June 29, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
Angel City FC News Release
LOS ANGELES – Tomorrow, June 30, at 4:30 PM PT, Angel City is back at home against the Orlando Pride. The match will be broadcast regionally on Bally Sports SoCal, nationally on Paramount+, and internationally on NWSL+. English- and Spanish-language radio broadcasts will be available on iHeart and 1330 Tu Liga Radio, respectively.
Matchup
Angel City’s last game was a 0-1 loss on the road to Bay FC. Bay midfielder Tess Boade’s 33rd-minute goal was the difference maker in that match.
Orlando’s last match was a 6-0 home win over the Utah Royals. Midfielder Summer Yates and forward Ally Watt had one goal each, while forwards Barbra Banda and Marta each notched a brace. No NWSL team has ever won a game by more than six goals, a feat that had been accomplished four times before last weekend.
The undefeated Pride sit in second place in the league- tied on points with Kansas City- with a 9-0-5 (W-L-D) record.
Angel City are in 10th place with a 4-7-3 record.
ACFC has a 1-2-1 all-time record against the Pride; their most recent result against the Central Florida club was a 0-1 loss on the road last October.
Scouting report
As their record suggests, Orlando are having the best season in team history. Head Coach Seb Hines, who has helmed the squad since the 2022-2023 offseason, has lifted the team from last year’s mid-table finish and narrow playoffs miss to an undefeated run at what is just past the halfway point in the 2024 season.
That turnaround has largely been thanks to the addition of the league’s co-leading scorer, and one of the most electric players in recent memory: Zambian forward Barbra Banda.
Banda first attracted global attention at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where- despite her country’s disappointing group-stage exit- she became the first woman to ever score back-to-back hat tricks at an Olympics, in a 3-10 loss to the Netherlands and a 4-4 draw with China. In total, the 23-year-old has 53 goals in 60 caps, an astounding rate of production for a player from a country currently ranked 64th in the world.
On the club side, Banda has been similarly prolific: for her last club, Shanghai Shangli, the striker made just 13 appearances in three seasons, but notched 18 goals in those games. For Orlando, she’s currently sitting on 10 goals in 10 games.
Not only has Banda scored most of Orlando’s goals, she’s also recorded four assists, including two to Brazilian legend Marta- who has…