Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Nashville SC: Final Score 1-1 as Lions Storm Back in Second Half to Equalize
After a poor first half, Orlando City was excellent for most of the second 45, pulling even and coming within inches of winning on the road.

Orlando City struggled through the opening 45 minutes but played well after halftime, coming back from 1-0 down to draw Nashville SC 1-1 at Nissan Stadium. The Lions (8-4-7, 31 points) were a crossbar’s width from becoming the first visiting team to win in Nissan Stadium all season but had to settle for the team’s second road draw at Nashville SC (7-2-11, 32 points).
The fact the teams split the points keeps Orlando a point behind Nashville with a game in hand. However, with Philadelphia’s win over New York City FC, the Lions slipped to fifth in the Eastern Conference standings.
Antonio Carlos’ header in the second half canceled out a first-half goal by Lion killer C.J. Sapong, meaning the team to score first in this series has still never won the game (0-2-2). The teams are 1-1-2 against each other in the first four meetings.
“Good match. I think we recognized in the second half where we were missing in the first,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “We were losing some silly balls.”
With Nani questionable, Pareja didn’t risk the captain for this match and he wasn’t in the match day lineup. Mason Stajduhar once again started in net, backing up a defensive line of Joao Moutinho, Robin Jansson, Carlos, and Kyle Smith. Joey DeZart got the start alongside Junior Urso in central midfield, with Mauricio Pereyra and Silvester van der Water facilitating the attack to Benji Michel and Tesho Akindele.
Orlando City was swarmed in the midfield throughout most of the first half and it allowed Nashville to get forward in transition. The first decent look came in the fourth minute when Hany Mukhtar got down the right and fired a shot that Stajduhar parried away.
DeZart struggled in the first half hour and his giveaway led to a chance for Randall Leal, who fired just wide of the left post.
Van der Water forced Joe Willis into a diving save in the 11th minute with a nice effort from outside the area, cutting inside from the right.
Nashville always seemed likely to score first with the Lions continually giving the ball away around the middle of the pitch. Tah Anunga fired wide in the 16th minute, but the hosts opened the scoring minutes later. Unsure of his options, Moutinho telegraphed a back pass with numbers forward and Nashville easily read the play and took it away, breaking in 2-v-2 with Mukhtar and Sapong on Orlando City’s center backs. Sapong finished the play with yet another goal against the Lions and Nashville led 1-0 in the 23rd minute.
“They were playing defensively and getting some counters, which is very dangerous for us,” Pareja said. “The second half we were much better. We were smarter on containing those counters.”
Leal fired into outside netting in the 30th minute as Orlando continued to struggle against Nashville’s superior numbers in the midfield.
The Lions finally started to get something going in the final five minutes of the half. A heavy touch by Willis at the top of the box nearly became an easy goal for Akindele, who came in to nick the ball, but he couldn’t quite finesse it around the keeper, who was able to recover. Four minutes later, Moutinho and Urso combined to unlock the defense and Akindele laid off a ball to his left for van der Water. The Dutchman should have equalized, but his shot skipped just wide of the right post in the 44th minute.
“I know I had a lot of chances and I need to score. But on the other side, I think we need to be happy with a point today,” van der Water said. “I think the mentality of the second half was much better.”
Akindele got his head to a good cross from Pereyra in first-half stopage time and hit it down into the wet turf. The ball skipped up and looked to be heading in but it was floating a bit and Willis was able to get a touch on it to keep it out with the last play of the half.
Nashville finished the first half with more shots (10-5) and shots on goal (4-2). Each team won one corner, and the Lions held more possession (60.2%-39.8%) and passed more accurately (89.1%-82.1%). It was all about Orlando giving the ball up in bad areas and Nashville taking advantage on one of its opportunities.
Orlando City played a much better second half, but the Lions still nearly saw their deficit doubled early in the second period. Jansson was forced to foul Mukhtar in a dangerous spot near the box to Stajduhar’s right. Mukhtar went for goal on the set piece but could only catch the top of the crossbar near the far post as the young goalkeeper did well in playing his angle.
After a couple of misfires from Urso and Akindele in the next few minutes, the Lions seemed to finally get their legs under them in the match. Van der Water fired just wide of the left post in the 55th minute from the middle, just outside the area. Urso drew a foul on Anibal Godoy — one of several fouls the Bear suffered on the night — moments later, and Orlando made it pay off. Pereyra sent in a perfect cross from right to left and Carlos won the race to the ball, heading it back to the right and past Willis for the tying goal in the 58th minute.
Carlos laughed in the postgame press conference, saying he was happy to be able to celebrate his second goal of the season after getting injured while scoring his first against Miami.
