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SkoPurp Soccer Episode 70: Kansas City Rewind, Washington Preview, and More

The Pride will play for a title after dispatching Kansas City in a battle royale of an NWSL semifinal.

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Mark Thor

[Note: My apologies for the audio, as Dave sounded great and I did not. Unbeknownst to me, everything was running through my external laptop microphone, so I come off a bit echoey.]

The Orlando Pride held steadfast at home, coming back from a 1-0 deficit to defeat the Kansas City Current 3-2 at Inter&Co Stadium Sunday. The victory pushed the Pride’s magical season into the ultimate game — Saturday night’s NWSL Championship, which is coincidentally taking place in Kansas City. Haley McCutcheon, Barbra Banda, and Marta did the damage on the scoreboard, and the defense held on for dear life during a furious Current rally attempt that was aided by eons of stoppage time and lots of balls in the box.

We break down the NWSL semifinal match, look back at our score predictions, and make our selections for Player of the Match.

After our match rewind, we opened up our mailbagbox, and it was a good one. Our mailbagbox this week asked questions about Haley McCutcheon, road tripping to the NWSL final, Sunday’s match referee, the best goal in our stadium’s history, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. 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.

After the mailbagbox, we reviewed some of the recent Orlando Pride news (note: this did not include Seb Hines’ award because we recorded Monday night), including the team’s nominees for year-end NWSL awards, Pride players named to the league’s Best XI first and second teams, and another call-up to the USWNT for Emily Sams.

Finally, we previewed the Pride’s matchup with the Spirit on Saturday for all the Kansas City barbecue. We walked through the history of the series, looked at the seasons the two teams have had, selected our key matchups for the match, and tried our best to predict the final score.


Here’s how Episode 70 went down:

0:45 – Orlando booked a spot in the NWSL final by ousting the Kansas City Current in a game that wasn’t easy in the least. In fact, it may still be in stoppage time.

22:44 The mailbagbox has questions about the NWSL semifinal, a road trip to the final, and more.

39:29 – Pride news and notes and our preview and predictions for Orlando’s NWSL Championship match against the Washington Spirit.

Podcasts

SkoPurp Soccer Episode 120: Louisville Rewind, Spirit Preview, and More

The Pride couldn’t get out of their own way early in both halves and it was costly in a road loss in Kentucky. The Spirit are up next.

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Image of Barbra Banda celebrating a goal against Louisville.
Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

The Orlando Pride must really hate Kentucky. The club has never won there and a lot of weird things seem to happen. For example, on Friday, the Pride went to Louisville, dominated at least 80% of the game, fired 27 shots toward Racing’s goal, and still left town with a 3-2 loss. It was a wasteful performance spent mostly shooting either right at the goalkeeper or off the target entirely, but at least Barbra Banda scored a brace to give fans a couple of moments of magic.

We break down Orlando putting the ‘L’ in Louisville, due largely to a terrible start to the second half, look back at our score predictions to see if we came close, and made our unanimous selections for Player of the Match.

Our mailbagbox asked about the Pride’s attackers, Orlando’s best and worst matchups around the league, and more. 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.

After the mailbagbox, we look ahead to the Washington Spirit’s visit to Inter&Co Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Trinity Rodman is the big name, but the Spirit have a lot of quality in the squad, and the Pride will have to be much better prepared and locked in for 90 minutes than they were against Racing Louisville. We look back at the series history, provide our key matchups, and make our predictions for the final score.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.


Here’s how Episode 120 went down:

0:15 – We open the show with our breakdown of the Pride’s latest loss in Louisville.

10:55 – The mailbagbox beckons from all corners of the internet.

24:52 – The Pride are set to host the Washington Spirit, so bouncing back is of utmost importance.

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Podcasts

PawedCast Episode 530: D.C. Rewind, Revs and Miami Previews, OCB-Chicago, and More

The Lions lose on the road again and now have two more away games looming.

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Image of Adrian Marin playing the ball against D.C. United.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

The good times from the win over Charlotte didn’t last long, as just three days later the Lions started and finished poorly on the road at D.C. United. The part that was good was nice, but everything else, especially the late collapse, was subpar. We look back at Orlando City’s latest road loss in a season full of them already. In fact, the Lions have already lost the same number of road matches in 2026 as they did all of last year, when they went 6-4-7 away from home.

We review our score predictions from last week, discuss the goals that counted and the one that didn’t, and make our selections for Man of the Match.

Our mailbagbox wanted to know how much ground Orlando City could reasonably make up on the playoff places after Antoine Griezmann’s arrival. 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.

After the mailbagbox, we looked back at OCB’s wild match at Chicago Fire FC II Sunday afternoon. This time it was the Young Lions who fell behind two goals before rallying to tie the game, but OCB continued its trend of shootout wins to grab the extra point. There are still no wins under Edward Wilding, but at least the matches are just as crazy as ever.

Finally, we looked ahead to both of Orlando City’s road games this week. The Lions will visit a good New England team Wednesday night in U.S. Open Cup play before heading south to play an even better Inter Miami squad on Saturday. The team’s fortunes so far wouldn’t suggest a positive result in either place for the Lions, but you never know.

We give our key matchups and score predictions for the league game, because you never know how much rotation a team will use in the USOC.

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.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.


Here’s how No. 530 went down:

0:15 – The Lions lost again and we’re stuck talking about how this one happened.

21:45 – Our mailbagbox is small but mighty and we discuss OCB, the club’s only team to snag any points over the weekend.

33:19 – Two massive road games await this week, and we’re not super confident the Lions will get a win in either, but we’ll keep watching because that’s what you do.

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Podcasts

PawedCast Episode 529: Charlotte Rewind, D.C. Preview, and More

The Lions take out weeks of frustration on Charlotte FC and will try to make it two in a row at D.C. United.

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Image of Justin Ellis playing the ball against Charlotte.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City played shockingly like the Lions of the last six years on Wednesday night in a 4-1 home win over Charlotte FC. We didn’t anticipate having such a long show this week, but we’re not used to talking about multi-goal wins, and it turns out it’s a lot more enjoyable to do that than to discuss five- and six-goal losses. Injuries, illnesses, and Charlotte FC combined couldn’t slow down the Lions for at least one night.

We break down Orlando’s best (by far) match of the season; discuss the key moments, players, and the postgame press conference; check back on our score predictions; and make our selections for Man of the Match.

In our mailbagbox segment, our listeners wanted to know about Ignacio Gomez’s availability after playing twice on a short-term deal, stadium names (again), OCB players to watch out for with the first team, 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.

After the mailbagbox, we looked ahead to OCB’s match at Chicago Fire FC II on Sunday afternoon. The teams are evenly matched in the standings, but can the Young Lions finally give their new head coach his first win?

Finally, we looked forward to Saturday’s road game against D.C. United. The Lions have yet to win on the road or put together back-to-back victories this season, and with healthy bodies scarce, it’s hard to imagine the team not wearing down on short rest with travel involved unless some guys return from injury. However, that could happen! Maybe!

We look at the series history between the Lions and the Black & Red, check out their relative status in the table, discuss the danger of Tai Baribo, provide our key matchups, and make our final score predictions. We will hopefully be just as wrong on Saturday as we were on Wednesday.

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.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.


Here’s how No. 529 went down:

0:15 – The Lions not only won, but won big! That’s new (at least in 2026). We discuss.

31:03 – Our mailbagbox is even sweeter after a win. We’d forgotten about that.

48:10 – OCB visits Chicago II and Orlando City heads to the nation’s capital.

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