The Orlando Pride are back at home this weekend, looking to build on a two-game unbeaten streak under interim head coach Yolanda Thomas.<\/p>\n
The Pride (9-12-3, 30 points) take on the Portland Thorns (11-7-6, 39 points) at Inter.Co Stadium on Saturday at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201c(We\u2019re) looking forward to Saturday\u2019s game. We went to Kansas City, and we hoped for the win, but we did well. We came back with a point,\u201d Orlando forward Barbra Banda said. \u201cA draw wasn\u2019t bad playing an away game, so we\u2019re looking forward to playing at home and looking forward to winning the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orlando played Portland on the road in August, falling 2-1 thanks to a last-minute goal from Caiya Hanks. The Pride are 5-16-2 all-time against the Thorns, but a much more respectable 4-5-2 at home.<\/p>\n
Banda, fresh off a new contract that ties her to the club through 2029, leads Orlando with 16 goals in 20 games. She scored a brace in the 2-2 draw with Kansas City last Friday, and Orlando will need her at her best to earn a win against Portland. Banda is not feeling the pressure, instead just focusing on scoring and supporting her teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think at this stage I don\u2019t carry any pressure because I think I\u2019ve played a lot of games, so I know how to handle pressure,\u201d Banda added. \u201c(I want) to make everyone happy, our fans, my teammates. Whenever I have a chance, then I just have to put smiles on their faces.<\/p>\n
Portland is led by American forward Sophia Wilson, who has scored 12 goals in 24 matches. The Thorns have only scored six goals in their past five games, and they have gone three straight without a victory.<\/p>\n
Neither team has earned a draw in this matchup in the past nine meetings, giving Orlando hope that it can get all three points as the Pride fight for a playoff spot. Orlando sits seven points behind Seattle Reign FC in the eighth and final playoff spot.<\/p>\n
Orlando\u2019s next match is a road trip to take on Bay FC on Sept. 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Pride are back at home this weekend, looking to build on a two-game unbeaten streak under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403779,"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-403778","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\/403778","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=403778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}