Orlando Pride

Orlando Pride vs. Kansas City Current: Final Score 2-0 as Pride Beat Kansas City Current in Open Preseason Game

Published

2 years ago

February 23, 2023

The Orlando Pride opened Exploria Stadium up to fans for the first time in 2023 for the team’s annual open preseason game. Julie Doyle opened the scoring for the hosts inside the first minute and Ally Watt doubled the lead in the second half, lifting their team to a 2-0 win over the Kansas City Current. Orlando improved to 2-0-0 in the 2023 preseason with both wins coming by the same score against NWSL competition.

Seb Hines’ lineup included Anna Moorhouse in goal in front of Haley McCutcheon, Megan Montefusco, Emily Madril, and Kylie Strom. Jordyn Listro, Nicole Baxter, Mikayla Cluff, and Erika Tymrak made up the midfield, with Doyle and Messiah Bright up top.

The Pride had almost everyone available tonight off the bench, with unlimited substitutions. Marta wasn’t with the team tonight after playing for Brazil in the SheBelieves Cup. Adriana was on the bench despite playing in all three games for Brazil, but didn’t make an appearance.

The Pride got off to the best possible start in this preseason friendly. About 30 seconds into the game, Bright picked the ball up around midfield and sprinted towards the Kansas City box. Doyle and Cluff were making runs in and Bright played it across. Doyle beat Current goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz to the ball, putting it past her to give the Pride a 1-0 lead. Doyle now has a goal in each appearance this preseason as she challenges for a starting spot in the regular season.

The collision resulted in Doyle staying down after scoring. She received some attention from the Pride medical staff, but got up and was able to continue.

Bright nearly had a chance for herself in the third minute when she was sent behind the Current defense. However, her first touch was too heavy, and Kansas City was able to clear the danger.

After Bright’s opportunity, Kansas City started to create its own chances. The Pride were unable to find possession beyond the halfway line, usually giving the ball up before reaching the opposition’s side of the field.

The Current’s first chance of the game came in the fourth minute when a good run down the right created an opportunity, but the Pride were able to clear it out of play. The ensuing corner kick was to the back post but headed right to Moorhouse, who caught it.

The Current had another chance in the ninth minute when Mimmi Larsson created space inside the box for a shot. Moorhouse did well to get low and knock it away with her foot, maintaining the Pride’s one-goal lead.

Kansas City nearly had a chance in the 21st minute when Larsson was played through the Pride back line. But it was too far for the Swede and Moorhouse was able to collect it. That was the last play of the game for Silkowitz as Cassie Miller came on in a first-half goalkeeping change.

The 27th minute saw the Pride get their first solid chance since the first minute of the game. Doyle found space on the left to get a cross into the box. It reached Bright, but her first-touch shot was blocked. The deflection went to Cluff, who sent the second shot right at Miller.

Bright had another chance in the 39th minute when Baxter blocked a pass near midfield. Bright ended up with the ball and headed towards the Current goal. Nearing the six-yard box, Bright took a shot, but it was knocked wide by the foot of Miller for a Pride corner kick.

The NWSL was testing VAR in this game and the first opportunity came in the 41st minute. Larsson took down Tymrak just outside of the Kansas City box. The forward was booked for the foul, and referee Elvis Osmanovic went to his ear as the check ensued. However, they determined the foul was outside of the box with Osmanovic going to the monitor.

Kansas City had one more opportunity at goal in injury time, but the shot was right at Moorhouse, who had no trouble with it. At halftime, Doyle’s first-minute goal was the difference as the Pride took a 1-0 lead into the break.

The Pride made two changes at halftime, as Carly Nelson replaced Moorhouse and Thais Reiss, who is a non-roster invitee this preseason, replaced Baxter.

The Current got off to the better second-half start, creating a pair of chances inside the first two minutes. However, both were right at Nelson, who had no trouble with them.

