The Orlando Pride (2-3-2, 8 points) squandered a first half comeback from 2-0 down with some glaring defensive mistakes and an offense that couldn’t get past a stout Washington Spirit (3-1-3, 12 points) defense in a 4-2 home loss. The crowd of 7,507 fans had to wait out over an hour and a half weather delay to be disappointed in the end, despite Barbra Banda’s brace rallying Orlando back to level terms by halftime. Two second-half goals and a lack of offensive threat by the Pride led to the team’s second straight loss in league play.

The Pride have now conceded seven goals in their last two league games, and the team’s trend of starting halves poorly continues, as Orlando fell behind 2-0 within the first six minutes of the game. Sofia Cantore’s early brace set the tone, Claudia Martinez broke the 2-2 tie 10 minutes after halftime, and Trinity Rodman killed the game off in the 70th minute.

“You go in promising positions where I thought we started that first probably one or two minutes, and then, you know, you get punished for not ending it, not finishing your press,” Orlando Pride Head Coach Seb Hines said after the match. “Switched off at the back, and it allows [a] team like Washington, who are really dangerous in transition, with acres of space to run into.”

Goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse started behind a back line of Cori Dyke, Rafaelle, Hailie Mace, and Oihane. Angelina and Ally Lemos were the defensive midfielders behind an attacking line of Solai Washington, Haley McCutcheon, and Summer Yates, with Banda up top. Marta was on the bench after taking a knock last week but did not see the field, even when the Pride fell behind in the second half.

The match, which was scheduled for 4 p.m., finally kicked off at 5:37 p.m., after a delay for inclement weather. But it was the Spirit who handled the start of the game much better, pulling ahead in just the second minute with their first attempt of the game.

Cantore finished off a perfect Trinity Rodman feed over the top that Anna Moorhouse couldn’t stop.

SOFIA CANTORE ONLY NEEDED 2 MINS 🇮🇹⚡️ pic.twitter.com/UvYCAcihkR

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 2, 2026

In the sixth minute, Orlando tried to respond, with Banda working herself free on the right side and sending a dangerous cross into the box for Solai Washington’s run. The rookie left her shot too close to goalkeeper Sandy MacIver, who got a touch to it, pinging it off the left post. The rebound sparked a Spirit counterattack, which ended with another Rodman assist and a Cantore goal as Rafaelle lost track of the Spirit striker and couldn’t recover, allowing an easy finish to make it 2-0 in the sixth minute.

THINGS YOU LOVE TO SEE 🤩 pic.twitter.com/8usu7Dnhnj

— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) May 2, 2026

Following the second goal, the Pride began to assert possession but rushed their buildup, losing control in the process. They eventually worked the ball to Haley McCutcheon for a shot on goal, but it was easily saved by MacIver.

In the 16th minute, Hailie Mace struggled to contain Rodman, conceding a corner. Washington recycled several balls into the box, but Orlando’s defense eventually cleared them. The Pride then fashioned a counterattack, only for Lucia Di Guglielmo to pull Solai’s shirt, earning a yellow card.

Orlando started to string together periods of possession, but their connections in the buildup were too slow to truly pressure Washington. They earned a corner in the 25th minute, but MacIver scooped it up after a brief scramble in the box.

The Pride’s pressure should have paid off in the 30th minute. A scramble in the box led to Tara Rudd’s foul on Banda, handing Orlando a penalty kick. It was Ally Lemos who stepped up to the spot, but her run-up was easy for MacIver to read and, Lemos placed the ball far too close to the keeper and right at chest level. MacIver made an easy save, sending it out for a corner.

However, after squandering the spot kick, the Pride made the ensuing set piece pay off.

The corner was sent in to Rafaelle, who headed it down and forward to Banda. The Zambian did a good job of boxing out her defender, taking a touch to chest it down, spinning, and firing it in to put it away, cutting the lead to 2-1 in the 33rd minute.

Rafaelle finds Barbra to get us on the board at home 🤝 pic.twitter.com/MAR90Apzq4

— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) May 2, 2026

The Pride were buoyed by the goal, coming alive. Orlando prowled around the box with sustained possession, and Banda struck again in the 38th minute to tie the game. Lemos sent a good ball over the top to Oihane on the right. The Spaniard sent in a low cross, and Banda again turned on it and blasted it past MacIver.

