{"id":6023,"date":"2026-06-30T23:33:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6023"},"modified":"2026-06-30T23:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:33:45","slug":"storylines-to-watch-as-orlando-pride-come-back-from-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6023","title":{"rendered":"Storylines to watch as Orlando Pride come back from break"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Orlando Pride went into the summer break in eighth place, clinging to the last playoff spot in a 16-team league. Two years ago, this team won the NWSL Shield and the championship in the same season, the first club to do so since the 2019 North Carolina Courage. Now they\u2019re 5-5-2 with 17 points through 12 games.<\/p>\n

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The first half followed a clear arc. The Pride opened unbeaten in four of their first five matches, including a 3-0 road win at Chicago and a 2-1 home win over Angel City. Barbra Banda scored in each of the first three games. Jacquie Ovalle had two assists and a goal in that early stretch and was building an on-field connection with Banda that the coaching staff had been waiting for since preseason.<\/p>\n

Then Ovalle went down with a thigh injury on April 4 against Angel City, and the bottom fell out. The Pride lost four of their next five, including a 4-2 home loss to Washington, a 2-1 defeat at Boston on a stoppage-time penalty, and a 3-1 loss at Denver, where Angelina was sent off. The defensive issues that had been lurking early in the season became impossible to ignore. Orlando conceded two or more goals in each of those four losses and dropped to ninth.<\/p>\n

A late-half rally kept the season from spiraling. Nicole Payne scored her first career NWSL goal to beat San Diego 1-0 on May 24, and the Pride followed that with a 3-1 win over Bay FC at home to close the first half on a two-game winning streak. The results bumped Orlando back to eighth and provided some momentum heading into the break.<\/p>\n

The Pride have scored 18 goals and allowed 17, giving up about 1.4 goals per match, nearly double the 0.8 they allowed during the 2024 championship season. Banda has scored 11 of those 18 goals, with Ovalle and Marta both missing significant stretches due to injury. The back line has been reshuffled constantly, and the midfield has lacked control. The defensive organization that defined the 2024 group has not carried over.<\/p>\n

Orlando resumes play Friday at Angel City, where former Pride defender Emily Sams now plays after leaving Orlando in the offseason. The Pride then return home for a pair of matches against Kansas City on July 10 and Boston on July 15 before Banda departs for international duty. Eighteen regular-season games remain.<\/p>\n

Banda is carrying the offense (and it can\u2019t continue)<\/h4>\n

Banda leads the NWSL in goals, shots, and shots on target through 12 matches. She has a goal or an assist on 12 of the Pride\u2019s 18 goals this season.<\/p>\n

The numbers only tell part of it. Banda scored in two of the first three games, then won the North Carolina match on her own in the 87th minute on May 8 after an afternoon when the Pride created little else. At San Diego, the attack managed a single goal from Payne despite Banda drawing constant defensive attention. In games where Banda has been limited or taken out of the attack, the team has struggled to generate chances, let alone finish them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Banda left the 3-1 win over Bay FC on May 29 with an undisclosed injury, and her status for the opener at Angel City is unclear. Separately, she will leave the club to join Zambia for the Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations beginning July 26 in Morocco. If Zambia advances past the group stage, which wraps Aug. 2, the Pride could be without her through the WAFCON final on Aug. 16, a stretch of six or seven games.<\/p>\n

The drop-off behind her is stark. Haley McCutcheon is the only other player on the roster with more than one goal this season, with two in a 2-1 win against Angel City in April. Five others have scored once. No one has shown they can replace Banda\u2019s production.<\/p>\n

The attacking trident that hasn\u2019t happened yet<\/h4>\n

Banda, Ovalle and Marta have not been on the pitch at the same time this season. Those three were supposed to form the attacking core of this team, and through 12 games, it has only existed on paper.<\/p>\n

The early returns on the Banda-Ovalle pairing were promising. In the March 20 home draw against Denver, Ovalle crossed to Banda for a headed equalizer, the first time the two connected for a Pride goal. Coach Seb Hines said after the match that it was only the second time they had played on the same field together. Five days later at Chicago, Ovalle scored a goal and added an assist as the Pride won 3-0. The combination looked like the one the coaching staff had been building toward.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Then Ovalle suffered her injury and didn\u2019t return to the bench until the Bay FC game on May 29. Marta has been in and out of the lineup all season, playing limited minutes when available. Ovalle was nearing full health as of late May, and Marta traveled to Brazil in June for a pair of friendlies against the U.S. Women\u2019s National Team. The summer break should help all three players get closer to full fitness.<\/p>\n

