SkoPurp Soccer Episode 122: Courage Rewind, Boston and Denver Previews, and More

The Orlando Pride snapped their two-game losing streak but it was anything but easy. The Pride struggled to convert chances until Barbra Banda struck in the 87th minute, while the team had a lot of defending to do against the Courage. The Pride did fine with that, however, keeping a clean sheet and fending off North Carolina long enough to capture all three points on a rainy night in Central Florida.

Even though Dave is on vacation, he checked in from the road so we could check our score predictions and see how well we anticipated the result; discuss the key moments, plays, and players; and make our selections for the player of the match.

This week’s mailbagbox asked about Temwa Chawinga, whether Banda scoring all the goals is a recipe for success, required reading that we enjoyed, 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 team’s two matches on the road this week, with both of them new venues in the NWSL. First up, the Pride visits Boston Legacy FC tonight for the first time. We know so little about the expansion side, but Boston is in good form of late, so the Pride will need to play well to get a result. Without a series history to discuss, we get into the teams’ relative positions this season and offer up our key matchups and score predictions.

The Pride will head west to visit Denver Summit FC on Saturday, playing the league’s other expansion team for the second time ever and the first away from home. The teams played to a draw earlier this season in Orlando, but the Pride created enough chances to win easily. They’ll hope to get a better result at altitude on short rest. We visit the (brief) series history, discuss the matchup, and make our predictions.

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Here’s how Episode 122 went down:

0:15 – Orlando got back in the win column even though it was far from convincing. The Pride will look to build on the victory over North Carolina with two matches this week against the NWSL’s newest teams.

14:10 – The mailbagbox is still a bit restless this week despite the victory.

25:53 – The Pride hit the road for two games that appear winnable on paper, but there is virtually no way those teams will play Orlando on paper.