Healthy Back Sydney Leroux Finds First Two Goals at Expense of Chicago!

BRIDGEVIEW, IL-Sydney Leroux has been waiting to score her first goal this season with the Orlando Pride. She also had been dealing with a bug all week long and had to miss the match against North Carolina this past Wednesday. Leroux wasn’t healthy enough to start on a hot and steamy afternoon, but she entered off the bench and produced her first two goals of the season that lifted Orlando past Chicago 5-2 at Toyota Park on Saturday.

Alex Morgan scored and added a couple of assists. Rachel Hill and Dani Weatherholt had the other Pride goals while Sam Kerr scored twice for the Red Stars.

“It was hot and lots of goals,” Leroux said. “I think we walked away from this feeling pretty good. It feels good to get the weight off my back and I’m happy about it.”

Leroux entered the game in the 52nd minute and she saw the Red Stars’ Sam Kerr score her second goal of the match in the 60th minute that tied the contest at 2-2. But Leroux scored off a header that was set up by Ali Krieger in the 62nd minute which turned out to be the eventual game-winning goal. She also added another one two minutes later off an assist from Morgan to give the Pride a 4-2 lead.

“I was able to get high and score some goals,” Leroux added. “I was sick all week, coming back and coming in as a sub was probably the best move for me.”

Weatherholt added a goal for insurance as Morgan assisted on that one in the 83rd minute.

Orlando (4-3-3, 15 points) with its victory was able to move into third place behind North Carolina and Seattle.

“I’m getting too old for this,” Orlando head coach Tom Sermanni said. “It was a good game and a great one to watch. Both teams were trying to win the game and it was very competitive. I thought we started very well and dropped off when we get up 2 null. Chicago came back very strongly. The turning point in the game was us getting back in front so quickly after Chicago equalized. That gave us a buffer a little bit to go on and win the game.”

Orlando got two early goals from hill and Morgan in the second and sixth minutes until Kerr from the Red Stars got the first goal back in the 21st minute. 

“I’m a little bit confused I think,” Chicago Red Stars head coach Rory Dames said. “Because the group was really good in training this week. We actually never found the pace or rhythm that we found in training in the game today. Which probably means that we put them into too much training this week. Maybe our loads were a little too high. It’s never a good feeling to lose at home. We have found this funk at home. I think you have to give credit to Orlando, they are good. They are able to get time or space on the ball. Games in this league are won or lost in the box a lot.and their execution in the box was very good.

“I feel bad for the players because I know how hard they’ve worked. Especially, this last week and I knew how they were coming into the game. So if this needs to get put on anybody, than you can put it on me.”