As we count down to the new year of 2025 — which will be Orlando City’s 11th in MLS, the Orlando Pride’s 10th in the NWSL, and OCB’s third in MLS NEXT Pro — and say goodbye to 2024, it’s time to look back at the club’s 10 best moments of the year as selected by The Mane Land staff via vote.

It seems odd to lump a whole heap of record-setting accomplishments into one “moment” of 2024, but the Orlando Pride set and/or tied so many new club and league marks that it’s impossible to separate them all out and give them each their own due. For the purposes of this “moment,” we were originally considering it to be the Pride setting new NWSL records in three vital categories — consecutive wins, consecutive games unbeaten, and consecutive shutout minutes. However, where’s the fun in limiting yourself? We ended up just throwing all the records we can think of at you, not only because it’s more fun that way, but also because it truly illustrates how remarkable this season was in terms of club and NWSL history.

The Pride struggled out of the gate to three consecutive draws to open the season and then really got going. By midseason, it seemed like Orlando was setting a new club or NWSL record every game — sometimes both in the same match. After a lot of thought about it, we decided not to break out individual records, putting them together as one shining example of what the Pride was able to accompish this season. Given that none of the records alone were bigger than the team achievements of winning the NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship double, the combined records should simply stand up and be their own collective thing.

The first record the Pride set was a dubious one for two reasons. First, it was merely an extension of the team’s own mark. Second, it wasn’t good. The Pride began the season with a 2-2 draw at Racing Louisville on March 16, which extended Orlando’s streak of never having won on opening day. The club is 0-5-3 in regular-season openers since its inception. Because there was no regular season in 2020, that’s one fewer game than seasons of existence, but if you include the 2020 NWSL Fall Series — the only competition Orlando competed in that year — the Pride are 0-5-4 in their competitive openers across nine seasons. That’s not a good record. However, almost all the rest of the ones they set are either neutral or positive.

Orlando set a new club record and tied another one on March 29 in a 1-1 home draw against the Chicago Red Stars. When a corner kick from Angelina went in off Chicago’s Taylor Malham for an own goal in the 21st minute, it extended the Pride’s consecutive games streak of scoring on a set piece to three games, establishing a new club record. The draw itself was Orlando’s third in a row, tying a club record set from July 17 through Aug. 7, 2022. The Pride equaled that draw streak later in 2024 by tying each of their three NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup games.

On April 26, the Pride went to Audi Field and beat the Washington Spirit 3-2. That set a new club record for most consecutive games scoring at least one goal, extending the streak to 10 games dating back to Sept. 17, 2023. That streak eventually stretched out to 16 games, where the new club record now stands after a 1-1 draw at San Diego on June 7. The streak was snapped in a scoreless draw at North Carolina June 15.

On May 1, Barbra Banda appeared in just her third match since joining Orlando. It was her second start and she starred, scoring a brace and adding an assist. She becamse the first player in NWSL history to record both a goal and an assist in each of her first two starts as the Pride defeated the Courage, 4-1. It was the eighth consecutive result with a point (a win or a draw) in NWSL play for the Pride dating back to the 2023 season finale, another club record streak.

Just one match later, the record book expanded even more. The 1-0 home win over Racing Louisville on May 5 established a new club record for the longest streak of results from the start of an NWSL season (8), which continued to grow for nearly the entire season. It broke the old Pride mark of seven, established in 2021 when Orlando began the season 4-0-3 to kick off the NWSL schedule.

The Pride won a club-record sixth straight game May 11, beating Bay FC 1-0, thanks to an Adriana penalty drawn by Banda. That record also got extended before the streak ended.

The Pride broke its old mark of nine consecutive results across all competitions (set in 2021 with two in the NWSL Challenge Cup and the first seven games of the regular season) in Game 10 of the 2024 season, a 3-2 road victory over the Seattle Reign May 19. It was Orlando’s first road victory in the series against the Reign.

Just one game later, the Pride defeated the Portland Thorns 2-1 at home on May 24. The win was the last of eight consecutive by Orlando, setting new NWSL and club records. That streak came to an end in the next match June 7 at San Diego, but the team continued to get results, and after a pair of road draws, the winning and the records continued to pile up.

