SkoPurp Soccer Episode 117: Chicago and Gotham Rewinds, Angel City Preview, and More

It was a long, difficult road trip, but the Orlando Pride return to the City Beautiful with four out of a possible six points after a dominant win over the Chicago Stars and a scoreless draw against defending champion Gotham FC. The Pride have played well this season but started slowly in front of goal. But now the team has put together three consecutive results, and with a little better final product, this is a team that can cook.

We look back at the excellent performance at Chicago, as Jacquie Ovalle twinkled among the Stars, Barbra Banda kept burning bright, and Hannah Anderson went supernova on her old team. (Have I exhausted the star puns yet? I admit to nothing.) We look back at our score predictions and select our Player of the Match.

We didn’t have any goals to break down from the Gotham match, but we discussed the difficulty of staying on the road for a second game, the physicality of how Gotham FC defends Banda, and the joy of keeping a second straight clean sheet. Plus, a look back at our predictions (correct result, incorrect score) and our Player of the Match vote is split.

Our mailbagbox had questions about unused substitutions, Julie Doyle’s hair, 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.

Finally, we looked ahead to Friday’s visit from Angel City, including former Pride favorite Emily Sams, who turned heel this off-season and shuffled off to Southern California. She might get a warm reception from the crowd, but hopefully the Pride attacking players will be less forgiving. We look at the series history, the teams’ relative places in the table, and some of the visitors’ key players. We also provide our key matchups and try to predict the final score.

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Here’s how Episode 117 went down:

0:15 – Two game recaps, as the Pride had a busy week on tour.

14:31 – Mailbagbox says its time for Doyle to re-adopt the buns.

26:45 – The tale of the tape as Angel City searches for its first loss of the NWSL season. Will it happen in Orlando? Series history suggests not.