The first second-half opportunity for the Pride came in the 48th minute when Bright was sent over the top. She attempted a cross, but it was blocked out of play for a corner. The short corner went to Strom, who popped it up and into the arms of the Current goalkeeper, ending the threat.

The Pride had an opportunity with a free kick in the 58th minute when Tymrak was taken out about 25 yards away from goal. Reiss stepped up to take the kick and went for goal, but sent the shot wide of the target.

The Pride made a triple substitution in the 61st minute, bringing on Ally Watt, Maliah Morris, and Summer Yates. Watt was on the team last year, Morris is a trialist, and Yates was selected in the fourth round of the 2023 NWSL Draft. The three replaced Bright, Tymrak, and Listro.

It didn’t take long for two of the substitutes to make an impact as they combined in the 63rd minute for the Pride’s second goal. Yates played a lovely ball through for Watt, who shielded her defender and put it in, giving the Pride a 2-0 lead.

“As a forward you need to take the opportunities that come to you,” Watt said about her goal. “So I really tried to focus and just pass the ball into the back of the net. And Summer did an amazing job playing the ball in transition. I think the rookies have been doing amazing. They have been really just meshing well into our culture that we’re building this year and we love all of them. Summer is honestly one of my favorites.”

Many predicted that Yates would be a first-round selection in the 2023 NWSL Draft. However, she slipped all the way to the fourth round, where the Pride picked her. Her quality showed in the half hour she was on the field, showing that Pride might have acquired the steal of the draft.

“She’s a technical footballer and she likes to get in good areas. She wants to turn and she wants to assist players, and what you saw today is what she’s done from the very start,” Hines said about Yates. “We just keep letting her know that she’s doing the right things. And it’s not always going to pay off. It’s not always going to come off every single time but just that positive reinforcement goes a long way for a young player like Summer. And she was brilliant today. She was tremendous.”

The Pride had a chance for a third in the 65th minute when Watt made a good run into the box. She took the ball to the end line, but it was cleared out for a corner. Doyle sent the ensuing corner to the back post, where it met the head of Reiss. However, the Brazilian sent the driving header over the crossbar.

It appeared as though the Current had gotten one back in the 69th minute when a good buildup provided a cross from the left. The strong cross was met head-on by an attacker (the Current players didn’t wear numbers, making identification difficult), who put it past Nelson, but the flag was up. Osmanovic went to his ear for the second time in the game, but the check revealed it was the correct decision, keeping the score 2-0.

The Pride made four more changes in the 80th minute during the second-half hydration break. Konya Plummer, Tori Hansen, Caitlin Cosme, and Channing Foster replaced Montefusco, Madril, Doyle, and McCutcheon. The final two changes for the Pride came in the 86th minute, as UCF alum Kristen Scott and goalkeeper McKinley Crone came on for Strom and Nelson.

It didn’t take Crone long to see her first action, as a short free kick in the 88th minute resulted in a cross into the box. The attacker did well to get her first touch on goal, but it was right into the arms of Crone, who made her first save of the night.

Watt created an opportunity for the Pride to extend their lead to three goals when she tried to beat the Current goalkeeper to her near post. However, the ball was tipped wide of the post for a Pride corner kick. The Pride decided to keep the ball in the corner instead of trying to find a third goal and held on for the 2-0 win.

“Obviously pleased with the result,” Hines said after the game. “Anytime you score two goals and keep a clean sheet, you’re going to be happy and I think the biggest thing for me was making sure everyone played a part. So that’s why we wanted to make sure that we played every single player. Everyone got minutes on the field in front of the fans. We’re building something here and it’s great to get the results in the annual event as well. So, really pleased with how the night went.”

“I think KC’s a really good opponent. And I think every game we just try to take steps forward. That’s our goal, and just keep the progression going,” Madril said after the game. “So I think comparing today’s game to last game, I think we did take steps in the right direction. And I think, you know, got a clean sheet, which is good and two quality goals. So I think we just keep taking steps in the right direction and keep building on what we’re doing in training.”

