As we count down to the new year of 2025 — which will be Orlando City’s 11th in MLS, the Orlando Pride’s 10th in the NWSL, and OCB’s third in MLS NEXT Pro — and say goodbye to 2024, it’s time to look back at the club’s 10 best moments of the year as selected by The Mane Land staff via vote.

It is fitting that the acquisition of Barbra Banda appears on our Top 10 Moments of the Season list on the eve of Christmas Eve, because in retrospect it is kind of like a Christmas story, but instead of getting a Red Ryder BB gun, we got a BB bombshell dropped on us on March 7, when the Pride announced they had spent $740,000 to acquire Banda from Chinese Women’s Super League side Shanghai Shengli FC. That transfer fee was at the time, and still is, the second highest of all time for a women’s soccer player, and it changed the entire complexion of the 2024 season for the Pride.

Orlando was agonizingly close to making the playoffs during the 2023 season but fell just shy of the final spot, and clearly the Pride were planning to use that failure as a catalyst to improve their performance in 2024. There was a major question about the attack, however, and where the goals were going to come from. The team’s joint top scorer from 2023, Messiah Bright, requested a trade for personal reasons, leaving a team that had only scored an average of 1.23 goals per game (27 goals in 22 games) down her six goals and without an obvious candidate to lead the line up front. The Pride had options on the roster, but questions remained.

And then, Christmas came early. Or maybe we got a second Christmas, or a very late Christmas present from 2023. Let’s not get bogged down on semantics. What matters is all of a sudden the whole soccer world was talking about the Orlando Pride and how they had just acquired a superstar forward for the second time (Alex Morgan was the first; Marta debatably could be the second, but she is more of an attacking midfielder than a pure forward) in club history.

Unlike with Morgan, a U.S. Women’s National Team player and arguably the most well-known women’s player in the world at the time she joined the Pride, most people in the United States knew very little about Banda and her career exploits. I spent a considerable amount of time today researching Banda’s career stats from her years prior to joining the Pride when preparing to write this article — in particular her stats from her four seasons in the Chinese Women’s Super League, and I could not find any sites that showed her season-by-season stats. The press release said that she had scored 41 goals in 52 games, and I was able to find that she scored 18 goals in 2020 and 16 goals in 2023, but I could not find anything on 2021 and 2022, which likely were affected by COVID-19.

All I could find on Banda were her total goals scored and games played, and so therefore not the total minutes played in those 52 games to allow for per-90-minute calculations. Let’s assume she played every minute of every game for Shanghai, giving her the lowest possible goals per 90 minutes during those 52 games and compare her performance during her career in China to all seasons when a player scored at least six goals in the Pride’s history before 2024 (all data from fbref.com except Banda’s):

The Chinese Super League is almost certainly not as deep and as talented as the NWSL, but nearly a goal per 90 minutes is still difficult, especially over 52 games. The reality is that Banda probably did not play every minute of every game either, and that means her goals/90 was likely even closer to 1.00 than her 0.79 showed in the chart.

Speaking of goals/90 of around 1.00, Banda had also played in three games in an Olympics and three games in a World Cup prior to joining the Pride and had scored a cool seven goals in those six games, averaging 1.17 goals per 90 minutes (there is per-game data from those competitions, and Banda never came off the field). The Olympics and World Cup are the biggest stages in women’s soccer and Banda had delivered in both at a precociously young 21 and 23 years old, and now a player with that pedigree was coming to a Pride team returning a solid defense. And with a need for a striker, it seemed like a delightful match for the team playing in the Happiest Place on Earth. After a few years of building the war chest and setting the stage, the Pride were now about to cast one of the world’s best in a leading role.

When the season opened, the addition of Banda had the Pride tied for sixth in the betting odds on ESPN Bet and generally around the middle of the pack in most season previews. Banda did not play in the first few matches, as she was coming off a full season in China and Olympic qualifying games for Zambia, and trying to acclimate to a new league and a new team, but she played her first game on April 19 against San Diego and made her first start on April 26 against Washington. The rest, as they say, is history, and you can be sure that as you check back every day through the end of the year you will read and re-live more about just how well Banda integrated into the Pride’s roster and, spoiler alert, how the Pride brought home some pretty nice shiny new hardware to display inside Inter&Co Stadium.

