Published for Orlando Pride fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
💜 Orlando Pride Fans — Your Purple Is Waiting!
The club that waited eight years for a trophy and then won the Double. Banda has smashed the club scoring record, Marta is still writing history, and two huge dates remain. Purple shirts, full voice — Vamos Pride.
The Club
Orlando Pride were founded on October 20, 2015, announced at Lake Eola Park by Orlando City SC founder and president Phil Rawlins as the tenth team in the National Women’s Soccer League, and kicked off their first season in 2016. The name carries a double meaning: a pride is a group of lionesses, tying the team to the Orlando City Lions family, and it is also a statement of civic pride in the City of Orlando itself. Eleven seasons in, both meanings still fit.
The colors tell the same local story. City Purple is the shade of Orlando soccer culture, while the club’s light blue is called Eola Blue — the color of the water in the Linton E. Allen Memorial Fountain at Lake Eola Park, the downtown landmark built into the round crest. That fountain has sat at the heart of the badge for all ten seasons, through lean years and a famous Double.
The Pride are owned by the Wilf family (chairman Mark Wilf), who bought the club with Orlando City SC in July 2021 — the Pride remain Orlando City’s sister club.
Tom Sermanni was the first head coach, Alex Morgan and Kaylyn Kyle were the first signings on October 26, 2015, and the first home game, on April 23, 2016, drew a then-NWSL-record crowd of 23,403 to Camping World Stadium for a 3–1 win over the Houston Dash. In 2017 came the signing that defined the club: Marta. She has been its face ever since.
Home is Inter&Co Stadium in downtown Orlando, at 655 West Church Street — a 25,500-capacity, soccer-specific stadium with natural grass and a safe-standing north section known as The Wall. The Pride have played there since 2017, after it opened on February 24, 2017; it was previously called Orlando City Stadium and then Exploria Stadium before the Inter&Co naming rights arrived in January 2024. When The Wall is in full voice, there are few better atmospheres in the NWSL.
The wait for silverware was long: a playoff appearance in 2017, then bottom-half finishes, last place in 2019, and no trophy across the first eight seasons. The turnaround came under Seb Hines, interim coach from June 2022 and permanent that November, who lifted the team to seventh in 2023 and then delivered the historic 2024 Double. That is the standard this fan base now measures everything against — and why the Orlando Pride roster and the Orlando Pride schedule get picked apart by supporters who finally know what winning feels like.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#11 Banda — Orlando Pride Style Jersey
$59.99
Purple, with tonal pinstripes, the centered crest and ORLANDO HEALTH across the chest, and the name and number on the back in Eola Blue — fan-inspired apparel honoring a 17-goal season.
Last Season (2025): Defending the Double
Defending a Double is the hardest job in soccer, and the Pride found that out in 2025. A year after sweeping the Shield and the Championship, Orlando finished fourth in the regular season with 40 points, posting an 11-8-7 record across 26 matches, though the aura of the 2024 side never quite returned.
The defense was undermined by the cruellest blow of the year. In August 2025, Barbra Banda suffered a full-thickness avulsion of her right adductor longus tendon against Kansas City Current, and on August 23, 2025 the club placed her on the Season-Ending Injury list. A team built around its most explosive finisher suddenly had to find goals elsewhere.
And still, the Pride won a playoff round. In the quarterfinal on November 7, 2025, at Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando beat Seattle Reign 2–0 — Haley McCutcheon in the 21st minute, Luana with a penalty in the eighth minute of stoppage time. For one night, the champions looked like champions again.
The run ended in the semifinal on November 16, 2025, also at home, against Gotham FC. A tight match stayed goalless deep into stoppage time before Jaedyn Shaw curled in a free kick in the 90+7th minute to give Gotham a 1–0 win — and Gotham went on to win the 2025 Championship. Orlando were minutes from another final.
Best Players Right Now
Barbra Banda — #11, forward. One of the most feared strikers in world soccer. The Zambian has scored 17 league goals in 2026 — a club single-season record — with 21 goal contributions, in the season she returned from a season-ending injury. The 2024 Championship MVP changes games the moment she steps on the field, and most center-backs still cannot stop her.
