How fitting that Orlando’s first bigtime professional sports championship was won by a team called the Pride – sort of poetic justice for a city that has long waited for a championship it could be proud to call its own.

Barbra Banda's goal stood up as the winner to lift the Orlando Pride to their first NWSL Championship in a 1-0 victory over the Washington Spirit on Saturday at CPKC Stadium. With the win, the Pride became the first team since 2019 to follow up winning the NWSL Shield (best regular-season team) with an NWSL Championship,

Orlando's win gave Brazilian star Marta her first NWSL title. The 38-year-old Marta, considered arguably the greatest female soccer player of all time, joined the Orlando Pride in 2017 but had never reached an NWSL championship game until this year.