One of the bright spots was — no pun intended — Bright, especially early in the game. She got the assist on the first goal and created multiple opportunities and nearly scored on two occasions from her forward position. Her size and speed created problems for the Kansas City back line — something that Hines mentioned after the game.

“With Messiah, she brings a pace, a power. She’s a threat in multiple aspects of the game. She’s good with her back to goal, which can link players underneath, but also that fear factor of threatening behind,” Hines said. “Speed is a really good attribute to have. Being an ex-defender, it’s not always nice to defend against either. So with Messiah and Ally Watt, who also is lightning quick, we’ve got more of a threat behind.”

The Pride have three more games this preseason before their season opener. They’ll take on UCF Tuesday, Florida State next Saturday, and wrap up the preseason slate against the Washington Spirit on March 17. The Pride will begin the 2023 NWSL season away to the Portland Thorns on March 26.

Orlando Pride

Barba Banda’s Goal Contribution Percentage Pace Among the Highest in NWSL History

A dive into Banda’s numbers as a percentage of the Pride’s goal contributions.

Published

2 days ago

June 5, 2025

S. Andrew DeSalvo

Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

The NWSL took a collective break, as early June is scheduled as a FIFA international match window, so the league did not schedule any games. Several Pride players were called up to their national teams, including all three Zambian players: Barbra Banda, Grace Chanda, and Prisca Chilufya. Zambia drew Botswana 1-1 and lost to South Africa 2-0 during its two matches during the window, and in a what I am sure will be a complete surprise to everyone, it was Banda who scored Zambia’s one goal in the two games.

In Zambia’s last two major tournaments, the 2024 Olympics and the 2023 World Cup, Banda scored five of the team’s nine goals and assisted on two others for a total of seven goal contributions, and when I was looking to see Zambia’s results over this window, I started thinking about the criticality of Banda’s goal contributions to her country’s performances, and I wondered about how that stacked up to when she plays for the Pride.

The 2025 NWSL season is only 10 games in, so one game — say, a game in which Banda had the Pride’s first ever hat trick — skews the data more than it would after a full season’s worth of games, but here is what I found when looking at the players who had the highest percentage of goal contributions as a percentage of their team’s goals in NWSL history (I removed penalty kicks and opponents’ own goals from the count of a team’s goals scored):

Player	Season	Goal Contributions*	% of Team’s Goals*
Lauren Holiday	2013	20	67%
Crystal Dunn	2015	18	64%
Barbra Banda	2025	8	62%
Esther González	2025	6	60%
Abby Wambach	2013	17	59%
Diana Matheson	2013	7	58%
Sam Kerr	2017	21	58%
Sam Kerr	2019	23	58%
Adriana Leon	2017	12	57%
Sam Kerr	2018	20	57%
Barbra Banda**	2024	19	50%

* Excluding own goals and penalty kicks
** Banda’s 2024 season was actually 19th all time, but I included it for comparison purposes and because I wanted to.

First of all, let’s get this out of the way: Sam Kerr was an absolute terror when she played in the NWSL. Despite leaving the league for Chelsea after the 2019 season, she still has the second (18) , third (17) and fourth (16) most goals scored in a season, with only Temwa Chaŵinga’s 2025 season (20) surpassing her. Kerr is one of the great strikers of the century, but even during her time on Chicago and Sky Blue (now Gotham) she was not as critical to the goal-scoring output as the top two on this list, Lauren Holiday and Crystal Dunn.

Back in 2013, Holiday was involved in an astounding two-thirds of the goals her team put into the net in all manners except penalty kicks, and two years later, Crystal Dunn —yes, the same player who started at left back for the U.S. Women’s National Team Saturday — gave her a run for her money by being involved in 64% of her team’s non-penalty goals when she was playing for the Washington Spirit.