If all three are healthy when play resumes, the Pride will have a narrow window to get them on the field together before Banda leaves for WAFCON. That might only be two or three games, but that stretch would give Ovalle and Marta a chance to build chemistry with Banda before they\u2019re asked to carry the attack without her.<\/p>\n

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Marta at 40 is still hard to replace<\/h4>\n

This might be Marta\u2019s final season. She turns 41 in February. Her contract runs through the end of 2026, and her availability has been inconsistent. She has one goal, the penalty against Boston on May 12 that made her the NWSL\u2019s all-time leader in career penalty conversions with 15.<\/p>\n

That Boston match was telling in ways beyond the record. Marta converted from the spot in the 14th minute to give the Pride a 1-0 lead, then watched the team concede an equalizer in the 72nd minute and a stoppage-time penalty to lose 2-1. It was the first time the Pride had lost a game after scoring first since Oct. 7, 2023, a run of 37 games. Marta did her part. The team around her did not.<\/p>\n

Her production has dropped from the 11-goal 2024 season, but her playmaking ability and creativity on the ball are still unmatched on the roster. Nobody else on the team can do what she does.<\/p>\n

How available Marta is over the final 18 games could determine whether the Pride hold onto a playoff spot. And if this is her last season, the second half is also the beginning of the club\u2019s transition away from one of the most accomplished players in the sport\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

That championship defense is gone<\/h4>\n

In 2024, the Pride allowed 20 goals across the entire regular season. Through 12 games of 2026, they\u2019ve already conceded 17.<\/p>\n

Emily Sams, the 2024 NWSL Defender of the Year, left for Angel City. Kylie Nadaner is on maternity leave, and Kerry Abello went down early with a hip injury. With those three out of the picture, Hines has spent the season cycling through combinations mostly of Rafaelle, Cori Dyke, Hannah Anderson, Hailie Mace and Oihane, never settling on a group long enough to build continuity.<\/p>\n

The results during the four-loss stretch in late April and May showed how deep the problems run. Orlando conceded two or more goals in all four defeats, including the losses to Washington and Denver, where an Oihane foul in the box gave away a penalty, and Angelina\u2019s red card left the Pride playing with 10 for the final half hour. Abello made her first appearance of the season as a substitute in that Denver match, but could not stem the damage.<\/p>\n

The summer break gave Hines a month to work on shape and organization without games every few days. Abello is back, but the back line will look different from the group that shut down Washington in the 2024 final. That defense had familiarity that Hines has not had this season, and building it with a reconfigured group is the biggest thing he has to sort out in the second half.<\/p>\n

From a title to on bubble for playoffs<\/h4>\n

The Pride won it all in 2024. They slipped in 2025, but still made the NWSL Semifinal. Now they\u2019re on the playoff line through 12 games, with much of the championship-era roster either aging, injured or departed.<\/p>\n

The NWSL\u2019s salary structure, free agency rules and expansion to 16 teams all work against keeping a championship-level group together for long. Haley Carter, the sporting director who assembled the title-winning roster, left for Washington. Caitlin Carducci, her replacement, inherited a roster built around Banda and Marta with limited depth behind them and a limited budget to work with.<\/p>\n

The Pride have 18 games to hold onto a playoff spot, and there\u2019s almost no cushion. They\u2019re two points ahead of Denver, while Seattle and Houston are only three points behind. Losing Banda for a stretch during WAFCON could tip that math the wrong way.<\/p>\n

The Friday match at Angel City is the first test. Angel City started the season 3-0-0 under Alex Straus but has gone 1-6-1 since and sits 12th, with Straus and the club parting ways in June. The Pride beat Angel City 2-1 at Inter&Co Stadium in April, but that was with Ovalle still healthy and the season still trending upward. The circumstances are different now.<\/p>\n

The roster has enough to stay in the playoff race, but Hines needs to find defensive stability with a new back line. Someone has to score while Banda is with Zambia, and Ovalle and Marta have to stay on the field after missing most of the first half. If all of these things fall into place, the Pride are poised to make another playoff run for the third straight season.<\/p>\n

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Two years ago, the Pride won the NWSL Shield and the championship in the same season. 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