{"id":209737,"date":"2026-03-28T16:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T16:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/209737\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T16:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T16:42:08","slug":"orlando-pride-to-take-on-defending-champ-gotham-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/209737\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Pride to take on defending champ Gotham FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Pride earned their first win of the season in a 3-0 thrashing of the Chicago Stars<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Now the Pride (1-1-1, 4 points) look to earn a second as they head to New Jersey to take on Gotham FC (1-1-1, 4 points) at Sports Illustrated Stadium on Sunday at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould be a great game with both teams going after it. I\u2019m sure Gotham will want to come out and get something out of the game following their last result, but so do we\u201d Orlando head coach Seb Hines said. \u201cIt\u2019s a quick turnaround with the travel and all of that, but it\u2019s nothing we\u2019re not used to. We\u2019ll be up for the match and want to continue this momentum and keep stacking wins and come out with three points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barbra Banda has been in sensational form for Orlando, scoring in each of the club\u2019s first three matches this season. Her return from injury after missing the back half of 2025 has been crucial for the Pride, but she isn\u2019t the only contributor stepping up when it matters. Jacquie Ovalle scored an exceptional backheel goal against Chicago and has two assists this season as well. Their combination is one of the best in the league, and they are firing on all cylinders right now.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, Gotham seems to be suffering a bit of a hangover after winning the NWSL Championship last season. The defending champs lost 2-0 to Denver Summit FC last time out, and their sole win this season came against expansion side Boston Legacy FC. Esther Gonzalez has scored the club\u2019s only goal this season, but they have plenty of talent that should kick on as the season progresses.<\/p>\n

The goal for Orlando is to show that the Chicago game was not a fluke. Scoring three goals was certainly helpful, but even more important was keeping a clean sheet. If they can overcome weary legs and bring the same energy they did on Wednesday, the Pride will be tough to beat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Pride earned their first win of the season in a 3-0 thrashing of the Chicago Stars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,1335,139,141,140,3968,2062,76046,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-209737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-orange-county","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news","13":"tag-orlando-pride","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-social-sports","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}