On June 21, the Pride piled up the goals in a 6-0 destruction of the Utah Royals. The Pride set or tied multiple records in the match, including the club marks for most goals in a game (6), goals in a half (4, second half), largest margin of victory (six goals), and largest shutout victory. The six-goal margin of victory tied an NWSL record. Banda scored a brace in the match, becoming the first NWSL player to score 10 goals in her first 10 appearances and setting the Pride’s single-season record for braces with her fourth.

Two games later, the Pride met the Current in Kansas City and won 2-1 despite going a player down in the first half, claiming the battle of the only remaining two unbeaten teams in the NWSL. The win halted Kansas City’s league-record 17-game unbeaten run and Orlando tied that mark with the result, entering the Summer Cup and Olympic break riding plenty of momentum.

Orlando drew all three Summer Cup games, marking the first time the club had participated in a penalty shootout, doing so after all three matches. McKinley Crone was the goalkeeper of record for the Pride’s first shootout, which North Carolina won 5-4, despite Crone making two saves. Orlando’s first penalty shootout victory came in the second Summer Cup game, as the Pride capped a 2-2 draw against CF Monterrey with a 5-4 shootout win behind Sofia Manner, making her Orlando debut in the club’s first-ever competitive contest against international competition.

Returning to league play, Orlando set a new NWSL mark with its 18th consecutive game in the regular season without a loss, beating the Houston Dash 1-0 on the road on Aug. 23. The Pride set a team record for wins in a season with their 12th and a new record for points in a season (41), and Anna Moorhouse not only became the club’s career leader in clean sheets with her 15th, but she also set the single-season club record with her eighth. All of those numbers grew more by the end of 2024, starting with the very next game.

Seb Hines became the Pride’s all-time winningest coach Sept. 1 in a 2-0 home win over Gotham FC, passing Tom Sermanni by earning his 26th win as the Pride’s head coach. Orlando tied its single-season mark for home victories (7) in the match as well. The Pride picked up another shutout win at Chicago on Sept. 8 and then hosted the rematch against the Current, which ended in a scoreless draw. That 0-0 game Sept. 13 set a new Pride record for consecutive shutouts (4) as Moorhouse tied the NWSL record for most clean sheets by a goalkeeper in a single season with her 11th.

Every game continued to not only increase the Pride’s ongoing club- and league-record streaks, but also brought new marks in the process. Banda tied the NWSL record with her sixth game-winning goal of the season in the 1-0 win at Bay FC Sept. 20 and Moorhouse captured sole possession of the single-season NWSL shutout record with her 12th. The Pride clinched a home playoff game for the first time in franchise history and completed their fifth straight shutout, establishing a new club record for consecutive clean sheets while tying the NWSL’s all-time mark. It was Orlando’s eighth and final road victory of the regular season, setting a new club single-season record and tying the NWSL record. Banda, who scored the only goal of the match, tied the club record with her 13th regular-season goal of the year, equaling the record Marta set in 2017.

The Pride’s shutout streak ended in the 53rd minute of the next game when Yuki Nagasato scored for the Houston Dash in what was ultimately a 3-1 Orlando victory. The Pride established a new club Inter&Co Stadium attendance record with 17,087 fans in the stands to witness the victory. Those fans also saw Nagasato’s goal end Orlando’s new NWSL-record streak for consecutive shutout minutes (554). In addition, Moorhouse set the club’s new career record for goalkeeper wins (24).

It’s a bit of a shame Nagasato scored for Houston, because the Pride posted another shutout in the next game against Washington on Oct. 6. The Pride clinched the NWSL Shield with a 2-0 victory over the Spirit — the club’s first-ever trophy. Orlando equaled the league records for most wins (17) and points (57) in a season, which were obviously both new franchise marks, and those were extended in the regular-season finale. Moorhouse completed her 13th clean sheet of the season to set the NWSL single-season record. The victory turned out to be the final match of the team’s unbeaten streak, with the Pride setting the bar high. Orlando’s NWSL-record unbeaten streak finished at 24 matches (18-0-6) and the league record unbeaten streak from the start of a season was set at 23 games (17-0-6).

The Pride dropped their first games of the season on a two-game road swing against playoff qualifiers Portland and Gotham. Although an unbeaten season was spoiled, the players had achieved one of the goals they set out to accomplish at the start of the season, clinching home field throughout the playoffs. It’s understandable if there was a bit of a hangover afterwards, but more records were waiting.

