Orlando Pride

2025 Orlando Pride Season In Review: Kylie Nadaner

The veteran defender was a solid contributor when available, and her absence was noticeable during the final months of the season.

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5 months ago

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Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

The Orlando Pride signed Kylie Nadaner (née Strom) from Atletico Madrid in July 2021, bringing her back to the NWSL for a second time, after she had originally played two seasons with the Boston Breakers. Her initial contract in Orlando was through 2022, with an option for 2023 that was exercised prior to that year. After the end of the 2023 season she re-signed with the Pride, inking a three-year deal that goes through the end of next season. Nadaner has been the vice-captain (behind Marta) since signing her current contract, and is clearly one of the club’s most respected senior leaders on and off the field.

Let’s take a look back at the defender’s fifth season with the Pride.

Statistical Breakdown

Nadaner was in the Pride’s season-opening starting lineup during the NWSL Challenge Cup, partnering with Rafaelle in the middle of the Pride’s back four. She went the full 90 minutes, completing 89% of her passes and nearly winning the game with a late header that she put into the back of the net, but she had been offside before the ball was played, so the goal was called back.

In NWSL regular-season play, Nadaner appeared in 17 of Orlando’s 26 matches, starting all 17 and playing a total of 1,512 minutes. She did not score any goals but she did get two shots off, putting two headers on target but right at the goalkeeper. The veteran defender finished the season with the highest overall passing accuracy on the team, completing 92% of her passes. Among players who attempted more than 10, she completed a team-high 69% of her long passes, ranked only behind Anna Moorhouse in medium pass accuracy with a 95% completion rate, and completed 91% of her short passes, which ranked fifth on the Pride. She had five key passes, but none turned into goals, so she she did not record an assist on the season. On the defensive side, she contributed 18 tackles and 28 interceptions, and also achieved career highs in blocked shots (13) and clearances (75). She committed 16 fouls, suffered 19, and was not booked.

Nadaner was on the gameday roster for the Pride’s opening Concacaf W Champions Cup game against Alajuelense on Sept. 2, but did not play. That was the last game that she appeared on the roster for during the 2025 season, as she then missed the rest of the season due to excused absences. Therefore, she also did not appear in either of the Pride’s two playoff matches.

Best Game

Center backs often do not have the flashiest games, and Nadaner’s 2025 season was no exception. She had many solid games though, in particular the Pride’s first of what turned out to be three games against Seattle, a 1-0 win on the road back on April 12. The Pride dominated the first half but were under siege in the second, and they were able to keep the clean sheet despite being nearly doubled up on shot attempts (13-7). Rafaelle was unavailable for the match, so Nadaner played left center back with Emily Sams as her center back partner on the right side, and the shot chart below (Seattle’s shots are towards the goal on the left side of the field) helps tell the story, as Seattle only took four of its 13 shots on Nadaner’s side of the field.

Nadaner thwarted many of Seattle’s attacks, winning two tackles, intercepting four passes, clearing four balls, and recovering nine loose balls, and when she had the ball at her feet, she was aggressive in trying to get the counterattack started, completing 12 long balls and 56 medium passes, with an 87% success rate on those long and medium pass attempts. She was second on the team in completed passes into Seattle’s defensive third, but alas, the Pride did not have their finishing boots on for most of the game and could not convert any of those Nadaner-initiated attacks into goals. They put one into the net in the first half though, and the Pride’s defensive effort, anchored by Nadaner in the middle, made that one goal stand up as the winning goal.

2025 Final Grade

The Mane Land staff gave Nadaner a composite grade of 6.5 out of 10 for the 2025 season, a drop from the 7.5 out of 10 she earned in 2024. It was, however, better than her 6 in 2023, 4.5 in 2022, and incomplete in 2021. Like many of the Pride’s players, she regressed some from her championship-winning form in 2024, but she was still a solid center back, and was a starter during eight of the Pride’s 11 wins and five of their seven draws, with the Pride averaging 1.71 points per game when she started, as opposed to 1.22 in the games when she did not play.

2026 Outlook

Nadaner’s contract runs through 2026, so barring an off-season transaction she will be back with the Pride next season. The big question is around her role though, because all five of the players who played on the back line for the Pride in the playoffs (Kerry Abello, Rafaelle, Sams, Cori Dyke, and Oihane) will also be back next season, and aside from the initial disastrous game against Chicago, that group gave up only eight goals in the other nine NWSL games they played together after Nadaner’s season ended in August.

Rafaelle and Sams showed a strong partnership in the middle of the defense during those games, and while Rafaelle and Nadaner also played well together when both of them were healthy, Nadaner will be returning after being out for the final three months of the season due to “excused absences.” As of this writing, we do not know her status for the 2026 preseason. Although there has been no formal announcement from the club, social media posts indicate that her excused absences are likely due to pregnancy, much like others around the league that have been handled by clubs in similar ways.

If Nadaner is still out at the beginning of next season, the Pride will likely continue with the center back pairing of Rafaelle and Sams, with Zara Chavoshi and Dyke as their backups. Nadaner would have to work her way back to fitness whenever she does return to play, and then would either join Chavoshi as a depth player at center back or perhaps regain her starting position and push Sams back out to right back. If Nadaner is back right away, then she will compete to regain her starting position next to Rafaelle, and the Pride will have multiple capable center backs that they can rotate to keep everyone fresh. Alternatively, she has also played left back in the past, and that’s a position where Orlando struggled at times in 2025.

Nadaner and Rafaelle were the second- and third-oldest players on the Pride this season (behind Marta), and with every passing season, it will be even more important that the club keeps them healthy and fit for playoff runs at the end of the season. Nadaner will still be an NWSL-caliber center back next season. The big question is when she will return to play.

Previous Season in Review Articles (Date Posted)

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