Marta — #10, forward and midfielder. The captain, the icon, the greatest of all time. The Brazilian legend — a six-time FIFA World Player of the Year — has been with Orlando since 2017, captained the Double-winning side, and remains the club’s emotional heartbeat at 40. Her minutes have been managed in 2026, often as a substitute, but the magic has not gone.
Haley McCutcheon — #2, midfielder. The engine, and in most matches this season the on-field captain. With Marta’s minutes managed, McCutcheon has worn the armband for the large majority of 2026 fixtures, driving the midfield through more than 100 Pride appearances. She scores big goals too — a career-high four league goals by early September, including the third-minute winner at Washington and a volleyed stunner against Houston.
Lizbeth “Jacquie” Ovalle — #13, forward. The Mexican winger arrived from Tigres in August 2025 in what was then a world-record signing — the creator who punishes defenses when they collapse toward Banda.
Rafaelle Souza — #4, defender. The veteran Brazilian center-back who leads the back line — calm, commanding, and the organizer the defense leans on.
Angelina — #7, midfielder. The midfield metronome, whose assist sent Banda through for the only goal of the 2024 Championship final. Also worth knowing: Luana, Ally Lemos, and breakout rookie Solai Washington.
Star Spotlight
The comeback, in her first game back. March 15, 2026: the season opener against Seattle at Inter&Co Stadium, after a 2.5-hour weather delay. Banda, removed from the season-ending injury list that week, played her first match since August 16, 2025 — and in the 51st minute she scored, set up by McCutcheon, to level the game. Orlando lost 2–1 to a late header, but the headline was unmistakable: the most dangerous finisher in the NWSL was back.
The night the record fell. September 6, 2026, in interim coach Yolanda Thomas’s first match in charge. Banda converted a 44th-minute penalty against Houston — remarkably, the first penalty of her NWSL career — for her 14th goal of the season. That strike broke the club single-season record of 13, previously shared by Banda herself in 2024 and Marta in 2017. McCutcheon’s left-footed volley, from a Banda assist, sealed a 3–1 win. Passing a record you shared with Marta is Orlando history.
Seventeen, and into the national record books. October 2, 2026: Banda’s 52nd-minute penalty against San Diego Wave was her 17th goal of the season, tying the fourth-highest single-season scoring total in NWSL history. Orlando lost 2–1, which sums up 2026 — Banda producing an all-time season inside a team that could not match her often enough. Seventeen goals, four assists, 21 goal contributions tied for the fifth-most in a single NWSL season.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
More Pride stars, same City Purple and Eola Blue.
This Season (2026): Pride, Even in a Hard Year
Pride fans deserve honesty: 2026 has been a hard season. As of October 23, Orlando sit 11th in the NWSL on 36 points, with an 11-14-3 record from 28 matches, 38 goals scored and 44 conceded — and they have been eliminated from playoff contention with two games still to play. Two years after the Double, that hurts.
The slide cost a good coach his job. On August 31, 2026, the club parted ways with Seb Hines — the man who built the Double — with Orlando 12th at 8-12-2, five points outside the playoffs after four losses in five. Assistant coach Yolanda Thomas, with the club since 2023, stepped up as interim head coach — the first Black woman to serve as an NWSL head coach — and steadied the team at 3-2-1 through October 18.
Outside the star, the goals were not there: when Hines departed, Banda’s 13 goals accounted for roughly half the team’s total. The biggest win of the year — 3–0 at Chicago Stars on March 25 — showed what this team could be when everything clicked.
Elimination was confirmed on October 18, 2026, in the most Orlando way possible: the Pride did their job, winning 2–1 at Houston behind a Luana penalty and Solai Washington’s first professional goal, set up by Marta. But Seattle’s 3–1 win over Chicago the same day made qualification mathematically impossible. The Pride won, produced a beautiful moment between their greatest player and newest scorer — and went out anyway.
Two storylines hang over the final fortnight. The first is Banda’s availability — and to be clear, she is not injured. She missed the October 18 match at Houston because she was unable to return from international duty in Uganda due to Ebola travel restrictions, and reporting since said she was awaiting clearance to return to the United States and would miss at least the October 25 Gotham match. Her Decision Day status had not been confirmed as of October 23.