THE SECOND BRACE OF THE MATCH 😱

Barbra Banda gets the ball in traffic, turns, and fires it home to tie up the game! https://t.co/Hq5TyeiJil pic.twitter.com/ACHS8Vtd8F

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 2, 2026

The match then settled into a midfield battle, with possession changing hands frequently. In the 43rd minute, Yates fired a shot high over the goal. Washington countered by working the ball into Orlando’s 18-yard box in the 45th minute, but no one was there to finish. The visitors repeated the play in the 48th minute from the other side, but neither attempt was particularly threatening.

The first half ended with possession even (50%-50%), but Orlando led in shots (9-4), shots on target (5-2), corners (3-1), and passing accuracy (80%-73%).

The Spirit started the second half on the front foot and looking to get back in front, but Orlando broke up their efforts to build, and managed to work a Banda shot in the 48th minute that was saved easily by Maclver. Washington worked her way down Orlando’s left side in the 52nd and put a cross into the box but it was too close to Maclver, who caught it easily.

Both teams managed some minor advances into each other’s territory, but good defense by both teams repeatedly snuffed out each chance.

The game turned in Washington’s favor when Mace and Rafaelle both stepped up, and a line-splitting pass allowed Martinez to in behind and put Washington up 3-2 in the 55th minute.

Claudia Martínez with a BEAUTIFUL run and….IN 👏

It's her second NWSL goal! pic.twitter.com/EHRseyjmBs

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) May 2, 2026

Again the match settled into a bit of back and forth, with not much in the way of threatening attacks. Rodman had a shot in the 63rd but sent it right at Moorehouse. Mace committed another mistake in the 65th, as she passed the ball right to Rodman, who settled and fired but the shot was blocked. Rosemonde Kouassi took a shot after getting onto the rebound but Moorhouse made the save.

The Pride made a triple substitution in the 66th minute, putting Simone Jackson in for Yates, Nicole Payne on for Oihane, and Julie Doyle on for Washington.

The subs didn’t change the game much though, and in the 70th minute, Rodman struck again. It was a simple ball over the top into space, bypassing an Orlando back line asleep to the danger. A precise cross in from Kouassi led to a tap-in by Rodman, putting Orlando in a deep 4-2 hole from which the Pride could not recover.

ANOTHER ONE FROM TRIN 🤪 pic.twitter.com/l3NbdDhWqE

— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) May 2, 2026

Luana subbed on in the 74th minute for Angelina and Seven Castain replaced Lemos in the 78th.

Orlando scratched out a few minor efforts in the Spirit’s box, but they still could not test Maclver.

The Spirit almost put another one away on a counterattack in the 85th but it was right at Moorhouse. Orlando responded with a counterattack, with Banda fighting her way through the defense and managing a close-range shot at a sharp angle that wound up over the end line for a corner. McCutcheon sent the ensuing ball in over the crossbar in the 87th.

The Pride spent the rest of the match failing to fashion any real chances with Washington playing keep-away to run out the clock, which they did well.

In the 95th minute Banda managed an attempt from the widest of angles that was easily saved and that was it for the Pride on a disappointing night that had a moment of hope going into half time.

Washington held the most possession (55%-45%) and a slight advantage in passing accuracy (77%-76%), but Orlando led in shots (16-10), shots on target (8-7), and corners (6-2).

“It can’t always be Barbra. It would turn into a one player team,” Hines said. “They do contribute in so many different ways. You know, I think some of the pressing was great. [I] think the creativity from Summer Yates was brilliant as well. You know, taking players on and getting [into] dangerous positions. That first goal again, it comes from a position where you know, you think you’re going to score. We hit the post. I think we hit the bar as well. And these are the fine margins that are kind of letting us down. We don’t want to concede four goals. (I) hate conceding. It hurts a lot. But there’s a few positives that we can take away going into the next game.”

“I think it’s definitely a difficult one. Obviously, nobody likes to lose at home,” said Payne, who made her Pride debut in the second half. “We’ve been working really hard. Especially after the last game, we really went to work to try and work on the things that we needed to fix and tweak. We fell a little bit short, but obviously, we’re a very, very good team, and we’ll have more moments. We know that we can do better and clean up those things that we need to.”

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Next up, the Pride face the North Carolina Courage at home on Friday.

