Inside the Orlando Pride’s transformation from NWSL mockery to an unbeaten fairytale

Russell Lansford-Imagn Images

No team has ever gone a whole season unbeaten in the National Women’s Soccer League. This is the historic precedent the Orlando Pride are on the cusp of breaking.

‘Anyone can beat anyone on their day’ is a saying that appears trite when describing other leagues, though it holds water in the NWSL. In 2018, when that great North Carolina Courage of Debinha, Lynn Williams, Crystal Dunn et al. lost just once in the regular season, they went above and beyond all expectations. Nobody had done it, not even the 2014 Seattle Reign, who started the year on a 16-game unbeaten run but lost twice.

This year, however, Orlando finds itself on the verge of going one better, without a single loss in 22 games. How the Pride achieved this is as remarkable as the fact that they, once the laughingstock of the NWSL, have done it at all.

This year’s success was born out of adversity. In 2022, the club was in chaos, and not for the first time. They found themselves looking for a new head coach for the fourth time in seven years — and they didn’t have to look far.