Welcome to your preview and match thread as the Orlando Pride (3-5-2, 11 points) travel to the west coast to take on the San Diego Wave (7-3-1, 22 points). This is the first of two meetings between the two teams, with the return game in Orlando scheduled for Oct. 2.

Here’s everything you need to know about tonight’s game.

History

The San Diego Wave joined the NWSL in 2022 and have only faced the Pride eight times in their existence. The Pride have only lost once in those games, posting a record of 5-1-2 overall and 3-0-1 in Southern California.

The most recent meeting took place Sept. 26, 2025 in San Diego. The game got off to a fast start with Jacquie Ovalle giving the Pride the lead in the seventh minute and Dudinha responding three minutes later. Things slowed down significantly after, with Carson Pickett’s 54th-minute goal the only remaining conversion, lifting the Pride to a 2-1 win.

On March 23 of last year in Orlando, Haley McCutcheon scored the opening goal just after halftime to give the hosts the lead before Chiamaka Okwuchukwu equalized minutes later. Marta scored the game winner from the penalty spot after Delphine Carascino fouled Barbra Banda in the box to give Orlando the 2-1 win. It was the third game in a four-game winning streak that lifted the Pride to a strong start to the season.

The final meeting of 2024 took place on June 7. Julie Doyle gave the Pride the lead in the first half, but a second-half equalizer by Makenzy Doniak resulted in a 1-1 draw. On April 19, 2024, in Orlando, Summer Yates scored the game’s lone goal in the first half, lifting the Pride to a 1-0 win. It was the Pride’s first home win in the series.

The first meeting in 2023 was held at Snapdragon Stadium on April 29 after the Pride’s 0-4-0 start to the season. It looked like it would be a fifth straight loss when Jaedyn Shaw gave the hosts the early lead. But Adriana assisted Mikayla Cluff on the equalizer and McCutcheon scored just before halftime to give the Pride the lead. Adriana scored her first goal of the season to put the game away as the Pride won 3-1.

On Aug. 25, 2023, in Orlando, the Pride got off to a horrible start when San Diego center back Abby Dahlkemper scored in the seventh minute for her first goal since 2016. Marta set up Adriana just before halftime for an equalizer, but Kyra Carusa netted the late winner in a 2-1 San Diego win.

The first-ever meeting between the teams took place on Aug. 13, 2022  in San Diego. The lone goal in the game came from the penalty spot after a Julie Doyle cross hit Kaleigh Riehl’s arm in the first half. Meggie Dougherty Howard stepped up and buried the penalty. The Pride held on for 67 minutes to beat one of the top teams in the league, 1-0 away.

The second meeting and first in Orlando kicked off on Sept. 25, 2022, and the Pride got off to a great start. Dougherty Howard opened the scoring in the first half and Gunny Jonsdottir doubled the advantage in the second. It looked like the Pride were headed for six points out of six against the expansion side, but San Diego came storming back. Doniak cut the lead in half and former Pride attacker Taylor Kornieck equalized late, resulting in a disappointing 2-2 draw.

Overview

The Pride came into this road trip with high expectations. It started on May 12 in Boston and continued on May 16 in Denver. It was expected that the team would get something from each game, but the Pride managed to lose to both expansion sides, falling 2-1 to Boston Legacy FC and 3-1 to Denver Summit FC.

Banda is off to a flying start since returning from her season-ending injury last year, currently leading the NWSL with nine goals. Unfortunately, she’s pretty much been the only Pride player to score this year. The striker has scored six of the team’s last seven goals, with the other being a penalty by Marta.

The Pride has been one of the best defensive teams in the league the last two seasons and they were earlier this year. However, they’ve struggled since their 3-2 loss in Louisville, conceding multiple goals in four of their last five games. They’ve been outscored 12-6 in those four contests.

The team has suffered some significant losses this year. Kylie Nadaner is out on maternity leave, Rafaelle has been in and out of the team, and Kerry Abello has been injured. While Abello returned against Denver — coming off the bench — Angelina will be missing after being sent off in Denver for pulling Delanie Sheehan’s hair.