“Normally Antonio wins those balls in the air because of his size and his timing,” Pareja said. “He’s very dominant in the air. He needed to (get) some direction and improve his contact with the ball. And Josema Bazan, our assistant coach, is spending a lot of time with him. He’s trying to reinforce those actions and today they got rewarded by that beautiful goal, and important goal as well. So he’s not just making contact, but I think he’s now finding the net which is important for us.”
Stajduhar made what looked to be a sensational save on Alistair Johnston at the back post just two minutes after Orlando’s goal but the play didn’t count anyway as the flag had gone up.
Pereyra went for goal on a set piece in the 67th minute but couldn’t get his shot to dip and it sailed just over. A minute later, Michel smashed a shot just wide of the right post from the top of the box. Michel then won a couple of corners but the Lions couldn’t pay them off. Then Akindele headed a Moutinho cross off the front of Willis’ crossbar in the 75th as Orlando came within inches of taking the lead.
Nashville threw players forward in the final 10 minutes to go for the win and had a couple of opportunities, with Pareja making some subs that changed the shape and tactics. With more Nashville players forward, Orlando looked to absorb pressure and counter, putting four fullbacks on the field at one point, but Ruan played a forward position and Emmanuel Mas came on, pushing Moutinho further up the field.
Moutinho did well in the 80th minute to beat a Nashville player to a back-post ball and knock it out for a corner. Then there were a couple of late nervy moments when Nashville won some balls in the air and they pinged around the area, but ultimately, Orlando did enough to hang on.
Orlando completely turned around the shots totals, with each team registering 14 for the match. Nashville got more on target (4-3). Each team earned three corners in the match, with Orlando holding more possession (56.1%-43.9%) and passing more accurately (86.7%-81.5%).
“I saw the team positioned better and be closer to their backs and creating options,” Pareja said of his team in the second half. “And when they wanted to come up from that pressure, they couldn’t, and that was the best part of the game — I think that probably 30-35 minutes in the second half was a highlight for us.”
“Playing away at Nashville is not an easy feat,” Carlos said through a club interpeter. “I was thrilled, once again, to be able to help the team, and we walked away with a well-deserved point but I believe that we could have even won the match.”
The Lions have another quick turnaround with the Chicago Fire visiting Exploria Stadium on Saturday night in a match that sure feels like a must-win game.
Opinion
Orlando City Has Been Better than Expected Halfway Through the Season
While there was plenty to worry about at the start of the season, Orlando has had a good first half of 2025.

With 18 matches in the books, we’ve moved just past the halfway point of the 2025 Major League Soccer season, and based off my feelings before Orlando City played its opening game of the season, the Lions have performed above expectations so far. There were plenty of valid reasons to be concerned heading into the year. Orlando had sold its all-time leading goal scorer, and there were questions about whether he’d been adequately replaced. There were worries about depth at multiple positions, and the defense was coming off an uncharacteristically poor year. Here we are though, with the Lions sitting fifth in the Eastern Conference, just three points out of second place and seven points out of first. So how did we get to this point?
For one thing, Marco Pasalic has been much better than I (and I think a lot of other people) expected him to be. The Croatian has six goals and four assists across 18 matches, and is second on the team in both categories. He scored 10 goals in 49 appearances in the Croatian first division before coming to Orlando and was extremely one-footed, which was enough evidence to sow real doubt about whether he could adequately replace the impact of Facundo Torres.
So far, it’s mostly been so good. His direct style of play is a good complement to the styles of Martin Ojeda and Luis Muriel, and he’s largely hit the ground running in a league that can be difficult to adapt to. It hasn’t been perfect, as he’s still very one-footed, and can sometimes disappear if he’s stringently man marked, but on the whole there’s been much more good than bad.
Speaking of Ojeda and Muriel, they’ve also had strong years. Ojeda in particular has continued his great second half of the 2024 season and has nine goals and five assists in 18 games to show for it. He looks fast, confident, and decisive and is a far cry from the player who struggled frequently during his first year as a Lion. Muriel has cooled off a little after a scorching start to 2025, but he still has six goals and three assists in 18 matches. He looks vastly improved from last year, when he looked a little off the pace of play and quickly lost the starting striker role. He still has a tendency to not be as selfish as he needs to be in front of goal, but he’s been much better than 2024.
I mentioned depth being a big concern, and not just at one position. At the beginning of the season Orlando City was, and arguably still is, thin at striker, center back, defensive midfield, and fullback. Duncan McGuire was injured to start the year and is now injured again, leaving Orlando with two true strikers in Muriel and Ramiro Enrique. There was no true backup left back, only one reliable backup center back, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson starting at right back meant that defensive midfield depth consisted of rookie Joran Gerbet and the Swiss army knife that is Kyle Smith.
