Ladies and gentlemen, it’s match week. The Orlando Pride last played a competitive match in November against the Washington Spirit with a trophy on the line. On Friday, the Pride will play a competitive match against the Washington Spirit with another trophy on the line.

Before we discuss the Pride and Spirit tangling for the 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup, we discuss the brand-spanking-new Decennial Kit that the club released since our last show. The design is fantastic, the look is great, and the star and crest are out of this world. There is just one drawback that bothers both of your podcast hosts. It’s not a deal breaker, but that one little detail could have made for one of the best kits in the team’s history — which is saying something, because the Pride have been killing it.

This week’s mailbagbox wants to know if we can have a Seb Cam during Orlando Pride matches and asks us to dole out our preferred starting lineup for Friday. 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.

Finally, we look ahead to Friday’s matchup with the Washington Spirit. What we don’t know this early in the week is what the availability report will look like. What we do know is that the Spirit are probably tired of watching Orlando Pride players celebrating trophy wins. Can the Pride do it again? We look at some of the injury factors that could determine which team could get the upper hand, discuss our key matchups, and make our final score predictions.

Here’s how Episode 76 went down:

0:15 – The Pride have some fancy new duds and we want to talk about it.

11:46 – The mailbagbox wants to know about preferred lineups and coach cams.

30:33 – Key matchups and predictions for the Pride vs. the Spirit in the NWSL Challenge Cup.

Orlando City rebounded from its opening day loss with a comprehensive 4-2 win over Toronto FC that wasn’t necessarily as close as the final score indicates. Sure, there are still a few worrying defensive lapses, but that’s bound to happen when continuously shuffling the back line out of necessity, which is what the Lions had to do with both Robin Jansson and David Brekalo out this week.

We look back on a night of goal scoring by committee that featured big contributions on the offensive end from players who primarily defend. We check back on last week’s score predictions, discuss the key plays in the match, and make our selections for Man of the Match. Oh, and two Lions ended up on the MLS Team of the Matchday.

The mailbagbox wants us to guess which jersey numbers one of our colleagues did not see in the stands on Saturday, if we saw this performance from Alex Freeman coming, whether the Lions are too complacent in the transfer market, 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 kicks off its 2025 MLS NEXT Pro season this weekend, and we discussed how little we know about the roster at this point. However, we tell you who will likely play more (and fewer) minutes with OCB this year as opposed to in 2024.

Finally, we looked ahead to Saturday night’s trip to Yankee Stadium to play New York City FC. The Pigeons lost their best player (much like Orlando City) this off-season, and they’re off to a poor start to the season, but they are always dangerous on the smaller field at home, where the Lions have rarely taken points. We look at the series history, provide our key matchups, and make 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. 467 went down:

0:15 – The Lions bounced back from the Philly loss by putting four on the board in a win against Toronto.

26:33 – The mailbagbox is full this week with both regular questions and requests for blind guesses.

56:43 – OCB prepares for the season opener and our key matchups and score predictions for Orlando City at NYCFC on Saturday.

With the Orlando Pride’s NWSL Challenge Cup match against the Washington Spirit just over a week away, it’s time for us to reconvene and begin preparing for the 2025 season. We’ve been away for a few weeks, and the main thing we’ve learned is that the Pride is serious about defense.

To that end, we discuss the club re-signing Emily Sams and Cori Dyke to new deals through 2017, touching on the fact that Dyke has now signed her first three professional contracts in less than a calendar year. That’s an odd yet delightful factoid.

It wasn’t just current defenders that the Pride were interested in signing. Spanish international Oihane Hernandez became the newest member of the Pride. Questions abound about where everyone on the back line will find minutes, but it’s a great problem for Seb Hines to have.

This week’s mailbagbox blindsides us with picking co-ed 7-v-7 sides. Hear us struggle in real time. You can’t get that kind of audio entertainment just anywhere. We also give a comprehensive overview on the club’s international slot situation. 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.

Our weekly season schedule is back. We’ll be back next week to get you ready for the Pride vs. the Spirit at Inter&Co Stadium with another trophy on the line. We’ll also bring you any news that drops between now and then. Welcome back, Pride fans. We made it through the shortest off-season in Orlando history.

Here’s how Episode 75 went down:

0:15 – Orlando Pride news in recent weeks has been all about the defense.

19:07 – The mailbagbox beckons us with a hypothetical for which we were totally unprepared.