During the 2024 season, Banda ended up contributing to exactly half of the Pride’s 38 non-penalty goals, and early returns indicate that this season is on pace for something similar. There is more than half of the season still left to play, but through 10 games Banda sits third on the all-time list with her eight goal contributions of the Pride’s 13 non-penalty goals. The Pride have scored 18 goals when you look at the league standings, but three of those came from own goals and the other two were penalty kicks, which of course were taken by Marta, because GOAT.

Whether it is actually a good thing that a player plays such an outsized role in the goal-contribution percentage is an unanswerable question, because so much of that is tied into offensive game plans and every team sets up differently. The Pride won the shield and the cup last season with Banda as the clear focal point of the offense, and despite a slightly rockier start this season, they are still in third place through 10 games.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how teams are defending the Pride, and Banda in particular, this season, and I expect that teams will continue to try to aggressively deny her the ball in areas where she can build up a head of steam and try to force her wide, preventing her from getting into the box and unleashing one of the league’s most powerful shots. It is all well and good to try that, but Banda is one of the world’s best strikers, and while most NWSL teams have excellent defenders, few are world class.

The Pride should, and do, look to exploit this advantage frequently, which plays a major role in why Banda ranks so high in her percentage of goal contributions. Her incredible talent and skill, in conjunction with the Pride’s focus on finding ways to get her the ball in the attacking third of the field, make it likely that she stays near the top of the all-time rankings as the 2025 season continues. By the end of the season I believe that she will dip below 60%, especially with several of her more attack-minded teammates like Julie Doyle and Summer Yates returning to full health, but I think she ends up above last season’s 50%.

The good news for Pride fans is that if Banda’s percentage decreases, it means that other players are contributing goals, and if it increases, it means that she is contributing goals, so we come out ahead either way. And if she continues to contribute to three out of every five goals and the Pride score handfuls and handfuls of goals, then we come out ahead that way as well. I like all these positive outcomes!

In their next match the Pride will host a Houston team which is in the bottom three in the standings and the bottom four in terms of goals allowed, so the team should have ample opportunities to score. If the Pride score three goals and Banda is involved in all three, she will move to the top of the chart, and while that would be pretty cool, the three that the Pride will care most about in that game is three points.

But as hosts Michael Citro and Dave Rohe often say on the SkoPurp PawedCast, por qué no los dos? And while I am working in a Spanish phrase, three more Banda goal contributions and three points sounds as sweet as tres leches, no?

Orlando Pride

Orlando Pride vs. Houston Dash: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Pride need to do to secure a victory against Houston at home?

Published

2 days ago

June 5, 2025

David Rohe

Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

The Orlando Pride are back in action against the Houston Dash Saturday at Inter&Co Stadium. If you don’t listen to SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast you may not have heard that I will be there in person to enjoy the match with all of you. The NWSL returns from the international break as do several Pride players. We’ve already seen that every team is bringing its best when it plays Orlando, so what do the Pride need to do to take all three points from Houston at home?

Open the Offense

Barbra Banda scored a hat trick against the Utah Royals in the team’s last match. It was the first in Orlando Pride history, but hopefully it won’t be the last. I’m not expecting another hat trick from anyone this weekend, but there’s no reason to think that the Pride can’t score three goals in total. Of course, if Banda or another Pride player wants to do so, I won’t object.

Houston has allowed 16 goals this season and has a -6 goal differential. How difficult the team is to break down is still a question. I’m not certain if Houston will continue with Abby Smith in goal or if longtime keeper Jane Campbell will make her return to the starting lineup. Smith has started the last three matches, allowing six goals (an average of two per match) and has 10 saves. Campbell started the first seven matches, allowing 10 goals (an average of 1.43 per match) and has 22 saves. I’d be good not having to worry about Campbell, even if the dropoff in quality to Smith isn’t that great.

Limit the Gaffes

Looking to the other goal, I want to see Anna Moorhouse clean things up. She’s not been bad this season, but there have been more errors than last season. We know she can step it up as we saw last season, but if the Pride are to win this match — and others against better teams — I need her to get back to 2024 levels.

