The Orlando Pride on break; Women’s World Cup action starts Thursday

ORLANDO, Fla. — While the Pride wraps up a two-week break, plenty of Pride international players are preparing to play in the 2023 World Cup.

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Before going on break, the Orlando Pride beat the OL Reign 1-0 at Exploria Stadium on July 7.

Rookie Messiah Bright had the game winning goal and was voted NWSL Player of the Week.

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The Pride will return home on Sunday, July 23, in a Challenge Cup game against NY/NJ Gotham FC.

The Brazilian trio of Marta, Adrianna, and Rafaelle played a warmup friendly against Chile on July 2 before they traveled to Australia for their first World Cup match against Panama on July 2, 7 a.m. EST.

Along with Panama, Brazil’s group includes France and Jamaica.

France expects to make it out of Group F along with Brazil.

In 2019, France lost their bid to win on home soil when the U.S. women’s national team knocked France out in the quarter-finals 2-1.

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Brazil will face France on July 29, 6 a.m. EST.

Jamaica and Brazil will face off in back-to-back World Cups after playing each other in 2019. Brazil won that game 3-0 but failed to make it out of the group stage.

Brazil will face Jamaica on Aug. 2, 6 a.m. EST to wrap up group play.

The most recent signing, Argentina’s Mariana Larroquette, scored in the 17-minute of a friendly with Peru Friday night in a 4-0 win. Argentina heads to New Zealand for their opening World Cup match against Italy on July 24, 2 a.m. EST.

Argentina will play in Group G with Italy, South Africa, and Sweden.

Argentina and South Africa did not make it out of the group stage in 2019.

Italy made it to the quarter-finals in 2019 but lost to the Netherlands. A Netherlands team that also beat Sweden in the semi-finals before eventually moving on to lose to the USWNT in the finals to win the 2019 World Cup.

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Argentina plays South Africa on July 27, 8 a.m. EST and Sweden on Aug. 2, 3 a.m. EST.

Group stages end on Aug. 3, with the championship game on Aug. 20.

Depending on how Brazil and Argentina do in the World Cup, once the tournament is over, the Orlando Pride will need to work on adding Mariana Larroquette and Rafaelle into the squad.

The earliest the new additions could be in the lineup is Aug. 9, an away match against Gotham FC, but the Aug. 20 home game against the Chicago Fire is more likely.

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