Welcome to your preview and match thread as the Orlando Pride (2-2-2, 8 points) return home to face the Washington Spirit (3-1-3, 12 points). The Pride are looking to bounce back after a tough loss in Louisville on April 24. This is the first of two meetings between the teams this season, with the return game in Washington, D.C. is scheduled for Aug. 23.

Here’s everything you need to know about today’s game.

History

The Pride and Spirit have faced off 29 times since Orlando joined the NWSL in 2016. The Pride are 9-7-6 in regular-season play against Washington and 11-10-8 in all competitions against the Spirit, adding in Challenge Cup and NWSL playoff matchups. Orlando is 5-3-3 in the series in NWSL play at home and 6-4-5 at home against Washington in all competitions.

The last time these two teams met was on Oct. 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C. and it was an electric game. Kerry Abello opened the scoring in the late in the first half with an own goal, then scored one for her own team three minutes later. Sofia Cantore gave the Spirit the lead just before the half, but then Marta came on. The Pride captain’s shot off Narumi Miura equalized early in the second half and she converted a penalty later, after Ally Watt drew the foul, securing the 3-2 win.

The first meeting of 2025 took place on April 19 in Orlando. Gift Monday scored the game’s lone goal in the second half, giving the Spirit the 1-0 win and the Pride their first loss of the 2025 season. The teams also played in the NWSL Challenge Cup to kick off the season on March 7 in Orlando. In her first game back since July 6, Rafaelle netted the opening goal to give the Pride a late first-half lead. Leicy Santos equalized in the second half with a terrific strike, and the game finished tied at 1-1. The Spirit won the ensuing shootout 4-2 to claim the preseason trophy.

The first meeting of 2024 took place April 26 in Washington, D.C. Angelina gave the Pride the early lead before Ouleymata Sarr equalized shortly before halftime. A Barbra Banda strike and a Summer Yates penalty conversion in the second half seemed to put the game away, but Anna Moorhouse dropped an easy catch from Ashley Hatch’s shot, giving the Spirit a second goal. Fortunately, the Pride held on for the 3-2 win, extending their early-season winning streak to three games.

They met a second time on Oct. 6 in Orlando. Despite dominating the game, the Pride didn’t convert until Marta scored early in the second half. An Adriana shot was deflected by Tara McKeown for an own goal later, lifting the Pride to a 2-0 win and clinching the NWSL Shield. The Pride and Spirit were the best two teams throughout the season and faced each other in the NWSL Championship on Nov. 23 in Kansas City. Banda’s first-half goal was the difference in the game as the Pride won their first-ever league title.

The first meeting of 2023 took place May 10 at Audi Field in NWSL Challenge Cup group play. Tori Hansen gave the Pride a surprising early lead, but late first-half goals by Lena Silano, Sam Staab, and Marissa Sheva made it 3-1 Washington at halftime. Watt scored off the bench early in the second half, but Ashley Sanchez put the game away in injury time as the Spirit won 4-2.

The first regular-season matchup of 2023 was held May 20 in Orlando. Marta converted a first-half penalty, but Staab equalized five minutes later. Kylie Strom netted the winner late, and the Pride won 2-1. The Pride dominated the Spirit in the second regular-season matchup on July 1. Julie Doyle had a brace in the first 16 minutes and a McKeown own goal put the game out of reach as the Pride won 3-0.

The final meeting in 2023 was in the Challenge Cup on Aug. 4 in Orlando. The game appeared to be headed for a scoreless draw until Mariana Speckmaier scored eight minutes into second-half injury time, lifting her team to a 1-0 win.

The teams met for the first time in 2022 on May 27 at Exploria Stadium. Trinity Rodman gave the Spirit an early lead and Hatch doubled the advantage after halftime. As the game entered second-half stoppage time, it appeared as though the Pride would fall for the second straight time, but late goals by Mikayla Cluff and Darian Jenkins stunned Washington with a 2-2 draw. The teams met again on July 17 at Audi Field, and the Spirit dominated the game statistically but couldn’t find the back of the net, resulting in a scoreless draw.

Prior to the draw in May, the Pride and Spirit played two games in the 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup. The first was held March 19 in Orlando, finishing in a scoreless draw. The second Challenge Cup meeting came on April 3 at Audi Field. Gunny Jonsdottir scored the team’s first goal in four games. However, the Spirit already had a 3-0 lead. Rodman scored a late goal to put the game away as the Pride fell 4-1.

