SkoPurp No. 6: Spirit and Gotham Rewinds and Washington Preview

The Orlando Pride took a brief pause from earning points in NWSL play to completely rotate the lineup and get smacked down 4-2 at Washington in the Challenge Cup one week ago. That wasn't as fun as seeing Tori (not Taylor, even though I slipped up and called her that) Hansen score a wicked cool backheel goal or Summer Yates sending Ally Watt in for a second Pride goal. Most of the moments in between were far less fun. We discuss the match and the lineup and select our Player of the Match. But wait! There's more! The Pride also returned to league play on Sunday at Gotham FC and even though the final score of 0-0 doesn't necessarily inspire oodles of confidence (if you happened to miss the game), Orlando actually played its best and most complete match of the season. Those pesky goals sometimes don't happen, but if the Pride can stay at that level — a level that limited Gotham to one shot on target, which didn't arrive until the 84th minute — then Seb Hines has his team on the right track. We broke down the second match as well, and once again selected our Player of the Match. Once again, we had both an empty mailbagbox and empty hearts because of it. You can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. Finally, we gave our key matchups and score predictions for the Pride’s rematch this Saturday at home against the Washington Spirit. Here’s how Episode 6 went down: 0:15 – The Pride stayed winless in the Challenge Cup (0-1-1) but maintained their current unbeaten streak in league play (2-0-1). 16:42 – Our empty mailbagbox allowed us to go into our key matchups and score predictions for Saturday's rematch game against the Washington Spirit.