The 2024 season saw Orlando Pride hit it out of the park. After securing the NWSL Shield with an all-time high of 60 points lead and capping it off with a Championship final victory, they were truly in the driver’s seat all year, steering their way to success. But have you ever wondered, ‘What made them so successful last year?’ Well, Lynn Biyendolo—despite being a rival—has an answer.

“I think if I’m in their locker room, I’m thinking that this is going to be a challenge but it’s exciting,” began the Seattle Reign star while speaking on the latest episode of The Women’s Game podcast. Connecting what the Orlando Pride camp might be feeling ahead of the upcoming season with how she and her former NC Courage teammates felt after their Shield and Championship win, she added, “I know anybody who is an OG NWSL fan is gonna hate when I say the word ‘underdog’. But I think in North Carolina, obviously it got to the point where we were not the underdogs but we always had that mentality. Orlando does have that mentality because of their history.”

Joining as an expansion team in 2016, the Pride’s journey to glory was far from smooth. Marta, the club’s marquee signing described her time in the team as “Up and down, up and down.” Indeed, with the exception of her first season with the Pride, the Florida-based club could never finish higher than seventh. And while the club continued to struggle on the field, things weren’t so great off it either with the ownership changing hands and the coaching staff going through numerous overhauls after Sermanni’s departure in 2018. But thankfully, it was one of those coaching changes that flipped the script for the team—and that was Seb Hines’ appointment as the interim head coach.

Hines knew exactly what to do, or rather, what not to do—take shortcuts. He came to that realization quite early on following the Pride’s crushing 6-0 defeat to the Portland Thorns in just his second game in charge. “It was almost a blessing in disguise,” reflected Hines as he recalled telling his players, “Listen, we have to change a lot of things here.” And that’s exactly what he did as he practically rebuilt the team from the ground up, starting with the absolute fundamentals before moving on to bolstering their defensive line and an attack to complement the same. But most importantly, he made it crystal clear that the team was to be above everything else. That is the “history” that Biyendolo thinks will help Orlando Pride play with the underdog mentality.

“That’s what made them so successful last year—obviously bringing together really good pieces but believing in themselves and always feeling like they’re the underdogs,” added Biyendolo.

Interestingly, these words of praise even come after the fact that Pride recently underwent a small yet significant setback. Retaining the underdog mentality didn’t prove favorable this time for Seb Hines’ side as they lost the NWSL Challenge Cup final against rivals Washington Spirit.

After Rafaelle Souza put them ahead in the 40th minute, Leicy Santos struck a crucial equalizer in the 72nd minute, pushing the match into a penalty shootout. In the end, Jonathan Giráldez’s side emerged victorious with a 4-2 win. Then again, Biyendolo still considers that Pride deserves this tag, and more than that, she is much more eager to know what the team has in store for the upcoming season.

Orlando Pride just had to be a little bit ‘delulu’

Lynn Biyendolo further kept the discussion alive by referencing For the Win: NWSL, an Amazon Prime docu-series that recently premiered, covering last season’s playoffs. After watching the first episode, she recalled a particular comment about Orlando, emphasizing the need to always do more to stay relevant in the league. However, she noted the irony, admitting that Orlando Pride was, in fact, one of the most relevant teams last year.

This realization reminded her of her own past mindset—when she and her team held onto the underdog mentality, despite already being at the top, much like Orlando now. Yet, being this much of ‘delulu‘ is something that Biyendolo expects from a team like Orlando. She believes that this mentality will benefit them in staying motivated to fight and continuously prove their place in the league.

“I also think it’s going to be very interesting knowing the style that they play, can they keep that style up, and will the rest of the league change their style of play when they’re facing them? It kind of reminds me of somebody when they go into their sophomore season,” concluded Biyendolo.

Some interesting questions from the USWNT forward, who shall face this fierce Orlando team in the upcoming months as the season kicks off? Let’s see whether the purple side is able to retain its crown.