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Orlando City Coach’s Show Recap: Adrian Heath and Phil Rawlins Talk Team’s Play and More

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11 years ago

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Tuesday night’s Orlando City Coach’s Show with Adrian Heath saw the gaffer calling from Charleston to discuss Saturday’s win against D.C. United and Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup game in Charleston. Club President Phil Rawlins was live at Harry Buffalo to discuss other topics surrounding Orlando City.

Adrian Heath joined the show via telephone from Charleston, South Carolina where he and the team are preparing for their U.S. Open Cup match against the Charleston Battery Wednesday night.

Extending the Unbeaten Streak

  • “The players worked really, really hard to keep a clean sheet.”
  • “I sense there’s more of a togetherness with this group.”
  • “I’ve got every faith that we can go to Montreal and get a result at the weekend.”
Lewis Neal
  • “I thought he was outstanding.”
  • “The one thing we know about Lew is that he’s really intelligent. He’s a footballer’s footballer. He can play virtually any position on the field and turn in a performance like that.”
  • “The most important thing from our point of view is he didn’t change the way we played. We like our two midfield players to start the attack, to play through the midfield, and you’d think he’d play there all his career.”

Training in Charleston

  • “It was over 100 degrees here today. We only trained for 20-25 minutes and then took the guys out of the heat.”

The First Ever Water Break in MLS

  • “The first one came at a good time for us. Give us a chance to speak to one or two players about one or two issues we thought we were getting. I was really disappointed in the last one because the last thing (you want) when you’re concentrating in defense, you want a break. Fortunately we were able to keep our concentration and see the game out.”

Adapting to Team Changes

  • “Most of our players can play in different positions because they know the roles and responsibilities.”
  • “When you’re in a position like we are at the moment with players out on international duty and one or two injuries they (players who can play multiple positions) become invaluable to you.”

Easier Upcoming Schedule

  • “I think one of the most important things we have to realize is the parity in this league is incredible. I look at New York City, who have been bottom of our Eastern Conference most of the season, I don’t see a lot of difference between them and D.C. United to be honest.”
  • “I want us to play with the same conviction we’ve been playing with.”

U.S. Open Cup

  • “I don’t understand why some don’t take it as serious as others because it’s a chance to play in the Champions League.”
  • “We’re going to take it seriously.”

Charleston Battery

  • “I know what the team talk is from them tomorrow because we’ve been using that for the last four or five years.”
  • “It’s going to be a tough game for us but one that we’re going to be prepared for.”
  • “We’re going to have to expect a really good show from Charleston. They’ve got good pace at forward positions. They’re very solid, they’re quite athletic.”
  • “We have to make sure we’re mentally prepared.”

Quick Run of Games

  • “People who have been waiting patiently for an opportunity, their opportunity is going to come around. As we’ve said, when one door closes another one opens for somebody else. Can somebody step up tomorrow night and prove that they should be playing at a regular basis? We’ve got a lot of people who’ve been knocking at my door over the last few weeks asking “Why am I not in the team?” They’ll probably get an opportunity tomorrow night to show what they can do.”

After wrapping things up with Heath, Orlando City President Phil Rawlins was the on-site guest for the remainder of the show. Rawlins gave a lot of background on what the team is doing off the field.

Orlando City Foundation

  • “The futsal court that’s been enjoyed in that area (Parramore) — we’re programming that regularly. There’s lots of activities going on there, as well as summer camps. And then this weekend we gave the donation to the 10 lucky kids from Parramore (Parramore Kids Zone college scholarship) all from a poor background to getting a college scholarship.”

Pivotal Moments in Club History

  • “I think about when Harrisburg hit the posts in the second half of extra time in the 2011 (USL Pro Championship Game) and we were on the ropes and we were down to ten men and it was 1-1 and they were in the ascendency and we were all looking tired and we dominated that game. We deserved to win it. But the guys were tired and they clattered, I think it was the upper 90 of the crossbar of the post and if that’d gone in I didn’t see us coming back from that game and the whole history of the club turned. It hit the post and came out, we went down to the other end, we got a penalty. Lewis Neal scores, we tie it up and it’s 2-2 and we go to penalties and we win. And all of the sudden this city’s got a championship winning team and that was a momentum changer for the club, the city, and the belief that the fans had and everybody had that we could do big things.”

