KC’s women’s pro soccer team falls in Orlando, extending winless streak to 8 games

It was a frustrating Sunday afternoon for Kansas City NWSL in the Orlando Pride’s Exploria Stadium.

On the one hand, KC will rue a referee’s decision — the Pride scored a questionable opener on a goal-line decision. On the other, the visitors didn’t produce nearly enough attack to challenge league-leading Orlando.

And that combination resulted in a 1-0 loss for Kansas City, whose winless streak grew to eight games across all competitions to start the season.

“We can talk about the official and the goal, but the bottom line is we’ve got to do better,” KC coach Huw Williams said. “We can’t let a decision, whether it’s right or whether it’s wrong, we can’t let that affect the result of the game.”

Orlando’s Marta was credited with the game’s only goal in the 16th minute after a goalmouth scramble was flicked toward the net by the Brazilian. The ball bounced off KC goalkeeper Abby Smith’s thigh — she swatted the ball away and appeared to have made a goal-line save.

Pride players shouted for a goal. Kansas City looked to continue play. A couple of moments of confusion followed, but referee Alyssa Nichols awarded the goal to Orlando after consultation with her assistant referee.

With no goal-line technology available in the National Women’s Soccer League and no clear goal-line angle of the moment, the 50-50 decision went to the home team.

“It’s just frustrating, but at the end of the day the referee is going to make the call and we don’t have VAR to go back and check,” Smith said. “They stuck with their call and that’s all we can do.”

Smith was making her first appearance for KC since sustaining a groin injury in the final minutes of KC’s Challenge Cup game with Chicago on April 20. She made four saves, including a flurry of saves in the aftermath of Orlando’s opener to keep KC in it.

Williams called the goal “controversial” but said he hadn’t yet seen a clear view of the incident.

“People that are on my side that I’ve talked to, obviously wearing teal, questioned whether it was a goal or not,” Williams said. “Tough to say from our angle, very difficult to make that decision for anybody. Disappointing that a situation like that decides the game.”

The NWSL responded to the incident by saying:

“The information about awarding a goal to OPR was giving by the AR2 (Albert Escovar) to the Referee (Alyssa Nichols). The AR2 is in the correct position to judge if the ball crosses the goal line and uses the proper mechanics to indicate this fact to the Referee (initial info over the comm system, followed up by raising the flag to indicate that the ball crossed the goal line).”

A fan video taken down the byline seemed to show that the ball did not cross the whole goal line.

As Kansas City might be with the referee’s call, the visitors also did little to help themselves on the other end of the field. Despite finishing with 56% possession, KC didn’t put a single shot on target in 10 tries.

Williams made six changes from the starting lineup he used against Chicago Wednesday. The Orlando game was KC’s third in eight days.

Midfielder Victoria Pickett and forward Amy Rodriguez were relegated to the bench. The pair had been instrumental for KC so far this season, but Williams admitted before the game that the duo needed rest at some point.

That point came against Orlando, and Kansas City looked the worse for it. Despite a stout defensive performance that limited Orlando to breakaway chances, KC’s options for offense out of the midfield had to start with Addie McCain.

McCain, selected by Kansas City as the 17th overall pick in January’s NWSL Draft, was tasked with breaking down the league leaders. And KC couldn’t find that killer pass from the midfield with both Desiree Scott and Jordyn Listro sitting farther back as a pair of defensive midfielders.

Defensively, McCain was also required to watch the movement of Marta, who’s widely regarded as the best women’s soccer player of all time.

“It was definitely a challenge,” McCain said. “But honestly, I was grateful to have Corsie from behind, Abby from way, way behind, Desi coaching me and helping me throughout. I told them they had free rein to yell at me at any point that they wanted.”

By the time Pickett and Rodriguez entered the game with 22 minutes remaining, Orlando had fully hunkered down in its own defensive third.

“They’re good players — absolutely it’s tough not having them out there,” Williams said of the pair of subs. “But we had other good players on the field, too, and it’s very, very important for us to be making sure that we give opportunities to everybody in our squad.”

One of the few opportunities Orlando had in the second half also resulted in a penalty after Katie Bowen took down Orlando’s Alex Morgan in the 66th minute. Taking ownership of the penalty she won, Morgan fired her spot-kick off the right post to keep the Pride’s winning margin at one.

This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 7:46 PM with the headline "KC’s women’s pro soccer team falls in Orlando, extending winless streak to 8 games."