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Orlando Pride

Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit: Final Score 2-1 as Pride Beaten by Late Winner

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3 years ago

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The Orlando Pride (5-5-6, 21 points) fell 2-1 to the Washington Spirit (6-5-4, 22 points) in Washington, D.C. this afternoon. Ashley Sanchez scored an 89th-minute winner from distance to sink the Pride. The loss is Becky Burleigh’s first in four games as the team’s interim head coach (1-1-2).

Orlando led on Marta’s second-half strike and seemed in good position to get a road win when the roof caved in, starting with a poor clearance by Kylie Strom that handed Pride-killer Ashley Hatch an easy equalizer. Then Sanchez’s late unstoppable shot prevented Orlando from even getting a point. Orlando fell to 0-1-2 in the season series after drawing 1-1 in the previous two league match-ups against Washington.

The Pride only made one change from the team’s 1-1 draw against the Portland Thorns last weekend as Meggie Dougherty Howard entered the lineup, replacing Phoebe McClernon. The move pushed Courtney Petersen back to her natural left back position. Strom also returned to the bench after missing last week with an excused absence.

The Spirit saw their Olympic medalists return for this game. However, Kelley O’Hara (United States), Emily Sonnett (United States), and Julia Roddar (Sweden) all started the game on the bench.

The first good chance of the game came in the seventh minute when a Spirit cross found the head of Hatch, who has a knack for scoring against the Pride. She got her header on goal but it was right at Ashlyn Harris, who made the easy save.

Dorian Bailey nearly gave the Spirit the lead in the 13th minute when she got behind Amy Turner. Aiming for the far post, the ball got behind the diving Harris, but skipped just wide of the target.

It appeared as though the Spirit would take the lead in the 22nd minute when Trinity Rodman came inches away from opening the scoring. After a long run got her in behind the Pride defense, the forward fired from a tough angle. Harris went down and made the save, but the rebound went right back to Rodman. Her second shot attempt beat Harris high but the ball slammed off the crossbar.

In the 27th minute, Rodman created another chance from the opposite side of the field. After muscling past Ali Riley, the forward was able to get a shot off. Harris seemed surprised that Rodman attempted the shot as it nearly beat her near post. However, the Pride were once again saved by the woodwork as the ball bounced off the post, keeping the game scoreless.

While the first half was dominated by the Spirit, the Pride grew into the match in the final 15 minutes of the opening 45 and had a couple of opportunities late. In the 41st minute, Petersen’s cross was deflected and nearly beat Aubrey Bledsoe, but landed on top of the net.

A minute later, Sydney Leroux got sent through on goal. Bledsoe was able to block the first shot, which went right back to Leroux. The former Pride goalkeeper got down to make the second save with her leg, sending it out of play.

Rodman was the most dangerous player in the first half and that continued into the second. In the 51st minute, the teenage forward made a nice run down the right and found enough space to take a shot on goal. Her shot was searching for the back post but rolled just wide.

In the 63rd minute, Rodman had another chance when she carried the ball into the box. As she got closer to the endline, her angle narrowed and she ended up sending the ball into the side netting. It was fortunate for the Pride because Rodman had two teammates in the box with her and passing up the shot might have resulted in the game’s first goal.

The Spirit had failed to convert on some excellent chances and the Pride made them pay. In the 68th minute, Marta received the ball from Jodie Taylor in what seemed like an innocuous space. However, it was Marta who received it and she took advantage of the situation. The midfielder shot toward the corner, knocking the ball off the post and in for the game’s opening goal.

“I remember she just got it in the middle of the field, was able to turn, face, and take an incredible shot from outside the 18,” Marisa Viggiano said about Marta’s goal after the game. “And I think she, this entire game, was really dangerous with the ball on her feet like always.”

