Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit live stream: Where to watch NWSL Challenge Cup, prediction, odds, pick

The NWSL season 2025 will officially start the Challenge Cup on Friday, this year with the best teams of 2024 – the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit.

The Pride returns to play after a record-breaking 2024 season in which the team won their very first trophies and won both the NWSL championship and the NWSL-School. In the meantime, the Spirit landed in second place in both categories last year, but both parties have the chance to start the Challenge Cup – and to collect their first piece of silverware of the new season.

This is what you need to know before you set up.

How to look and opportunities

• Date: Friday, March 7 | Time8 p.m. and
• Location: Inter & Co Stadium – Orlando, FLA.
• Live stream: Amazon Prime Video
• Chances: Orlando Pride +130; Drawing +230; Washington Spirit +200

What is the NWSL Challenge Cup?

In its current iteration, the NWSL Challenge Cup is a game between the most recent winners of the NWSL Championship and Shield. Since the pride both won last year, the 2025 edition will be a rematch of last season’s championship, in which the Washington spirit participated.

The Challenge Cup was launched in 2020 as a return-to-play solution in the first months of the COVID-19 Pandemie. In 2021 and 2022 it was a tournament that took place before the start of the regular season before he changed in an in-season cup in 2023. The current format was introduced last year, with the San Diego-Golf NJ/NY Gotham FC beating in the one-off game.

Storylines

Orlando Pride: Fresh from a record-breaking season in which the Pride from Orlando transformed from one of the lower residents of the NWSL to the crème of the crop, is the big question with which the ruling champions are confronted: can they sustain it? They run with a very similar team like the one who completed a double in 2024, including the defender of the year of last season, Emily Sams and MVP candidates Barbra Banda and Marta. Banda in particular will be someone to continue after a 17-goal season in her debut NWSL campaign, while Marta wants to enjoy the new look of the Pride as long as she can, because 2025 will probably be one of the last years in her legendary career.

Washington Spirit: The NWSL champions from 2021 exceeded expectations in 2024, an impressive attack together with a party of the best young attacking talents of the competition and the land, despite the arrival of head coach Jonatan Giraldez. It makes them an exciting season to follow in the first full season of Giraldez, although things can depend on availability. The MVP -nominated Trinity Rodman and Rookie of the year last year, Croix Bethune, for example, traveled to Florida for the Challenge Cup, although the first was excluded while she continues to recover from a knee injury, while the capacity of the last to play is still unknown after back problems have been harassed.

Prediction

Everything is possible in a one -off game between two top quality parties, especially because they shake the last rust of the preseason of them. However, if the Spirit does not have any of their stars available, it expects that it will tilt in favor of the pride. Choose: Orlando Pride 1, Washington Spirit 0