Orlando Pride end Angel City’s perfect start in rollercoaster 2-1 victory
Late Haley McCutcheon winner seals memorable victory for Pride
There always seems to be chaos when Angel City and Orlando Pride meet.
In five of the eight meetings between these two sides the result has been decided in the 85th minute or later.
Friday night’s 2-1 home victory for the Orlando Pride followed course, with all of the goals being scored in the 84th minute or later. No 10 Haley McCutcheon scored her first career brace, netting the third-latest goal in Pride history with her game-clinching 98th-minute score.
Angel City’s centre-backs dealt with the direct threat of defender Barbra Banda for much of the fixture, but the team’s attack offered little threat of its own before the Pride broke through late.
McCutcheon scored first in the 84th minute when Banda finally had a chance to face up a defender and fired a cross into chaos in the box before an easy tap-in.
Angel City defender Gisele Thompson responded early in stoppage time with an outside-of-the-box shot that dinged off the crossbar into the goal.
But McCutcheon secured the victory for the Pride late in added time after Marta’s corner kick put the ball into a dangerous position at the back post.
“It was very much a roller coaster,” Pride coach Seb Hines said. “The players just showed great resilience to never give up and do what it takes.”
Pride’s developing chemistry and fierce effort
While the Pride weren’t able to secure their third straight clean sheet, they put in a productive defensive effort that highlighted the improving chemistry of their newly assembled back line. They afforded Angel City just one shot on target and 0.71 xG.
Angel City controlled 66% possession in the first half, but the Pride were the aggressors thanks to a strong press, regularly winning the ball high in the pitch when the visitors tried to play out of the back.
Early on, Angel City mainly looked to play through Thompson, who pushed up the right side of the field. But after she played a cross into a dangerous area early, the Pride dealt with her threat nicely, occasionally sending a second defender to shut her down.
Right midfielder Kennedy Fuller occasionally dropped lower as Thompson pushed forward, but in the few moments Angel City broke through the Pride’s press, the new centre-back pairing of Rafaelle and Hailie Mace proved their might.
The Pride did an excellent job of reducing the space behind forward Sveindís Jónsdóttir, the March NWSL player of the month, as Rafaelle made 10 defensive contributions while winning seven of her nine duels.
The Pride have allowed just one goal in the past three games, a much-needed change from the team’s opening home loss to the Seattle Reign and draw to expansion side Denver Summit, in which they allowed a total of three goals.
Following the departure of 2024 NWSL defender of the year Emily Sams to Angel City in the offseason, multiple Pride players said the team needed a couple of games to build chemistry. Now, it seems they’ve found it.
“It’s hard at the beginning of the season to get used to each other,” Mace said during the week, “so after a few games, we have developed a pretty good chemistry between the backline.”
Angel City building on Alexander Straus’ vision
Angel City can draw positives from their ability to limit Banda, the Pride’s most dangerous attacker. They often prevented the Pride from finding her in dangerous direct moments in transition as the centre-back pairing of Sarah Gorden and Sams used pace and physicality to deal with the threat.
Banda broke through just once in the first half during the 10th minute when Angelina stepped up and fired a long ball behind Angel City’s centre backs, but, as you can see in the screenshots below, Gorden tracked Banda down late to deflect a chance on goal.
“Sarah is probably one of the fastest and strongest defenders in the league,” Angel City coach Straus said after the game, “I don’t see anybody who has controlled [Banda] in a way that Sarah did today.”
Hines said after the Pride’s previous fixture that Banda’s next evolution will be to be more proactive and recognise when teams step up to play her offside or look to bump her off balance against top-class centre-backs.
“I’m quite demanding with (Banda),” Hines said, “because I think there are so many levels she can reach.”
But Angel City still has plenty of room to grow as they failed to break through the Pride’s high line and build out of the back, much like how they struggled in the first half of their 2-1 victory against the Dash the previous week.
Against the Dash’s 4-2-4 press, Angel City frequently turned the ball over in their own third as they fell behind 1-0. They flipped the game in the second half, becoming more direct and playing with intensity.
Straus has tried to build Angel City into a contender by bringing in players who can handle his intense training environment, which he said tries to replicate the demands of games. He recently called his team’s ceiling an “illusion,” saying they can be the best team in the world after their 3-0-0 start.
But he added that the process can take multiple years, and he does not view development in terms of individual seasons. This week, Straus said the Pride, who won the NWSL title in 2024, are a team that Angel City aspires to replicate.
“Today, we could have gone away from here with a very, very good point and played an almost perfect away game,” Straus said. “But we threw it away in the end. And that’s unacceptable for us as a team and as a unit.”
Both teams will have a few weeks off before returning to action in late April due to the upcoming international break. But heading into it, the Pride could be concerned about the status of Mexican forward Jacqueline Ovalle, who was carried off the field in the 58th minute.
Ovalle had seemingly found her stride this year after joining the Pride in 2025 for a world-record transfer fee, scoring two assists in her first four starts coming into Friday. Hines said he did not have a postgame update on her status and would wait for the team’s medical staff to assess her injury.
“She’s a really important player for us,” Hines said. “We’d hate for her to miss any games.”
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