The Orlando Pride played their first meaningful game of 2025 in the NWSL Challenge Cup Friday against the Washington Spirit. While the Pride looked sharp, they couldn’t quite earn their third trophy in a row at the expense of the Spirit, with regulation ending in a 1-1 draw, and Washington taking the competition in penalties, 4-2.

Both teams brought back most of their rosters from last year, so instead of new faces, anticipation more revolved around the return of several key players from injury. Center back Rafaelle made an impactful return from an injury-marred 2024, scoring Orlando’s only goal in her 45 minutes. New Pride signing Prisca Chilufya made her debut in the second half, almost pulling Orlando back into the lead in the 85th minute. Grace Chanda and Trinity Rodman did not see the field but were on the bench for their respective teams, indicating promise for the 2025 campaign.

Rafalle’s goal stood up until a set piece late in the game gave the Spirit the opportunity to equalize, and they did. Leicy Santos delivered a great free kick, but Anna Moorhouse got two hands to it and will likely think she should have kept it out. The game went straight to penalties, where the Pride got off to a good start with strikes by Julie Doyle and Angelina, but neither Summer Yates nor Ally Lemos were clinical and the Spirit prevailed.

The Pride will open their 2025 campaign at 8 p.m. Friday at Inter&Co Stadium. The pre-game will include a celebration of the record-smashing 2024 season, including raising banners for the the NSWL Shield and the NWSL Championship.

We hope you enjoy this gallery of photos from the NWSL Challenge Cup.

After dominating the first part of the game, including scoring the first goal early, Orlando City allowed the Philadelphia Union to climb back into the season-opening match Saturday with a costly mistake in the 24th minute. The Lions then made several mistakes at the back early in the second half, digging a huge 4-1 hole that was too much to overcome, despite a brace on his debut from Marco Pasalic, allowing the Union to leave Orlando with a 4-2 win.

The Lions created enough chances to climb back into the match, but Andre Blake was outstanding in the Philadelphia goal, denying nearly everything thrown at him. Pasalic was a bright spot for Orlando City, and Martín Ojeda also had a strong match, assisting on the first Pasalic goal and putting two shots of his own on target. Alex Freeman also played well, coming off the bench for meaningful minutes and putting a headed shot from an Ojeda delivery off the crossbar.

Joran Gerbet and Nicolas Rodriguez both made their MLS and Orlando City competitive debuts, but nothing was quite able to dig the Lions out of the hole they’d dug with catastrophic defensive-third turnovers. Orlando City suffered its first opening day loss and will enter Matchday 2 without a point for the first time.

We hope you enjoy these images from the season opener more than the match. The Lions will look to get on track Saturday when Toronto FC visits Inter&Co Stadium.

The U.S. Men’s National Team came to Orlando to play a January friendly against Costa Rica and kept its perfect record at Inter&Co Stadium intact, improving to 7-0-0 at the home of Orlando City and the Orlando Pride with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica. Hopefully Orlando was not chosen for it’s warmth, as temperatures hovered around 40 degrees with a fine mist for maximal heat dispersion. The conditions did not seem to bother the team however (or maybe it bothered Costa Rica more), as the youthful U.S. lineup picked up the win.

As is often the case for a January camp, the makeup of the Unitd States squad consisted of largely less-experienced pool players, so the game started a little on the nervy side. A little before halfway through the first half, midfielder Diego Luna took an errant arm across the face, breaking his nose. Luna running around the field with both nostrils packed may have helped galvanize the team, as he found Brian White a just moments after he returned from getting treatment and a new shirt, and the Yanks were up 1-0.

The Americans continued to grow into the match and by the second half mostly orchestrated the game, with a couple acrobatic saves by Zack Steffen as punctuation. The U.S. didn’t find the net again until late in the second half, however. Caden Clark finally broke through again in the 77th minute to relieve some nerves and ensure the victory. Patrick Agyemang’s goal in the 90th minute put an exclamation point on the match, sealing the victory.

We hope you enjoy these images from a cold, wet night of international soccer at Inter&Co Stadium.