Happy Tuesday, and what a Tuesday it is! The Orlando Pride are NWSL Champions and Orlando City will play in the Eastern Conference final for the very first time. If this isn’t the best weekend that Orlando soccer has ever had, then I sure as hell don’t know what is. We’ve got a lot to talk about this morning though, so let’s get into today’s links!

Orlando Pride Celebrate NWSL Title

The Orlando Pride celebrated the team’s first ever NWSL Championship in style on Monday, with a victory parade down Orange Avenue followed by a celebration at City Hall.

Plenty of people came out and lined the parade route, Marta and the team were presented with a key to the city, and Nov. 25, 2024 was declared “Orlando Pride Day” by Orange County. Congratulations to the Pride!

Examining the MLS Conference Finals

Just three matches remain in the MLS Cup playoffs, so it’s time to turn our attention to the conference finals and what each team needs to do to advance. For Orlando City, it’ll be important to win second balls and for Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena to set the tone in the midfield. On the flip side of things, the New York Red Bulls need Emil Forsberg to show up and make his mark on the game. The Red Bulls haven’t had much of the ball in their last five games, so they need to make the most of their touches when they do have it. Out west, the LA Galaxy need to make sure Gabriel Pec gets on the ball in the final third, while the Seattle Sounders need to stay organized and compact in defense. That’ll be easier said than done against a Galaxy side with a stunning amount of firepower, but the Sounders are here for a reason.

Alyssa Naeher Announces International Retirement

Alyssa Naeher announced on Monday that she will be retiring from international play following the United States Women’s National Team’s upcoming matches. Naeher is one of the all-time great USWNT goalkeepers, and the only women’s soccer goalkeeper to ever keep a clean sheet in both an Olympic gold medal game and a World Cup final. She received her first national team cap almost 10 years ago on Dec. 18, 2014 and has gone on to make 113 appearances for the team. She’ll still play for the Chicago Red Stars during the 2025 season and possibly afterward, but her final game for the USWNT will come on Dec. 3 against the Netherlands in The Hague.

Vanni Sartini Out in Vancouver

After spending five years with the Vancouver Whitecaps in various roles, including a little over three as head coach, Vanni Sartini has left that position by mutual agreement with the club. The Italian led the Whitecaps to an improbable playoff berth in 2021 after taking over as head coach, and the team also qualified for the playoffs in 2023 and 2024, notching a 3-0 upset of top seed LAFC in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs this year. Despite that, Sporting Director and Chief Executive Officer Axel Schuster felt that the team needed someone different in charge, and the team has begun the search for its next head coach.

Free Kicks

• The Pride’s title win has put a much needed spotlight on Black coaches thanks to Seb Hines.

• Take in some of the scenes from the final whistle of Orlando City’s playoff win against Atlanta United.

• Former Lion and U.S. Open Cup shootout hero Adam Grinwis has announced his retirement.

• Darlington Nagbe has received the 2024 Impact Award for his work in the community across the greater Columbus area.
• Former Houston Dynamo player Hector Herrera has said he is sorry for spitting at the referee during his final match with the club.

That’s all I have for you this morning. Vamos Orlando!

It was a historic day at Inter&Co Stadium as Orlando City defeated Atlanta United 1-0 to advance to the Eastern Conference final of the MLS Cup playoffs for the first time in club history. A 39th-minute goal by Ramiro Enrique held up while the Lions defended several opposing chances in the second half. Upsets earlier in the playoffs and Minnesota United’s elimination Sunday night mean the Lions will play at home one more time this season.

Let’s take a look at how the players did individually in this memorable win.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 6.5 — Atlanta didn’t put any of its eight shots on target in this game, so there wasn’t any shot stopping for Gallese. However, he made a crucial play in the 75th minute when Saba Lobjanidze played the ball into the box for a wide open Xande Silva, who had beaten Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. Gallese came off his line to intercept the pass, saving an almost certain equalizer. In addition to that key interception, Gallese completed 63.2% of his 19 passes, including seven of his 14 long balls on the way to his third clean sheet of the playoffs.

D, Rafael Santos, 7 (MotM) — Santos had a team-high 83 touches in this game and completed 90% of his team-high 60 passes with two key passes. He completed two of his four crosses and six of his seven long balls. Defensively, the left back recorded a tackle, an interception, and four clearances. It was one of Santos’ best performances before he was replaced by David Brekalo in the 90th minute, and he gets my Man of the Match.