Orlando hosted the Seattle Reign in the final game of the regular season, winning a hard-fought 3-2 match and establishing a new club record and tying the NWSL record for home wins in a season (10). The Pride’s 18th win set a single-season record for both the club and the league, as did the team’s 60 points earned across the regular season.

Playoff Record Epilogue

Orlando’s postseason included several records as well, which isn’t surprising since it was only the second time the club had reached the playoffs and the first time the Pride played in more than one playoff match in a single postseason. Banda set a league postseason record by scoring four goals. The Pride set new club single-season records for playoff matches (3), home playoff matches (2), wins (3), braces (1, by Banda), shutouts (1), penalty kicks (1), penalties conceded (1), and goals scored (8), as well as fewest goals conceded in a postseason (3). Orlando also established new club single-game playoff records for most goals scored (4), most goals by one player (2, by Banda vs. Chicago on Nov. 8), most penalties (1, Nov. 8 vs. Chicago), most penalties conceded (1, Nov. 17 vs. Kansas City), and fewest goals conceded (0, Nov. 23 vs. Washington). The Pride scored their latest goal in a playoff game with Marta’s 82nd-minute winner against Kansas City Nov. 17, however, Orlando also conceded the latest goal in NWSL playoff history with Vanessa DiBernardo’s penalty in the 13th minute of stoppage time in that same game.

The Pride also set a record for combined home wins in the regular season and playoffs (12) with the NWSL semifinal victory over the Current. Banda set a club record for most goals across all competitions (17).

The sheer number of club and league records that the Pride either set or tied in 2024 is astounding. Some of those may fall in 2025, while others may last for many years. Regardless of how long they last — and expansion will likely increase the number of games, making some of them more likely to fall — the 2024 Orlando Pride campaign was one of the most successful in the history of any team sport. Even those who took part in it could hardly have predicted the level of dominance and success the Pride achieved.

It simply made sense for us to honor the collective volume of the Pride’s firsts, records broken or tied, and history made into one of our top moments of 2024. We hope you enjoyed reliving all of the above, and we’re sure there were probably a few we missed.

Come back through New Year’s Eve as we count down the remainder of the top 10 moments of 2024 for Orlando City, the Orlando Pride, and OCB.

Previous Top Moments of 2024

10. Orlando City’s massive second-half surge clinches top-four spot in Eastern Conference.

9. The Orlando Pride sign Zambian international striker Barbra Banda ahead of the 2024 season.

8. Facundo Torres scores his 47th goal for Orlando City, breaking the Lions’ all-time goal record.

7. Marta’s magical goal pushes the Orlando Pride past Kansas City and into the NWSL Championship.

6. Orlando City wins nervy three-game MLS Cup playoff series to advance past Charlotte FC.

5. Orlando Pride pick up the club’s first-ever playoff win in their first-ever time hosting a postseason match.

As we count down to the new year of 2025 — which will be Orlando City’s 11th in MLS, the Orlando Pride’s 10th in the NWSL, and OCB’s third in MLS NEXT Pro — and say goodbye to 2024, it’s time to look back at the club’s 10 best moments of the year as selected by The Mane Land staff via vote.

The Orlando Pride faced the Chicago Red Stars in the first round of the 2024 playoffs and were frankly not challenged by the NWSL’s No. 8 seed. The Pride may have struggled in their final few matches of the year, losing to the Portland Thorns and NJ/NY Gotham FC (after the Pride had already clinched the NWSL Shield), but it was a breath of fresh air to be dominating matches again, as two goals from Barbra Banda, one from Haley McCutcheon, and a penalty-kick goal from Marta left no doubt. After how well the Pride had played all season, it can be almost surprising to realize that the match was the first playoff victory in the club’s history.

As reward for their victory, the Pride advanced to face the dangerous Kansas City Current in the semifinals. The first meeting of these teams in the regular season was billed as the battle of the unbeaten clubs and ended in a 2-1 Pride victory, courtesy of Marta’s penalty kick in the 63rd minute. Looking for a spark for the rematch, Current players took offense at the nature of Orlando’s celebrations and promised revenge in the return match at Inter&Co Stadium later in the season. The rematch ultimately ended without any fireworks, as Orlando’s league-leading defense and Kansas City’s new defensive acquisitions each held the other’s attack in check, leading to a 0-0 draw.

