Just over three months after winning the franchise’s first NWSL Championship, the Orlando Pride enters 2025 in the unfamiliar position of league favorite.
“Everybody’s gonna hunt after us, and we need to deal with this and find a way to keep doing our best to keep making history for this club,” six-time world player of the year and Orlando forward Marta said on Thursday.
Orlando and the Washington Spirit kick off the 2025 NWSL slate on Friday in the NWSL Challenge Cup, a Community Shield type of event that doesn’t count toward the standings but pits the previous year’s NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship winners against each other for a preseason trophy.
Orlando won both trophies last year, making this year’s Challenge Cup a rematch of November’s final. The Pride won 1-0 behind a goal from forward Barbra Banda.
“Yeah, it’s personal,” Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury said on Thursday about the rematch. “I want to win everything, and this is the first trophy. [Spirit head coach Jonatan Giráldez] has talked to us a lot about that. We’re here to win.”
“It’s a good and big opportunity that we have right now to win a title,” Giráldez said. “We only have to play a game, try to be better than them and create more chances and be close to win this title. We know…