The Pride were fortunate to have the lead but it didn’t last long. In the 70th minute, a Kelley O’Hara ball into the box was blocked by a sliding Strom — who had subbed on for Petersen — near the far post. Unfortunately, the clearance attempt was poor and the ball went directly to Hatch, who put it in for the quick equalizer.

“We just gave them an easy goal,” Gunny Jonsdottir said about the equalizer. “Simple as that. We knew that five minutes after a goal, it’s kind of weather the storm and we didn’t do that. I think we need to learn from that.”

The goal was Hatch’s seventh in nine games against the Pride as a member of the Spirit, and her third against the Pride this regular season. She scored one in each of the three meetings during the 2021 NWSL campaign.

The Pride were able to create some chances in the dying minutes with a couple of nice crosses by Ali Krieger and Strom. However, nobody was able to get on the end of those balls and they went harmlessly through the box.

The inability to convert on those chances costs the Pride as the Spirit went the other way. After taking the shot herself earlier in the half, Rodman passed up the difficult angle in the 89th minute. From the top of the box, Sanchez took the pass in some space, easily stepped around Taylor Kornieck, and took a long shot on goal. She beat Harris to the corner, giving the Spirit the late winner.

“We were just too soft,” Burleigh said about the game-winner. “I mean, you cannot give a player of her caliber that kind of time and space.”

While the Pride were dominated in the first half, they ended up leading multiple statistical categories, including possession (59.8%-40.2%), duels won (41-34), passing accuracy (81.1%-74%), total passes (503-342), crosses (24-14), and corners (6-3). The problem came in the final third as the Spirit recorded more shots (20-12) and shots on target (7-4).

“That was a tough one to swallow,” Burleigh said after the game. “You know, I felt like we kind of grew into the game and felt pretty good about where we were and then, credit to them for coming back and for scoring the two goals, because I felt like that was a game that was ready for us to take. So, disappointed with the result, but at the same time, I think we’ll find some good things in there about the way that we played.”

The loss sees the Pride move from fifth to sixth in the NWSL, the final playoff position this season. However, they’re even on points with Gotham FC for fifth and are only one point behind the Spirit and OL Reign, who sit in third and fourth, respectively.

The Pride will take the field again next Sunday when they take on Gotham FC in New Jersey.

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Orlando Pride

Orlando Pride Announce 2025 Preseason Camp Roster

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2 days ago

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January 20, 2025

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Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

The Orlando Pride have announced the club’s 2025 preseason roster consisting of 30 players, with one of those (Mariana Larroquette) currently out on loan in Argentina. Another player, forward Amanda Allen, was formerly on loan with the USL Super League’s Lexington Sporting Club, but that loan was terminated when Allen was placed on the Season Ending Injury list on Dec. 9, 2024, with a torn labrum.

The Pride return all of their core players from the 2024 team that won the NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship, including 98% of the player-minutes from last season and all of the team’s goal-scoring from a year ago. Almost all of the players who competed in the team’s incredible season are back from a team that broke league records for points, wins, clean sheets, consecutive shutout minutes, consecutive wins, and consecutive games unbeaten.

New faces for 2025 include two off-season signees — goalkeeper Kat Asman and defender Zara Chavoshi, the first player the Pride signed directly out of college since the league’s removal of the NWSL Draft. 

The roster is made up of four goalkeepers, just eight defenders (compared to 12 a year ago), nine midfielders, and nine forwards. One of those forwards, Larroquette, is on loan with Newell’s Old Boys Women of the Campeonato de Fútbol Femenino in Argentina’s top flight. 

The 30-player roster includes three non-roster invitees: goalkeeper DeAira Jackson, midfielder Aryssa Mahrt, and forward Simone Jackson.