The teams played four times during 2021. On April 21 in the Challenge Cup, Sydney Leroux’s goal was the only scoring as the Pride won 1-0. The Pride opened their regular season by hosting the Spirit on May 16. Hatch gave Washington the lead, but Alex Morgan equalized to claim a 1-1 draw. The second regular-season meeting that year happened on June 6 in Washington. Hatch opened the scoring, but Taylor Kornieck equalized minutes later, resulting in another 1-1 draw. The teams met for the final time in 2021 on Aug. 22 at Audi Field. Marta gave the Pride the lead, but Hatch equalized just two minutes later. It looked like it would be a third straight 1-1 draw, but Sanchez won it for Washington late.

Due to the pandemic, the Pride and Spirit didn’t play in 2020 but faced each other three times in 2019. They first met on July 6 in Orlando. Marta scored a brace in the second half, leading the Pride to a 4-3 win. They played again on Aug. 24 in Washington. Crystal Thomas gave the hosts the lead and Marta equalized. But Hatch’s goal lifted the Spirit to a 2-1 win. The final game was supposed to be the following weekend but was postponed due to Hurricane Dorian. Instead, the game was played Oct. 9 in Orlando. The Spirit dominated the rubber match, beating the Pride 3-0.

The first of two meetings in 2018 took place March 31 at the Maryland SoccerPlex. Hatch scored a goal and added an assist in a 2-0 win for the Spirit. The Pride got their revenge in the second game in the same location. Alanna Kennedy’s goal was the difference as the Pride won 1-0. The final meeting that year was held July 7 in Orlando. Hatch gave the Spirit the lead, but Leroux scored just before halftime and Marta’s goal gave Orlando the 2-1 win.

The 2017 season was the first time the teams played three times in a year. Their April 22 meeting was the Pride’s first home game that year. Line Sigvardsen-Jensen gave the visitors the lead, but Danica Evans answered as the teams drew 1-1. They met for the second time that year in Maryland on July 8 when Marta and Mallory Pugh both scored braces in a 2-2 draw. The final game in 2018 was on Aug. 8 in Orlando. Marta, Camila, and Morgan all scored as the Pride ran away with a 3-0 win.

The Spirit swept the first two meetings in 2016, winning 2-0 in Maryland and 2-1 in Orlando.

Overview

The Pride are coming off a difficult game in Louisville, where they let a 2-1 lead get away right after halftime, allowing two quick goals in an eventual 3-2 loss. The defeat ended a four-game point streak, which included wins over the Chicago Stars and Angel City and draws against Denver Summit FC and NJ/NY Gotham FC.

On the positive side, Banda scored her first brace of the season, netting goals in stoppage time of both halves. The goals came despite missing Jacquie Ovalle, who was out with a thigh injury.

The bigger concern in the loss was defensively, as the Pride conceded three goals for the first time this season. Two of those goals came from Lauren Milliet — who scored the first brace of her career — split by striker Sarah Weber’s goal just after halftime. The final two and game-deciding goals came three minutes apart and five minutes into the second half. Coming out for the second half as focused as they went into halftime is something the Pride coaching staff has undoubtedly worked on this week.

While the team had three weeks between the win over Angel City and the loss to Racing Louisville, it’s a much shorter time between games this week. The Pride will be happy to get home as they face a Washington Spirit team that’s become a bit of a rival in recent years.

The Spirit sit in third in the NWSL standings on 12 points, seven spots and four points ahead of the Pride. However, while the Pride have a whole week off between games, the Spirit played Wednesday night, hosting Racing Louisville.

The Spirit have been excellent defensively as of late, recording four consecutive clean sheets against the Summit, Bay FC, the Kansas City Current, and Louisville. The back line in front of goalkeeper Sandy MacIver has been the same for all four games, consisting of Kate Wiesner, Esme Morgan, Tara Rudd, and Lucia Di Guglielmo.

Former Pride goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has been Washington’s starter since 2018 and one of the best shot stoppers in the NWSL. However, she announced her pregnancy in February, sidelining her for the season.

