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Orlando, Fla. (03/07/2025) – The Washington Spirit will take the field for the first time in 2025 when it faces the Orlando Pride in the annual NWSL Challenge Cup. The contest will be a rematch of November’s 2024 NWSL Championship which the Pride won by a 1-0 margin. The match will kick off at 8 p.m. EST at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Florida and stream live on Prime Video.
The Spirit
The Spirit is looking to build on one of its most successful seasons in club history in 2025. Setting new marks for wins (18), points (56) and goals scored (51) last season, the team progressed to its third NWSL Championship match and came up just short of taking home its second league title.
Breakout rookie performances were a trend in 2024. Midfielder Croix Bethune tied the long-standing NWSL single season assists record (10) in just 17 matches and won both the Rookie and Midfielder of the Year awards. Fellow midfielder Hal Hershfelt established herself as a future star in the NWSL and earned Best XI Second Team honors. Forward Makenna Morris burst onto the scene with five goals and a Rookie of the Month honor in just 12 matches played while defender Kate Wiesner, midfielder Courtney Brown and midfielder Heather Stainbrook all tallied goals as well. These players enter their sophomore campaign Friday night looking to keep up the momentum from 2024.
The Spirit and Pride are familiar foes, having played against one another 26 times since Orlando joined the NWSL in 2016. Spirit forward Ashley Hatch and Pride star Marta have scored nine and ten goals, respectively, in the all-time Spirit vs. Pride regular season series. These figures are the most goals a Spirit player has scored against a single opponent and, conversely, the most goals the Spirit has conceded to a single player.
In the first of (at least) three matchups between the sides in 2025, the Spirit will look to get its first win over Orlando since an August 2023 Challenge Cup group stage match. The Pride had Washington’s number last season, taking all three contests with an aggregate score of 6-2.
The Opponent
Defending Shield and Championship winner Orlando Pride enters Friday’s match with an opportunity to win the side’s third trophy in five months, all against the Spirit. Orlando clinched the club’s first-ever NWSL Shield win a 2-0 home win over Washington on October 6 before winning the side’s first-ever NWSL Championship with a 1-0 win over the Spirit on November 23 in Kansas City.
Pride newcomer Barbra Banda was one of the NWSL’s brightest breakout stars of 2024, scoring 17 goals in her first season with the team. Orlando’s second leading scorer last year was Marta with 11 goals before the 39-year-old re-signed with the club on a new two-year deal.
Orlando enters Friday night’s match having not lost a match at Inter&Co Stadium since August 25, 2023 when the side lost 2-1 to eventual Shield winner San Diego Wave FC. The Pride went unbeaten through its first 23 matches of the 2024 regular season, clinching the Shield before losing its first match of the year.
After Friday’s match, the Spirit and Pride will meet again in just six weeks, this time in the regular season.
What’s On the Line
With a win, the Washington Spirit would earn its first Challenge Cup title and first trophy since the club’s 2021 NWSL Championship win. The Orlando Pride can also capture the side’s first Challenge Cup title on Friday.
All-Time Series History
The Spirit owns a split 9-10-7 all-time record against the Orlando Pride with a +1 goal differential (36-35). In Challenge Cup competition, the Spirit owns a 3-1-1 record against the Pride with a +5 goal differential (9-4). Historically, regular season play has favored the Pride as the Spirit holds a slight losing record of 6-8-6 in those matches. Orlando won the sole postseason meeting between the sides with a 1-0 win in the 2024 NWSL Championship.
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