After two close matches in the regular season, the Orlando Pride were well acquainted with the Kansas City Current and knew the playoff semifinal matchup would be much tougher than the quarterfinal win over Chicago. The Pride faced additional adversity early in the match. After a cagey opening third of the game, the Current found the back of the net first through Debinha in the 33rd minute. The assist came from a good cross from Michelle Cooper, but the goal was the sort that Orlando had prevented for most of the season. Kerry Abello and Emily Sams were both slightly out of position from stopping the cross. The Pride found parity just before halftime, as Ally Watt drove to the end line from the right wing and cut back a pass excellently to McCutcheon for her second goal of the year — both in the playoffs.

The second half of the match started well for the Pride. In the 51st minute, Marta stepped up to take a free kick in shooting range. Her shot was on target but was saved by Current goalkeeper Almuth Schult. Barely two minutes later, Pride defender Kylie Strom played a teasing ball to the feet of Banda, who used her body to shield the pass from the Kansas City defense, turned, and rifled an emphatic finish into the net to make it 2-1. Throughout the season, Orlando was almost invincible with a second-half lead. However, facing NWSL MVP Temwa Chawinga and the league’s most potent attack in a playoff game, the Pride knew they would need additional cushion to see the match out.

Here is where Orlando captain Marta left her timeless mark on the match. Despite the lead, Orlando did not simply sit back for the final 40 or so minutes of the match and absorb pressure. The Pride continued to press Kansas City, hoping to generate turnovers and scoring chances for Banda and Marta, and that is exactly what happened.

When Current defender Kayla Sharples got caught with the ball under her feet, Banda pounced. By stretching to poke the ball away from Sharples, Banda managed to push it right into Marta’s path. Sensing an opportunity might be on, the Brazilian had rushed forward, and she was rewarded by being in the right place to take possession of the turnover.

The Brazilian star carried the ball in stride deep into Kansas City territory before Sharples, and her defensive partner, Alana Cook, caught up and positioned themselves between Marta and the net. Unfortunately for them, Marta has made a living off of making good defenders look silly on a soccer pitch. With one cutback, she sat down both defenders, sending them sliding past the play. Then, with a second quick move, she sliced past Schult, who had rushed out of her net. Finally, just before Hailie Mace could slide in from the side to block the effort, Marta toe-poked the ball into the net, finishing off one of the greatest solo goals in league history.

Marta’s passion at scoring such an important goal was infectious for her teammates and fans in Inter&Co Stadium. The goal was her second of the playoffs and 11th of the season overall. Later in the match, Kansas City managed to pull a goal back off a penalty kick in the 103rd minute, but it did not alter the final result — a 3-2 victory for the Pride. Instead, it granted “match-winning goal” status to Marta’s electrifying goal.

Marta and Orlando Pride history are so intertwined that the Pride as we know them would be completely different without the captain. The Goat. Marta. Now, after bringing an NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship to the City Beautiful, her legacy in purple is unimpeachable. The goal she scored to clinch the Pride’s spot in the championship match will go down as the cherry on top of an illustrious club career, whether she extends her time with Orlando this off-season or not. And that special goal in that special moment is certainly worth a spot in our list of the club’s top moments of 2024.

Come back through New Year’s Eve as we count down the remainder of the top 10 moments of 2024 for Orlando City, the Orlando Pride, and OCB.

Previous Top Moments of 2024

10. Orlando City’s massive second-half surge clinches top-four spot in Eastern Conference.

9. The Orlando Pride sign Zambian international striker Barbra Banda ahead of the 2024 season.

8. Facundo Torres scores his 47th goal for Orlando City, breaking the Lions’ all-time goal record.

As we count down to the new year of 2025 — which will be Orlando City’s 11th in MLS, the Orlando Pride’s 10th in the NWSL, and OCB’s third in MLS NEXT Pro — and say goodbye to 2024, it’s time to look back at the club’s 10 best moments of the year as selected by The Mane Land staff via vote.