Of course, she’s not the only one in the defense that needs to re-adjust. Kylie Nadaner had her best season in 2024 but has reverted just a bit so far in 2025. I’m hoping the international break allowed her and the rest of the Pride to reset. Houston has only scored 10 goals this season, but the Dash have Messiah Bright. The former Pride striker only has one goal this year, but former Pride players always seem to play well against their former team, so I want the defense focused on getting a clean sheet.

Marta and the Midfield

I will probably keep asking for this until I get it or I’m proven it’s not the best strategy. I want Marta to drop back in the attack just a bit. She doesn’t need to be the one trying to keep up with Banda every time the team pushes forward. Ally Watt is a better partner up top. What Marta can do well is facilitate the attack and be the late runner to clean up any loose balls in the box.

If Marta drops to the more traditional 10 spot, that will allow Angelina to also drop back just a bit. I think she is also better in that traditional eight spot. Allow Angelina to be the one who is linking the play through the midfield, where she can either take it herself, or connect with Marta to set up the attacks. This is something I feel has largely been missing so far this season. A match against a team like Houston is the right time to get that fixed.

That’s what I’ll be looking for on Saturday when I’m actually in the stadium. Where do you think the game will be won or lost? Let us know in the comments section.

Orlando Pride

Orlando Pride Sign Forward Simone Jackson Through 2028

The Orlando Pride have signed 22-year-old forward Simone Jackson through the 2028 NWSL season.

Published

1 week ago

May 29, 2025

Sean Rollins

Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

The Orlando Pride announced the signing of former University of Southern California forward Simone Jackson today. The 22-year-old’s deal is through the 2028 season.

“We are thrilled to welcome Simone Jackson to the Orlando Pride family through 2028. Her versatility, technical ability, and quickness immediately impressed our technical staff, but it’s her character and personality that truly make her a perfect fit for our culture,” Pride Vice President of Soccer Operations and Sporting Director Haley Carter said in a club press release. “Simone represents exactly the kind of player and person we want to invest in as we build the future of this club. Her signing reflects our commitment to bringing in talent that will help us compete at the highest level while embodying the values that make the Pride special.”

While Jackson is a new signing, the attacker isn’t new to the Pride. She was with the team during preseason as a non-roster invitee, playing well enough to earn a spot on the roster.

“I’m incredibly excited and honored to join the Orlando Pride. From the moment I arrived, I felt the special culture this club has built and knew this was where I wanted to be,” Jackson said in the club’s release. “The vision the coaching staff shared with me aligns perfectly with my goals as a player, and I can’t wait to contribute on the field and connect with our amazing fans. Orlando has such a rich soccer community, and I’m thrilled to call this city home for the next chapter of my career. I’m ready to put in the work every day to help bring championships to this club and make an impact both on and off the field.”

Prior to joining the Pride for preseason, Jackson spent four years at the University of Southern California. She played in 75 games for the Trojans, scoring 22 goals and adding 13 assists. Her best season was her senior year, where she accumulated 1,304 minutes and scored six goals, second most on the team.

The Redondo Beach, CA native was a member of the All-Big Ten third team in 2024, first-team All-Pac-12 in 2022, third-team All-Pac-12 in 2023 and 2021, and a Pac 12 All-Freshman Team honoree in 2021.

Internationally, Jackson represented the United States at multiple youth levels, including at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. She scored her team’s lone goal in a 3-1 loss to Japan in that tournament. Jackson participated at every youth level for the U.S., starting at U-14.

What It Means For Orlando

Having successfully put a strong starting lineup together, Carter and Pride Head Coach Seb Hines now work on the team’s depth. And that’s where Jackson comes in. The forward will be behind starter Barbra Banda and Ally Watt on the depth chart. However, Banda could depart at times for international duty with Zambia, giving Jackson a spot on the bench.

At 22 years old, the young attacker has plenty of time to develop. She’ll be playing with seasoned professionals in the same position, providing valuable role models. Barring injuries, she probably won’t get much playing time this year but could be a key player for the Pride in the future.