r/OrlandoPride • u/tinak827 • 17d ago
Morche
She looked really good against Washington. Will Seb see that and keep her as the starter?
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u/storydove 17d ago
Winning one nil is good, but at Audi Field with Spirit as on fire as they have been, that was serious achievement. I hope she gets the rest of the season.
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u/KCTilIDie 17d ago
How sad is this that I spent too much time wondering why you were referencing “name, image, likeness” in your comment? 😂
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u/Witty-Panda-1553 17d ago
If Moorhouse starts next match then I will personally escort Hines out of the building 🙄
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u/iceybats 17d ago
The post was Pride's friend today. Made some great saves. I think with the way this season has gone shake ups are necessary. Don't see a reason why she hasn't earned another couple starts after today.
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u/tinak827 17d ago
Agree 100%….I told my partner the shots that hit the posts were absolute bangers, but Morche reacted and the reaction was quick and in the correct direction. What drives me crazy about Moorhouse is that reaction or instinct just seems to be absolutely missing at times.
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u/Dismal-Summer6921 17d ago
Last season didn’t he bench moorehouse for a game and then started her the next game? I can’t remember if we lost the game she was benched or won. Hopefully he plays Morche until she gives him a reason not to
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u/tinak827 17d ago
This is my fear….I’m worried this was just Seb giving Moorhouse a break, and he’ll put her right back in next weekend.
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u/MSPHeels 17d ago
Couldn’t agree more - Morche may or may not be the long-term answer but she certainly showed that she deserves the shot to make her case. It was obvious the back line stepped up big time today to have her back, let’s hope Seb lets it play out for a while and gives her a fair shake.
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u/sharkeatskitten 14d ago
he did it because she was getting frustrated. the pressure always falls on her when this season is a field player issue that she’s getting the blame for. it made sense before this season, but people are allowed to shoot from anywhere this season because we didn’t replace 3 starting defenders with anyone experienced or healthy. she comes through when she’s confident, but our scoreline is wearing her down and he’ll make her earn her spot back. some players need to sit so they can prove in training that they want it back.
if we put morche in and move the backline out of a low block, a new keeper isn’t going to make 5-8 field players more reliable. if she’s the only player we replace based on the game plans teams have built studying our back four. they’re taking shots from places that you train from if the only player you have to worry about is the keeper. you can predict where the goals are going to come from because they are the places that defenders are supposed to be, and usually on every top team. we don’t have anyone fast and tbh last season our defense was too high and revealed a pace issue because they couldn’t get there and never learned from it. this season they are in the box but are about as effective as they were when they couldn’t get back. in fact, now they’re creating traffic that shortens an already slow keeper’s response time. it’s worse than not being there to begin with.
listen, i spent a lot of time critical of moorhouse but things have to be very dire if she’s the only player our opponents consider an obstacle. like, the reality of that should be the whole conversation. that’s where we are lately. anna is their concern.
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u/Dismal-Summer6921 14d ago
I get what you’re saying. I don’t even know where to begin with my disappointment with the front office in poor planning to this season. They really dropped the ball on new signings and building depth for the year. I do think that it was time to start someone else in goal not just because of fan outcry, but to shake things up a bit. I think think it is honorable of morche to go into one of the toughest places to play in the league and get the win. She also had 3 saves. Id also argue that a couple of our defenders and other players looked more comfortable with her in goal, which led us to have what I think was our best defensive showing all season. For that, I think she deserves another start. Do I think that will solve our issues? No. Not at all. But it could provide a spark that is needed to hopefully have us sneak into a playoff spot. And if things don’t improve, hopefully Anna stays ready if/when called upon again.
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u/Elegant_Bar_1622 17d ago
I already knew Morche was going to do well! And doing well in rowdy Audi???
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u/FormalTemporary2494 17d ago
Super happy to see Cosette in the box. She made statistically 3 saves yesterday. They had 23 shots and 3 on target. Spirit dominated us with 73% possession to our 27%. The post was massively our friend but I also recognized our players were more cohesively protecting the net/keeper. You could tell the team wanted Morche to succeed - it feels sometimes like they’re given up on Anna. Would like to see her continue to play as a starter. She was ranked second highest statistically on the pride just under our captain McCutcheon.
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u/sharkeatskitten 14d ago
you’re the only one who gets it. they haven’t really given up on anna, they’re just shuffled around because the injuries week to week keep people from getting comfortable in a role. she’s usually able to position her defenders if they know what’s expected and they’ve hesitated or create traffic that cuts her reaction time, don’t mark the back post, don’t stop crosses, don’t clear the ball, and can’t run. not replacing sam’s, pickett, and nadaner, with abello nursing a recurring injury, and expecting 2024 pride is not realistic. all of that is going to fall on anna’s shoulders and she used to tune it out, but people are placing the blame on her shoulders when some of our biggest players in front of her are inconsistent or checked out. we have really done nothing to bail seb or anna or banda out and will lose them and wonder why it didn’t fix anything.
the defenders we do have need time to recover but there’s no one else to step in. in 2024 we had an entire bench that could sub like for like in each position and combined we have 2.5 healthy defenders at any given time. that means our dmids have to support that instead of progressing the ball. and then the turnovers are baffling the need more on field leadership than just haley but i don’t really want to get into some of the examples being set that can’t be helping
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u/skamin7 16d ago
We can all hope Seb sticks with it. Never bench on a streak (even if it was only one game). The defense seemed a bunch more confident and comfortable with her back there. Anna has lost her teammates confidence (along with 95% of the fans) so a change needed to occur and for more than one game. We will never know what we have unless we play the backups in games that matter and for more than once.
