Welcome to your match preview as the Orlando Pride (5-5-2, 17 points) return to action, facing Angel City FC (4-6-1, 13 points) in Los Angeles. This is the second and final time these two teams will meet during the 2026 NWSL regular season.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s everything you need to know about tonight\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
History<\/p>\n
Angel City was one of the NWSL\u2019s two expansion teams entering the league in 2022. As a result, the Pride have only played tonight\u2019s opponents nine times. The Pride are 5-2-2 in those games, all in NWSL regular-season play. While the Pride are only 2-1-2 at home, they\u2019re 3-1-0 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The most recent matchup between these two teams took place on April 3 in Orlando. Haley McCutcheon gave the Pride the lead in the 84th minute, but the game appeared headed for a devastating draw when Gisele Thompson equalized two minutes into stoppage time. However, McCutcheon came to the rescue again, scoring in the eighth minute of stoppage time to secure a 2-1 win<\/a> for the hosts.<\/p>\n The first game last year between the two teams occurred on April 25 in Orlando. The visitors got off to a great start with first-half goals by Riley Tiernan and Katie Zelem. But the Pride took over in the second half. Marta got one back midway through the second period, and Barbra Banda equalized four minutes later. An own goal by M.A. Vignola in the third minute of stoppage time gave the Pride a 3-2 win<\/a>. On Aug. 21, 2025 in Los Angeles, the hosts dominated possession and the number of chances as the game appeared to be heading to a scoreless draw. But Alyssa Thompson converted in the 86th minute as Angel City took all three points<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first of two meetings in 2024 took place on March 22 in Orlando. Former Pride attacker Claire Emslie gave the visitors the lead from the penalty spot, and it looked as though the Pride would drop their first game of the season. But Marta volleyed home an equalizer from an Angelina corner kick late, pulling out a 1-1 draw<\/a>. On June 30, 2024 in Los Angeles, Adriana gave the Pride the lead early and scored a second goal six minutes later. Banda netted a goal of her own six minutes into stoppage time, leading the Pride to a dominating 3-0 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first meeting of the 2023 season took place April 2 in Orlando. Emily Sams took down Alyssa Thompson in the first half, giving the visitors a penalty. Emslie stepped up and converted to give her team a 1-0 lead. Messiah Bright responded just after halftime to make it 1-1, and the game appeared to be heading for a draw. But Katie Johnson scored the winner<\/a> in the 10th minute of second-half injury time. On Oct. 2, 2023 in Los Angeles, an Adriana volley beat Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson to her near post for the only goal as the Pride won a crucial late-season game<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first-ever game between the teams took place on May 8, 2022 in Los Angeles. In the third minute, Gunny Jonsdottir\u2019s cross was tipped by Angel City goalkeeper DiDi Haracic, but it went right to Sydney Leroux. The Pride striker fired right at Morgan Reid standing in front of goal. The ball bounced off the defender and went in to give the Pride an early lead. The hosts controlled the final hour, but the Pride held on for 87 minutes to claim their first win of the season<\/a>.<\/p>\n The teams met again on Aug. 7 in Orlando. Former Pride defender Ali Riley opened the scoring with a wonderful strike from the left side. The Pride responded in the second half through Julie Doyle just three minutes after she entered the game to even it at 1-1. The visitors took another lead when Cari Roccaro beat Viviana Villacorta to a corner kick, putting it past Erin McLeod. The Pride equalized for a second time in the 90th minute when Doyle and Paige Nielsen raced for a Thais Reiss cross, with the defender reaching it first. But Nielsen\u2019s attempted clearance went into her own net, allowing the Pride to claim a 2-2 draw<\/a> and extend their unbeaten run to five games.<\/p>\n Overview<\/p>\n The Pride are in the middle of their most challenging season in three years. They\u2019ve struggled defensively following the trade of Sams and an injury to Kerry Abello that\u2019s kept her out for most of the season so far. They\u2019ve also struggled to score outside of Banda, though that\u2019s been the case the last couple of seasons.<\/p>\n The team hit its lowest point in mid-May, losing back-to-back games to expansion sides Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC. But the Pride bounced back strongly, defeating San Diego Wave FC 1-0<\/a> away and Bay FC 3-1<\/a> at home, creating some momentum heading into the World Cup break.<\/p>\n There were a lot of questions about how Banda would return this season after suffering a season-ending injury last year. But she\u2019s been dominant, leading the league in scoring with 11 goals and in shots on target with 27. She has a commanding four-goal lead in the race for the scoring title.