Coming off a massive win over the North Carolina Courage, the Orlando Pride are flying high as they shift their focus to Wednesday night, as they host the Portland Thorns at 7:00. (Broadcast: Paramount+).

“Another hard game, a different challenge,” Orlando City Head Coach Marc Skinner said. “They are simmering in terms of their attacking traits, lots of high quality in advanced areas. Lots of high quality international players and we’re going to have to be at our best again to make sure that we get a chance of getting the result that we want. We have to go into this game with the same momentum that we created against North Carolina and make sure we give everything in order to pick apart the traits that will be presented by Portland, but also try to defend their very high quality players that they have. It’ll be a tough challenge, but we’ll be ready to go, no doubt about that.”

With this being their second game in five days, squad rotation will be key to keep legs fresh as the Pride look to this match, but also ahead to their weekend match against Kansas City.

Portland are coming off their first loss of the season at the hands of OL Reign. Their first match of the season, they beat the Chicago Red Stars 5-0, but lost against the Reign at home, 2-1. The Pride will look to lock down the potent offense the Thorns provide, with star goalscorer Christine Sinclair up top and USWNT players Crystal Dunn and Lindsey Horan in the midfield.

Starting keeper for Orlando Ashlyn Harris was left home last week against North Carolina, but is expected to start for the Pride this week.

This will be the first time Orlando and Portland have played each other since July 14, 2019 in a nationally televised game that saw an entertaining match go the way of the Thorns in stoppage time, edging Orlando 4-3.

Orlando’s next match following Wednesday will be at home to face Kansas City on Sunday, May 30. Kickoff for that match at Exploria Stadium will be at 6 p.m.

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