One down, 3 more exhibitions to go, KC NWSL coach assesses 1-0 win over Orlando Pride

Kansas City’s National Women’s Soccer League team kicked off its preseason schedule of games Wednesday by defeating the Orlando Pride 1-0.

The match was played behind closed doors in Orlando, with no live stream available, but coach Huw Williams talked Thursday about his team’s tactical game plan.

“The level of competition changed, and it’s great for us,” Williams said, referencing the club’s 14-0 scrimmage win over Orlando FC Royals of the United Women’s Soccer division last Saturday.

Orlando featured a strong lineup that included Brazilian legend Marta and 2015 Women’s World Cup winners Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan.

“It exposed some weaknesses that we had, and it also gave us some excitement with thinking some of the things that went well for us too,” Williams said.

The positives

Kansas City’s win allowed Williams and his staff to finally put into action some of the tactics they’ve been integrating since training camp began in early February.

Chief among those: having his goalkeeper serve as the first point of attack.

“We expect the goalkeepers to be building,” Williams said. “Goalkeepers are very much part of our offense, as well as the basics of getting that clean sheet, too.”

Veteran goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart started Wednesday’s game but played just 25 minutes as she continues to recover from an injury. She remained relatively stationary, but as the season progresses Williams expects her to be covering the 30 yards of space on either side of her behind the back line.

Barnhart also expects to be playing a little farther upfield and off her goal line this season. KC’s tactics call for one of the outside backs joining the attack, leaving Williams’ team with a back three opposed to a back four when on offense.

Because of that, Barnhart plans on playing as almost a sweeper-keeper, helping cover the exposed open space and communicate with her back line any potential threats in transition.

“A lot of communication needs to happen,” she said. “We just need to be aware of where players are, and as long as we’re positioned well enough to deal with everything, it’s not too much of an issue.”

It was Jaycie Johnson doing much of the attacking out of the back against Orlando.

Williams has pinpointed Johnson’s strength of taking on players in one-v-one situations. Because of this, Williams moved Johnson from her typical position of forward to play left back in the second half.

Because of the way Kansas City plays, a lot of space for attacking will come in the outside areas, offering plenty of real estate for Johnson to run into.

“She’s got the ability to change direction and change speed, so very explosive, and she’s got that getaway speed, if that makes sense,” Williams said. “Just that little fake, that little shimmy, and then she’s gone. Jaycie did very well yesterday.”

Forward Raisa Strom-Okimoto also played out of position Wednesday, acting as a false 9 or attack-minded 10.

The change in position afforded Strom-Okimoto a lot more freedom in the pocket of space between the midfield and forward three. Although her primary task was to feed balls to the front three running in behind the Orlando defense, she was on hand to win a loose ball in Orlando’s half and bury it in the top corner for the sole goal of the game.

“She kind of loved that freedom, I think — there was more room for her,” Williams said. “And her job was to feed the forwards, but if the opportunity was there for her to penetrate, just go for it. And that’s what happened.”

The negatives

Despite the victory, Williams sees plenty of room for improvement.

The biggest issue was the defense’s lack of confidence in playing the ball to the midfield three.

Kansas City’s aim is for either the goalkeeper or defense to play the ball directly to the midfield. Either the defensive midfielder or one of the center midfielders is supposed to drop back to provide an option before quickly moving out of that space if the pass doesn’t come and allow another midfielder to occupy that area.

While the midfielders were making those movements, the ball didn’t arrive at their feet near enough for Williams’ liking.

“We found ourselves having to skip the midfield quite a bit yesterday,” Williams said. “And then perhaps when they were semi-open, the defenders didn’t trust them enough to give them the ball with a little bit of pressure on their back.”

“They’re good enough to handle that, and we need to be able to trust each other in tight situations, too.”

Williams also didn’t see his players running at the Orlando players enough when in isolation positions. KC works to get those one-v-one situations, especially in the open areas down the wings and up top with the front three. But KC didn’t take those opportunities when they came.

Williams described his side’s explosiveness as “bringing the Welsh Dragon” — a reference to his Welsh nationality and the dragon on the country’s flag.

Despite bringing the Welsh Dragon, “the dragon was still in the cage throughout the game.”

“There was some promise but we broke down a little bit in terms of explosiveness,” Williams said. “The first half I think that possession was even, but I think that we had chances in the first half that we should have put away.”

“That’s what we mean by unleashing the dragon,” he continued. “Just to be more assertive. When we see isolations, we’ve got to go at them. We kind of passed a little bit in some situations.”

KC NWSL will return from Orlando after this weekend. The club is scheduled to play the University of Kansas (March 16), K-State (March 20) and Oklahoma (March 31) before the start of the NWSL Challenge Cup on April 9.

This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 2:43 PM.