NWSL Team in Orlando

  • “It’s something we would love to see happen. We’ve opened some dialog with the league. We’d love to see a professional women’s team here. We’ve bitten off a lot in the last few years. Stadium, MLS, everything that’s going on to develop that and get that ready. So we want to take a little bit of time to digest that and make sure we’re on an even keel and on a solid foundation. But with that said, we’d love to see an NWSL team here and I don’t think it’ll be too long before that happens.”

Decision to Make Club Purple

  • “When we were designing the original logo, we were working with blue, red, and a hint of gold. We went through a few designs and they were like, ‘You know what would look really good would be if we transferred the blue out and made it purple.’ And I was like ‘Really?’ And they were like ‘Yeah. I think it would look really good with the red and the gold.’ And I was like ‘Okay. If we’re going to go through a new iteration, make the next iteration purple.’ They brought it in and it was a no-brainer. You looked at it and went ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ It just pops. And then I got to thinking about how purple’s a unique color. No one plays in it. We could own the color so this is cool. So we encouraged them to run with the color and it became the dominant color.”

New Rendering for New Stadium

  • “We’ve already been up to Populous in Kansas City to work with them. We’re reconfiguring the stadium as best we can. We’re working on it in double-quick time. They’re back down with us this week. They’re back down with us in another week’s time. I’m expecting that we can get something close to what the final design will look like by early to mid-July.”
  • “Part of the club taking control of the development and building the stadium is that we get to control what’s in there. So we can take control of the concessions, the service, the quality, the technology in the stadium. That all comes under our management, our control rather than Orlando.”

Ticket Prices at New Stadium

  • “We’re really trying to stabilize our ticket prices and provide a family value price that all families can come out and support the team. We’re working hard to stabilize that price at the lower end at a value where families can come out or friends that want to come out and watch the games.”

What Got Adrian Heath to Follow Phil Rawlins to America

  • “Adrian was very determined to come with me to another country. I went back to England at Christmas time and it was back in Christmas of 2007 and a mutual friend of ours knew about the plans I had to build a team, start a team, and Adrian accosted me in the pub. Literally. He kinda pinned me to a wall for 20 minutes and told me why he should be our coach. I’d known Inchy for a long time and I was very taken aback that he wanted to leave England and come to the States. I was very honored that he wanted to do that. To be honest, I didn’t think we could afford to take him because at the time he’d been working in the English game a long time, he had a great reputation, he’d been the assistant coach and head coach at a lot of big clubs. So I was surprised that he wanted to do it. But he was very determined. He really believed in the game in the United States, the growth of the game over here as I did, and he was passionate about wanting to come. So we chatted for a long time and about a month or so later we invited him over, he came out to Texas and spent about a week or so, stayed with Kay and I, looked around at our plans, we shared everything with him, and at the end of the day we shook hands on a deal and from that day forward he’s been our coach. I’ve been very fortunate I’ve never had to interview any coaches at all but one.”

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. San Jose Earthquakes: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

Orlando City restarts its 2026 MLS campaign late tonight out west at San Jose.

Published

4 days ago

on

July 22, 2026

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Image of Braian Ojeda taking a shot in a friendly against FC Dallas.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Justin Glatt

Welcome to your match thread for a late night midweek matchup tonight between Orlando City (4-9-2, 14 points) and the San Jose Earthquakes (10-3-2, 32 points) at PayPal Park (10:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the only scheduled meeting between the teams in 2026 and the first time the teams have met since 2024.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of tonight’s match.

History

Orlando City is 3-1-3 in the previous seven MLS meetings with the Quakes since the club joined Major League Soccer in 2015. The Lions got their only away win in the series in the last meeting and enter tonight 1-1-2 on the road against San Jose.

The teams last met on May 18, 2024, with Jack Lynn coming off the bench to score the game’s only goal. Lynn’s strike in the 89th minute broke the scoreless deadlock and lifted the Lions to a 1-0 victory.

The teams met in Orlando most recently way back on June 22, 2021, with the Lions beating the Quakes down, 5-0. Orlando got things started with an early penalty kick goal by Nani, followed by braces from Benji Michel and Daryl Dike to easily put the game away. The lasting memory from the game is Michel’s celebratory dance wearing a cowboy hat that came out of the stands.

