{"id":371717,"date":"2026-08-14T22:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T22:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371717\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T22:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T22:16:10","slug":"orlando-pride-start-2-match-road-trip-at-always-tough-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371717\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Pride start 2-match road trip at always-tough Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Pride<\/a> are struggling, having lost five of seven matches since returning from the NWSL\u2019s summer break. Things won\u2019t get any easier when Orlando visits Portland \u2014 typically a place that has been tough on the Pride \u2014 on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Coming off their most recent defeat,\u00a0a 3-1 loss to Racing Louisville<\/a> last week,\u00a0Orlando (7-10-2, 23 points) takes on the Portland Thorns (9-6-4, 31 points) at Providence Park at 8:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a tough environment to go play,\u201d Orlando head coach Seb Hines said about playing in Portland. \u201cObviously, the fans really get behind the team. We need to bounce back from two disappointing results. (It) hasn\u2019t been good enough, and it gives us a week to really prepare for this game and change things around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pride, who have slid to 11th in the NWSL standings<\/a>, have historically had trouble in Portland, with a 1-10-0 record in the Rose City. Orlando\u2019s lone victory in Oregon was a 2-1 result in May 2018. Portland, fifth in the table, is one of the league\u2019s best teams at home and is 5-0-3 in 2026, but Hines is hopeful he can find an answer this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a hostile environment,\u201d Hines said. \u201cYou have to play into that. You know, you have to embrace those moments. The fans are not rooting for you; they\u2019re against you. And I think big characters have to step up in those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s biggest offensive threat, Barbra Banda, might return<\/a> to the starting lineup after participating in the Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations with her native Zambia. She has 12 goals in 15 games and is still leading the league\u2019s Golden Boot race. The Pride have not been able to muster much of an attack without her, with just two goals in the last five games, so they will likely need her back to full strength if they hope to compete for a victory.<\/p>\n

Portland has plenty of attacking threats, led by forward Sophia Wilson<\/a> (nine goals, two assists). The Thorns have scored eight goals in their last five matches, with four of those coming in a thrilling 4-3 victory over Boston Legacy last weekend. Defensively, the Thorns have not kept a clean sheet in five matches, but they have more than enough offensive firepower to make up for the defensive shakiness.<\/p>\n

After the trip to Portland, Orlando next heads to Washington to take on the Spirit on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n

Orlando signs Norwegian forward<\/p>\n

The\u202fOrlando Pride has signed forward Sanne Lekven through the 2028 season, with a club\u202foption\u202ffor\u202f2029,\u202fthe team announced. Lekven will join the Pride pending receipt of her visa and International Transfer Certificate.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanne is a strong, dynamic attacker with the speed to stretch defenses and the work rate to impact the game in multiple phases,\u201d said Caitlin Carducci, Orlando\u2019s VP of soccer operations and general manager. \u201cAt 25 years old, she has already gained valuable experience and is entering an exciting stage of her career. We believe she can make an immediate contribution to our attack, and we\u2019re excited to welcome her to Orlando.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lekven, 25, joins the Pride from\u202fAalesunds\u202fFK of Norway\u2019s\u202fToppserien, the\u202ftop flight\u202fof Norwegian women\u2019s soccer. After beginning her career with Stord IL, Lekven made her\u202fToppserien\u202fdebut in 2020 and has since featured for clubs including Sandviken, Viking FK, Arna-Bj\u00f8rnar and\u202fAalesunds. Across 10 appearances during the 2026 campaign, Lekven has tallied five goals, including a brace in a May 2 match against Molde FK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Pride are struggling, having lost five of seven matches since returning from the NWSL\u2019s summer break.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371718,"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":["post-371717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-pride","tag-soccer","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371717","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=371717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}