Things have mostly worked out though. David Brekalo has supplanted Rafael Santos, meaning the Brazilian is now a proven backup option at the position, and Smith has filled in there as well. That means that in games in which Rodrigo Schlegel or Robin Jansson are unavailable, Brekalo fills in at center back, Santos starts at left back, and Smith is the backup for both positions, so it isn’t a flawless system. Gerbet has been playing better and better and got some valuable minutes when Eduard Atuesta and Cesar Araujo were unavailable. His emergence has been a crucial piece of the puzzle this year. So too has the rise of Alex Freeman, as his locking down the right back role has allowed Thorhallsson to fill in at defensive midfield, attacking midfield, and right back. The situation isn’t perfect, as a couple untimely injuries to the wrong guys would leave the Lions looking pretty threadbare, but so far it’s just about worked.
Another big concern was the defense. The Lions conceded 50 goals in the regular season last year, which was tied for the second-most of any Eastern Conference playoff team and fourth-most of any playoff team. With no defensive signings and the aforementioned depth concerns, there were plenty of reasons to worry about Orlando’s ability to keep the ball out of the back of the net.
Things have looked much better in 2025, though. The 22 goals OCSC has conceded are the fifth-fewest in the league, and Pedro Gallese’s eight clean sheets are tied for most in the league. Aside from a few egregious defensive performances against the Philadelphia Union, Atlanta United, and the Chicago Fire, things have mostly been tidy at the back, and when they haven’t been, El Pulpo has been around to pick up the slack. Again, things haven’t been perfect, as there have been moments where individual and collective errors have hurt the team, but it’s been better.
I thought the Lions would struggle this year. Going into the start of the season, we were talking about a team that lost Torres, arguably didn’t do enough to strengthen the team across the board, was facing depth issues, and was dealing with a leaky defense — all while pretty much every other contender in the East got stronger on paper. Instead, OCSC tied a club-best unbeaten streak and is just three points out of second place.
That being said, the East is so tight that Orlando is only five points above the playoff line, and injuries to the wrong guys could easily topple the fragile ecosystem that is the depth chart, but so far things are going better than I thought they would be. There are still a lot of matches to play, but this isn’t a bad position to be in at the halfway mark.
Lion Links
Lion Links: 6/20/25
Orlando Pride take on Racing Louisville FC tonight, Orlando Pride players called up by Zambia, USMNT beats Saudi Arabia, and more.

Happy Friday! June continues to fly by as we enjoy the buffet of soccer here in the U.S. this month. I’ll be spending most of the weekend working, but I am hoping to get some reading done after being gifted some books for my birthday. But enough about me, let’s jump right into today’s links!
Orlando Pride Face Racing Louisville Tonight
The Orlando Pride are on the road tonight for a match against Racing Louisville FC at 8 p.m. in the final game before a league break until August. Going into the break with four straight wins would be nice for the Pride, but they’ve struggled at Lynn Family Stadium over the years. Louisville enters this match following a 4-2 loss to the league-leading Kansas City Current and has scored eight goals over the past three games. Orlando’s defense has been phenomenal this year, conceding just eight goals this season and only one during this win streak. Midfielder Cori Dyke spoke on how the team is finding its groove and shutting out opponents.
Zambia Calls Up Orlando Pride Trio
Barbra Banda, Grace Chanda, and Prisca Chilufya were all called up for Zambia’s CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations roster ahead of this summer’s tournament. Banda has eight goals this season with the Pride and had four goals at last year’s Olympics, including a hat trick against Australia. The Copper Queens claimed third place in the 2022 edition of this tournament, and they’ll need to be at their best to win this summer against tough opponents like South Africa and Nigeria. Zambia’s tournament campaign will kick off on July 5 against the host nation, Morocco.
USMNT Beats Saudi Arabia to Qualify for Quarterfinals
The United States Men’s National Team won 1-0 against Saudi Arabia to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals of this year’s Concacaf Gold Cup. After a scoreless first half, the Yanks broke through in the 63rd minute thanks to a free kick. Sebastian Berhalter served the ball on a silver platter to Chris Richards, who buried it for the crucial goal. The defense did well to secure its second shutout of the tournament, with Orlando City’s Alex Freeman starting at right back yet again. The USMNT will play Haiti on Sunday and should be able to win the group for a smoother path in the knockout stage.