Tonight, the Pride look to end their two-game losing streak as they take on San Diego Wave FC. After suffering a loss in the season opener to the Houston Dash, the Wave went on a five-game winning streak. They had a brief stumble, losing back-to-back games, before going on a two-game winning streak that ended Wednesday night with a 2-2 draw against the Dash.

The Southern California-based side currently sits second in the NWSL standings, one point behind the league-leading Portland Thorns. The Wave are tied for the league lead in goals with 17, even with the Thorns. But they’ve leaked goals, conceding 12 this season, which is eighth most in the league.

Rookie Lia Godfrey and Dudinha lead the Wave in goals this year with four, followed by Melanie Barcenas and Trinity Byars with two each. Dudinha also leads the team in assists with four, making her eight goal contributions the most on the team. Kimmi Ascanio, Kenza Dali, and Godfrey are the other two players with multiple assists with three and two respectively.

Defensively, Head Coach Jonas Eidevall has kept a consistent back line. Perle Morroni, Kristen McNabb, Kennedy Wesley, and Mimi Van Zanten have started all 11 games for the Wave this season. However, Morroni received her fifth caution against the Dash, resulting in a suspension for yellow card accumulation.

“Final match of what’s been a long road trip, but we are ready,” Pride Head Coach Seb Hines said ahead of tonight’s game. “San Diego has been having a great season and are in good form and looking to get a result, but so are we. We have been preparing well and have had a good week of training and we’re ready for the match. We want to get a result and turn our current form around and we are hoping to do so starting on Sunday night.” 

The Pride have a lengthy list of players missing tonight, including Angelina (suspension), Cosette Morche (ankle), Nadaner (maternity leave), Ovalle (thigh), Viviana Villacorta (knee), and Solai Washington (knee). Additionally, Marta (thigh) is listed as questionable. San Diego will be without Trinity Armstrong (knee), Adriana Leon (back), Cat Macario (heel), and Morroni (suspension).

Official Lineups

Orlando Pride (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Anna Moorhouse.

Defenders: Oihane, Rafaelle, Cori Dyke, Hailie Mace.

Defensive Midfielders: Luana, Ally Lemos.

Attacking Midfielders: Julie Doyle, Haley McCutcheon, Nicole Payne.

Forward: Barbra Banda.

Bench: Hannah Anderson, Kerry Abello, Zara Chavoshi, Seven Castain, Reagan Raabe, Summer Yates, Simone Jackson, McKinley Crone, Cara Martin.

San Diego Wave FC (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: DiDi Haracic.

Defenders: Kiki Pickett, Krsiten McNabb, Kennedy Wesley, Mimi Van Zanten.

Defensive Midfielders: Kimmi Ascanio, Kenza Dali.

Attacking Midfielders: Dudinha, Lia Godfrey, Gia Corley.

Forward: Ludmila.

Bench: Luisa Agudelo, Daniela Arias, Melanie Barcenas, Trinity Byars, Laurina Fazer, Jordan Fusco, Nya Harrison, Gabi Portilho, Tatum Wynalda.

Referees

REF: Calin Radosav.
AR1: Ben Rigel.
AR2: Peter Hanson.
4TH: Jose Landa.
VAR: Mark Verso.
AVAR: Christian Clerc.

How to Watch

Match Time: 7 p.m.

Venue: Snapdragon Stadium — San Diego, CA.

TV: None.

Streaming: Victory+.

Social Media: For live updates and rapid reaction, follow @themaneland.bsky.social on Bluesky and the Orlando Pride’s official Twitter (@ORLPride) or Bluesky (@orlpride.com) feed.

Enjoy the game. Go Pride.

As is often the case when writing about the Orlando Pride, we will start by writing about an Orlando player with a last name that starts with the letters b-a-n. It does not have to be that way, but with how the 2026 season is going, it pretty much does have to be that way. Thus, let us begin by looking at…Paolo Banchero.