Banda’s acquisition played a massive part in the Pride’s ascendance during the 2024 season, and you can read all about that and her statistics and accomplishments in her Season in Review piece. And while it is coincidental, it is also perfect that adding a world-class striker came in at No. 9 on our list of top 10 moments for the 2024 season.

Come back through New Year’s Eve as we count down the remainder of the top 10 moments of 2024 for Orlando City, the Orlando Pride, and OCB.

Previous Top Moments of 2024

1. 10. Orlando City’s massive second-half surge clinches top-four spot in Eastern Conference.

The Orlando Pride were looking to make a splash. The club needed a dynamic goal scorer to pressure opposing defenses — and to score goals, obviously — and Vice President of Soccer Operations and Sporting Director Haley Carter swung for the fences. The Pride made their splash on March 7, signing Zambian international striker Barbra Banda from Chinese Women’s Super League side Shanghai Shengli FC to a contract through the 2027 season.

Banda arrived a few weeks later when her exit from Shanghai Shengli and international paperwork were taken care of, and from the moment she stepped onto the pitch with her Pride teammates on April 19 in a home win over the San Diego Wave, she completely changed the team’s attack, embarking on a season that resulted in NWSL regular-season and playoff titles and racking up a full trophy case worth of awards, including:

• NWSL Player of the Month for May
• NWSL Team of the Month for May and June
• NWSL Championship MVP
• 2024 NWSL Best XI First Team
• BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year
• FIFPRO Women’s World 11 — the first African player to earn the honor

In addition, she was a finalist for NWSL Most Valuable Player and the FIFA Ballon d’Or awards. It’s difficult to imagine a Pride player having a bigger first year with the club.

Let’s take a look back at Banda’s first season in Orlando.

Statistical Breakdown

Banda made her Orlando Pride and NWSL debut in a 1-0 home win over San Diego Wave FC on April 19 off the bench and started her first game in purple April 26 in a 3-2 road win over the Washington Spirit, meaning she symmetrically bookended her first and last starts (and wins) of the year against the Spirit. She finished the 2024 season with 22 appearances (20 starts) in which she played 1,743 minutes, placing fifth on the team in the latter category. Banda led the Pride with 13 goals in the regular season, adding a team-high six assists. Naturally, that gives her a team-leading 19 goal contributions in the regular season. Although they don’t technically count as goal contributions, she also drew four penalties from her opponents that her teammates converted into goals. She completed 58.6% of her 256 passes with 35 key passes, nine successful crosses, and seven completed long balls. Defensively, Banda recorded nine tackles, three interceptions, and 42 headed duels won. She committed 29 fouls, suffered 37 (including the four that drew penalties), and was shown one yellow card.

In the playoffs, Banda started all three of Orlando’s matches, playing 263 of the available 270 minutes. She led all scorers with four playoff goals, finding the back of the net at least once in each match. She added one postseason assist on what turned out to be the game-winning Marta wondergoal in the semifinal against the Kansas City Current. Banda attempted 13 shots, putting five on target, meaning she finished on 80% of her shots on target in the postseason and on 38% of all her attempts. She completed 72.4% of her 29 playoff passes, including five key passes, one accurate cross, and one successful long ball. On defense, she won four of her six tackle attempts (66.7%), recorded one interception, and won one headed duel on five attempts. In terms of discipline, she seemed to be oddly penalized at times in the semifinal and final for her strength or for pushing off an opponent who was holding her back, as she was called for nine fouls while suffering six, and she was shown a yellow card in the NWSL Championship.

Because she was away with the Zambian Women’s National Team at the Olympics, Banda did not compete in the 2024 NWSL x Liga MX Summer Cup.