DeAira Jackson was the 2024 WAC Goalkeeper of the Year and a member of the All-WAC first team following her last collegiate season. After playing two seasons at Cal State Fullerton, she transferred to Grand Canyon University and became the school’s all-time shutout leader with 16 in just two seasons. Nine of those came in her senior campaign, which set the school record for most clean sheets in a season. She was also the Outrigger No Ka Oi Tournament MVP and a two-time WAC Player of the Week in 2024. The Fontana, CA native appeared in 43 matches for Grand Canyon across two seasons, compiling a record of 25-11-7, the aforementioned 16 shutouts, a 0.89 goals-against average and a save percentage of .781, facing 415 shots in 3,754 minutes.

Mahrt played three seasons at the University of Wisconsin, appearing in 62 games (61 starts) and playing 4,503 minutes. The Milwaukee, WI native scored 21 goals and added 15 assists, putting 78 of her 114 shots on target. Eight of her goals were game winners. Mahrt started all 21 games in her senior season, leading the Badgers in goals (10) and assists (4). She has represented the United States at the youth level with both the U-14 and U-16 sides. Her soccer lineage includes a great grandfather who played for the Malaysian National Team.

Simone Jackson is a Redondo Beach, CA native who played four seasons at USC, appearing in 73 games (51 starts), scoring 22 goals, and adding 13 assists. In 4,204 career minutes, she fired 192 shots, putting 88 on target and scoring six game winners. She was a member of the All-Big Ten third team following the 2024 campaign, a first-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2022, a third-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2023 and 2021, and a 2021 Pac 12 All-Freshman Team honoree. She has represented the U.S. at multiple youth levels, including at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, in which she scored for the United States in a 3-1 loss to Japan. Jackson has also participated at every level starting at U-14.

Simone comes from a family with a tremendous athletic pedigree. Her grandfather, John Jackson, was USC football’s running backs coach and offensive coordinator from 1976-81; her father, John Jackson Jr., played both football and baseball at USC from 1986-89 before brief stints with four NFL teams in the 1990s and playing minor league baseball. Her brother, John Jackson III, played wide receiver at USC and is currently with the Chicago Bears organization.

The club’s two Zambian players — Barbra Banda and Grace Chanda — are the only ones listed as internationals. Unlike previous years, no players are listed as not yet reported.

The Pride will kick off their 2025 campaign with a rematch of the 2024 NWSL Championship as they face the Washington Spirit in the 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup on March 7.

2025 Orlando Pride Preseason Roster (as of Jan. 20, 2025):

Goalkeepers (4): Kat Asman, McKinley Crone, Anna Moorhouse, DeAira Jackson (NRI).

Defenders (8): Kerry Abello, Zara Chavoshi, Cori Dyke, Brianna Martinez, Carson Pickett, Rafaelle (SEI), Emily Sams, Kylie Strom.

Midfielders (9): Angelina, Grace Chanda (INTL – Zambia, SEI), Morgan Gautrat, Ally Lemos, Luana (SEI), Aryssa Mahrt (NRI), Marta, Haley McCutcheon, Viviana Villacorta.

Forwards (9): Adriana, Amanda Allen (SEI), Barbra Banda (INTL – Zambia), Simone Charley (SEI), Julie Doyle, Simone Jackson (NRI), Mariana Larroquette (LOAN), Ally Watt, Summer Yates.

Key

INTL: International Player
NRI: Non-Roster Invitee
NYR: Not Yet Reported
SEI: Finished 2024 on the Season-Ending Injury list
LOAN: On loan 

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Orlando Pride

Pride Ready to Make a Run for the 2025 Title with a Core from 2024

Comparing and analyzing the percentage of returning minutes and goals for the Pride to those of previous NWSL playoff champions.

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4 days ago

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January 18, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

During my son’s soccer practice earlier this week I was walking around the park and came upon a basketball court where there was a game going on. One team made a basket to win the game, and a player from the losing team immediately yelled out a phrase that is familiar to anyone who has ever played pickup. “Run that back,” the player said, indicating that they wanted to play another game right away with the same players. The winning team acquiesced, and off they went. Off I went as well, as I did not want to make it awkward by standing there continuing to watch 10 people I did not even know playing pickup hoops in Winter Park.

