Washington, D.C. (08\/23\/2026) \u2013 The Washington Spirit took a hard-fought 0-1 loss to the Orlando Pride at Audi Field on Sunday evening. Despite the loss, the Spirit will hold onto its second-place spot on the NWSL table following the weekend.<\/p>\n
The first half began with Orlando striking first in the third minute. Following a fast break, Pride midfielder Haley McCutcheon received the ball from a low cross and finished with a one-time shot past Spirit keeper Sandy MacIver. Despite going down early, the Spirit fought back in the attacking third and produced quality chances throughout the evening. In the 12th minute, forwards Sofia Cantore and Tamara Bolt both had shots in the Orlando box, with both attempts hitting the post.<\/p>\n
The Spirit continued to look dangerous in the 40th minute when Bolt dispossessed an Orlando defender and crossed to Trinity Rodman at the top of the box, but Rodman dragged her shot wide of the goal. Just before the half ended, Rodman possessed the ball out wide and delivered a cross into the box, where defender Tara Rudd sent her header over the bar. The referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and the Spirit went into the break having recorded eight shots and secured more than 70% possession.<\/p>\n
The Spirit made a change in attack to start the second half, with forward Gift Monday making her return to the side after this summer\u2019s WAFCON tournament, coming on for Bolt. In the 56th minute, Orlando threatened again when forward Barbra Banda dribbled into the Spirit box and flashed a shot wide of the goal. A minute later, after winning a challenge in the Orlando box, Rodman fired a shot from around the penalty spot, but an Orlando defender blocked the shot to prevent a scoring chance. More Spirit changes came in the 60th minute, with Paige Metayer coming on for defender \u00c9lisabeth Ts\u00e9 and forward Claudia Mart\u00ednez for Sofia Cantore.<\/p>\n
In the 73rd minute, forward Ashley Hatch entered the match and received a warm welcome back to Audi Field from the Spirit fans. This marked Hatch\u2019s first appearance at home in over 15 months. The Spirit\u2019s final substitution\u00a0was defender Gabrielle Carle coming on for Kate Wiesner. The referee indicated 11 minutes of stoppage time as the Spirit looked for the equalizer. In the fifth minute of added time, Hatch got her head on a cross from a corner, but her effort\u00a0just clipped the top of the crossbar and went over. Again looking threatening from a corner, Monday\u00a0was open\u00a0toward the back post, but her header\u00a0found the outside netting. After nearly 102 minutes of play, the referee blew the final whistle signaling three points for Orlando.<\/p>\n
Next up, the Spirit will continue a short home-stand, hosting Bay FC for the second and final meeting of the regular season between the sides. Kicking off at 12:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, August 30, the match will air on ESPN2.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
-NWSL Match Report-\u00a0<\/p>\n
Match: Washington Spirit vs. Orlando Pride\u00a0<\/p>\n
Date: Sunday, August 23, 2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
Venue: Audi Field (Washington, D.C.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kickoff: 4 p.m. EDT\u00a0<\/p>\n
Weather: Sunny, low-80s\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scoring Summary:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Goals\u00a0
\n1\u00a0
\n2\u00a0
\nF\u00a0<\/p>\n
Washington\u00a0
\n0\u00a0
\n0\u00a0
\n0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orlando\u00a0
\n1\u00a0
\n0\u00a0
\n1\u00a0<\/p>\n
ORL \u2013 Haley McCutcheon \u2013 3\u2032 (assisted by Barbra Banda)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lineups:\u00a0<\/p>\n
WAS: 18 \u2013 Sandy MacIver; 6 \u2013 Kate Wiesner (14 \u2013 Gabrielle Carle, 77\u2019); 5 \u2013 \u00c9lisabeth Ts\u00e9 (26 \u2013 Paige Metayer, 61\u2019); 9 \u2013 Tara Rudd; 24 \u2013 Esme Morgan; 27 \u2013 Sofia Cantore (11 \u2013 Claudia Mart\u00ednez, 61\u2019); 20 \u2013 Deborah Abiodun (33 \u2013 Ashley Hatch, 74\u2019); 17 \u2013 Hal Hershfelt; 2 \u2013 Trinity Rodman; 19 \u2013 Rosemonde Kouassi; 16 \u2013 Tamara Bolt (21 \u2013 Gift Monday, 46\u2019)<\/p>\n
Unused Substitutes: 28 \u2013 Sara Wojdelko; 4 \u2013 Rebeca Bernal; 12 \u2013 Andi Sullivan;\u00a035 \u2013 Madison Haugen\u00a0<\/p>\n
ORL: 77 \u2013 Cosette Morch\u00e9; 5 \u2013 Hailie Mace; 4 \u2013 Rafaelle; 12 \u2013 Cori Dyke; 21 \u2013 Oihane; 6 \u2013 Ally Lemos (28 \u2013 Summer Yates, 77\u2019); 13 \u2013 Jacquie Ovalle (8 \u2013 Luana, 90+8\u2019); 2 \u2013 Haley McCutcheon; 7 \u2013 Angelina; 11 \u2013 Barbra Banda; 20 \u2013\u00a0Julie Doyle (23 \u2013 Nicole Payne, 62\u2019)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unused Substitutes: 1 \u2013 Anna Moorhouse; 31 \u2013 Cara Martin; 16 \u2013 Zara Chavoshi; 18 \u2013 Gabi Nunes; 33 \u2013 Zoe Matthews; 41 \u2013 Hannah Anderson\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stats Summary: WAS \/ ORL\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shots: 23 \/ 10\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shots On Goal: 3 \/ 2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saves: 1 \/ 3\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fouls: 9 \/ 13\u00a0<\/p>\n
Offsides: 0 \/ 0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Misconduct Summary:\u00a0<\/p>\n
ORL \u2013 Barbra Banda \u2013 69\u2032 \u2013 Yellow Card\u00a0<\/p>\n
WAS \u2013 Gabrielle Carle \u2013 90+9\u2032 \u2013 Yellow Card\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington, D.C. (08\/23\/2026) \u2013 The Washington Spirit took a hard-fought 0-1 loss to the Orlando Pride at Audi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-379387","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\/379387","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=379387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}