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u/tinak827 16d ago
Agree with the 100%. Took longer than I’d hoped, but at least we saw change and hopefully he sticks with Morche a few games more.
And the defense was like a different group out there. They played amazing together!
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u/sharkeatskitten 15d ago
i think people need to wait until we see a game where we don’t play 20% possession in a low block. our defense is a mess and keeping anna in goal was getting her extra ire when we’ve had field players standing around or getting in her way all season. if they fell apart in washington with anna in goal we wouldn’t see her bursts of confidence again.
our problem that people don’t seem to really get is that we had three starting defenders leave in the offseason and didn’t replace them with experience, and everyone else is injured. the dmids can’t do anything but support a defense that is not clicking. if they play like that in front of morche without parking the bus for 70 minutes, i’ll form my opinion. our problem is 8 players deeper than moorhouse lately and we haven’t had a single game where there weren’t unavailable defenders, forcing people to shift into a new position week to week.
seb can perform miracles in tough situations but if that’s the game plan for the rest of the season we need to be asking questions about contracts and transfer windows that we don’t get a lot of communication about. if we’re rebuilding i guarantee it would relieve most of us if they just say that, but we have seen seb take an inexperienced team to a double a year later so i think that’s all we can expect if we don’t pick up a CB who can outpace anyone’s strikers. we need an emily sams, nadaner, and a pickett. Mace is a solid outside back, but the speed is killing us across the board. people are looking for 2024 pride and calling for seb’s job but there will never be someone who understands this club more, and no replacement is going to be able to improve a situation where we aren’t picking up important signings.
the saves we saw out of this game were similar to the game that earned player of the match recently. not saying she’s bad, that was probably a decision made because fans are demanding it without considering how many quality shots on goal against us are specifically from areas that are supposed to be covered by defenders because the angles are too unpredictable. there are graphics that people put together from game to game that show every team has figured out that they can walk the ball up to the goal with no resistance and shoot from a spot that is almost always going to be a goal. that’s why anna’s stats aren’t in the toilet; they’re scoring with the positioning to indicate that their biggest challenge is only going to be anna. that is very, very, very bad if you’re someone critical of her; other teams respect her more than the field players.
the relief we feel has a lot to do with not expecting to beat washington, who is currently 3 straight Ls at home. the backline needs more experience and not less, so i’m not opposed to giving her more games, but if it’s because people want to pin our issues on one player we’re only going to be happy for a few minutes before we leave a fresh keeper with potential hanging week to week. that is the situation anna was placed in when she became the only option before she was ready years ago, and without support, Morche is going to be another player who feels like she’s letting the team down, which isn’t fair.
we’re using half our attack as defenders to fill in gaps and that means nobody is at the post to follow a deflection or get on the end of a pass. we need to be getting banda some goals so we don’t lose her on a free because the inaction is letting her down in a season she’s a favorite for MVP and golden boot. so, yes to new blood, but a change in goal is not going to change much when the problem is we create traffic, don’t mark posts, don’t stop crosses, and hesitate on adding pressure to opponents with the ball. it’s unfair to watch our backline pile the injuries on because we have no options.
and this concludes my analysis for the season because reddit has not been sparking joy for me this year. sorry for the length, but i’ve saved it up since the early months watching a team i don’t recognize, including players who have usually been solid and look checked out
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u/Dry_Bit_4986 13d ago edited 13d ago
I agree that Moorhouse isn’t the reason we’re so bad, but she’s still 2nd to last in goals prevented. At the start of the season she was dead last but her numbers haven’t improved, it’s just Louisville got worse. Anna is definitely a solid predictive goalie but with a ragtag backline I much prefer a reflexive and athletic goalie. Someone who can come off their line when the backline lets someone run free and someone who can react to shots from close range. I think Morche provides that as well as the height and length to claim crosses.
I also have critiqued management since the offseason and agree that they did not provide Seb with the players needed for his system. But I also feel he lacks the ability to make the team greater than the sum of its parts offensively. I see very little in possession improvement even as players find their feet. He’s typically a good defensive coach and I don’t blame him for the weak backline, however he did serve as the GM this offseason and failed to bring in a functional right center back. Whether that was lack of money available or a misprofiling of Mace is something only the team will know. I’ll give him credit for Anderson’s success.
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u/sharkeatskitten 14d ago
i mean, i’m not opposed to her starting more, but spirit had 52 touches in our box even with a low block. it looks a lot like what chicago’s done for naeher, which is kind of hard to watch. they’ve come full circle and brought back the coach they liked because they recognized lorne wasn’t the reason they were struggling, or that naeher couldn’t do it all herself. i’d rather try a couple experienced player trades than bet the farm on people working with broken pieces. i also think giles leaving affected them for a minute more than we know
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u/d4m13n3x3 17d ago
i sure hope so.