Reign face tough assignment with unbeaten Orlando Pride up next

Still searching for wins, the Reign are set to host a team that hasn’t lost. The unbeaten Orlando Pride will put their six-game win streak on the line when they play Seattle on Sunday.

The Reign are trying to shake last week’s 4-0 road loss to Cascadia rival Portland. But overall, the club only has two wins to open the season.

Here’s a look at Sunday’s match:

The details

Reign (2-6-1) vs Orlando (6-0-3)

Time/place: 3 p.m. Sunday at Lumen Field in Seattle.

TV: NWSL+, Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network and KONG/KING5+ (local only)

Radio: N/A

Series history: Seattle leads the all-time series 7-2-7 since 2016.

Here are the storylines:

Home sweet home?

The Reign are unbeaten against the Pride at home (five wins and three draws), so Sunday’s match could be what the team needs to jump-start the season. But they’ll face a drastically different Orlando team.

Pride coach Seb Hines has his team playing better defensively this season. The side has four clean sheets and are outscoring opponents 11-3 in their past six matches.

The scoring is coming from Zambian international Barbra Banda. The forward has four goals and two assists in her past four matches.

Orlando acquired Banda from Chinese Women’s Superfour League side Shanghai Shengli FC for a $740,000 transfer fee. She signed a four-year deal.

“She’s a world-class talent,” Reign coach Laura Harvey said of Banda. “Anyone who’s followed the game in recent years knew that before she got here. Prevention is better than cure when it comes to [defending] Banda. Can you prevent her from getting in and around the area that she wants to get into to cause you a problem?”

Homecoming

Former University of Washington attacker Summer Yates is returning to her home state. The Kennewick native is having a breakout season in her second year with Orlando. Yates started the past six matches and has three goals overall this season for the Pride — two being game winners.

The forward will reunite with former UW teammates in Reign defender Shae Holmes, midfielder Olivia Van der Jagt, and forward McKenzie Weinert.

Quotable

“At this point we’re going to be the underdog going into any game that we play right now and in a lot of ways that’s an exciting position to be in,” said Reign defender Phoebe McClernon, who played for Orlando in 2021. “Something that’s been frustrating in all of the games that we’ve dropped this year is that we’ve walked away not feeling like we didn’t do anything at all. In Portland, that first half was one of our better halves of soccer that we’ve played this year. So, there’s a lot of positives to draw from that.”