Match report
2024 NWSL Championship: Orlando Pride 1-0 Washington Spirit
She Kicks, issue 88, February 2025 pp.28–29
Orlando Pride won their first NWSL Championship, beating Washington Spirit 1-0 in front of a sell-out crowd at Kansas City’s CPKC Stadium thanks to Barbra Banda’s first-half strike. It capped a stunning debut NWSL season for the Zambian forward and a remarkable turnaround for a club that had reached the play-offs only once since its 2016 founding, driven by league Coach of the Year Seb Hines. England’s Esme Morgan started for a Washington side that equalled their best-ever regular-season finish, while Brazilian great Marta lifted the trophy in her eighth and final season at the club, delivering an unfiltered, expletive-laden victory speech that summed up years of waiting. A landmark night for a franchise transformed, and a fitting send-off for one of the sport’s most decorated players.