Defending National Women’s Soccer League champions Orlando Pride erased a two-goal halftime deficit to defeat Angel City FC 3-2 on Friday and avoid a second straight defeat.
The Pride trailed 2-0 at halftime. Orlando forwards Marta and Barbra Banda scored four minutes apart in the second half before Angel City defender M.A. Vignola put the ball into her own net in stoppage time for the game-winner.
“Thank God there are 90 minutes,” Marta said afterward on the Prime Sports broadcast.
Orlando lost 1-0 at home to the Washington Spirit last week. It was the Pride’s first home loss in over 600 days and a rare loss overall. Orlando started the 2024 season on a 23-game unbeaten run on its way to the NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship double.
“We don’t lower our standards just because we had a loss,” said Pride defender Carson Pickett, who played a role in two goals on Friday.
“The best teams in this league and the best teams in the world find a way to win after a loss, and I think everyone looks at you a little more to see how you’re going to react to a loss. And I think that we did just that.”
Angel City rookie Riley Tiernan opened the scoring in the 9th minute by beating Pride goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse at the near post. Midfielder Katie Zelem doubled the visitors’ lead just before halftime when the Pride thrice failed to clear the ball on a corner kick.
Pride defender Kerry Abello called the first half “a weird funk.”
The game changed around the hour mark with a slew of substitutions. Angel City midfielder Alanna Kennedy left the game due to a swollen left eye after taking an elbow to the face. Orlando made a triple change two minutes later, bringing on usual starters Ally Watt and Haley McCutcheon alongside newcomer fullback Oihane Hernández, who won the 2023 World Cup with Spain.
Marta latched onto a ball from Oihane in the 72nd minute to get a goal back for Orlando.
Banda scored the equalizer four minutes later with a precise header that hit off the inside of the post and went in. Watt had overhit a cross and Pickett — a substitute who came into the match following Marta’s goal — raced after the ball to keep it in bounds before sending in a left-footed cross.
“What I like mostly is about the mentality,” Marta said. “We know some games we can’t use everybody, but as soon as we need them, they step in and they give everything. This is the team. We do everything together. When we lose, we lose together and when we win, we win together. We need to keep doing it like that.”
Pickett and Watt were part of the game-winner in the third minute of second-half stoppage time.
Pickett sent a left-footed cross into the box from a deep area looking for Watt, and Vignola attempted to play the ball with her chest but redirected it into her own net.
Angel City entered the game on the heels of a 4-0 home loss to NJ/NY Gotham FC last week. The Los Angeles side had started the season unbeaten through four games prior to that.
“This is a really, really good lesson for this young team,” Angel City FC interim coach Sam Laity said, praising his team’s performance but noting its inexperience.
“I think it’s hard to take. That wasn’t a game that we deserved to lose. We’ll take the positives from it, and we’ll learn a lot. But look, that’s why that team’s the champions, that’s why they won the Shield, that’s why he won the championship. We will learn from that.”