Prior to that Orlando City romp, the last time the teams met was on Aug. 31, 2019 when the Lions got freight trained 3-0 at Avaya Stadium, giving the Quakes their first win in the series. San Jose’s offense came via a Chris Wondolowski brace and an early opening goal by Magnus Eriksson. Orlando looked flat and weary out of the gate.

The Lions were victorious in Exploria Stadium in the 2018 meeting on April 21, a 3-2 Orlando win. It was the first win in the series for either side after three straight draws. Chris Mueller, Sacha Kljestan, and Dom Dwyer gave the Lions a 3-0 lead before Florian Jungwirth pulled two back in the game’s late stages.

The Lions led all of the first three matches in the second half only to see San Jose pull level, with two of those tying goals coming late. In the 2017 meeting, Carlos Rivas finally broke the scoreless tie and gave Orlando City the lead in the 81st minute, but Wondolowski spoiled the Lions’ night with an equalizer two minutes later as the teams drew at Avaya Stadium, 1-1.

In 2016, the Lions were gut-punched in the 94th minute in an emotional match that ended in a 2-2 draw. It was the first home match following the Pulse nightclub tragedy and what appeared to be a storybook ending to a cathartic win turned sour on a last-gasp equalizer by Shea Salinas. Seb Hines — now the Orlando Pride’s head coach — opened the scoring for Orlando, only to see Chad Barrett tie it up. Julio Baptista restored the lead in stoppage time, but Salinas ruined everything.

The two teams also drew in the first meeting, a 1-1 affair at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, with the Lions down to 10 men after Brek Shea was sent off in the first half. Kaká and Wondolowski each scored from the penalty spot four minutes apart in that initial meeting.

Overview

The teams meet tonight to get their post-World Cup portion of the season started. Orlando City has been terrible on the road all season long, keeping only one MLS opponent under two goals all year away from home and allowing five goals twice (at New York City FC and Nashville) and six goals twice (at LAFC and in the team’s most recent match away at FC Cincinnati just before the break).

Orlando City is a putrid 1-6-1 on the road this season, and now the Lions must face the Western Conference co-leaders tonight before coming home to face Supporters’ Shield-leading Nashville SC at home on Saturday. They’ll have to play at least tonight’s game without Martin Ojeda, who is out with a thigh injury sustained some time between his first-half goal a week ago in a friendly against FC Dallas and the time the availability report dropped on Tuesday.

But it isn’t all bad news for the Lions, who should have both Antoine Griezmann and Dike in the lineup. Griezmann was the club’s highly prized and widely publicized summer Designated Player signing, while Dike’s return to Orlando came together more recently, following his departure from West Bromwich Albion. They’ll help the club’s offense, but the attack hasn’t been the issue in 2026 — it’s been the historically porous defense, which is on pace to shatter the MLS record for goals conceded.

Meanwhile, San Jose is one of the first half of the season’s biggest surprises, as the Quakes have been outstanding in 2026. Scoring 34 goals while conceding just 15, San Jose is among the league leaders in goals scored (tied for third), goals conceded (third), and goal differential (+19, third).

The Earthquakes are 4-2-1 at home and are coming off a 3-1 road win at Portland in their last game prior to the World Cup break. San Jose boasts Golden Boot challenger Preston Judd, who leads the Quakes with 11 goals, adding two assists in his 15 appearances. Ousseni Bouda has chipped in five goals and three assists. Niko Tsakiris leads the team with seven assists to go along with his two goals, but he’s still recovering from a lower body injury and is not available tonight. However, the arrival of Timo Werner (four goals and five assists in just seven games) has truly elevated Bruce Arena’s Quakes, and he’ll need to be one of the main focal points for the Orlando defense.

To have any shot at taking something from this game, the Lions will need to play better road defense than they have all season. Orlando can score goals, but with Ojeda out, Griezmann will need to adapt quickly, and someone other than the team’s leading scorer will need to find the net.