It was probably already awkward. Oh well.

It was fitting, however, that those players were talking about running it back while I was around a soccer practice, because just a few miles away — in Sylvan Lake Park — the Orlando Pride are preparing for their 2025 NWSL season. And now that Marta has re-signed with the club for two more seasons, the Pride are bringing back nearly every player from the 2024 season. It is not everyone, but the Pride are bringing back a cool 98% of all the minutes played during the 2024 NWSL regular season.

Only four players who played any minutes during that season have departed — Carrie Lawrence (288 minutes), Evelina Duljan (174), Celia (74), and Mariana Larroquette (52), though she is only on loan and is scheduled to be back in the summer, taking their combined five starts and 593 minutes with them — but that leaves more than 25,000 of the 2024 minutes played returning to the Pride for 2025.

Throughout the 2024 season we received indications that the front office really liked the makeup of the group already on hand, as during the year they signed McKinley Crone, Julie Doyle, Cori Dyke, Morgan Gautrat, Brianna Martinez, Viviana Villacorta, Ally Watt, and Summer Yates to new contracts. Most of these were completed in the early to middle part of the season, so even before the team had clinched the regular-reason title and entered the playoffs it was clear that the club felt like it had a good mix of players for the present and the future.

All of these players already being under contract through at least 2025 have made for a very quiet off-season for the Pride so far, and then when Marta made her announcement last week, it cemented the incredibly high percentage of returning minutes. “How high,” you ask in your best Redman or Method Man voice? I already mentioned it was 98%, but of all the NWSL teams who have ever won a championship, that 98% ranks first for returning minutes and represents one of only two seasons when the champion brought back more than 90% of the team’s minutes played from its championship season.

Because the Pride brought back nearly all of their minutes played, it should not be a surprise that they also brought back nearly all of the goals they scored. Except they did not bring back nearly all of the goals they scored, they brought back all 43 of the goals (excluding own goals) they scored during the 2024 season. All of them! The Pride are the first playoff champion in NWSL history to return 100% of the goals scored during their championship season, as you can see from this chart below, which details each playoff champion and the percentage of minutes and goals that returned for the subsequent season. It also shows what place the team finished during the subsequent regular season and playoffs:

The 2018 Courage are clearly the closest proxy to the 2024 Pride, and I like what I see when I look off to the right in that chart, because that team brought back almost all of its minutes and goals and then went ahead and finished first during the subsequent regular season and won it all during the playoffs. I am not saying that the Pride will do the same in 2025, but I am not not saying it either. Give me a few weeks to get my preseason predictions in order and I may actually say it loudly and (being that they are the Pride) proudly.

There are counterexamples as well, as the 2016 Western New York Flash (who became the North Carolina Courage in 2017), 2021 Washington Spirit, and 2022 Portland Thorns all brought back more than 80% of their minutes and 90% of their goals and did not win the playoffs, but both teams were highly successful during the subsequent regular season and won playoff games, though they did not repeat as champions.

One of the more interesting things about the 2025 Pride will be that they will have tremendous continuity with all of their returning minutes and goals, but they will also have continuity with four players who were with the club in 2024 but did not play or barely played due to injury/illness. Neither Simone Charley nor Grace Chanda suited up for the Pride at all last season, but both are experienced players who had been expected to contribute to the team before their injuries. Luana and Viviana Villacorta both did play a little bit — Luana in the beginning of the season and Villacorta at the end. Luana had been starting before her diagnosis of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma ended her 2024 season, and Villacorta played more than 1,000 minutes during each of the 2022 and 2023 seasons before an injury kept her out for most of 2024.

All four of these players are currently listed on the 2025 roster, and as they return to full fitness it will almost be like four brand new signings of players who are clearly NWSL quality players, providing not only depth but also pushing the starters to stay sharp, lest they lose their role to someone challenging for their minutes. Brand new signings often take time to settle in, but these four will be familiar with the club, the coaches, and their teammates, which a huge advantage for the Pride.