Best Game

Few players in the NWSL present a bigger problem finding a “best game” of the year for than does Banda, so pardon me if this section is long. A run down her game-by-game stats provides so many strong candidates. I eventually had to narrow it down to four. These include her first start in the game at Washington mentioned above, when she scored a goal, assisted on one, and drew a penalty that Summer Yates converted, factoring in all three goals in the 3-2 road victory. There was also a strong showing in her first home start with the Pride, as she scored a brace and added an assist in Orlando’s 4-1 win over the North Carolina Courage on May 1, becoming the first NWSL player to record a goal and an assist in each of her first two starts. And there’s the incredible two-goal, two-assist game in a 6-0 win against the Utah Royals June 21, when she became the second player in club history to record four goal contributions in a match, joining Marta. She helped the Pride earn their most lopsided win in club history and momentarily took over the Golden Boot lead, breaking Orlando’s single-season record for braces with her fourth, and becoming the first player in NWSL history to score 10 goals in her first 10 games. Even against a bad Utah team, that is an impressive match.

And as worthy as all of those above games are, I’m going with her dominant two-goal performance in a 4-1 win against the Chicago Red Stars on Nov. 8 in the first-ever playoff game hosted by the Orlando Pride. There are two reasons I’m making this selection. First, the stakes of the game were so much higher than the games mentioned above, with Banda’s performance helping the Pride capture their first-ever NWSL playoff victory. Secondly, Banda had been mired in a scoring slump since returning from the Olympics, scoring just one regular-season goal in her final 10 matches — a header that beat Bay FC 1-0 on the road Sept. 20. She hadn’t scored with her foot in ages entering the playoffs. Lastly, it came against an opponent the Pride have historically struggled against at home. Orlando was just 1-7-2 in home matches against the Red Stars in their history. And Banda was terrific in that game. She scored twice and drew another penalty that Marta converted to factor heavily in the lopsided postseason win.

The game was an understandably nervy one early on, remaining scoreless for more than 25 minutes despite Orlando dominating play. It stayed 0-0 until Haley McCutcheon turned into an unlikely offensive hero off an Ally Watt assist, as she headed in a shot attempt that was going to stray wide, opening the scoring in the 26th minute. The game remained close at 1-0 for a while longer, until Banda got going. Emily Sams sent a great through ball forward that split the defense toward the right corner of the penalty area. Banda followed it, got to it first, then calmly beat legendary USWNT goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to score her first Pride goal since Sept. 20 and the first with her foot since before the Olympics.

The goal apparently gave Banda a confidence boost, as she nearly scored moments later, curling a shot around Naeher that didn’t have quite enough bend on it to find the right corner. However, she essentially put the game out of reach in the dying moments of first-half stoppage time. This time it was Watt sending a long ball to the left side. Banda blazed past Cari Roccaro to reach it and slotted it home past Naeher to make it 3-0 in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time.

Banda continued to cause problems for Chicago in the second half. She nearly completed a hat trick in the 51st minute, getting around Naeher but hitting the post. In the 54th minute, she got past Hannah Anderson, who pulled her shirt to try to slow her down. There was no initial penalty given, but after a short video review, the referee awarded a penalty, which Marta dispatched to make it 4-0. Chicago pulled one back on a mistake by goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse, but the Red Stars got no closer and the Pride had their first playoff win, thanks in large part to Banda’s contributions.

In addition to her two goals and winning a penalty, Banda fired seven total shots, putting two on target, but coming tantalizingly close to a hat trick multiple times. She completed 75% of her 16 passes with one key pass and one successful long ball on her lone attempt. She won her only tackle attempt, recorded three recoveries, and won four of her six ground duels and one of two aerial duels. She did not commit a foul and drew one foul, which produced a penalty.

On the big stage, Banda returned to the form we saw in the first half of the season, and it was an outstanding performance.

Final Grade

The Mane Land staff gave Banda a composite rating of 9 out of 10 for the 2024 NWSL season. It’s just the third grade this high we’ve ever given, but it’s the second this season as Banda joined 2024 NWSL Defender of the Year Emily Sams and 2017 NWSL MVP finalist Marta in reaching that lofty final grade. Had it not been for a scoring slump after the Olympics, in which she scored just one goal from 42 shot attempts in 10 games between Aug. 23 and Nov. 2, she likely would have challenged Temwa Chawinga for both the Golden Boot and MVP awards and taken home our first perfect 10. As it is, a 9 gives her room to improve on a season that may not have been flawless, but certainly was as close to it as any fan should reasonably expect.