D, Robin Jansson, 7 — Making his 200th appearance for Orlando City, the club captain had 59 touches and completed 88.5% of his 52 passes, including four of his five long balls. He had a team-high three interceptions, three clearances, one block, and an aerial duel won. The center back was a major reason why Gallese didn’t have to make any saves.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 7 — Schlegel was also terrific in this game, touching the ball 64 times while completing 92.6% of his 54 passes and four of his five long balls. He recorded a team-high six clearances, blocked a shot, and won two aerial duels.

D, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, 5.5 — Thorhallsson was the least involved of the four defenders, touching the ball 38 times and completing 81% of his 21 passes. He didn’t convert either of his two crosses and only one of his four long balls. The right back recorded two tackles, an interception, and two clearances, while his only shot missed the target. He was lucky not to be at fault for an equalizer when he was beaten into the box by Silva in the 75th minute. Fortunately, Gallese made an excellent play. It was the last play by Thorhallsson, as Kyle Smith replaced him in the 79th minute.

MF, Wilder Cartagena, 6.5 — It was a little surprising that Cartagena stayed out of the book in the final game against Charlotte, making him eligible for this one. The defensive midfielder didn’t disappoint, touching the ball 55 times and completing 91.1% of his 45 passes, including three of his four long balls. His one shot forced Brad Guzan into a save and he was active defensively, recording a tackle and five clearances.

MF, Cesar Araujo, 6.5 — The other half of the defensive midfield was also solid in this game, touching the ball 66 times and completing 92.3% of his 52 passes, including six of his eight long balls. His only shot was off target, but he won three tackles.

MF, Ivan Angulo, 6 — Angulo touched the ball 40 times on the left wing and completed 83.3% of his 24 passes including a key pass. However, he didn’t connect on either of his two crosses. He put one of his two shots on target, and he helped defensively with two tackles and a clearance. The midfielder was replaced by Nico Lodeiro in a 79th-minute defensive change. 

MF, Martin Ojeda, 6 — Ojeda also touched the ball 40 times, but only completed 76.9% of his 26 passes. However, he had three key passes, connecting on three of his seven crosses and three of his five long balls. His only shot was off target and he didn’t record any defensive statistics before being replaced by Duncan McGuire in the 69th minute.

MF, Facundo Torres, 6.5 — Torres was the most involved of the attacking midfielders, touching the ball 66 times. He completed 87.3% of his 55 passes, including three key passes. While he didn’t connect on either of his two crosses, he completed five of his six long balls. His only shot was off target and he recorded a clearance.

F, Ramiro Enrique, 6.5 — Enrique touched the ball 22 times while completing 88.9% of his nine passes, including a key pass. His shining moment came in the 39th minute, when a corner kick was knocked down and he was the first to react, putting it past Guzan for the winning goal. He took five shots in the game and put two on target before being replaced by Luis Muriel in the 69th minute.

Substitutes

F, Duncan McGuire (69’), 5.5 — McGuire came on for Ojeda in the 69th minute and struggled in his appearance. He touched the ball 17 times, completing 75% of his 12 passes, including a key pass. He was dispossessed once and had two unsuccessful touches in his 21 minutes, though he did win an aerial duel.

F, Luis Muriel (69’), 6 — Muriel was the better of the two attacking substitutions in the 69th minute, coming on for Enrique. The Colombian touched the ball 28 times and completed 76.2% of his 21 touches, including three of his four long balls, recording one key pass. His lone shot was off target (blocked), and he won a pair of aerial duels.

D, Kyle Smith (79’), 6 — Smith came on for Thorhallsson in the 79th minute in a defensive change. He touched the ball nine times while completing 87.5% of his eight passes, including one of his two long balls. He came on for his defensive skills and recorded a clearance in the late moments of the game.

MF, Nico Lodeiro (79’), 6 — Entering with Smith, Lodeiro replaced Angulo in another defensive change. The veteran touched the ball 12 times and completed eight of his 10 passes (80%), including his only long ball. His purpose on the field was to help the team see out the game and he recorded a tackle in that effort.

