Just over three months after winning the first NWSL franchise championship, the Orlando Pride entered 2025 in the unknown position of the League favorite.
“Everyone will chase us after us, and we have to face this and find a way to continue to do our best to continue making history for this club,” said the striker of the year on Thursday and the Orlando striker.
Friday, Orlando and the Washington Spirit are launching the NWSL Challenge Cup, a Community Shield type event which does not count for the ranking, but proposes the NWSL Shield and the winners of the NWSL championship of the previous year for a pre-season trophy of the previous year.
Orlando won the two trophies last year, making this year’s Cup challenge a revenge match of the November final. Pride won 1-0 behind a goal by striker Barbra Banda.
“Yeah, it’s personal,” said goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury on Thursday about the Revenge match. “I want to win everything, and it’s the first trophy. (The head coach Jonatan Giráldez) told us a lot. We are here to win.”
“It is a good and great opportunity that we have at the moment to win a title,” said Giráldez. “We just have to play a game, try to be better than them and create more chances and win this title. We know that the game will probably be different from the last final.”
Washington and Orlando were the two best teams in the regular season in 2024. Pride remained undefeated during the first 23 games of the regular season, establishing a new NWSL record. They also set a new record of points (60). Washington finished second, tied in Orlando for a new championship record with 18 victories.
Orlando had not won a trophy before since its launch in 2016 and often finished the seasons at the bottom of the bottom of the table. This casualness motivated pride last year, but they enter in 2025 as a team that everyone is continuing.
“There is no difference in this year,” said head coach of pride Seb Hines. “We now move in this league mentality, which changes the verbiage of” the oppressed “in the” championship “. But we must remain consistent with everything we do.”
Orlando and Washington have largely preserved their alignments 2024 while strengthening certain positions this off -season.
The spirit signed the international midfielder of Japan Narumi Miura and recently acquired the Mexican defender outside the Rebeca Bernal competition via the transfer of Monterrey.
Pride has just removed the Brazilian defender Rafaelle and the Zambian midfielder Grace Chanda from the late season’s list after missing most of last year. The two players are available for Friday’s shock.
Giráldez was shy regarding the potential availability of the United States striker Trinity Rodman, who played a back injury in the final last year and missed the last four training camps of the American national team to focus on full power rehabilitation.
Rodman recently said that she was in a “very good place” with her back problems.
Giráldez did not explain the status of the American midfielder and the recruit of the year of the NWSL in 2024, Croix Bethune, which missed the last three months of last season with a torn meniscus suffering while launching a first launch in an MLB match.
Marta, who was 39 years old last month, is back to start her ninth campaign with pride after signing a new two -year contract during the offseason. Last year was his best in Orlando since his inaugural season with pride in 2017, and earned him a renewed place with Brazil while the team won an Olympic silver medal.
She said Thursday that she was happy to be back in Orlando.
“It is exciting to know that everyone will look at us and then try to make us difficult for us,” said Marta. “But for me, this is the best feeling, because you are good in what you do, so go play, go have fun. Go the excited people to see you on the field. And that’s what I’m looking for.”
The regular NWSL season starts on March 14.
The current Kansas City Host The Portland Thorns on March 15 on ABC and ESPN + (12:45 p.m.), and the opening weekend continues on March 16 while the FC of Los Angeles City FC welcomes the San Diego Wave FC on ESPN2 and ESPN + (6:50 PM HE).