Former NBA coach and current front office executive Pat Riley coined the phrase “the disease of more” to reflect what often happens to championship teams during the year after they win their title, as players want more for themselves, be it credit, media coverage, playing time, money, status, etc. Riley said that “success is often the first step toward disaster,” and while I quibble with the word “often” in that quote, I do think it can be true in sports. The Pride will get everyone’s best shot (figuratively, and sometimes literally) in 2025, and to repeat as champions they will have to do a lot of what they did in 2024 while also evolving some as well.

Bringing back nearly all of the same players helps with the repeating of last season’s excellent form, and “adding” those injured players who did not play last season, plus rookie defender Zara Chavoshi and free agent goalkeeper Kat Asman, will bring some new vibes and claws-sharpening-claws energy to the 2025 squad.

The Pride’s season kicks off in early March, and while the roster could still change in the next seven weeks, I think that it is likely that who they have right now is who will be wearing purple in the opening match.

I am looking forward to seeing them run it back while going on a title run.

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Orlando Pride

Orlando Pride Loan Forward Mariana Larroquette to Newell’s Old Boys Women

The Argentine forward is going home to get some minutes until July 1.

Published

6 days ago

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January 16, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

The Orlando Pride announced today that forward Mariana Larroquette is going on loan to Newell’s Old Boys Women in her native Argentina until July 1. The move will keep the seldom-used attacker out of the Pride lineup until midseason, but she’ll be able to get some playing time that could prove beneficial to Orlando in the season’s second half.

“We’re excited to find an opportunity for ‘Larro’ to gain meaningful minutes while also being an ambassador for the women’s game in her home country Argentina, as they get set to host the CONMEBOL Championships this summer,” Orlando Pride Vice President of Soccer Operations and Sporting Director Haley Carter said in a club press release. “This will be a great move for her both professionally and personally, and we’re excited to see what she achieves while on loan.” 

The Pride signed Larroquette on July 6, 2023 — just prior to her involvement in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup — on a contract through 2025. The former Club León, Sporting CP, and Kansas City forward and Argentine international was expected to bolster an Orlando attack that was in need of more goals. It hasn’t worked out that way, even though she scored her first Pride goal and added an assist in her first appearance with Orlando in a 5-0 destruction of the Chicago Red Stars at home on Aug. 20, 2023. That remains her only NWSL goal since joining Orlando.

The 32-year-old made just four appearances during the 2024 regular season — all off the bench — logging 48 total minutes. She did not contribute a goal or an assist or even attempt a shot. Larroquette completed just 41.2% of her 17 passes. She started once in three appearances in the 2024 NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, playing 107 minutes without a goal contribution and attempting three shots. Larroquette did not appear in the Pride’s postseason run to the NWSL Championship.

In her Pride career so far, Larroquette has made just 12 appearances in all competitions, starting just one time, scoring one goal, and contributing one assist.

What It Means for Orlando

Ultimately, this is a chance for Larroquette to get some minutes and perhaps improve her form. Although she provided depth last season, she was rarely used. Playing for the Lepers (seriously, that’s the team’s nickname, which is even stranger than Newell’s Old Boys Women) will get Larroquette playing time in the Campeonato de Fútbol Femenino close to home. This could be the precursor to her departing Orlando for good if she isn’t a good fit for Seb Hines’ tactical approach. At 32, Larroquette is unlikely to bring a windfall to the Pride in a transfer, but she has shown she can be a useful player off the bench when needed in recent years, and has been able to contribute on the international level for Argentina.

This is a move that can help Larroquette re-establish her game and show whether she is still capable of providing offense to her club — whether that ends up being the Pride or another team. As she has not been seeing the field much, there shouldn’t be a big impact to Orlando while she’s away, and it is possible we’ve seen the last of her in a Pride uniform.

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