FIFA Club World Cup Roundup
An MLS club finally won a game during this year’s FIFA Club World Cup, with Inter Miami beating Porto 2-1 in Atlanta. Lionel Messi scored the winner from a free kick to complete the comeback after conceding an early goal. The Seattle Sounders had a rougher day, falling 3-1 to Atletico Madrid, with Pablo Barrios scoring a brace. Former Lion Facundo Torres started for Palmeiras in the Brazilian club’s 2-0 win over Egypt’s Al Ahly.
Today’s action features more soccer at Inter&Co Stadium, with Benfica and Auckland City squaring off in the City Beautiful. Our Michael Citro will be on hand to report on it. Elsewhere in the U.S., Chelsea will take on Flamengo, LAFC will face ES Tunis, and Bayern Munich will play Boca Juniors.
Free Kicks
- Canada Head Coach Jesse Marsch, who is already serving a suspension for misconduct during the Nations League, is under investigation by Concacaf for incidents during this Gold Cup. Reports detail that Marsch disregarded regulations and used offensive language toward match officials.
- Kylian Mbappe was discharged from the hospital after suffering from a case of gastroenteritis. It’s unclear if or when he’ll play for Real Madrid during the Club World Cup.
- Carlos Cuesta was hired as Parma’s next head coach after five years with Arsenal as an assistant coach. The 29-year-old becomes the second-youngest coach in Serie A history.
- Manchester City was fined over $1 million by the English Premier League for repeated delays regarding kickoff times.
That’s all I have for you all today. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!
Orlando City
In 2025, OCSC Stands for Orlando City Scorers Club
How Orlando City’s top offensive performers this season compare to the rest of MLS…and the Premier League.

Last week, I wrote about the state of Orlando City at the halfway point of the season, focusing mostly on the team’s accomplishments on offense and defense through 17 games. For this week, let’s look at some of the top performing Lions, because it’s always fun to talk about offensive success. I do not apologize if you take offense to my desire to only focus on offense, because that would be defensive, and there is no place in this article for defense.
Many moons ago, back in January during the preseason, I wrote an article looking at the best offensive seasons in Orlando City’s MLS history. I used a derived metric called game score to rank the seasons, and I’ll quickly explain again how that is calculated:
Goals Scored + Expected Assists + 0.0113 (Progressive Carries + Progressive Passes)
I went into much more detail about why that is the calculation in the original article, but the quick and dirty version is that scoring goals, completing passes to players in dangerous scoring areas, and progressing the ball by dribbling and passing are core components of a strong offensive player. Think of the game score as an offensive value calculation, and think of it simply as a value for which more is better and the most is best.
Opta only tracked the last three contributing statistics (expected assists, progressive carries, and progressive passes) from 2018 onwards, and the chart below shows Orlando City’s 10 best MLS regular seasons since 2018. It also shows the season that currently ranks 11th — Martín Ojeda’s 2025 season, which, as a reminder, is only in game 18 of a 34-game regular season. This means, if you get the extrapolation machine out, Ojeda is on pace for a season-long game score of 26.5, which would rank as the highest full season game score in Orlando City history.
Player | Season | Season Game Score | Rank in MLS | MLS Best that Season |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nani | 2019 | 22.0 | 8 | 50.7 |
Facundo Torres | 2023 | 20.9 | 10 | 31.1 |
Facundo Torres | 2024 | 20.0 | 21 | 32.6 |
Facundo Torres | 2022 | 17.4 | 25 | 33.7 |
Duncan McGuire | 2023 | 16.3 | 26 | 31.1 |
Nani | 2021 | 16.2 | 26 | 26.6 |
Sacha Kljestan | 2018 | 15.6 | 46 | 38.0 |
Chris Mueller | 2020* | 14.8 | 11 | 21.8 |
Yoshimar Yotún | 2018 | 14.7 | 53 | 38.0 |
Dom Dwyer | 2018 | 14.3 | 58 | 38.0 |
Martín Ojeda | 2025** | 14.1 | 4 | 16.8 |
- * The 2020 season contained only 23 games due to COVID-19
- ** Ojeda’s stats are through 18 matches; MLS teams have played between 16-19 matches
Ojeda’s 14.1 currently ranks only behind Sam Surridge of Nashville (15.7), Anders Dreyer of San Diego (16.6), and some player from Miami who clearly wants to play for Orlando since he has lion as part of his first name (Messi, 16.8). During Ojeda’s first two seasons, he only accumulated 12.1 and 12.5, respectively, so this is already by far his best season in purple and it is just barely halfway complete.
Ojeda is not the only Orlando City player who is on pace to jump into the club’s all-time top 10 by the end of the season, as teammates Luis Muriel (10.76, on pace for 20.3) and Marco Pašalić (10.46, on pace for 19.8) are both in the top 30 in MLS this season. Muriel is 24th, and Pašalić is 27th. Orlando City is the only team in the league with three players in the top 30, or really the top 27 (shout out to my son, for whom 27 is his favorite number).
