The NWSL playoffs officially kicked off Friday with the Orlando Pride advancing with a 4-1 win over the Chicago Red Stars. Forward Barbra Banda’s return to the score sheet helped Orlando as it looks to add the NWSL championship trophy next to its 2024 NWSL Shield.
The narrative of the playoffs has largely centered around the top four seeded teams and the expectations that all four will advance as the 2024 regular season showed a clear divide between the best-performing teams and the rest of the league. While Friday night didn’t provide an upset, more opportunities await as the rest of the weekend unfolds.
Orlando Pride 4-1 Chicago Red Stars
Orlando came into the game hot to go. Banda’s own goalkeeper, Anna Moorhouse, has spoken this season about how little time you have when Banda is closing down on you. It was precisely that pressure that put Chicago on notice, particularly throughout the first half.
Though Banda didn’t open the scoring — that was reserved for a header from Haley McCutcheon in the 26th minute — she had a brace by the halftime whistle, both times racing into space and selecting the right shot on Red Stars goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher. Her second goal was an example of her ability to quickly select an unexpected shot, to know when to pick placement and when to pick power, as her whisper-gentle touch feathered it past an onrushing Naeher.
Chicago did get one back from the initiative of rookie Jameese Joseph, who pounced on Moorhouse as she took too much time on the ball. But mostly, the team looked unable to keep up with Orlando, confused in midfield and vulnerable on defense.
“I feel like they were definitely baiting us. They wanted us to play through the middle and I think we really did a good job of exploiting them in the wide areas and behind,” said midfielder McCutcheon after the game. “Those transition passes when we win the ball in their shape, and they’re disorganized, is where we want to exploit them. That’s how Barbra got her first one, I think her second one as well.”
An unbelievable ball in and a calm finish from Barbra Banda 👊 pic.twitter.com/7LocBoxvAj
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) November 9, 2024
Importantly for Orlando, Banda got on the scoresheet after a big cooling-off period in terms of her scoring after the Olympics. It was against perhaps the weakest opposition they were likely to face in playoffs, but there’s no quantifying the confidence boost that can come from scoring after a bit of a drought.
“Barbra’s had an unreal year, and she’s gone through an Olympics, a lot of change coming into a new team,” McCutcheon said. “And so I think that she’s shown, not just in the goal she scored tonight, but in her play and her pressing, her defending, that when we can get her more involved in any capacity that it’s going to help the team.”
2 – Barbra Banda is the second player to score multiple goals in a single half of an #NWSL Playoff match (Amy Rodriguez – 1st half of 2015 semifinal vs. Chicago). Overwhelming. pic.twitter.com/TgWKwwiQiC
— OptaJack⚽️ (@OptaJack) November 9, 2024
Pride defender Emily Sams said in early October — while Orlando’s undefeated streak was still intact — that the team felt it would be far better to lose in the regular season than in playoffs.
“And then you can build back up from that loss and see what it says about the character of the team,” Sams said. “And then learn about yourself and your team, and then take that into playoffs.”
The Pride lost 2-0 away to the Portland Thorns and then 3-1 away to Gotham FC before getting back to its winning ways with a 3-2 win over the Seattle Reign to close the regular season. The team did exactly what Sams talked about: rode the upswing into its playoff game against Chicago.
Three more quarterfinals remain, with the Kansas City Current hosting the North Carolina Courage on Saturday, Nov. 9 at noon ET (on CBS). The good news for the Current in its first playoff game at CPKC Stadium: coach Vlatko Andonovski was optimistic about Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga’s status for Saturday. The record goal scorer sat out Kansas City’s regular season finale last weekend. She is officially listed as questionable on the injury report released Friday night. The winner of that match will head to Orlando for a semifinal showdown.
The other half of the quarterfinal bracket will feature in a doubleheader on ABC on Sunday, Nov. 10. The Washington Spirit is up first against Bay FC at 12:30 p.m. ET, then NJ/NY Gotham FC hosts Portland Thorns FC at 3 p.m. ET. The winners of those two matches will advance to the other semifinal match next weekend, with the location to be determined by the highest seed remaining.
Semifinals between the four teams that advance will take place the weekend of Nov. 16. Kansas City will host the finalists in the championship on Nov. 23.
(Top photo: Russell Lansford / Imagn Images)