The former Duke Blue Devil is the Orlando Magic’s best player, but basketball analysts are all over the map on his ceiling, primarily because since he joined the team he has been among the league’s worst shooters. My counter to many of the analysts is that the Magic’s offense has not been good for years, so often the team passed the ball to Banchero late in the shot clock and said “it is all on you, go get us a basket.” Unsurprisingly, this led to a lot of bad shots, as he was up against the 24-second shot clock and had to get something off, and hence his shooting percentage suffered.

That is not to say that all of his bad shots were due to this circumstance, as he is not an elite shooter by NBA standards even when wide open, but the Magic have also had really bad injury luck during the past two seasons and relied even more heavily on Banchero than they would have had starters been healthy.

Does that story sound familiar? An Orlando player who already was a focal point of the offense needing to take on an even bigger burden due to injuries? It certainly should, as the same story that I wrote about early in the season still applies now, with the other Orlando superstar with b-a-n in their name, Barbra Banda, continuing to carry the offense on her shoulders as the team just dumps the ball to her and says “it’s all on you, go get us a goal.”

And she has! Banda is averaging almost exactly one goal per 90 minutes (0.98), and leads the league with nine goals scored. She is also tied for the team lead in Opta’s “big chances created” metric with three (this also ranks tied for 12th in the league). Alas, she still does not have an assist this season, as her teammates did not convert those three big chances or the other 13 chances she created either (her 16 total chances created ranks first on the Pride and is tied for fifth in the league). In the article I referenced earlier, I showed Banda’s shots and goals as a percentage of the full team’s shots through four games, and the chart below (using data from fbref.com) shows those percentages have each slightly increased since then:

For some context, the player with the next highest percentage of their team’s shots is Trinity Rodman with 25%, and only four players have taken at least 20% of their team’s shots. For goals, the next highest player is Chicago’s Jordyn Huitema with 50% (it should be noted that the team has only scored four goals), and only four players have scored more than 40% of their team’s goals. Banda is an outlier, just as she has been ever since she joined the Pride.

Her outlier-ness (not a word, but you get it, right?) made me wonder about Banda compared to other players across women’s soccer. The aforementioned fbref.com has tracking for 16 top flight women’s leagues during the past three seasons, so I grabbed every player who had scored at least eight goals during their league’s regular season. That list contains 172 player-seasons, and if you were wondering why I chose eight as my cutoff, it is because Banda has scored at least eight goals during each of her three seasons in the NWSL.

The Zambian is one of only seven women who have reached at least eight league goals during each of the last three seasons, though that number will increase as spring-to-fall leagues like the NWSL get closer to the ends of their seasons. It will not increase dramatically, however, as only a handful of players are on two-year streaks and playing in a spring-to-fall league.

The scatterplot below shows all of the 172 seasons from the past three seasons when a player scored at least eight goals, and I included each player’s average number of shots taken per 90 minutes on the x-axis and their goals-per-shot-taken conversion percentage on the y-axis.

I then shifted the axes to reflect the median value for each, meaning that every value above the x-axis is a value that is in the top half (meaning the top 86 out of 172) of all of the goal conversion percentages, and every value that is to the right of the y-axis is a value that is in the top half of all of the shots-taken-per-90-minutes averages. Player-seasons that are in the top half of both metrics (35 seasons qualified) are in the upper right section of the chart, inside the green shaded area. Seasons that were in the top quarter of both metrics are in the smaller, darker, green rectangle, and only six player-seasons met that criteria, where the player converted a high percentage of their shots while also taking a large number of shots per 90 minutes.

Banda’s three seasons in Orlando are shown next to the arrows, and after two years of high shot volume but low conversion rate (as compared to top goal scorers), she is up into the green thus far this season. This is a testament to her incredible ability, because the 2026 team relies on Banda more than the team did in 2025 or 2024. (Marta’s 2024 season is on the chart above, as she scored nine goals that season.)

Hosts Michael Citro and Dave Rohe covered the Pride’s lack of attack on this week’s episode of our SkoPurp Soccer podcast, and in that conversation they noted how many of the Pride’s other “attackers” often never even get into the box, let alone into positions where they too could take or create threatening shots.

