{"id":379454,"date":"2026-08-24T04:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/379454\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T04:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:20:12","slug":"match-report-haley-mccutcheon-scores-game-winner-as-pride-defeat-washington-spirit-1-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/379454\/","title":{"rendered":"Match Report: Haley McCutcheon scores game-winner as Pride defeat Washington Spirit 1-0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 23, 2026)\u00a0\u2013 Orlando Pride (8-11-2, 26 points)\u00a0defeated the Washington Spirit (11-6-4, 37 points), 1-0, on Sunday evening at Audi Field. The victory marked the Pride\u2019s fourth consecutive regular season win at Audi Field, making Orlando just the second team in NWSL history to win four straight regular season matches at the Spirit\u2019s home venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The first half saw\u00a0the Pride score its earliest goal of the 2026\u00a0season,\u00a0with Barbra Banda pressing the Spirit defense and earning a turnover. Banda then drove down the sideline and slid a ball to the middle of the box,\u00a0where it\u00a0found an oncoming Haley McCutcheon who was able to\u00a0score with a one-time finish. The goal ties McCutcheon\u2019s career high for most goals scored in a season,\u00a0with three. Banda recorded her second assist of the year and her ninth career regular-season helper,\u00a0which ties former Pride player Alex Morgan for the\u00a0second-most\u00a0regular-season\u00a0assists\u00a0in club history.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Pride backline and goalkeeper\u00a0Cosette Morch\u00e9 held firm through a flurry of chances in the second half to earn the team\u2019s seventh clean sheet of the 2026 season. Morch\u00e9&#8217;s start in goal marked her NWSL debut, which she capped off by making three saves, including\u00a0a diving save in\u00a0second\u00a0half stoppage time to secure the three points.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With the result, head coach Seb Hines\u2019 recorded his 50th regular season victory, becoming\u00a0just the\u00a0sixth\u00a0coach in NWSL history to achieve the milestone\u00a0and the fifth to do so with one club.<\/p>\n<p>\n      Scoring Summary:<\/p>\n<p>3\u2019 Haley McCutcheon (Barbra Banda) \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/click.fanmail.orlandocitysc.com\/?qs=ABB7InYiOjEsImQiOjQ5Nzh9AAEAAAAAAZfGf9W76-8tpwrahkw0QT9jDHTdbIWNpRiui-DpQHdGS-gLpi6UXt3_fNgA71IzoSV_nHLJuGcvtJ7mJgfka9BXTQdoPCZ6hlo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ORL 1, WAS 0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n      Head Coach Seb Hines:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA terrific result. Really\u00a0gritty\u00a0performance. We took an early lead and the attention to\u00a0detail\u00a0was\u00a0really good\u00a0with players\u00a0playing their roles and doing their\u00a0responsibilities\u00a0and throwing their bodies\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0line\u00a0throughout the whole game.\u00a0Yeah, we had a little bit of luck. Good teams are always going to create opportunities to\u00a0score,\u00a0and the post helped us out, but a\u00a0really good\u00a0collective\u00a0performance\u00a0from everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pride will now\u00a0return to the City\u00a0Beautiful\u00a0for\u00a0two straight matches at\u00a0Inter.co Stadium, first taking on the Utah Royals\u00a0on Saturday, Aug. 29\u00a0(7\u00a0p.m. ET |\u00a0NWSL+).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 23, 2026)\u00a0\u2013 Orlando Pride (8-11-2, 26 points)\u00a0defeated the Washington Spirit (11-6-4, 37 points), 1-0, on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9576,6229,9947,9577,115,139,141,140,3968,6224,152168],"class_list":["post-379454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-barbra-banda","tag-cosette-morche","tag-haley-mccutcheon","tag-kylie-strom","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-pride","tag-viviana-villacorta","tag-wasvorl-08-23-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379454","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=379454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}