{"id":391425,"date":"2026-09-05T14:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391425\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T14:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:50:15","slug":"orlando-pride-begin-yolanda-thomas-coaching-era-with-home-match-against-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/391425\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Pride begin Yolanda Thomas coaching era with home match against Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Pride<\/a> enter a new era Sunday with newly named interim head coach Yolanda Thomas at the helm after the club fired Seb Hines<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Pride (8-12-2, 26 points) welcome the Houston Dash (7-10-5, 26 points) to Inter.co Stadium at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Thomas is tasked with getting the team back to winning ways, but she knows it won\u2019t be easy. Her message to the team was that they need to dare to dream and push for three points at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a tough spot, and realistically, you look at the numbers, it\u2019s tough,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a tough go. We\u2019ve had some injuries. There\u2019s no denying that we\u2019re in a tough spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as much as we were dealing with lots of emotions, I told them that the heaviest lift I\u2019m going to ask you to do is to dare to dream. And if you can lift your eyes and dare to dream that we can get three points this week, then we can do it again next week. So that\u2019s really been the ask.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston has scored nine goals in its last five games, but has been held scoreless in two consecutive 1-0 losses leading into Sunday\u2019s game. Goalkeeper Jane Campbell is averaging four saves a match, the third-best rate in the league. Like the Pride, Houston has struggled with consistency this season.<\/p>\n

The key focus for Orlando is sticking together. Midfielder Haley McCutcheon, one of the leading veterans in the squad, has seen teams with their backs up against the wall before. She believes that the Pride can use that as motivation to spur a late-season comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just doing it together, right?\u201d McCutcheon said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen in the past as other teams have gone through this. Sometimes it\u2019s a boost. It\u2019s adding to that \u2018together\u2019 mentality where our backs are against the wall, and people are counting us out even more than they already were. So I think that we can use that as fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n

After this match, Orlando faces the Kansas City Current on Friday in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

Orlando loans GK Moorhouse to Manchester City<\/p>\n

Orlando has loaned goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse to Manchester City W.F.C. of the Women\u2019s Super League through January 2027, the club announced Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnna has been an invaluable part of our club, and when the opportunity arose for her to return home to England and compete in the Women\u2019s Super League, we worked closely with her to make it happen,\u201d said Caitlin Carducci, Orlando\u2019s vice president of soccer operations and general manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fortunate to have tremendous quality and depth within our goalkeeping group, and this loan provides Anna with an opportunity to continue playing meaningful minutes at a high level while being closer to home and family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moorhouse, 31, started 20 regular-season matches for the Pride in 2026, recording 58 saves and earning six shutouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Pride enter a new era Sunday with newly named interim head coach Yolanda Thomas at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391426,"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-391425","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\/391425","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=391425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}