The Orlando Pride lost a home game, which hasn’t happened in a while. If I were wired in any kind of normal way, I’d remember how great that 22-match unbeaten run at home was, rather than the absolute howler that helped put a stop to that streak. But I’m wired like I am, which means obsessing and wondering why an experienced player continues to make the kinds of plays that indicate no learning has been done to prevent furthere such errors.

Orlando’s 1-0 home loss to the Washington Spirit could have happened in a variety of ways. After all, the Spirit are a top team in the NWSL. They’re talented. They’re well coached. They’re hard to break down and difficult to keep off the board. Yet it was simply Anna Moorhouse’s refusal to make a simple pass to the left while under pressure that turned what could have been an unsastisfying-but-hard-fought 0-0 draw into a loss.

We look back at another subpar offensive night for the Pride, check our score predictions from last week, and make our selections for Player of the Match.

This week’s mailbagbox wants us to put the loss into perspective, asks us to opine on whether Adriana’s loss is affecting the Pride’s scoring, wonders what it’ll take for a different goalkeeper to get minutes for Orlando, wants to know where Angelina should be playing, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.

Following our mailbagbox segment, we look ahead to Friday’s date with Angel City. The Pride have faced their first adversity of the 2025 season, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can bounce back against an opposing team that has yet to lose in Orlando. We look at the series history and the current position of both clubs, provide our key matchups for Friday, and make our predictions for the final score of the match.

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Here’s how Episode 83 went down:

0:15 – The Pride lost a home game for the first time in more than a year and a simple timely pass would have allowed the club to avoid dropping all three points.

10:27 – Our listeners have all of the questions. We have some of the answers.

31:50 – The Pride will look to rebound from their loss to Washington on Friday when Angel City visits.

Orlando City did not play particularly well against CF Montreal, but the Lions still seemed more likely to take three points from the match than the hosts until Rafael Santos picked up a second yellow card. The lack of discipline on the back line the last couple of weeks has been shocking. Even if a card or two may have been soft, once a player has one, they need to walk the appropriate line to keep from putting their team in a bad situation. Rodrigo Schlegel and Santos have hopefully learned that lesson and shown it to the entire squad the last two weeks.

The sending off of Santos was ironic, considering he was only on the pitch because Kyle Smith had been sitting on a yellow card since the third minute, and Oscar Pareja decided not to risk a second booking for his left back in the second half. Instead, Smith’s replacement picked up two, and as a result, Orlando picked up only one point against what is currently the worst team in Major League Soccer. That’s three consecutive scoreless draws for Orlando, and that simply makes for a terrible stretch of soccer viewing.

We look back at our score predictions, chat about the game’s major talking points, and make our selections for Man of the Match.

The mailbagbox asks about our EPL teams, officiating, holiday treats, potential lineup changes, and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

OCB once again played Inter Miami II in Bradenton, and again it didn’t go well. The Young Lions were missing a few key players, but it was some uncharacteristically shoddy defending that did them in this week. Orlando City B also didn’t finish enough of its chances and now must regroup at home against New York Red Bulls II.

Orlando City returns home Saturday to face rival Atlanta United. The Lions won’t have Santos, but Schlegel returns from suspension, so it will be interesting to see if David Brekalo returns to left back. However, it’s the offense that has been troublesome of late, and the Lions must start getting something from the striker position again, and it would be optimal if the Designated Players in the attacking midfield would start scoring again. Or a central midfielder. Or even a defender. Goals, please, is I guess what I’m saying. We provide our key matchups for this Southeastern showdown match and offer up our score predictions.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.

Here’s how No. 474 went down:

0:15 – The Lions are shut out for the third straight week but also shut out the opponent for the third weekend in a row. You have to continue to take the good with the bad, I guess.

23:08– The mailbagbox is a feisty one this week.

54:57 – OCB can’t solve the Inter Miami II riddle, while the Lions get another chance to remember how to score goals when Atlanta visits on Saturday.

The Orlando Pride returned from the break and picked up basically where they left off, playing well enough to beat the Seattle Reign on the road, while not exactly impressing with the performance that earned those three points. All wins in the NWSL are good, and none seem to come easily, but the Pride made things unnecessarily difficult on themselves in the second half with giveaways and inconsistent defending. Anna Moorhouse had to come up huge late in the game to preserve a 1-0 lead that Barbra Banda had supplied just before halftime.

We look back at another low-scoring Pride win, check our score predictions from last week’s show, and make our selections for Player of the Match.

This week’s mailbagbox wants to know how the Pride turned around their history of past failures, how smart USWNT Head Coach Emma Hayes is, narratives about the Pride-Spirit series, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.

Following our mailbagbox segment, we look ahead to Saturday’s matchup between the Pride and the Spirit. Orlando may have won trophies with consecutive victories over the Spirit, but Washington got the last laugh by winning the postgame penalty shootout to claim the 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup at Inter&Co Stadium. The Pride will have to be sharper than they’ve been at both ends in recent games to hold off one of the league’s top contenders. We provide our key matchups and our score predictions.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 82 went down:

0:15 – The Pride pick up just their second road win against Seattle in club history. It was anything but easy.

13:24 – Our listeners have many questions and we are always going to have some kind of answers.

33:00 – The Pride return home for a pivotal match against the Washington Spirit.