<\/p>\n Defensively, the team has struggled at times, notably giving up seven goals in two games as the calendar turned from April to May. But Head Coach Seb Hines made a good decision to switch Hailie Mace and Cori Dyke, moving Mace back to her natural right back position and Dyke to center back. In the five games since, the Pride have conceded three times once, twice once, and recorded two clean sheets.<\/p>\n Tonight, the Pride return to action as they head back out to the West Coast to face Angel City FC. The Southern California-based team sits 12th in the NWSL standings on 13 points, four behind the Pride for the final playoff spot. That makes tonight\u2019s game crucial as we near the midway point in the season.<\/p>\n While the Pride come into this game on a two-game winning streak, Angel City has lost its last two. Tonight\u2019s hosts fell 2-1 to the Houston Dash away and 2-1 to the North Carolina Courage at home. However, these teams haven\u2019t played since the end of May, so it\u2019s difficult to say how much that form will affect them tonight.<\/p>\n Unlike the Pride, Angel City has spread out its goals this year. While the club doesn\u2019t have anyone challenging for the golden boot, Gisele Thompson, Maiara Niehues, and Sveindis Jonsdottir all lead the team with three goals. Kennedy Fuller is right behind with two.<\/p>\n The assists are also spread out, with Evelyn Shores, Jonsdottir, and Fuller all tied on two. Five other players are just behind with one each.<\/p>\n Defensively, Angel City has remained consistent with its back line, which consists of Shores, Sarah Gorden, Sams, and Gisele Thompson. Meanwhile, Anderson continues to be the team\u2019s number one choice at goalkeeper.<\/p>\n However, Angel City has been busy since it last played. On June 17, the club traded Fuller to Bay FC for transfer funds and allocation funds. The same day, it fired Head Coach Alex Straus, handing the reins to Assistant Coach Leif Gunnar Smerud on an interim basis.<\/p>\n The following day, the LA-based side agreed to a trade with the Kansas City Current for U.S. international Ally Sentnor, sending $850,000 in intraleague transfer funds the other way.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of unknowns with a new coach coming in, new feelings, new vibes. They\u2019re not content about where they are in the league, so they\u2019ll be wanting to move up,\u201d Hines said about tonight\u2019s game. \u201cI think looking at personnel can tell you a lot about how they play. They have some great athletes in their team. They\u2019ve got a very quick back line. When the availability comes out, that can also tell you a lot about how they\u2019re going to play. They\u2019ve got some key personnel missing out on the last couple of games. So that\u2019s also important to take into account. They\u2019ve got some players coming back from injury. So, we\u2019ll analyze it when we get the availability report. But it\u2019s also about ourselves. We\u2019ve been working hard these last three weeks on being back to who we are, and it\u2019s going to be great to be tested in LA in front of their own crowd. And I know everyone\u2019s really itching to get back onto the field. So we want to set the tone early on in the game and hopefully we can set that out to the final whistle and come home with three points.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pride will take the field tonight without Banda (thigh), Kylie Nadaner (maternity leave), Oihane (lower leg), and Villacorta (knee). Angel City will be without Prisca Chilufya (knee), Savy King (foot), Leroux (excused absence), and Hina Sugita (knee).<\/p>\n Projected Lineups<\/p>\n Orlando Pride (4-2-3-1)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper: Anna Moorhouse.<\/p>\n Defenders: Kerry Abello, Rafaelle, Cori Dyke, Hailie Mace.<\/p>\n Defensive Midfielders: Angelina, Ally Lemos.<\/p>\n Attacking Midfielders: Jacquie Ovalle, Haley McCutcheon, Summer Yates.<\/p>\n Forward: Marta.<\/p>\n Angel City FC (4-2-3-1)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper: Angelina Anderson.<\/p>\n Defenders: Evelyn Shores, Sarah Gorden, Emily Sams, Gisele Thompson.<\/p>\n Defensive Midfielders: Nealy Martin, Ary Borges.<\/p>\n Attacking Midfielders: Maiara Niehues, Jun Endo, Claire Emslie.<\/p>\n Forward: Sveindis Jonsdottir.<\/p>\n Referees<\/p>\n REF: Mark Verso. How to Watch<\/p>\n Match Time: 10 p.m.<\/p>\n Venue: BMO Stadium \u2014 Los Angeles, CA.<\/p>\n TV: None.<\/p>\n Streaming: Prime Video.<\/p>\n Social Media: For live updates and rapid reaction, follow @themaneland.bsky.social<\/a> on Bluesky and the Orlando Pride\u2019s official Twitter (@ORLPride<\/a>) or Bluesky (@orlpride.com<\/a>) feed.<\/p>\n Enjoy the game. Go Pride!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to your match preview as the Orlando Pride (5-5-2, 17 points) return to action, facing Angel City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-328589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328589","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=328589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
AR1: Bruno Rizo.
AR2: Alexandra Arita.
4TH: Trevor Wiseman.
VAR: Joshua Encarnacion.
AVAR: Melissa Beck.<\/p>\n