2025 Outlook

Teams all over the world are going to be making offers for Banda’s services, so there’s no such thing as a sure thing, despite Banda being under contract through 2027. For her part, Banda seems happy to be in Orlando, although winning trophies doesn’t hurt on that front. Given the team’s culture and strong leadership group, I expect Banda to be leading the attack for Orlando in 2025, armed with the experience of a year in the league under her belt. She has a good idea how teams will game plan to try to stop her — which includes comitting numbers in defense to body her and hold her up from getting to direct balls over the top in a way that’s not always strictly legal under the laws of the game. If the playoffs were any barometer, she’ll find a way to fight through the physicality of multiple defenders and find ways to score anyway. If the Pride can continue to get her service and she stays healthy, Banda may again be among the contenders for MVP and the Golden Boot next year.

Previous Season in Review Articles (Date Posted)

• Amanda Allen (11/28/24)
• McKinley Crone (11/29/24)
• Sofia Manner (11/30/24)
• Mariana Larroquette (12/1/24)
• Viviana Villacorta (12/2/24)
• Luana (12/3/24)
• Evelina Duljan (12/4/24)
• Cori Dyke (12/5/24)
• Carson Pickett (12/6/24)
• Brianna Martinez (12/7/24)
• Ally Watt (12/8/24)
• Summer Yates (12/9/24)
• Ally Lemos (12/10/24)
• Haley McCutcheon (12/11/24)
• Julie Doyle (12/12/24)
• Morgan Gautrat (12/13/24)
• Anna Moorhouse (12/14/24)
• Kerry Abello (12/15/24)
• Angelina (12/16/24)
• Emily Sams (12/17/24)
• Rafaelle (12/18/24)
• Marta (12/19/24)
• Adriana (12/20/24)
• Kylie Strom (12/21/24)

This concludes our 2024 Orlando Pride Season in Review player-by-player ratings. We hope you got as much enjoyment from reading them as we did putting them together for you. It was a special season for the Pride and one of the best years any NWSL team has ever had. The club won two of the three available trophies and set numerous league and club records along the way that may stand for some time. Looking back on the 2024 Orlando Pride season is something we will do forever.

The Orlando Pride originally signed Kylie Strom from Atletico Madrid in July 2021. Prior to her time overseas, Strom spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons in the NWSL with the Boston Breakers. Her initial contract in Orlando was through 2022 with an option for 2023 that was exercised prior to that year. Despite being briefly out of contract this past off-season, Strom, now 32 years old, re-signed for the Pride, extending her stay in Orlando through the 2026 season. This ended up as one of the most important moves of the off-season, as Strom went on to partner Emily Sams in the league’s best defense, earning an NWSL Defender of the Year nomination and playing in all but one game of the 2024 season.

Let’s take a look back at Kylie Strom’s 2024 season, her best in Orlando so far.

Statistical Breakdown

Strom made 25 appearances for the Pride in the NWSL regular season, starting 24 times and playing 2,158 minutes, less than 200 minutes from playing the entire regular season. Most of the game time she missed was due to the red card and one-match ban she picked up on opening day at Louisville. Strom only took six shots in the regular season with two on target and no goals scored. She contributed her lone assist against Gotham at home in September. In possession, Strom completed 1,298 of her 1,503 passes (86%), the highest number of completed passes in the squad and the third-highest completion percentage among the regular starters, closely following Sams and Morgan Gautrat. She recorded 10 key passes, no completed crosses, and 46 successful long balls. Defensively, she succeeded in 20 of her 40 tackles (50%), contributed 39 interceptions, and won 73 headed duels. She was fouled 23 times, committed 17 of her own, and earned two yellow cards in addition to the previously-mentioned red card.  

Strom started and played every minute of Orlando’s three NWSL playoff wins (270 minutes). She attempted no shots but did provide an assist for Barbra Banda’s goal against the Kansas City Current. In the playoffs, Strom completed 144 of her 169 pass attempts (85%), with one key pass, no completed crosses, and four successful long balls. In defense, she added four tackles and six interceptions without committing a foul, suffering a foul, or receiving a card. 

