The Best Soccer Team in America You Haven’t Heard of: Orlando Pride Undefeated in NWSL

The Orlando Pride have taken this season by storm winning eleven games and drawing five getting them to the new summer break in the NWSL season at the top of the league. Led by the experience of their captain Marta, who has bagged five goals and an assist so far this season combined with Barbara Banda, the first player this season to reach a double-digit goal tally of 13 goals and five assists. Although Orlando Pride could not have asked for a better first half of the season, they are only three points clear of second place Kansas City Current because of their heroic win away to KC Current right before the summer break. Orlando went into the second half tied with the Current 1-1 thanks to an opening goal by Barbara Banda however, they went in one woman down as Carrie Lawrance got a red card just before halftime.

Thanks to a penalty scored by Marta in the 63rd minute Orlando held on to get all three points. This season of the NWSL seems to be on a knives edge halfway through the season with the top three teams only separated by four points, yet most people have no idea. Although women’s sport has seen a huge bump in attention through the explosion of Caitlin Clark in the WNBA and Simone Biles at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the NWSL has seemingly slipped through the cracks of mainstream attention. With teams like Kansas City Current having big-time owners like Patrick Mahomes and league-high average attendances of 11,500 it’s only a matter of time before Women’s soccer becomes more mainstream.

Orlando City, the brother club to Orlando Pride, is currently seventh in the Eastern Conference of the MLS after a poor start to their season yet still have an average attendance of 22,649 while Orlando Pride finds themselves averaging 7,215 fans a game. The Orlando Pride start the second half of the NWSL season on August 24th away at the Houston Dash, looking to continue their winning ways to bring the first major league championship to Orlando ever across all sports. Their next home match is on September 1st against Gotham FC at Inter and Co stadium in Orlando.