In her place is Sandy MacIver. The Scottish international was the starter for Everton from 2020-2022 before backing up Ellie Roebuck, then Khiara Keating at Manchester City. She signed a three-year deal with the Spirit prior to the 2025 campaign, spending the season behind Kingsbury. With Kingsbury on the shelf, MacIver now finds herself in the starting role.

The team is led in the attack by Santos with three goals this year. Two of those three goals came in the team’s drubbing of the Current on April 24. She’s followed by Trinity Rodman with two goals, and Monday, Claudia Martinez, Cantore, and Rebeca Bernal with one goal each.

Santos and Rodman are the two most dangerous attacking players for the Spirit, potentially causing problems for the back line. Limiting their production is key if the Pride hope to claim all three points.

“It’s always a good matchup against Washington,” Pride Head Coach Seb Hines said ahead of today’s game. “We’ve established some sort of rivalry now, which is always great to be involved in. Two teams that have had a lot of success in the last couple of years. We’re looking to bounce back from a disappointing result against Louisville. Being back home in front of our fans is always important and we have to make sure that we put a show on.”

The Pride will play tonight without Abello (hip), Zara Chavoshi (lower leg), Cosette Morche (ankle), Ovalle (thigh), Kylie Nadaner (maternity leave), and Viviana Villacorta (knee). Additionally, Marta (thigh) is listed as questionable. The Spirit will be without Deborah Abiodun (hip), Hatch (maternity leave), Kingsbury (maternity leave), Casey Krueger (maternity leave), and Sara Wojdelko (hand).

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Official Lineups

Orlando Pride (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Anna Moorhouse.

Defenders: Cori Dyke, Rafaelle, Hailie Mace, Oihane.

Defensive Midfielders: Angelina, Ally Lemos.

Attacking Midfielders: Solai Washington, Haley McCutcheon, Summer Yates.

Forward: Barbra Banda.

Bench: Cara Martin, Nicole Payne, Hannah Anderson, Luana, Marta, Julie Doyle, Reagan Raabe, Seven Castain, Simone Jackson.

Washington Spirit (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Sandy MacIver.

Defenders: Gabrielle Carle, Esme Morgan, Tara Rudd, Lucia Di Guglielmo.

Defensive Midfielders: Hal Hershfelt, Rebeca Bernal.

Attacking Midfielders: Claudia Martinez, Leicy Santos, Trinity Rodman.

Forward: Sofia Cantore.

Bench: Kaylie Collins, Elisabeth Tse, Kate Wiesner, Madison Haugen, Andi Sullivan, Paige Metayer, Tamara Do Carmo, Rosemonde Kouassi, Gift Monday.

Referees

REF: Shawn Tehini.
AR1: Noah Kenyawani.
AR2: Ricardo Ocampo.
4TH: Richonne Clark.
VAR: Elton Garcia.
AVAR: Alicia Messer.

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How to Watch

Match Time: 4 p.m.

Venue: Inter&Co Stadium — Orlando.

TV: Ion.

Streaming: None.

Social Media: For live updates and rapid reaction, follow @themaneland.bsky.social on Bluesky and the Orlando Pride’s official Twitter (@ORLPride) or Bluesky (@orlpride.com) feed.

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Enjoy the game. Go Pride!

There are a lot of nice things about the NWSL’s expansion from a 26-game regular season to a 30-game regular season, but one in particular is that it is much easier to break the season out into definable percentages. Every three games is 10% of a 30-game season, so the Pride are a nice, even, 20% of the way through the 2026 season. Last season’s total of 26 games does not divide well, aside from splitting it in half into 13-game segments, and with some obvious exceptions like Duncan McGuire and Jacquie Ovalle, most people tend toward being triskaidekaphobiacs.

And now that we are done with gratuitous word choices, let’s focus on the Orlando Pride’s first 20% of the season.

In this week’s TML membership newsletter, UpRoar, which you can sign up for by clicking this hyperlink, Michael Citro wrote about some of the Pride’s defensive issues through six games and how opposing teams are converting a high percentage of their shots on goal into goals. Not great. The Pride are doing a little better on the offensive side of the ball, and offense is generally more fun to write about anyway, so let’s dive into the numbers on the Pride’s attack.

