced chess match before the points were shared.

So, just how did a match featuring the two golden boot leaders in the NWSL, sitting on a combined 27 goals, end scoreless?

Slowing the Current

As it had been for most of the previous 19 matches of the season, defense was the star of the show for Orlando once again. This had to be the case for Orlando, considering the firepower Kansas City has on its roster. Below are the up-to-date goal contribution tallies for the Current, showing just how many players can hurt the opposition. Despite the potency of the Kansas City attack, the Pride were able to extend their clean sheet streak to four consecutive matches, with only one goal against in the past eight games, which was scored by the Current in Kansas City.

While Temwa Chawinga would have been top of mind for Orlando’s coaches while preparing for this matchup, they designed a comprehensive game plan for limiting the opportunities of the NWSL’s most potent attack that included all 11 positions on the pitch.

As Player of the Match Cori Dyke put it, “She’s obviously a player that demands a lot of respect. [She is] a really talented player. We did a lot of preparation this week, watched a lot of film, and went through a lot of defensive strategies.” 

First among these defensive strategies was the high press that Head Coach Seb Hines employs against many opponents. Against the Current, the Pride began each defensive sequence from the front, engaging the Kansas City back line in a 4-2-4 pressing structure. In this formation, Summer Yates, Barbra Banda, Marta, and Adriana were each responsible for covering a counterpart in the opposition back line, limiting their options for easy passes. Then, when a defender played a ball back towards the keeper, Marta or Banda would trigger a more aggressive press and attempt to close down the ball and generate turnovers.  

This high-press strategy often disrupted the flow of the game for Kansas City, but it can be a high-risk, high-reward strategy. If the Pride forced the Current to turn the ball over near their goal, it would create a dangerous chance for Orlando. On the other hand, if the press was unsuccessful, Kansas City could have numerical advantages on the other end of the pitch. 

When Kansas City was able to play out from the back and around the Orlando press, the Current more often than not played it towards Chawinga on their left wing to drive towards the Orlando goal. In this match, she received the ball and carried it forward more often than an average match for her, but this is where the Pride had another strategy for limiting her chances. To slow Chawinga, they used Dyke as the primary defender, tasked with marking the golden boot pace-setter closely and had Emily Sams as secondary cover. 

Dyke’s job was to push tight to Chawinga when she received the ball, enough to slow her down and give additional defenders time to engage. For Sams, the job was to cheat several yards back towards her own net when the Current possessed the ball, so as to not get beaten by Chawinga’s pace. When the ball did reach Chawinga, Sams would rush to double-team Chawinga and force the turnover or get the ball away from the Current’s most dangerous player. This tactic ensured that while Chawinga could not be completely prevented from influencing the play, it would be difficult for her to keep an attack headed towards Anna Moorhouse’s net. 

The last key defensive tactic for the Pride in this match had just as much to do with Kansas City’s lack of endeavor as it did the Pride’s play. Kansas City knew coming into the match that it would be difficult to get a result in Orlando, so the visitors did not attack with the same conviction as they’ve become known for, instead focusing on transition and counterattacks to generate chances without opening the match up for the Pride to do the same. 

Because of Kansas City’s offensive setup, the Pride were able to keep much of the game inside the Current’s half. With the distances reduced, the Pride front line and midfield were able to cover more players and passing lanes. So, when the Current progressed the ball initially, they were quickly covered again by an onrushing Angelina, Marta, or Banda, making life more difficult.

While Chawinga was able to create some threat for the Current — to the tune of five shots with two on target — the rest of the Kansas City squad only managed one shot on target. Vanessa DiBernardo, Lo’eau LaBonta, and Debinha all ended the match well below their season averages for shots, touches, and take-ons, a statistic showing how many times a player attempts to beat the opposition off the dribble. Beyond that, Kansas City only generated two corner kicks and four free kicks, resulting in minimal opportunities to commit bodies forward and create more than half chances. As the match progressed, it often seemed Kansas City wouldn’t be too bothered to play out a scoreless draw.

Pride Attack Stifled

Despite the fact that Orlando and Kansas City met as recently as July, a lot has changed in defense for the Current. Since that match, they have added center backs Alana Cook and Kayla Sharples and goalkeeper Almath Schult. These acquisitions were made to shore up several positions of weakness with an eye towards the NWSL championship. In just their second match as a new defensive unit, they played well, limiting Orlando’s chances. The Pride attack has experienced a bit of a drought in recent weeks, as analyzed by The Mane Land’s Andrew DeSalvo in a recent article. So, it is worth looking at what the Current did to stifle the Pride, and how the Pride could have found a way to win the match.

