It feels like months since the Orlando Pride last took the field, but the calendar says otherwise. If you believe calendars, it's only been a little less than three weeks, but time moves strangely in the post-pandemic apocalyptic world.

Anyway, we don't have a match to recap, so we touched on a couple of Pride players putting the ball in the net during the international break and chat a bit about the United States Women's National Team's three-game friendly series against Japan. Emma Hayes used a lot of players, and the team looked solid for two of the three matches, but the rotated middle game seemed a bit disjointed. Hayes has greatly expanded the player pool and will have plenty of options when the World Cup approaches.

Our mailbagbox had questions about a potential change in the NWSL schedule, as the league explores adopting the fall-to-spring slate, and opposition own goals. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

After the mailbagbox, we turned our attention toward Friday's late afternoon tussle with Racing Louisville in Kentucky. The Pride have never won on the road against Louisville, and it's about high time they did. This match begins a congested push to the June World Cup break, and although Friday's hosts aren't high in the table, the Pride must be at their best to get a road result in this fixture. We look back at the series history, compare the two sides, provide our key matchups in the game, and make our final score predictions.

If you'd like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we'd love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 119 went down:

0:15 – We open the show with a little banter about the Pride in the international break and the USWNT's series vs. Japan.

9:03 - The mailbagbox features questions via both eletronic mail and social media. We welcome all modes of delivery.

19:59 - The Pride travel to Louisville to face Racing. They've never won in Kentucky, but we inform them how to do so.

Angel City FC entered Inter&Co Stadium without a loss on the 2026 season. The Los Angeles-based club left Inter&Co Stadium with one loss on the 2026 season. That's mainly because Haley McCutcheon turned vulture just a few feet in front of the Angel City net. The veteran midfielder scored on two shots that traveled about a combined six feet, ending what could have otherwise been a frustrating night on a high note.

The Pride scored late, conceded later, and retook the lead even later than that on the way to a 2-1 home win over former Orlando defender Emily Sams' new team in a match that saw two would-be Pride goals not count. The first was offside and the second was for a push, but the other two counted despite nervy reviews.

We look back at a solid performance against a good Angel City side, checked our score predictions (one of us nailed it), and made our picks for Player of the Match. Several players performed well, but it was an easy pick in the end.

Unfortunately, it wasn't all good for the Pride, as both Jacquie Ovalle and Oihane left the match with injuries.

Our mailbagbox had questions about starters on the back line, memes, NWSL referees, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

With the international break upon us, we touched on the USWNT's upcoming matches against Japan briefly before wrapping up the show.

If you'd like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we'd love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 118 went down:

0:15 – Angel City's perfect record is over, thanks to Haley McCutcheon and the Pride.

18:16 - The Mailbagbox brings some snark this week as the listeners weren't fans of the officiating Friday.

37:42 - The international break is here, so it'll be a minute before the Pride travel to face Racing Louisville.

It was a long, difficult road trip, but the Orlando Pride return to the City Beautiful with four out of a possible six points after a dominant win over the Chicago Stars and a scoreless draw against defending champion Gotham FC. The Pride have played well this season but started slowly in front of goal. But now the team has put together three consecutive results, and with a little better final product, this is a team that can cook.

We look back at the excellent performance at Chicago, as Jacquie Ovalle twinkled among the Stars, Barbra Banda kept burning bright, and Hannah Anderson went supernova on her old team. (Have I exhausted the star puns yet? I admit to nothing.) We look back at our score predictions and select our Player of the Match.

We didn't have any goals to break down from the Gotham match, but we discussed the difficulty of staying on the road for a second game, the physicality of how Gotham FC defends Banda, and the joy of keeping a second straight clean sheet. Plus, a look back at our predictions (correct result, incorrect score) and our Player of the Match vote is split.

Our mailbagbox had questions about unused substitutions, Julie Doyle's hair, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

Finally, we looked ahead to Friday's visit from Angel City, including former Pride favorite Emily Sams, who turned heel this off-season and shuffled off to Southern California. She might get a warm reception from the crowd, but hopefully the Pride attacking players will be less forgiving. We look at the series history, the teams' relative places in the table, and some of the visitors' key players. We also provide our key matchups and try to predict the final score.

If you'd like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we'd love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 117 went down:

0:15 – Two game recaps, as the Pride had a busy week on tour.

14:31 - Mailbagbox says its time for Doyle to re-adopt the buns.

26:45 - The tale of the tape as Angel City searches for its first loss of the NWSL season. Will it happen in Orlando? Series history suggests not.

The Orlando Pride have yet to win despite dominating their first two matches of the season. Soccer balls aren't going into the net enough to take all three points, although Barbra Banda is among the league's leaders with two goals. The Pride continued generating scoring chances against Denver on Friday but they simply aren't finding the net enough or starting games quickly.

We break the team's 1-1 draw against the Denver Summit, check back on our score predictions from last week, and make our selections for Player of the Match.

Our mailbagbox had questions about help for Banda, the High Impact Player rule, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

Finally, we looked ahead to tonight's match at the Chicago Stars and Sunday's match at Gotham FC. We discuss the series history, the team's relative spots in the standings, our key matchups, and our score predictions.

If you'd like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we'd love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 116 went down:

0:15 – The Pride dominate in chance creation but score the same number of goals as Denver.

21:28 - Mailbagbox questions abound. We're happy to answer them.

33:02 - The Pride head out on the road for a pair of critical games this week.