D, David Brekalo (90’), N/A — Brekalo came on in the 90th minute for Santos to add some more defense in the team. He touched the ball four times and completed two of his three passes (66.7%) while recording a clearance defensively.

That’s how I saw Orlando City’s 1-0 win over Atlanta United in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Let us know what you thought of the game in the comments below and don’t forget to vote on the Man of the Match.

Orlando City exorcised its Decision Day demons on Sunday by beating Atlanta United 1-0 to advance to the Eastern Conference final. The promise of a rivalry match in an Eastern Conference semifinal fully lived up to the billing, as the atmosphere in the stadium was top-notch, and my vocal chords are a ragged shell of their normal selves. What follows are my five big thoughts on OCSC’s victory over Atlanta.

A Defensive Affair

Sometimes a scoreline can be deceiving, and a game that finishes 1-0 might have had a boatload of golden chances that one or both teams simply refused to take. That wasn’t the case Sunday, as there were probably only two really good chances aside from Ramiro Enrique’s goal — Dagur Dan Thorhallsson hitting the post (which may have proven to be offside anyway), and Duncan McGuire’s near-post flick that went just wide. Other than that, both teams did a pretty good job of muting each other in attack, although had the Lions been just a bit tidier with the ball they almost certainly could have bagged another as the game wound down and spaces opened up while Atlanta poured numbers forward.

Set Piece Supremacy

In the end it took a set piece for OCSC to find the game’s only goal. The Five Stripes got this far in part by being solid defensively, but set pieces were a problem all year as they gave up 13 goals from them during the regular season. So it was again on Sunday, as Martin Ojeda’s corner pinballed around, Ramiro Enrique was the first to react, and he slotted the ball underneath an onrushing Brad Guzan. The Lions have been less wasteful from dead ball situations this season than in years past, and Enrique’s goal was another example of making set pieces count. With Atlanta coming out happy to bunker and play for a smash-and-grab result, it was even more important to make the most of set piece opportunities, and that’s exactly what Orlando did.

A Timely Goal

As nice as it would have been for Facundo Torres or Thorhallsson to score just minutes into the game, the timing of Enrique’s goal wasn’t half bad either. The longer the match went on tied, the more likely the visitors were to pose a threat. Going into halftime with things level certainly wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but taking a lead into the break gave the Lions a tiny bit of breathing room, while forcing Atlanta to come out and open things up in the second half. Ultimately, OCSC couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities that were available on the counterattack, but the Lions’ lives were made much easier by being able to play with a lead. We saw how difficult a bunkered Atlanta team can be to deal with on Decision Day, but the 39th-minute goal turned the game into a completely different affair.

Cartagena Makes His Mark

In his Three Keys to Victory piece, David Rohe identified Wilder Cartagena having a good match as an essential ingredient to Orlando’s success. After all, he’d missed both regular-season matches against the Five Stripes, and Orlando City had lost both games. Sometimes correlation does equal causation, and so it was on Sunday, as the Peruvian midfielder put in a typically assured showing, and the Lions came away with the win. He contributed one tackle, five clearances, one shot (on target), three long balls, and 91% passing accuracy. He and Cesar Araujo helped lock down Aleksey Miranchuk, and Oscar Pareja specifically praised his efforts after the game. OCSC is simply a different team when he’s on the field, and that absolutely proved to be the case here.

Toeing the Line

It was important for OCSC to play with intensity and physicality, but not cross the line and take things too far, which is something that we’ve seen in the past. Last year’s eliminations from Leagues Cup and the MLS Cup playoffs came in part due to red cards that left the 10 men remaining on the field with an almost impossible task. Lessons from those games seemed to have been learned well on Sunday afternoon though, because while the Lions weren’t afraid to put in physical challenges and throw their bodies around a bit, they kept their heads cool and never went past the point of no return. They committed two more fouls than Atlanta (seven to five), but didn’t receive any bookings. It was exactly the sort of intense-yet-professional display that the playoffs require, and it was nice to see the team looking right at home.

There you have it folks. It may not have been the prettiest win we’ve ever seen, but sometimes a team has to be able to win ugly and Orlando City was able to do just that. The Lions will now advance to the Eastern Conference final for the first time, and it’ll be played right here at home on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Be there, be loud, and let’s ride this thing as far as we can. Vamos Orlando!