SkoPurp Soccer Episode 131: Chicago Rewind, Courage Preview, and More

This week, we learned that it is possible to pepper a goal without making the goalkeeper have to do anything, as the Orlando Pride sent dozens of shots at Chicago Stars FC netminder Katie Atkinson, who barely had to move to stop any of the ones on target. Sure, there was a step and a half to her right to stop Marta’s penalty, but other than that, her toughest save came off the face of her own teammate, which she swatted off the crossbar with a desperate, flailing lunge.

Aside from that, the Pride were content to fire shot after shot right at Atkinson’s torso.

Eventually, Julie Doyle managed to hit the target without hitting Atkinson, saving the Pride from wasting a dominant performance in almost nearly every other aspect of the match. We look back at a frustrating win (victories are not supposed to be frustrating!), review our score predictions, and make our selections for Player of the Match.

We also touched on Seven Castain’s new contract and subsequent loan to Dallas Trinity. Hopefully, Castain will get minutes and develop her skills to be able to contribute at an NWSL level while Orlando has her under contract.

This week’s mailbagbox pitted the Pride against Barbra Banda, asked how the Pride won the double two years ago, 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 road battle against the North Carolina Courage. The Pride may need to find the net twice to beat North Carolina in its own stadium, and that has proven to be difficult even when Banda isn’t playing in international tournaments with Zambia. Where the goals will come from is anyone’s guess, but we reviewed the series history, provided our key matchups for the game, and tried our luck at predicting the final score.

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Here’s how Episode 131 went down:

0:15 – The Pride snapped their two-game losing streak, but it wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t nearly as easy as the number of shots suggest it should have been.

21:44 – The mailbagbox rarely complains after a win, but…

42:24 – Orlando heads north to play the Courage. We preview!