Barbra Banda scored the fastest hat-trick in National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) history last Friday, leading Orlando Pride to break a three-game winless streak with a 3-1 victory over Utah Royals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Zambian national team player scored three goals in the first 38 minutes of the match, achieving the first hat-trick in the team’s history and also the first by an African player in the NWSL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Banda opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a close-range shot after a pass from Ally Watt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Brecken Mozingo tied the game in the 14th minute, Banda gave the Pride (6-3-1) the lead again with a 2-1 score, after intercepting a pass, dribbling past Royals goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn, and sending the ball into the net in the 37th minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A minute later, Banda completed his hat-trick with a powerful low shot that beat McGlynn from 14 yards, establishing the final 3-1. With these goals, Banda tied as the top scorer in the NWSL this season, with seven goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Utah (1-7-2) now has a draw and four losses in its last five matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another Friday match, the Washington Spirit defeated the Seattle Reign 2-1, thanks to Ashley Hatch’s goal in the 35th minute, which was her fifth goal of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This victory represents the first away win for Washington (6-3-1) against Seattle since 2021, and also the first at Lumen Field, the Reign’s permanent home since 2022. The Spirit has won all five of its away games this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Croix Bethune, midfielder for the Spirit, scored her first goal since June 2023, following a cross from Casey Krueger in the 11th minute, establishing a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Reign (4-4-2) tied with a goal by Shae Holmes in the 17th minute, the first in the 25-year-old defender’s professional career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock, a veteran, returned from injury and made her 201st regular season appearance in the NWSL, coming off the bench in the 61st minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Washington outshot Seattle, with a score of 17-7, and also had more ball possession (53%).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barbra Banda Sets Record with Historic Hat-Trick in the NWSL Barbra Banda scored the fastest hat-trick in National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) history last Friday, leading Orlando Pride to break a three-game winless streak with a 3-1 victory over Utah Royals. The Zambian national team player scored three goals in the first 38 minutes of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2975,1232,798,2511],"class_list":{"0":"post-7801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-barbra-banda","9":"tag-hat-trick","10":"tag-nwsl","11":"tag-washington-spirit"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}