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The Marc Skinner era has begun with the Orlando Pride as the club started its fourth NWSL season Sunday at Orlando City Stadium. Unfortunately, the Pride fell to Portland in their home opener for the third time in four seasons with a 2-0 home loss in Skinner’s debut as coach.
It didn’t help things that Australian internationals Alanna Kennedy and Emily van Egmond were unavailable due to illness, but Orlando will need some time to fully grasp Skinner’s system and tactics and the coach has said that throughout the preseason. Now we’ve got a good grasp of how far the team still has to go to develop a thorough understanding and turn that into something the players can incorporate without needing to think about it.
Portland is one of the league’s top teams and Skinner and his staff are gaining an understanding on where the Pride need to close the gap in order to move up to that level. Despite Portland’s dominance, Orlando had opportunities in the match but could not convert and now the team is winless in four season openers.
But even losses have good moments and we hope this collection of photos captures some of those. Please enjoy the gallery.
