Orlando Pride at Bay FC: Three Keys to Victory

The Orlando Pride head to California to take on Bay FC Friday night. The Pride are coming off a win, thanks to a last-second winner from Cori Dyke at home. Unfortunately, I won’t be in San Jose to lend whatever small bit of mojo I have to the outcome, so it’s going to be all on the players (as if it isn’t always that way, of course). With that being the case, what do the Pride need to do to take all three points from Bay FC at PayPal Park?

A Quicker Start

In the last match against the Houston Dash, Seb Hines rested the players returning from international duty to start the match. As such, the stout Dash defense was able to keep the Pride off the scoreboard in the first half. Even after the normal starters returned in the second half, it took until the very last kick of the match to secure the win. Let’s not repeat that this time.

Whenever a club plays in a different time zone, it can mess with the sense of normalcy you want on a match day. That is especially true when going all the way across the country. The beginning of the match will feel like the same time the match would normally be ending at Inter&Co. As such, I want to see the normal starters jump on Bay FC very early. Get the early lead — perhaps multiple goals — and see out the match with whichever players Hines may want.

Open it Up

Except for Barbra Banda’s hat trick against the Utah Royals, the Pride attack has been lacking some bite for over a month. The club has generated plenty of chances, but the finishing has been less than stellar. Orlando needs to turn the scoring faucet back on and pour on some goals.

The final bit of quality needs to be better from everyone in the attack. In the last five matches, the Pride have scored four goals on 70 shots, with 30 on target (43%). That means the Pride have scored on 6% of shots taken and only 13% of their shots on target. For a team with Marta and Banda, that isn’t good enough.

This may be my recency bias, but one area the team can change to improve its chances is to not take short corners. As I said on SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast, I lost count of the missed opportunities due to short corners against the Dash. Just put the ball into the box and sometimes weird things happen. It is much more likely that the ball goes in the net than is sent on a counter by the opposition. There are chances for a handball resulting in a penalty, a foul resulting in a penalty, or an own goal being scored. Just get the ball in the darn box!

Lock It Down

I know that the Pride secured yet another clean sheet against the Dash, but it was partially down to luck. Anna Moorhouse was fortunate that the ball that went through her hands went out of bounds and that the Dash were offside when she got caught in no-woman’s land on a ball over the top. That can’t happen. The difference between a team that wins championships and one that doesn’t comes down to limiting mistakes and a bit of luck. Only one of those two can be controlled.

I want to see the lock-down defense we saw in 2024. I think Emily Sams is maintaining her level of play and Oihane has been an improvement — albeit a small one — at right back. Kylie Nadaner has struggled a bit this year after a phenomenal 2024 season. I think she can step it back up, but she needs to do so sooner rather than later. Left back has had a rotating cast, with Kerry Abello, Carson Pickett, and even Dyke seeing time at the position.

Bay FC has spread the goals out over several players, with Penelope Hocking leading the way with three. That being said, the California side has plenty of players who can score, including Zambian National Team forward Racheal Kundananji. We know all too well how dangerous Zambian strikers can be. Moorhouse and the back line must tighten things up. No mistakes on the road.

That’s what I’ll be looking for late Friday night. Where do you think the game will be won or lost? Let us know in the comments section.