SkoPurp Soccer Episode 82: Seattle Rewind, Spirit Preview, and More

The Orlando Pride returned from the break and picked up basically where they left off, playing well enough to beat the Seattle Reign on the road, while not exactly impressing with the performance that earned those three points. All wins in the NWSL are good, and none seem to come easily, but the Pride made things unnecessarily difficult on themselves in the second half with giveaways and inconsistent defending. Anna Moorhouse had to come up huge late in the game to preserve a 1-0 lead that Barbra Banda had supplied just before halftime.

We look back at another low-scoring Pride win, check our score predictions from last week’s show, and make our selections for Player of the Match.

This week’s mailbagbox wants to know how the Pride turned around their history of past failures, how smart USWNT Head Coach Emma Hayes is, narratives about the Pride-Spirit series, 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.

Following our mailbagbox segment, we look ahead to Saturday’s matchup between the Pride and the Spirit. Orlando may have won trophies with consecutive victories over the Spirit, but Washington got the last laugh by winning the postgame penalty shootout to claim the 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup at Inter&Co Stadium. The Pride will have to be sharper than they’ve been at both ends in recent games to hold off one of the league’s top contenders. We provide our key matchups and our score predictions.

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Here’s how Episode 82 went down:

0:15 – The Pride pick up just their second road win against Seattle in club history. It was anything but easy.

13:24 – Our listeners have many questions and we are always going to have some kind of answers.

33:00 – The Pride return home for a pivotal match against the Washington Spirit.