Orlando Pride
Marta Will Impact the Orlando Pride With More Than Her Play This Season
On Dec. 21, the Orlando Pride signed Brazilian midfielder Marta to a new two-year deal. The agreement keeps the six-time FIFA World Player of the Year in Orlando through the 2024 season. Like previous seasons, Marta will be an important player for the Pride, but her impact might be a little different this year.
Marta initially signed with the Pride on April 7, 2017 after leaving Swedish side FC Rosengard. Her impact on the team was immediate, leading the team in her first season with 13 goals and six assists, helping the Pride qualify for the NWSL playoffs for their first and only time. In her six years with the Pride, Marta has tallied 84 appearances (78 starts) and 7,011 minutes with 27 goals and 14 assists in all competitions. She has the most goals and assists in Pride history.
The Pride started a full rebuild process prior to the 2022 season, seeing the departure of several veteran players, including Alex Morgan, Ali Krieger, Ashlyn Harris, and Ali Riley. Meanwhile, Marta stayed with the team. She was expected to be a key player on a very young Pride team but suffered a season-ending injury during the NWSL Challenge Cup on March 26 in North Carolina.
In her prime, Marta could change any game she played in. The result was being named the best women’s player in the world on six occasions, including while with the Pride in 2017. But the Brazilian will be 37 years old when the 2023 season starts and she is coming off a torn ACL. That’s a difficult injury to recover from and even more so later in a career.
At her age and coming off an injury, Marta likely won’t make the same impact she did on the field prior to her injury. But that doesn’t mean she won’t be an integral part of the team over the next two seasons.
The Pride spent years trying to build a winning team with international stars. But that clearly didn’t work as the team has only made the playoffs once. Instead, the club is attempting to build from the ground up with smart draft picks and plugging in star players when they’re ready to contend.
This year’s team has some exciting young players to keep an eye on for the future. But they’re very inexperienced, with many of these players having only one or two professional seasons under their belts. That’s where the leadership of Marta comes in.
While the Brazilian missed nearly the entire season with an injury, she was around the team all year and made her presence felt. An example of this was on May 14 at Exploria Stadium against the Kansas City Current. The Pride trailed 2-1 late into second-half stoppage time when they were awarded a penalty. Nobody on the Pride volunteered to take the penalty, resulting in center back Toni Pressley shouldering the responsibility.
According to former head coach Amanda Cromwell, Marta addressed the players after the game about their unwillingness to step up to the plate. The speech seemed to impact the team as veteran attackers Sydney Leroux and Meggie Dougherty Howard stepped up to take the remaining two penalties of the season.
In all likelihood, Marta will be taking the penalties during the 2023 season, but this incident shows the leadership of the star. The Pride will still be a young team this coming season and will need a veteran willing to step up and be a leader. Marta has shown that she’s willing to take on that role and will continue doing so over the next two seasons.
Even entering her late 30s, Marta has the ability to be one of the best players on the field. But it was obvious she had lost a step prior to her injury and her ACL tear won’t help. She might not dominate games the way she did in the past, but that doesn’t mean she won’t have an impact. To the contrary — Marta’s experience with this young group will make her one of the team’s most important players during the next two seasons.
Orlando Pride
Orlando Pride Announce 2025 NWSL Schedule
We now know who, where, and when the Pride will play in 2025 as they seek to defend their two shiny trophies.
The National Women’s Soccer League schedule was released this afternoon, telling us who, where, and when the Orlando Pride will play this year as they look to defend their NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship. The 2025 season once again includes a balanced schedule with each team playing the other 13 teams once at home and once away. As previously announced, the Pride will take part in the NWSL Challenge Cup against the Washington Spirit on March 7 at 8 p.m. at Inter&Co Stadium prior to the regular season.
The Pride will open the season at home against the Chicago Red Stars at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 14. The first road contest will take place on Sunday, March 23 at NJ/NY Gotham FC. Like last year, the season will end with a Decision Day matchup at home against Seattle Reign FC on Sunday Nov. 2 at a time to be announced later.
The postseason will start with the quarterfinals taking place Nov. 7-9, with matches televised on ESPN/ABC, CBS/Paramount+, and Prime Video. The semifinals will be played the weekend of Nov. 14-16 and broadcast on CBS/Paramount+ and ESPN/ABC. The final will take place in primetime and will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
The Pride’s longest homestand this season will be just two games, which happens four times if counting the Challenge Cup match against the Spirit and season opener against the Red Stars. Orlando will host Washington and Angel City on April 19 and 25, respectively; the Utah Royals and Racing Louisville on Aug. 3 and 9, respectively; and Bay FC and the North Carolina Courage on Sept. 13 and 19, respectively.
The longest road trip this year will also be two games, occurring four times: at Portland and North Carolina May 3 and 10, at Bay FC and Louisville June 13 and 20, at Kansas City and Angel City Aug. 16 and 21, and at San Diego and Houston Sept. 26 and Oct. 3.