The Orlando Pride kicked off their 2026 season with a solid performance but a poor result. The 2-1 home loss to the Seattle Reign was a bitter one, as a costly call denied Orlando a first-half equalizer, while a late breakdown on a recycled set piece handed all of the points to the visitors. Barbra Banda looked good in her return from injury, scoring Orlando's only goal, although she could have had a few more on another night. Her teammates were even more wasteful as the Pride generated 23 shots but missed the net on many of their best opportunities.

We break down the loss, check on our score predictions to see that we both correctly picked the final score but got the winner wrong, and made our selections for Player of the Match.

Our mailbagbox had questions about Seven Castain, Anna Moorhouse, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

Finally, we looked ahead to Friday's first match ever between the Pride and the Denver Summit. A couple of friendly faces will be on the other side when the Summit arrives in Orlando, and we're looking forward to seeing whether the Pride can continue racking up scoring chances (and if they can be more clinical with them this time). We offer up our key matchups and make our predictions for the final score.

If you'd like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we'd love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 115 went down:

0:15 – The Pride played well enough to win but didn't. They did enough on the field to claim a point but didn't. Soccer is maddening.

21:19 - It's mailbagbox time — now in season!

30:38 - The Pride host the Denver Summit Friday in the first meeting between the clubs. We preview it.

One of the quietest off-seasons in club history is over as the Orlando Pride prepare to open their 2026 NWSL season on Sunday. It's been so quiet, we've had our maximum off-season schedule time off over the last couple of months, but we hope you're still out there and ready for more SkoPurp Soccer talk.

We begin this episode with some rare preseason news, as the Pride actually released some details about their final scrimmage ahead of league play. Orlando posted a 2-1 win over Fort Lauderdale United, and we even know who scored the goals! Additionally, McKinley Crone is back with Orlando after being on loan with last weekend's host team, so the Pride have plenty of goalkeepers once more.

After the preseason news, we were happy to welcome Orlando Pride Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Caitlin Carducci to the show for the first time. We talked Carducci up about the Pride's quiet off-season, the vacancy left behind by Emily Sams, the players who have impressed in camp, her approach to a large number of players who will either be out of contract or require a decision on an option year at season's end, and much more. Big thanks to the Pride's new GM for taking time out of her busy schedule to put up with our questions.

Our mailbagbox is curious about which players could slip themselves into the team's top three goal scorers in 2026. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

Finally, we looked ahead to Sunday's match against the Seattle Reign. For Seattle, it will be the club's third consecutive competitive match against Orlando, but they won't see the Pride again until Decision Day. We discuss some of the Reign's key players, the series history, our key matchups, and our score predictions for the season opener.

We're in our off-season schedule now, so we'll be back at least monthly, and as often as news requires.

If you'd like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we'd love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 114 went down:

0:15 – Pride preseason news! We have some! Just in time for the regular season.

8:25 - Caitlin Carducci jumps on with us and spends about 20 minutes answering a variety of questions about the club.

32:00 - Our mailbagbox is short and sweet, and then we jump into our preview of Orlando vs. Seattle.

It's been a month and a half since our last episode of this podcast, and our only defense is that the club hasn't really given us much to talk about. The Pride have gone silent in regard to team news, but things almost certainly have to pick up with the season approaching, right? Right?!

Our first order of business is the preseason schedule that came out the day of the first preseason scrimmage. We know who won and who scored, but we're not at liberty to say. That doesn't help you, the listener, and that's kind of our point. Preseason doesn't have to be a state secret, but the club continues to prefer it that way.

With the season opener coming in just a couple of weeks, there are some cool events to take the place of actual preseason news, and soon you can see the Pride's replacement for the Citrus Kit, have a pint with the Pride, and get out and look for a scarf. Is that as cool as a signing? We leave that for you to decide.

Our mailbagbox wants to know if Emma Hayes hates Orlando, when the Pride will announce a signing, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

That's it! It's a short one this month, but the club was short on news. We will not take quite so long between episodes next time.

We're in our off-season schedule now, so we'll be back at least monthly, and as often as news requires.

If you'd like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we'd love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 113 went down:

0:15 – The Pride tell us about preseason games they won't tell us about, and there are some cool upcoming team-related events.

10:32 - Our mailbagbox has been waiting for answers for like a month now.

We're back with our first show of the 2026 calendar year and there's a lot to talk about. We start things off with the bad news: Emily Sams has played her last game with the Orlando Pride (barring some wacky future return). The Pride traded Sams — at her request — to Angel City, and even though the club got a pile of intraleague transfer funds in return, it just doesn't feel like enough. We discuss the disarray now prevalent in the center back position group with the Sams departure and Kylie Nadaner's pregnancy.

We also discussed two new arrivals who can play center back even though they should probably stick to fullback. The Pride brought in Hailie Mace and Hannah Anderson to help on the back line. Both are versatile, but neither is Sams at center back.

Our mailbagbox is a short one this time out, as we're asked if more Pride players will depart or arrive between now and the start of the season. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

After our mailbagbox, we spend slightly less time discussing Grace Chanda's departure than Chanda spent on the pitch for the Pride. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but not as much of one as you'd think.

Finally, we discussed the big news: Orlando has found a new vice president of soccer operations and general manager to replace Haley Carter. Stepping into the role is former Kansas City Current GM Caitlin Carducci, who brings a wealth of experience in various disciplines to Orlando in much the same way Carter did. If it also makes the Current weaker, it's twice as good of a hire as it appears to be on the surface.

We're in our off-season schedule now, so we'll be back at least monthly, and as often as news requires.

If you'd like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we'd love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 112 went down:

0:15 – Sams is gone, as we start the show on a down note for the second consecutive episode.

19:41 - Our mailbagbox seems nervous about players leaving.

28:05 - Grace Chanda departs but the Pride have a new GM, so perhaps a replacement on the roster won't be far away.