The Current’s defensive game plan against Orlando was simple, but it was effective. For the full 90 minutes of the match, when the Pride possessed the ball, the Current played a high defensive line and didn’t press the Orlando defenders, trying instead to create a congested middle of the pitch. This can be seen in the passing numbers for the Pride defenders, which were well above average in both number and accuracy of passes since there was absolutely no pressure on these players from the opposition.

On the other end of the pitch, Kansas City doubled up against Banda, with the goal of taking her influence out of the game. As a result, Banda had arguably her quietest night in a Pride jersey so far. On average, the Pride are able to find a pass to Banda 22 times per 90 minutes. Against Kansas City, this number was down to just 14 times. When Banda did receive a pass, she was hounded by defenders and unable to progress the ball into dangerous areas. While she averages an astounding six progressive carries per match, she only completed two against the Current. Without the ball, and unable to progress it into dangerous areas, Banda only took three shots versus her usual 5.5, and one was a speculative long-range effort that could’ve been better as a pass to Adriana.

In response to Kansas City’s defensive setup, the opportunities for Orlando came from the wide areas of the pitch. Because of the attention paid to clogging up the middle and double-teaming Banda, Orlando created many one-on-one matchups for Adriana against the opponent. Unfortunately, Hailie Mace defended superbly from the left back position and Adriana could not get anything going. While Adriana possessed the ball roughly twice as much as Banda, she was unable to create opportunities to score. She attempted eight take-ons against Mace, but beat her once, and by the end of the match she had only managed one shot on target and was largely ineffective.

On the other wing, Yates did not have much more success, despite receiving the ball about as many times as Adriana in only 59 minutes. Off the left wing, she similarly only beat her opponent once out of five attempts. Yates was replaced by Evelina Duljan without registering a shot. Duljan, for her part, was quite lively after her introduction. In her 31 minutes, she was able to beat her opponent three times in one-on-one situations, and her progressive carries led to several dangerous situations for the attack in the closing minutes. 

In addition to Duljan, the other offensive standout for the Pride was Marta. Of all Orlando’s players, she looked the most likely to create the chance that would’ve won the game. Despite the Current’s tactic of compressing the pitch and clogging the middle, Marta’s movement off the ball and exceptional footwork meant she was able to find pockets of space to receive a pass, turn out of trouble, and transition into attack. As a result, Marta received 51 passes in the match, more than double the next highest tally from front-line players, often because she dropped deep to receive. From there, her 43 completed passes also doubled the tally of any other attacker. Each of the two times she took on a defender, she was able to beat them. Finally, Marta accounted for three of Orlando’s five shots on target, all of which were taken outside the box and required diving saves from Schult. 

In the end, Hines said it best, “Kansas were a tough nut to crack at times. You know, they got a lot of bodies behind the ball. They made it very difficult for us to try and create anything. I also think there was quite some good opportunities to score as well.”

Missed Opportunities

As Hines said, despite the solid defending by the opposition, there were a few ways that the Pride weren’t as effective in their attacking play as the coaching staff has come to expect. Some of these missed opportunities were mentioned above, like the wingers not winning their individual matchups against the opposing defense. Another way the Pride could have created chances for themselves, but didn’t, was the high pressing discussed above. While the Current showed a solid game plan for preventing chances when Orlando built from the back, turnovers created in the defensive third can shred a game plan and yield scoring chances. Unfortunately, Orlando was not able to generate a killer turnover in this match.

Another missed opportunity was the lack of threat from set plays. Orlando generated many set pieces, including eight corners and 11 free kicks in total, but these also did not yield a goal. Many times, corners were lofted into an area where the keeper was always favored to reach the ball. Better delivery could have seen a winning goal from Banda, who is already the all-time leader in headed goals for the Pride. Other times, the ball just did not bounce the right way for a rebound. A few of the chances that did come from these set plays fell to Haley McCutcheon, but the defensive midfielder was not able to put any of her four shots on frame. 

Holding a talented opponent scoreless is always an accomplishment that requires a good plan, good execution, and sometimes a bit of luck. Fans in Inter&Co stadium didn’t get to see a goal, but they did see interesting tactics and great defense. While this may be biased towards the team in purple, the Pride generally seemed the more likely to come out victorious in this matchup as they had more possession, shots, shots on target, and set-piece opportunities than the opposing Kansas City Current.

At the end of the day, the points were split, and this too may lean in the favor of the Pride. For the Current, one point meant falling behind Gotham in the standings. They may also be running out of time to catch back up to the NWSL shield leaders after leading the league for much of the first half of the season. For Orlando, a point means a continuing undefeated run that now stretches to 21 matches. However, after the Spirit defeated the Houston Dash, Orlando’s lead at the top of the table now sits at four points, and a match between the top two teams is just a few weeks away.