The Orlando Delight, who’ve spent most of their existence languishing towards the underside of the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League, clinched the NWSL’s regular-season title Sunday with a 2-0 win over the second-place Washington Spirit.
Marta, arguably the best girls’s soccer participant ever, broke a 0-0 impasse with a second-half penalty kick. A depraved deflection later within the half sealed the membership’s first trophy.
And Orlando prolonged its unbeaten season to 23 video games — three away from the primary unbeaten marketing campaign in NWSL historical past.
No staff has ever come this near season-long invincibility, as a result of the NWSL is famend for its parity. Final season, solely seven factors separated first place and eighth. The San Diego Wave gained the 2023 regular-season title, often called the NWSL Protect, with 37 factors in 22 video games; Orlando simply missed the playoffs with 31 factors.
A yr later, out of nowhere, the Delight exploded to the highest of the desk. After Sunday’s win over Washington, they’re now on 57 factors, tied for probably the most in league historical past — in a single fewer recreation than the North Carolina Braveness wanted to get to 57 factors in 2018.
And probably the most exceptional half about their sudden turnaround is that it hasn’t been fueled by a roster overhaul.
Orlando made one high-profile signing forward of the 2024 season, Zambian striker Barbra Banda — who gained the decisive penalty Sunday, and who ranks second within the NWSL with 13 objectives.
However roughly 77% of the staff’s 2024 minutes have been logged by gamers who have been additionally in Orlando final season.
Their secret has been a resolute protection. They’ve conceded solely 13 objectives in 23 video games. They’re coached by a former defender, Seb Hines, who has instilled a mentality that he and gamers say is the first purpose for his or her traditionally good numbers.
The gamers, defender Carson Pickett informed Yahoo Sports activities this previous week, “will die on that area earlier than we get a aim scored on us, or earlier than we lose a recreation.”
Considered one of their mottos, defender Kylie Strom stated, is: “No matter it takes.”
Along with the Protect, they’ve now clinched the No. 1 seed within the playoffs, and home-field benefit till the ultimate — which can be held at a pre-determined website, CPKC Stadium in Kansas Metropolis.
Their closing three regular-season video games — the three obstacles between mere greatness and invincibility — are at Portland on Friday; at Gotham, the defending champs, on Oct. 20; and at house vs. the lowly Seattle Reign on Nov. 2.
Then the playoffs will start. For simply the second time in membership historical past, and the primary time since 2017, the Delight can be concerned. And, a minimum of on present type, they will be favored to win their first NWSL championship.
