OK, so we forgot to talk about the end of the SheBelieves Cup, and we recorded Monday night, so we were done before the news broke about the Orlando Pride waiving Kaylie Collins and Tori Hansen on Tuesday morning. Let's just say we still had plenty to talk about, because the Pride won their first match of 2024 and stayed unbeaten at 1-0-3.

We discuss the Pride's trip to Utah and how Orlando came home with all three points, which will hopefully become a springboard to a playoff run. But it's a long season. For now, we are happy to break down the Pride's road win and another solid defensive outing. We make our selections for player of the match and check back on our score predictions.

If the Pride's offense has been a little slow to get started in 2024, well, help is on the way. We discuss Barbra Banda's arrival in Orlando. Banda took part in her first training session with the Pride on Tuesday and is a player who can make the offense much more dangerous. She'll also create more room for the likes of Marta, Adriana, Ally Watt, and Julie Doyle, so that can only help those players as well.

The we dove into our mailbagbox, which asked us about Pride newcomers, goal differential, Marta, Star Wars droid battery technology, and more. Remember, 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. We'd also appreciate any ratings reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we'll find them easily and read them on the show.

We finished the show with our preview of Orlando hosting the San Diego Wave on Friday night. The Pride have never beaten a California team at home, which is weird, because they have gotten plenty of results out west. Is this the year? The Pride already failed to beat Angel City at home, although a draw isn't the worst outcome. We took a stab at predicting the score and provided our key matchups.

Here’s how Episode 39 went down:

0:15 – The Pride flew west, played at altitude, and brought home all three precious points from Utah.

22:49 – The mailbagbox contained a wide variety of questions to seriously test our expertise. Wait, what expertise?

52:25 – A look ahead to Friday's matchup against the Wave.