There are no regular-season matches scheduled in July, meaning the league is taking a break for any potential summer international friendlies/tournaments or an as-yet-unannounced cup competition. The Pride’s busiest month will be August, in which they’ll play five matches, with three at home and two on the road. There will be four Pride matches in March (counting the Challenge Cup), May, and September; three each in April, June, and October, and one — the regular-season finale — in November.
Here’s the month-by-month breakdown for the regular season:
- March – 3 (plus the Challenge Cup)
- April – 3
- May – 4
- June – 3
- July – 0
- August – 5
- September – 4
- October – 3
- November – 1
The most common day the Pride will play this year will be on Friday (11 times, or 12 times counting the Challenge Cup), including four consecutive Friday games late in the season. They’ll play 10 Saturday games, four Sunday matches, and once on Thursday (at Angel City Aug. 21).
Here is the Pride’s schedule by day in the regular season:
- Friday – 11 (plus the Challenge Cup)
- Saturday – 10
- Sunday – 4
- Thursday – 1
Pride games will air on various platforms again in 2025, including Prime Video, ESPN 2, ESPN, ION, NWSL+, Paramount+, CBS, and CBS Sports Network.
A new NWSL Rivalry Weekend has been added to the schedule in 2025. While the Pride have some rivalries growing naturally against Kansas City and Washington, they have been pitted against Racing Louisville for some reason. Both teams wear purple, I guess.
Fans who support both Orlando City and the Pride will be interested to know the teams play on the same day eight times this season, but only twice do the game times overlap — on May 3, when the Pride play at 7:30 p.m. at Portland and the Lions play at 8:30 p.m. at Chicago; and on May 10, when the Lions host New England at 7:30 and the Pride and Courage kick off in North Carolina at the same time. However, the teams cut it close a couple other times, with the Pride hosting the Washington Spirit at 5 p.m. April 19 and the Lions playing at Montreal at 7:30 p.m.; and on Sept. 13, with the Pride hosting Bay FC at 5 p.m. and Orlando City facing D.C. United at 7:30 p.m. The other four times the teams play on the same day, the kickoffs are at least three hours apart and as many as 10.5 hours apart (March 29).
2025 Orlando Pride Schedule (All Times Eastern)
- Friday, March 7 — vs. Washington Spirit, 8 p.m. (Prime Video) – NWSL Challenge Cup
- Friday, March 14 — vs. Chicago Red Stars, 8 p.m. (Prime Video)
- Sunday, March 23 — at NJ/NY Gotham FC, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
- Saturday, March 29 — vs. San Diego Wave, 12 p.m. (ESPN)
- Saturday, April 12 — at Seattle Reign FC, 7:30 p.m. (ION)
- Saturday, April 19 — vs. Washington Spirit, 5 p.m. (ION)
- Friday, April 25 — vs. Angel City FC, 8 p.m. (Prime Video)
- Saturday, May 3 — at Portland Thorns, 7:30 p.m. (ION)
- Saturday, May 10 — at North Carolina Courage, 7:30 p.m. (ION)
- Friday, May 16 — vs. Kansas City Current, 8 p.m. (Prime Video)
- Friday, May 23 — at Utah Royals, 9:30 p.m. (NWSL+)
- Saturday, June 7 — vs. Houston Dash, 7 p.m. (NWSL+)
- Friday, June 13 — at Bay FC, 10 p.m. (Prime Video)
- Friday, June 20 — at Racing Louisville, 8 p.m. (NWSL+)
- Sunday, Aug. 3 — vs. Utah Royals, 6 p.m. (NWSL+/Paramount+)
- Saturday, Aug. 9 — vs. Racing Louisville, 7:30 p.m. (ION)
- Saturday, Aug. 16 — at Kansas City Current, 4 p.m. (CBS)
- Thursday, Aug. 21 — at Angel City FC, 10:30 p.m. (CBS Sports Network)
- Friday, Aug. 29 — vs. NJ/NY Gotham FC, 8 p.m. (Prime Video)
- Sunday, Sept. 7 — at Chicago Red Stars, 3 p.m. (NWSL+/Paramount+)
- Saturday, Sept. 13 — vs. Bay FC, 5 p.m. (ION)
- Friday, Sept. 19 — vs. North Carolina Courage, 7:30 p.m. (NWSL+)
- Friday, Sept. 26 — at San Diego Wave, 10:30 p.m. (NWSL+/Paramount+)
- Friday, Oct. 3 — at Houston Dash, 8 p.m. (Prime Video)
- Friday, Oct. 10 — vs. Portland Thorns, 8 p.m. (Prime Video)
- Saturday, Oct. 18 — at Washington Spirit, 12:30 p.m. (CBS)
- Sunday, Nov. 2 — vs. Seattle Reign FC, TBA (broadcast platform TBA)
Orlando Pride
Orlando Pride Announce 2025 Preseason Camp Roster
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
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.
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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