It is fitting that the acquisition of Barbra Banda appears on our Top 10 Moments of the Season list on the eve of Christmas Eve, because in retrospect it is kind of like a Christmas story, but instead of getting a Red Ryder BB gun, we got a BB bombshell dropped on us on March 7, when the Pride announced they had spent $740,000 to acquire Banda from Chinese Women’s Super League side Shanghai Shengli FC. That transfer fee was at the time, and still is, the second highest of all time for a women’s soccer player, and it changed the entire complexion of the 2024 season for the Pride.

Orlando was agonizingly close to making the playoffs during the 2023 season but fell just shy of the final spot, and clearly the Pride were planning to use that failure as a catalyst to improve their performance in 2024. There was a major question about the attack, however, and where the goals were going to come from. The team’s joint top scorer from 2023, Messiah Bright, requested a trade for personal reasons, leaving a team that had only scored an average of 1.23 goals per game (27 goals in 22 games) down her six goals and without an obvious candidate to lead the line up front. The Pride had options on the roster, but questions remained.

And then, Christmas came early. Or maybe we got a second Christmas, or a very late Christmas present from 2023. Let’s not get bogged down on semantics. What matters is all of a sudden the whole soccer world was talking about the Orlando Pride and how they had just acquired a superstar forward for the second time (Alex Morgan was the first; Marta debatably could be the second, but she is more of an attacking midfielder than a pure forward) in club history.

Unlike with Morgan, a U.S. Women’s National Team player and arguably the most well-known women’s player in the world at the time she joined the Pride, most people in the United States knew very little about Banda and her career exploits. I spent a considerable amount of time today researching Banda’s career stats from her years prior to joining the Pride when preparing to write this article — in particular her stats from her four seasons in the Chinese Women’s Super League, and I could not find any sites that showed her season-by-season stats. The press release said that she had scored 41 goals in 52 games, and I was able to find that she scored 18 goals in 2020 and 16 goals in 2023, but I could not find anything on 2021 and 2022, which likely were affected by COVID-19.

All I could find on Banda were her total goals scored and games played, and so therefore not the total minutes played in those 52 games to allow for per-90-minute calculations. Let’s assume she played every minute of every game for Shanghai, giving her the lowest possible goals per 90 minutes during those 52 games and compare her performance during her career in China to all seasons when a player scored at least six goals in the Pride’s history before 2024 (all data from fbref.com except Banda’s):

The Chinese Super League is almost certainly not as deep and as talented as the NWSL, but nearly a goal per 90 minutes is still difficult, especially over 52 games. The reality is that Banda probably did not play every minute of every game either, and that means her goals/90 was likely even closer to 1.00 than her 0.79 showed in the chart.

Speaking of goals/90 of around 1.00, Banda had also played in three games in an Olympics and three games in a World Cup prior to joining the Pride and had scored a cool seven goals in those six games, averaging 1.17 goals per 90 minutes (there is per-game data from those competitions, and Banda never came off the field). The Olympics and World Cup are the biggest stages in women’s soccer and Banda had delivered in both at a precociously young 21 and 23 years old, and now a player with that pedigree was coming to a Pride team returning a solid defense. And with a need for a striker, it seemed like a delightful match for the team playing in the Happiest Place on Earth. After a few years of building the war chest and setting the stage, the Pride were now about to cast one of the world’s best in a leading role.

When the season opened, the addition of Banda had the Pride tied for sixth in the betting odds on ESPN Bet and generally around the middle of the pack in most season previews. Banda did not play in the first few matches, as she was coming off a full season in China and Olympic qualifying games for Zambia, and trying to acclimate to a new league and a new team, but she played her first game on April 19 against San Diego and made her first start on April 26 against Washington. The rest, as they say, is history, and you can be sure that as you check back every day through the end of the year you will read and re-live more about just how well Banda integrated into the Pride’s roster and, spoiler alert, how the Pride brought home some pretty nice shiny new hardware to display inside Inter&Co Stadium.

Banda’s acquisition played a massive part in the Pride’s ascendance during the 2024 season, and you can read all about that and her statistics and accomplishments in her Season in Review piece. And while it is coincidental, it is also perfect that adding a world-class striker came in at No. 9 on our list of top 10 moments for the 2024 season.

Come back through New Year’s Eve as we count down the remainder of the top 10 moments of 2024 for Orlando City, the Orlando Pride, and OCB.

Previous Top Moments of 2024

10. Orlando City’s massive second-half surge clinches top-four spot in Eastern Conference.