The good news for the Pride is that they have been working hard, though not so hard that the attack is going to give themselves a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack (timely Billy Joel reference), and through the first six games they are averaging 1.5 goals scored per game. At first glance I did not think that 1.50 was very good at all, but then I took a look at Opta’s top-ranked women’s leagues around the world and found the following:

League	Nation	1.5 goals per game would rank…
WSL	England	6 of 12
NWSL	USA	6 of 16
Primera División Femenina	Spain	5 of 15
Frauen-Bundesliga	Germany	9 of 14
Serie A Femminile	Italy	3 of 12
Feminine Première Ligue	France	5 of 12

• * I did not include Sweden’s Damallsvenskan because that league’s season just started

In every league except the German league, 1.5 goals scored per game would at least be in the top half of the league. If we focus just on the NWSL, 1.5 goals scored per game ranks sixth currently and is tied for 44th all-time out of 142 total team-seasons, which puts it just inside the top third.

The eye test says that the Pride probably should be doing even better than 1.5 goals per game, however, and the data backs that up. According to Opta’s tracking on fotmob.com, the Pride’s expected goals (xG) tally is 10.7, so with only nine goals scored they are underperforming in that metric. That metric is always a hotly contested one, but what is not contested is that Orlando leads the league in shots taken, averaging 17 per game (34% higher than the league average) and is putting 39% of its shots on target, which ranks third in the league. Unlike the Pride’s opponents, who are scoring on nearly half of the shots they put on target, the Pride are only converting on 23% of their shots on target, which ranks 12th among the 16 offenses.

This is now a two-year trend for Orlando, as it ranked last in the league in goal conversion for shots on target in 2025 at 21%. Absent that trend, one would expect some positive regression to the mean for the conversion rate, but this might just be the reality for this Pride attacking group, most of whom were also on the team last season. They are quite good at getting shots off, and even putting them in between the posts, but they are not great at putting them into the back of the net. There is so much goal and so little goalkeeper, perhaps they need to try to hit the goalkeeper instead, and take advantage of missing that target.

With a low conversion rate, the onus then becomes on creating chances, and in particular big chances. The table below shows Opta’s tracking for how the Pride are doing at chance creation among the 192 players who have played at least 100 minutes and created at least one chance thus far this season:

Category	In Top 50%	In Top 25%	In Top 10%
Total Chances Created	6	5	2 (Banda, Ovalle)
Chance Creation per 90	6	6	1 (Ovalle)
Total Big Chances Created	8	4	0
Big Chances Created per 90	8	5	1 (Ovalle)

It is not too surprising to see a lot of Pride players in the top segments of these categories, as the team leads the league in shots taken. An issue, however, is that Ovalle has been the top creator on a per-90-minute basis, and she is out for a still yet-to-be-announced period of time. Marta is back and played nearly 60 minutes in the game against Racing Louisville, but she did not look fully healthy and still might not be for the Washington Spirit game this weekend. Seven Castain, Solai Washington, and Summer Yates need to match the first letter of their names (a la a certain superhero) by helping set their teammates up for super goal scoring opportunities, especially if Ovalle is going to be out for a while.

The teammate they of course will primarily, secondarily, and tertiarily be looking for is Barbra Banda, the current league leader in goals and the league’s second-leading goal scorer since she arrived in 2024. Banda is once again Wonder Woman for the Pride, as she leads the team in both goals scored and chances created and is the only player in the league who is in the top five leaguewide in both categories. Banda is outperforming her expected goals, with five actual goals as compared to an expected 3.5, and she is probably the single-most game-planned-against player in all of NWSL. That is partly a testament to her skill, but also to the Pride’s reliance on her for their offense, especially since they still have yet to be able to roll out a lineup featuring Banda, Marta, and Ovalle.

Orlando dominated the box score against Louisville, but its season-long issues with finishing left them short on the scoreboard at the final whistle. Washington has several gifted offensive players, chief among them Trinity Rodman and Leicy Santos, and Orlando will need to continue to create a high number of chances and improve its finishing in order to protect its home turf and pick up all three points.

The Pride have the talent and the personnel to make it happen, and like it has so many times in her career, it will probably come down to Banda and her ability to convert her chances. Thus far this season she has scored three goals on the road and two at home, and I recommend that she at least equalize those numbers, if not flip the home tally to be leading the road tally by the end of the game on Saturday. Since I quoted Billy Joel earlier, I might as well once again, and ask Banda to take advantage of the white hot spotlight and be Big Shot Banda. Hopefully she will start the fire.

Vamos Orlando!