One last point on Ojeda: if we were to extrapolate his performance through 18 games to 38 games, his season game score would bump up to 29.6. Why did I choose 38? Well, 38 happens to be the number of games played in the world’s most popular league, England’s Premier League. I am well aware that the Premier League is a different level of competition than MLS, but just for fun I ran the numbers on the 2024-2025 Premier League season, and a season-long game score of 29.6 would coincidentally also rank Ojeda fourth in England, right behind Cole Palmer (29.7) and in front of Alexander Isak (29.2). I do not think Ojeda would actually finish fourth if he was in the Premier League, but my point is more that the frequency of Ojeda’s contributions for Orlando City thus far this season have been similar to that of Palmer for Chelsea and Isak for Newcastle, which is pretty heady company.
Speaking of heady, we also need to talk about the player who is leading Orlando City in aerial duel wins, Alex Freeman. Heady, aerial duels…you got the segue, right? Don’t answer that.
Freeman has been on a rocket ship in the last year, going from Orlando City B starter to Orlando City starter to U.S. Men’s National Team starter, and he likely will also be the MLS All-Star Game starter, too. My mention of his leading the team in aerial duel wins, while noteworthy, was really just a convenient way to cut over to talking about him and his season-long game score of 8.1.
According to Opta’s positional tracking, only two MLS defenders have accumulated game scores of more than six thus far this season — Philadelphia’s Kai Wagner at 6.88 and Freeman’s 8.1. The extrapolation machine says 8.1 through 18 games puts Freeman on pace for a final score of 15.2, which would be the second best performance by an MLS defender since tracking began in 2018. Freeman is going to miss at least a few more games due to being with the U.S. team during the Gold Cup, so that 15.2 will likely not happen, but wow, what a great first half of a season for Orlando City’s right back.
Going back to the Premier League for comparative context…actually, please sit down and buckle up first. Are you good? Ok.
Going back to the Premier League for comparative context, there is none. Freeman’s performance blows away every defender’s from that league. It will likely surprise few that the defender with the best season game score in the Premier League this season was Trent Alexander-Arnold, who accumulated a score of 13.5 during Liverpool’s championship run. That 13.5 was 15% better than the defender who finished in second place, and yet, if we extrapolate Freeman to 38 games, he would be on pace for 17.0, which is 26% better than Alexander-Arnold. Mind the gap.
Once again, I do not mean to say that Freeman is as skilled or would contribute like Alexander-Arnold did in the Premier League. It is instead that Freeman’s contributions to Orlando City’s offense are unlike that from any defenders in the Premier League. Freeman’s performance thus far this season places him 43rd in the overall MLS rankings, first among defenders, and ahead of strikers such as Christian Benteke, Emmanuel Latte Lath, and Brandon Vazquez. He ranks fourth on Orlando City, and the Lions are not only the only club with three players in the top 30, but also the only club with four players in the top 45.
Two teams had four players in the top 45 during the 2024 MLS season, and one of them was the LA Galaxy, the eventual MLS Cup champions. I am not saying that Orlando City having four players in the top 45 this season means they will win MLS Cup, but I am not not saying it either. I am saying I would like it to happen though, and saying that loudly and clearly.
The game score metric is not the be-all, end-all of measuring offensive prowess, but I think it does a good job of creating a ranking system where the eye test matches the math. Most fans would point to Ojeda as the player who has driven Orlando City’s offense more than any other this season, and being that the team is on pace to have one of the best, if not the best, goal-scoring seasons in the club’s MLS history, it should track that Ojeda is also on pace to have one of the best, if not the best, individual offensive seasons in the club’s MLS history as well.
There are 16 more MLS games to go, and the great thing about sports is that in any game anything can happen, and that is why we love to watch. It is awesome that all three Designated Players and Freeman are off to great starts, but nothing is guaranteed for the back half of the season. That’s why they play the games, as the saying goes. For all we know, Ramiro Enrique could come on like gangbusters in the final games and rip off double-digit goals to end as the team’s leading scorer.
Ramiro, this is a bold strategy, and I am on board for it. The more goals the merrier. Feel free to bring us fans some goals for Christmas in July.
Orlando City does not have a game this weekend, with next match coming June 25 on the road in St. Louis. Winning that game would give the Lions their third winning streak of the season and would be something I would very much like, since I will be doling out the grades for that game. And since I have been writing about the offense this week, how about three goals and three points?
Vamos Orlando!
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