The second is the one every Pride fan is quietly dreading. Marta’s two-year contract, signed on January 9, 2025, runs through the end of the 2026 season — the captain is in the final weeks of her deal, with no extension announced as of October 23. Nobody has said she is retiring, and this page will not put words in her mouth. If you can be at Inter&Co Stadium on October 25, be there.
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Mark Your Calendar
Sunday, October 25, 2026 — vs Gotham FC, Inter&Co Stadium (3:00 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network). The final home match of 2026: the 2025 champions visit the champions of 2024. Gotham ended Orlando’s title defense in last year’s semifinal, so there is a score to settle.
Sunday, November 1, 2026 — at Seattle Reign FC, Lumen Field (5:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 p.m. PT). Decision Day, the regular-season finale. Orlando cannot qualify, but they can play spoiler against a playoff contender — and this fixture has produced drama every time the clubs have met over the last year.
November 6–21, 2026 — the NWSL Playoffs. Orlando have been eliminated and will not feature, but for fans following the tournament: the quarterfinals run November 6–8, the semifinals November 13–15, and the Championship lands on Saturday, November 21, 2026 at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. Somebody will lift the trophy Orlando held in 2024.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Washington Spirit — the defining rivalry of the era. Orlando’s two greatest days both came against Washington: the 2–0 win on October 6, 2024 that clinched the Shield, and the 1–0 victory in the 2024 Championship final that completed the Double. The 2026 meetings split: Washington won 4–2 in Orlando on May 2 despite a Banda brace (33′, 39′), then Orlando won 1–0 at Audi Field on August 23 on McCutcheon’s third-minute goal — only the second team in NWSL history to win four straight at one opponent’s ground.
2. Gotham FC — the team that took the crown. Gotham ended Orlando’s title defense in the 2025 semifinal, winning 1–0 at Inter&Co Stadium on Shaw’s stoppage-time free kick, and lifted the trophy themselves. The first 2026 meeting, at Gotham on March 29, finished 0–0. The rematch, in Orlando on October 25, is the Pride’s final home game of the season.
3. Seattle Reign FC — the three-act saga. A 1–1 draw on Decision Day 2025, then Orlando’s 2–0 quarterfinal win a week later — then Seattle struck back in the 2026 opener on March 15, winning 2–1 at Inter&Co Stadium despite Banda’s comeback goal. Seattle’s win over Chicago on October 18 also eliminated Orlando from the playoff race. The story closes at Lumen Field on Decision Day, November 1. Neither side will treat it as a dead rubber.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do Orlando Pride play next?
Orlando close the 2026 regular season with two matches: Gotham FC at Inter&Co Stadium on Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. ET, and Decision Day away at Seattle Reign FC on Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. ET. The Pride have been eliminated from playoff contention, so November 1 is their final match of the season.
Is Barbra Banda injured, and will she play on Decision Day?
No — Banda is not injured. She missed the October 18 match at Houston because she was unable to return from international duty in Uganda due to Ebola travel restrictions, and she was awaiting clearance to return to the United States, with reporting saying she would miss at least the October 25 Gotham match. Her availability for Decision Day on November 1 had not been confirmed as of October 23, 2026.
Where do Orlando Pride play their home games, and how do I get tickets?
Home matches are at Inter&Co Stadium in downtown Orlando (capacity 25,500), the Pride’s home since 2017 and a stadium they share with Orlando City SC. Tickets are sold through the club’s official site, and the October 25 match against Gotham FC — the final home game of 2026 — kicks off at 3:00 p.m. ET and airs on CBS Sports Network.
Have Orlando Pride ever won the NWSL Championship?
Yes — Orlando completed a famous Double in 2024, winning the NWSL Shield and then beating Washington Spirit 1–0 in the Championship final on November 23, 2024, with Barbra Banda scoring the only goal and being named Championship MVP. They were the first team since 2019 to win the Shield and the Championship in the same season, and the first Orlando club to win a major professional championship.
💜 Orlando Pride Fan Shop
The full Pride trio — Banda, Marta and McCutcheon in City Purple.
Sources & official links: Orlando Pride official site · NWSL official site · Orlando Pride tickets
Purple shirts, full voice, through the hard years and the Double — Vamos Pride, always.
