Orlando Pride Midseason Review: Metrics and Milestones

The NWSL season is just over halfway complete, and the Orlando Pride show no signs of slowing down. With nine wins, five draws, and no losses, they continue to rewrite club and league record books. While there is everything left to play for, this piece will serve as a retrospective on the Pride’s performances and results in the NWSL so far. It will look at notable statistics for the players and the club, as well as highlighting the records and milestones already surpassed by the midpoint of the 2024 season.

Fixture Results and the NWSL Table

Despite the incredible first half of the season for Orlando, the Pride are not the only undefeated team in the league. A look at the league table below shows Orlando and the Kansas City Current tied at the top with identical records, though the Current claim first place due to the goal-differential tiebreaker.

It seemed that the Pride had closed the gap in goal differential with their recent 6-0 win over Utah Royals FC, but the Current then followed Orlando’s lead with a 4-1 road win over the Portland Thorns. Hot on the heels of the teams tied at the top are the Washington Spirit and the NJ/NY Gotham FC side they defeated on Sunday.

NWSL Table and Pride Fixture Results

The 26-match NWSL regular season is formatted so that each team plays each other twice — once at home and once on the road. The table above illustrates that the Pride have played more matches at home and more matches against the middle of the table than the top. However, while the Pride have yet to play either Kansas City or Gotham, wins against Washington and Portland do show that the Pride are beating some of the league’s better teams during their undefeated run.

Even after the 6-0 thrashing of Utah on Friday, the 3-2 win against the Spirit may stand as the most impressive result so far. Fans will remember that game as Barbra Banda’s full debut. With a goal, assist, and penalty drawn on the night, she started her career at the blistering pace that has continued since.

Pride Players on the Leaderboards

Orlando’s place at the top of the table has all the hallmarks of sustained success, with an emphasis on defense and the ability to overcome absences around the pitch. To go along with their league position, Pride players are also among league leaders for defensive performances and goal contributions.

Defensively, the Pride’s 11 conceded goals are tied with Gotham for the fewest goals allowed in the league, and their six clean sheets are tied with the Houston Dash for most in the league. The defense has been critical to preventing opposition chances, and Anna Moorhouse has been a solid shot stopper. Her 41 saves, at an impressive 80% save rate, are enough for fourth in the league. Houston’s Jane Campbell leads all goalkeepers with 67 saves.

Another key to the defensive rigidity has been the availability and adaptability of several defensive standouts. The table below shows Orlando’s leaders in minutes played, headlined by Moorhouse, the only player who has played every minute.

Minutes Leaders for the Pride

Below Moorhouse, the rest of the top five players in minutes played have all started at multiple positions and thrived. The value of being able to deploy Kylie Strom and Emily Sams at center back or fullback, Kerry Abello at fullback or anywhere else, and Haley McCutcheon at fullback or midfield can’t be overstated.

At the other end of the pitch, Banda is putting together a historic run. With 10 goals scored in just 10 matches, she’s tied with Sophia Smith for the most in the NWSL. Banda is particularly lethal with her headers — her five headed goals have already broken the Pride’s record for all-time headed goals in just half of a season.

Banda’s five assists also place her on the league leaderboard behind Spirit rookie Croix Bethune, who has nine, and Smith and Temwa Chawinga, who both have six. Despite dominating the headlines, Banda isn’t the only cog making the Orlando Pride machine run. Orlando’s attacking midfield pair of Marta and Summer Yates have contributed four goals each. Julie Doyle and Ally Watt have each added two goals as well. Behind Banda, Abello has contributed two assists, and no other player has had more than one, as the attacking buildup play has been spread throughout the squad.

One of the underappreciated aspects of Orlando’s season has been the development of talent acquired through the NWSL draft. While not every drafted player stars immediately, Head Coach Seb Hines has a proven track record of developing players to contribute. To show this development, the table below includes nine players drafted over the previous three seasons who have debuted for Orlando. The minutes these draftees have played in the NWSL is then tallied as a percentage of the full season to track each players’ involvement from year to year.

Pride Draftee Development by Season

Starting with the 2022 rookie class, Doyle shows the trajectory any coach would hope for. She has been rewarded for her year-over-year improvement with more involvement each season. Cluff was on a similar trajectory before her trade to Utah. While she no longer plays for the Pride, her development in Orlando increased her value and the returns for the Pride when she was traded.

The 2023 rookie class was signed to contribute immediately, as shown by the large minute shares garnered by Emily Sams and Messiah Bright in their first seasons. While Bright requested a trade before year two, Sams is just as important for the club in her second season. She has played almost every minute since being drafted, showing her fitness and importance to the team.

Yates and Brianna Martinez, on the other hand, show a different path to impacting the club. While their involvement in 2023 was minimal, they worked hard on their fitness and skills in the off-season and have played bigger roles in 2024, earning the trust of Hines. (Note: Martinez was drafted by Louisville, but signed by Orlando in early 2023 after not catching on with that club.)

This growth is something the new rookies should be keen to learn from. Both Ally Lemos and Cori Dyke are featuring periodically from the bench. The plan is that exposure now hastens their development into key players one to two years down the road.

All in all, Hines and his staff have a track record of improving players and maximizing the roster. It will be up to the rookies and younger players to make the most of the opportunities in front of them.

Milestones and Records Broken in 2024

• Marta continues to surpass her own milestones. Every match she plays grows the club record for all-time appearances, standing now at 132. Her goals against Utah also extended the club record for career goals to 35.
• Banda has set the club record for braces in a season with four. Is it only a matter of time until she achieves the first Pride hat trick?
• Friday against Utah, Orlando set team records for goals scored and winning margin with six each. This surpassed the previous records set in a 5-0 win over the Chicago Red Stars in 2023.
• Earlier in 2024, Orlando set the NWSL record for consecutive wins with eight by defeating Portland at home. The streak ended with the Pride’s draw at San Diego Wave.
• The Pride continue to extend their team-best undefeated streak, which sits at 15 games and dates back to the final day of 2023.
• Orlando’s 0-0 draw against the North Carolina Courage on June 15 marked the end of a 16-match scoring streak, which was a new club record.
• Orlando has 32 points in NWSL play and is rapidly closing in on the club’s best single-season points total of 40, set in 2017. Just three wins from the final 12 games would be enough to exceed the current record.

As the numbers and milestones show, Orlando is having a historic season in the NWSL. In post-match interviews however, the players and staff repeatedly make it clear that the club’s biggest goals are still ahead of it.