Strom also started all three matches in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, playing 239 minutes in total. She did not take a shot and thus could not score a goal in the tournament, nor did she record an assist. The defender completed 136 of her 158 passes (86%) without a key pass or successful cross, but she managed 11 accurate long balls. She added three tackles in four duels (75%) and four interceptions with one headed duel won on the defensive end. She also committed two fouls and was on the receiving end of two herself, but she was not shown a card.

Best Game

Looking at her availability, passing, and defending, Strom was remarkably consistent in 2024, across all competitions. This makes it difficult to pick one game from the bunch, so it would be tempting to pick any shutout against high-profile opponents, such as the NWSL Championship game or the NWSL Shield-clinching game, both wins against the Washington Spirit. Instead, the best game and best representation of Strom’s work was the 1-0 victory over the struggling Utah Royals on the road in April, the first win of the year.

In the victory over Utah, Strom completed 61 of her 68 passes (90%). She also added two tackles and four interceptions en route to holding Utah to just 0.1 expected goals per FBRef.com. With Marta coming off the bench in this match, this was also the first time Strom wore the captain’s armband for Orlando, though she went on to wear it for six additional starts in the NWSL. 

Final Grade

The Mane Land staff gave Strom a composite grade of 7.5 out of 10 for the 2024 season, a significant improvement over her score of 6 out of 10 in 2023. Previously,  Strom received a grade of 4.5 in 2022 and an incomplete during what was a rough stretch run in 2021 after joining the club midseason.

Going into the 2024 season, it was assumed that Rafaelle would be the primary center back partner for Sams, and Strom would play at fullback, her natural position to that point in her career. Instead, Rafaelle struggled with injuries, including at the start of the year, so Strom paired with Sams for four of the first five games, with the Pride having to employ a four-fullback back line in the second game due to player unavailability. Rafaelle then played with Sams in the middle for one match, before Seb Hines pushed Sames out to right back with Rafaelle and Strom paired together for the next five matches. From that point on, it was Sams and Strom in the middle the rest of the year.

The new position suited Strom and accentuated her strengths as a soccer player. She defended well as a unit with Sams and the fullbacks, using her physicality to win many tackles and headed duels while cutting out the mistakes she’d previously made when playing out wide. In possession, she was steady in building play through short- and medium-distance passes without taking too many risks. She was a vocal leader on the pitch and adept at snuffing opposition attacks before they could materialize. That she was able to adapt so quickly to a new role in the latter stages of her career is all the more impressive.

2025 Outlook

Strom has two more years on her contract going into 2025. Orlando will hope to get healthier in defense in the off-season and may sign some reinforcements, as both Megan Montefusco and Carrie Lawrence retired. But Strom has earned the starting center-back spot next to Sams. Given Cori Dyke’s late emergence at right back, there is less of a need to move Sams out wide. At the same time, Kerry Abello’s Best XI Second Team performance throughout 2024 would make it difficult to move Strom back to fullback on the left. It will be interesting to see how a position group that has become a strength of the team.

Regardless of how it unfolds, the goal for Strom moving forward should be to continue to play at the level she did during Orlando’s championship season, and given her consistency all year, this is a reasonable expectation for the player.

Previous Season in Review Articles (Date Posted)

• Amanda Allen (11/28/24)
• McKinley Crone (11/29/24)
• Sofia Manner (11/30/24)
• Mariana Larroquette (12/1/24)
• Viviana Villacorta (12/2/24)
• Luana (12/3/24)
• Evelina Duljan (12/4/24)
• Cori Dyke (12/5/24)
• Carson Pickett (12/6/24)
• Brianna Martinez (12/7/24)
• Ally Watt (12/8/24)
• Summer Yates (12/9/24)
• Ally Lemos (12/10/24)
• Haley McCutcheon (12/11/24)
• Julie Doyle (12/12/24)
• Morgan Gautrat (12/13/24)
• Anna Moorhouse (12/14/24)
• Kerry Abello (12/15/24)
• Angelina (12/16/24)
• Emily Sams (12/17/24)
• Rafaelle (12/18/24)
• Marta (12/19/24)
• Adriana (12/20/24)