The Orlando Pride comfortably beat LD Alajuelense in the club's first-ever Concacaf W Champions Cup match, but the good feelings didn't last long. The Pride were completely run off the pitch by a Chicago Stars team that has improved recently but had not won a match in a long time. It wasn't just a win for the Stars, it was a 5-2 dismantling of a Pride team that somehow survived an oddly disjointed-looking starting XI for 45 minutes, taking the match to halftime scoreless. In the second half, the wheels came flying off and despite a good answer to the Stars' opening goal, the Pride fully capitulated afterward.

We look back at our hilariously wrong score predictions, which were once again too optimistic, discuss the key moments of the match and our overall thoughts, and make our selections for Player of the Match.

This week's mailbagbox asked us about the Pride getting shut out of the NWSL's Best XI teams at season's end, Carson Pickett's goal-scoring prowess, when we might see fewer players seemingly deployed out of position, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We'd also appreciate any ratings or 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.

Finally, we discussed the Pride's upcoming home game against Bay FC. We would normally say this is a winnable game, but the recent form of the club suggests it could be otherwise. We presented the series history, discussed the key matchups, and made our score predictions, which again were probably too optimistic.

We also touched on a trip to play Panamanian side FC Chorillo early next week when W Champions Cup play resumes.

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Here’s how Episode 100 went down:

0:15 – The Pride scored two goals at Chicago but gave up five. We hate the math. At least the team beat Alajuelense in the Concacaf W Champions Cup opener.

19:52 - The mailbagbox seems a bit upset with recent results and lineups.

38:20 - Bay FC offers another opportunity for the Pride to stop the bleeding.