This brings me back to Banchero and how he was often forced to create offense out of nothing for the Magic but still was able to help the team get to the brink of upsetting the top seed in the Eastern Conference during the NBA playoffs. Banda is being asked to carry the same type of load for the Pride, and even though she has improved her conversion rate, the team is struggling more than ever because the rest of the offense has regressed. Jacquie Ovalle and Solai Washington returning from injury would certainly help stem some of that regression, but there is no timeline for either to return, and with Orlando’s lack of health thus far this season, it would not be surprising if neither player is back until after the World Cup break.

The Pride are exactly one-third of the way through their season, and with nine goals already, Banda is on pace to shatter the team’s single-season goal-scoring record with her performance through 10 games. The next four teams behind the Pride all have one or two games in hand, so the Pride are actually 13th in points earned per match.

With tough games against San Diego and Bay FC coming up, the Pride need to figure out a solution quickly, or the hill to climb to get back into the playoff spots is going to get steep like the banks of a river, and there is not going to be a banquet or a banner at the end of the season because they will have been banished from the playoff picture, even though they are getting an all-time season from Banda.

And based on what most predicted for the Pride for this season, that would be bananas.

Vamos Orlando!

The Orlando Pride lost to their second 2026 NWSL expansion team in less than a week, falling behind, seeing Angelina sent off, and getting outclassed by Denver Summit FC. The Summit (3-3-3, 12 points) were the aggressors, picking up their first-ever home win, 3-1, at the expense of the Pride (3-5-2, 11 points).

Orlando conceded another early goal, as Eva Gaetino put the Summit up early, with Janine Sonis doubling the lead in the 54th minute. Barbra Banda pulled one back for the Pride in the 76th minute, but the fragile Pride conceded a second to Sonis a minute later to spoil any comeback bid.

“I think right now we’re going through a really rough patch,” Orlando Pride Head Coach Seb Hines said after the match. “It’s always difficult away from home. Any opponent you play away from home, whether they’re at the bottom or at the top, it’s always a challenge.”

The back line in front of goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse in Hines’ lineup was made up of Oihane, Hannah Anderson, Cori Dyke and Hailie Mace. Ally Lemos and Haley McCutcheon served as the defensive midfielders. Seven Castain, Summer Yates and Julie Doyle took up the attacking midfielder roles with Banda up top.

Other than a brief defensive highlight in the fifth minute—when Castain stole the ball and played it forward to Banda, who ultimately sent it over the endline—the Pride struggled in the first 10 minutes. The Summit maintained relentless pressure, which paid off in the 10th minute with a goal from Eva Gaetino.

The play began with a short corner from Ayo Oke, who delivered a precise ball into the box. Denver completely dominated the set play, beating Orlando players at every level. Melissa Kossler fought hard to head it toward goal near the right post, where Gaetino got the final touch and scored past Moorhouse to make it 1-0.

The Pride gradually regained their composure and began to grow into the match. Still, little in the way of a cohesive attack materialized over the next few minutes. In the 17th minute, Banda attempted a long-distance chip with Abby Smith off her line, after Mace won the ball just past the halfway line, but she sent her shot wide.

Denver responded with a long-range effort, which sailed just over the crossbar.

Oihane pushed forward in the 26th, finding Banda, who forced her way through the Denver defense and into the box, only for her shot to drift wide once more. Ally Lemos delivered a cross in the 28th minute, but it went straight to the Denver defense. She tried again a minute later, but this time she sent the ball over the end line for a Denver goal kick.

Orlando’s best chance of the half came when Banda charged down the right and into the box, sending a cutback that bounced around the penalty area. A Denver player fired it into Castain, and the ball nearly ricocheted into the goal, but it went harmlessly over the end line.

In the 39th minute, Banda met a free kick from distance with a powerful header, but again the effort was wide. Mace launched a long-shot lob into the box in the 40th, but Smith was equal to it, covering the ball the whole way.

Anderson nearly gifted Denver a goal in the 42nd with a soft header back to Moorhouse, allowing Yasmeen Ryan to slip past her and onto the ball, but Denver couldn’t capitalize.

The Summit led in all categories at the break, including possession (53%-47%), shots (11-3), shots on target (1-0), passing accuracy (87%-86%), and corners (3-1).

