Orlando Pride’s 2019 World Cup in Numbers

The 2019 Women’s World Cup is officially in the books and Orlando Pride players made big splashes across the tournament. The three United States Women’s National Team players finished as World Cup champions and there were plenty of statistics worth pointing out beyond the wins and losses throughout the tournament. Below are some of the key numbers regarding the Pride players’ performances in France this summer.

9 – Orlando Pride had nine players at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, tied for the 10th most of any club in the world behind Spanish giants Barcelona (15), reigning Champions League winners Olympique Lyon (14), England’s Chelsea (12), South Korea’s Hyundai Steel Red Angels (11) and Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Nippon TV Beleza (Japan), Bundit Asia (Thailand) and Paris Saint-Germain (10).

27 – Orlando Pride players combined for 27 appearances at the tournament, totaling 2,108 minutes. That works out at an average of three appearances per player and 78 minutes per appearance — although Camila and Ashlyn Harris were the two Orlando players to not see any playing time at all. Of those who did feature, Alex Morgan played the most, with 490 minutes in six appearances.

9 – Orlando Pride players scored nine of the 146 goals scored at this year’s tournament, the second most of any club behind only French juggernaut Olympiques Lyon, with their players contributing 11 goals. The Pride narrowly beat out three teams who had a total of eight goals scored by their players: Manchester City, Reign FC and Juventus.

6 – Alex Morgan was the joint top scorer in France with six goals, level with U.S. teammate Megan Rapinoe and England’s Ellen White. Rapinoe won the Golden Boot home thanks to the least minutes played tiebreaker after both also registered three assists — also good enough for the most at this summer’s tournament.

5 – Five of Alex Morgan’s six goals came in the USWNT’s group stage 13–0 opener against Thailand, a game that rewrote several records. Not only was it the biggest margin of victory in World Cup history, thanks in large part to Morgan, but it also equaled fellow American Michelle Akers’ record for number of goals scored by an individual in a single World Cup game that was first set against Chinese Taipei in 1991.

17 – Six-time World Player of the Year Marta continued to prove why she’s the greatest ever, becoming the first player to score at five FIFA World Cup tournaments when she scored a penalty against Emily van Egmond’s and Alanna Kennedy’s Australia in Brazil’s second group game. In the following match, she found the net again from the spot to score her 17th World Cup goal, making her the outright leading goal scorer, male or female, in World Cup history.

1 – Historic goals aren’t always about quantity. Claire Emslie scored Scotland’s first ever goal at a FIFA Women’s World Cup, a 79th-minute strike in the team’s opening 2–1 group stage defeat to rival England.

63 – Canada averaged 63% possession in its four matches at the tournament, the most of any team, with Shelina Zadorsky playing every minute for the side.

1 – The only direct red card of the 2019 World Cup was shown to Alanna Kennedy in the 104th minute of Australia’s Round of 16 game against Norway. The Matildas held on to see out extra time but were eliminated on penalties.

6,100,000 – Scotland’s clash with England that saw Emslie score that historic goal drew a domestic audience of 6.1 million, a record figure for women’s football in the UK. The record was later set a further three times with the most recent being England’s semifinal appearance against the USWNT, which was watched by 28.1 million, roughly 47% of the entire population.

1 – It wasn’t only the viewing figures that were notable at the USWNT’s semifinal match against England. Alex Morgan also became the first player in Women’s World Cup history to score a goal on her birthday, as she celebrated turning 30 with the winner against the Lionesses.

8.5 – Orlando Pride players, alongside the Pride’s own team account, saw their Twitter following grow by an average of 8.5% over the last month. The biggest increase was Scotland’s Emslie, the newest Pride signing, whose following grew by 3,037 followers. That equates to an increase of roughly 35%. The biggest in terms of raw numbers was Alex Morgan with 356,855 new followers. (Data not available for Marta, Camila, van Egmond or Zadorsky.)

3,725,156 – It wasn’t only Twitter where players saw a big leap in popularity. All nine Pride players also combined for 3.7 million new Instagram followers, a staggering 32.7% increase to their pre-World Cup following. The biggest was Marta, who saw her follower numbers increase by 44%, with Alex Morgan once again seeing the biggest raw numbers boost with over 2.3 million new followers.

43 – Alex Morgan’s Wikipedia page was the 43rd-most viewed English-language Wikipedia page in June, having accumulated 1.28 million views. The only soccer player, male or female, to be viewed more in that time was Rapinoe, who was 34th on the list as she continued to make as many headlines off the pitch as on it.

4,916 – Unsurprisingly, Rapinoe’s Reign FC was the most visited Wikipedia page of any NWSL team, with a daily average of 6,420 views, followed in second by the Orlando Pride at 4,916 views per day.