Goals from Nadia Nadim and Christine Sinclair secured the Portland Thorns a 2-0 victory over the Orlando Pride last Saturday during the opening games of the 2017 National Women’s Soccer League Soccer season.

“I thought it was a tight game, to be honest. I felt, right up until the second goal that we were in the game. If anything, the first 20 minutes of the second half I thought we were the dominant team,” said Pride coach Tom Sermanni. “We needed to do better in final third. We had a reasonable amount of possession in the opposition’s final third but either our decision making or our quality wasn’t up to the required level to give Portland as many problems as we could have.

“Although I’m disappointed with the result, I wasn’t disappointed with the effort of our players.”

The Pride are back in action on Saturday when the Washington Spirit visits Orlando City Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled at 4 p.m. and will broadcast on Lifetime.

OCB on the road swing 

Orlando City B are back in action on Tuesday.

After falling to New York Red Bulls II 3-1 last Friday, OCB takes on the Harrisburg City Islanders on Tuesday at FNB Field at 6:30 p.m.

“I think the main focus for us is try to build off a lot of the positives that we saw on Friday night against New York, because there were a lot of pleasing aspects about the performance,” said OCB coach Anthony Pulis. “I think any time you come up against a Harrisburg team you know what you’re going to get. They’re very hard-working, very blue collar, never give in, never stop running and it’s a credit to Bill Becher because he’s obviously instilled a culture within that club where you know what you’re going to get every game.”

You can follow OCB action on Youtube by clicking here. 

The USL Lions wrap-up their three-game road trip on Sunday, April 23 when they visit the Bethlehem Steel during a 4 p.m. kickoff.

Two Lions make MLS Team of the Week 

Orlando City defender Jonathan Spector and midfielder Will Johnson were named to MLS Team of the Week for week seven after their impressive performance against the LA Galaxy this past Saturday.

(Craig Mitchelldyer / Portland Thorns)