Hines made a triple substitution at halftime, bringing Angelina on for Yates, Nicole Payne on for Mace, and Marta on for Doyle.

Orlando started the second half with much more energy and purpose, delivering two threatening crosses within the first two minutes but the Pride were unfortunate not to convert either.

Early in the second half, Marta made herself known with some signature footwork just outside Denver’s 18-yard box, sending a through ball in for Castain, but Denver just managed to snuff out the chance.

The shift in energy was electric, with Orlando looking like a completely different team. However, an overzealous challenge in the box by Oihane handed Denver a penalty, completely changing the complexion of the game from that point forward. Sonis took the penalty, firing to the right and past Moorhouse, who guessed the wrong way, putting Denver up 2-0 in the 54th minute.

The Pride were fortunate not to go down 3-0 in the 56th minute, doing little to slow a Denver attack that allowed Kossler to get off a shot—though she put it wide. Then, Devin Lynch stole the ball from Marta, drove straight down the middle of the pitch, and sent a pass out left to Natalie Means, who fired at Moorhouse, forcing a save.

In the 60th minute, Banda managed a shot, but it didn’t trouble the Denver keeper.

Angelina pulled Delanie Sheehan’s hair and was shown a red card for violent conduct. It appeared she was trying to grab Sheehan’s jersey and let go immediately, but after reviewing the video, the referee made the call, leaving the Pride with 10 players and leaving Angelina suspended for the San Diego game.

Simone Jackson subbed on for Castain in the 64th minute.

At this point, the Pride were firmly on the back foot, and even Marta struggled at times, losing the ball more than once in uncharacteristic fashion.

After the sending-off, the Pride shifted into a defensive posture and looked to counterattack.

Against the run of play, the Pride struck back in the 76th minute. Haley McCutcheon did well to steal the ball after a poor touch from Sheehan and fed a nice through ball for a charging Banda, who took a touch to throw off the keeper and fired past Smith to make it 2-1.

Denver struck right back in the 77th following a throw-in. The ball was back heeled to Ryan who passed to Natasha Flint. Payne parried Flint’s shot, but Sonis put away the rebound to restore the two-goal lead.

Kerry Abello subbed on, after a six-month absence, replacing a gassed Banda in the 78th minute.

“It’s been six months to the day since I’ve stepped on the pitch, and so it was definitely emotional, but I felt really good despite the breathing and the altitude,” Abello said. “I think coming on for your first minutes, you know, in Denver, a man down, goal down, is really challenging fitness-wise, but no, I feel really good, and I’m just excited to build on that.”

Denver nearly added another when Moorhouse bobbled a long-range shot from former Orlando Pride forward Ally Brazier (née Watt), but she managed to cover up the ball and keep the score at 3-1.

The Summitt put the ball in the net again in the 83rd minute, but the play was offside, letting the Pride off the hook.

In the 84th minute, Abello delivered a cross that sailed high over the 18-yard box and harmlessly into touch. About a minute later, she followed up with an acrobatic head-over-heels throw-in, which was flashy but ultimately resulted in nothing threatening for the Pride.

Denver kept pressing, with Ryan sending a shot straight at Moorhouse for an easy save in the 91st minute.

In the late stages, the Pride looked a bit gassed, seeing out the final minutes with nothing to show for their efforts on a tough night at high altitude against strong competition, including some familiar former Pride players.

In the end, the Summit held their lead in all categories, finishing with the advantage in possession (56%-44%), shots (23-9), shots on target (7-2), passing accuracy (90%-86%), and corners (3-1).

“We made some good adjustments at halftime, you know. I thought we started the second half really well,” Hines said. “The sending off changes the whole game and yeah, we were just battling to the end, obviously. We’ll analyze it and move on, you know. We’ve got to bounce back, show some resilience, and come back stronger against San Diego.”

“Credit to Denver, they came out there with lots of energy, with a full week to prepare, whereas ourselves, you know, we had the game on Tuesday against Boston, which was a game that went all the way to the end, and then today was another one, where it was a tough challenge,” Hines said.

The Pride travel to take on the San Diego Wave on Sunday, May 24.