Orlando Pride Loan Goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse to Manchester City through January 2027

The Orlando Pride announced today that the club has loaned goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse to Manchester City of England’s Women’s Super League through January 2027. This move comes in the wake of a series of poor performances and glaring mistakes in 2026 that led to her benching two games ago in favor of Cosette Morché.

Moorhouse follows goalkeeping coach Paul Crichton out the door after the latter was let go on Monday when the Pride parted ways with former head coach Seb Hines, although with a year left on her contract, she could return following the loan to Man City. The press release did not mention anything about a purchase option.

“Anna has been an invaluable part of our club, and when the opportunity arose for her to return home to England and compete in the Women’s Super League, we worked closely with her to make it happen,” Orlando Pride Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Caitlin Carducci said in a club press release. “We are fortunate to have tremendous quality and depth within our goalkeeping group, and this loan provides Anna with an opportunity to continue playing meaningful minutes at a high level while being closer to home and family.”

The 31-year-old native of Oldham, England, originally signed a two-year deal with the Pride through the 2023 season on Jan. 31, 2022, after spending two years with French D1 Feminine club Bordeaux. She signed an extension on Oct. 5, 2023, keeping her in Orlando through the 2025 campaign. In June of last year, Moorhouse signed a new deal to remain with the Pride through the 2027 season.

Moorhouse made her competitive Pride debut on March 30 at home against NJ/NY Gotham FC — a 1-0 loss for Orlando in the 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup. She made her NWSL regular-season debut with the Pride on Sept. 9 in a 2-0 home loss to the Portland Thorns and got another start in the Pride’s next game Sept. 16 at Louisville — another 2-0 loss. The Pride were 0-2-0 with Moorhouse in net in the 2022 regular season but scored no goals for the English goalkeeper. Moorhouse made just the two appearances in the regular season (both starts) and made nine saves, backing up Erin Mcleod. She allowed four goals for a 2.00 goals-against average in 180 minutes played, facing 28 shots (13 on target). She finished the year with a 69.2% save success rate and a 84.2% passing rate.

In 2023, Moorhouse became Orlando’s starter after McLeod left the team, starting 19 of the Pride’s 22 regular-season games and playing 1,623 minutes while posting a 9-9-1 record as a starter. She stopped 72 of 94 shots faced (76.6%), conceding 22 goals and keeping seven clean sheets.

Showing improvement in her second season as the Pride’s No. 1, Moorhouse started all 26 of Orlando’s games in 2024, playing 2,340 minutes, facing 107 shots, making 87 saves (81%), and conceding 20 goals. She set an NWSL record with 13 shutouts, taking over the club career record along the way. The Pride went 18-2-6 that season and claimed the NWSL Shield. Moorhouse also started all three of the team’s playoff matches, going 3-0-0 in 270 minutes while facing 12 shots on target and stopping nine of them (75%). Of the three postseason goals she conceded, one was a penalty. She kept a clean sheet in Orlando’s 1-0 NWSL Championship victory over the Washington Spirit, helping her team win its second trophy.

As with many of her teammates, Moorhouse did not play as well during the 2025 season, but she was still solid between the sticks. She appeared in 25 games (all starts) and amassed a record of 11-8-7 in her NWSL starts last season, playing a team-high 2,211 minutes, allowing 26 goals, and making 72 saves for a 74% save percentage to go along with a 1.06 goals-against average. She went 1-1-0 in the Pride’s two playoff games, allowing one goal on nine shots on target (89% save percentage).

She started 20 NWSL matches in 2026, recording 58 saves and earning six shutouts.

What It Means for Orlando

Moorhouse’s shot stopping has been mostly great during her time with the Pride. However, the knock on the English international is the momentary lapses she has. Those might concede a preventable goal, get her sent off, or present the opposition with a penalty kick. All goalkeepers are prone to the occasional howler, but throughout her Pride career, Moorhouse seemed to have more than most. Some of the most egregious include her own goal at Louisville late in the 2024 season that ultimately helped knock Orlando out of the postseason, a third-minute red card at OL Reign in 2023 — the fastest red card from the start of a game in NWSL history — and a series of bloopers over her head and into the net in 2026 when she’s been caught off her line.

The problems with Orlando’s defense in 2026 don’t start or end with Moorhouse. Playing behind a leaky back line can affect a goalkeeper. The simple fact is that her play was exacerbating a problematic area for the club. The Pride struggle to defend as a unit — in part because of a lack of pace at various positions — and aren’t good defending set pieces. That puts a lot of pressure on the goalkeeper to make up for those lapses. Moorhouse did not seem to respond well to the additional pressure this season, making numerous mistakes that cost goals and, at times, results.

Moorhouse’s play had not been at a high enough level for a long time before Hines eventually replaced her with Morché when the Pride took on the Spirit in Washington on Aug. 23. Morché kept a clean sheet and Orlando won 1-0 to snap a three-game losing streak. Orlando started Morché again on Saturday against the Utah Royals, and although it was a 2-1 Pride loss, goalkeeping was not the team’s biggest problem that night. With Morché showing herself capable of facing NWSL competition, Moorhouse became expendable, and with her wanting to compete for more minutes with England’s national team, getting regular minutes elsewhere likely became a priority pretty quickly.

Whether Moorhouse returns to Orlando after the loan or the club finds somewhere to transfer in the off-season remains to be seen. Perhaps she can regain her form while with Manchester City, which would benefit Orlando either with her returning as a more confident goalkeeper or with the club getting something for her in the transfer market.

Behind Morché, the Pride still have Cara Martin, who recently got her contract extended through at least 2028, and McKinley Crone, who is under contract until the end of the 2026 season and recently returned from a loan spell with Fort Lauderdale FC. Additionally, Kat Asman is under contract with the Pride through the rest of 2026 as well. Asman is currently on loan with Denver Summit FC for the remainder of the year after a successful 2025 loan spell with Lexington SC, with which she won the USL Super League double with the Players’ Shield and the league championship. She also won the league’s Golden Glove Award.

Orlando will finish the 2026 season with both Morché and Martin under contract for next season (or beyond, in Martin’s case), and could opt to re-sign one or both of Crone and/or Asman. The Pride may also try to find a new No. 1 as a number of expiring contracts will allow the team some flexibility in the market.