PORTLAND, Ore. – The Orlando Pride dropped their season opener 4-0 to the defending NWSL champion Portland Thorns on Sunday.
Brazilian star Marta returned to the team after tearing her ACL a year ago, but it wasn’t enough as the Thorns scored two goals in each half.
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“It was very hard,” Marta recently said. “That was my first time in my whole career that I was out for so long and to go through all of this hard situation at my age. I just worked day-by-day to think about like, ‘Yes, I still can play this game.’ I still can go back and help this team. So that was hard. But the people around me helped me so much. I’m so grateful for that.”
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Final from Providence#PrideOrDie pic.twitter.com/QGpcXfMKIc
— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) March 26, 2023
Head coach Seb Hines spoke after the game about his team’s tough loss.
“Obviously we are disappointed with the result and the goals we conceded, but I think there are a lot of positives to take away. We came here and tried to play the right way. We tried to control the game in possession and when you do that there has to be an objective to score and I don’t think we created enough opportunities to score. That is something we will review and look back at with video and ultimately toward going into the season we want to possess to score goals.”
The Pride return to Orlando for their home opener on April 2 against Angel City FC.
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