The Lions will play without Ojeda (thigh), Joran Gerbet (knee), Nolan Miller (knee), Colin Guske (international duty), and Clovis Archage (international duty). In addition, Marco Pasalic may or may not have returned to the team after the World Cup. He was not in training Monday, although interim head coach Martin Perelman said he expected the Croatian back soon. The Earthquakes will be without Nonso Adimabua (lower body), former Lion Earl Edwards Jr. (lower body), DeJuan Jones (lower body), and Tsakiris (you guessed it, lower body…come on, San Jose).

Match Content

Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.

Defenders: Adrian Marin, David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Griffin Dorsey.

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Tiago.

Forwards: Justin Ellis, Antoine Griezmann.

Bench: Javier Otero, Bernardo Rhein, Tahir Reid-Brown, Zakaria Taifi, Iago, Wilder Cartagena, Luis Otavio, Harvey Sarajian, Tyrese Spicer

San Jose Earthquakes (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Angus Gunn.

Defenders: Jamar Ricketts, Reid Roberts, Daniel Munie, Benjamin Kikanovic.

Defensive Midfielders: Beau Lerouox, Ronaldo Vieira.

Attacking Midfielders: Timo Werner, Nick Fernandez, Ousseni Bouda.

Forwards: Preston Judd.

Bench: Jonathan Gonzalez, Dave Romney, Paul Marie, Jack Skahan, Jack Jasinski, Ian Harkes, Francesco Montali, Max Floriani, Darius Johnson.

Referees

REF: Elijio Arreguin.
AR1: Adam Wienckowski.
AR2: Mike Nickerson.
4TH: Timothy Ford.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki.

How to Watch

Match Time: 10:30 p.m.

Venue: PayPal Park — San Jose, CA.

TV/Live Stream: Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish), Nossa Rádio 1160 AM-WRLZ (Portuguese).

Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at @themaneland.bsky.social or follow Orlando City’s official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC) feed.

Enjoy the match. Go City!

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Podcasts

PawedCast Episode 542: Tampa Bay Friendly, McGuire Traded, OCB Beats Cincinnati, and More

Lions maul the Rowdies in friendly action, OCB wins on the road, and it’s transfer season.

Published

2 weeks ago

on

July 14, 2026

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Image of Antoine Griezmann and Ivan Angulo celebrating a goal in a friendly against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City welcomed I-4 Derby rival Tampa Bay to Inter&Co Stadium for a friendly match on Wednesday and then proceeded to bludgeon the Rowdies with a couple of hammers named Antoine Griezmann and Justin Ellis. The two attackers combined for a goal and four assists in a 6-0 beatdown of the team from the Gulf Coast, with five different Lions scoring and Griffin Dorsey forcing an own goal. We discuss Griezmann’s first minutes with Orlando City, what the team showed in its formation, and how good Justin Ellis’ vision is.

Oh, and it’s also transfer season now. Duncan McGuire is on his way out and Marco Pasalic reportedly will follow soon, while a new left back may be headed from Spain to Orlando.

Following all of that, we discuss Maxime Crepeau being added to the MLS All-Star Team and the announcement that he’ll participate in the 2026 MLS All-Star Skills Challenge.

Our mailbagbox asked us about which World Cup semifinalist players we’d want to join Orlando this season (if we could only pick one), and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

After the mailbagbox, we dive into OCB’s 2-1 road win at FC Cincinnati 2. It wasn’t the prettiest game by the Young Lions, but they managed to do enough to earn three points on the road, where they’ll stay to face Chattanooga on Saturday. We briefly preview that game.

Finally, Orlando City will be in Dallas Wednesday for the second of two friendlies leading up to the restart of the MLS season. It’s unlikely we’ll get a lot of details about that one, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe the FC Dallas folks will help us out.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how No. 542 went down:

0:15 – Orlando City crushed the Rowdies, the transfer season is in full swing, plus: hey now, Crepeau’s an all-star.

28:50 – The mailbagbox is always good for a hypothetical scenario.

36:54 – The Young Lions slipped past Cincy and head to Chattanooga, while the senior Lions head to Dallas.

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Podcasts

SkoPurp Soccer Episode 119: International Break, USWNT, Louisville Preview, and More

The Pride return from a long international break looking to get their first-ever road win against Racing Louisville.

Published

3 months ago

on

April 22, 2026

By

Image of Haley McCutcheon scoring the opening goal in Orlando's home playoff win over Seattle.
Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

It feels like months since the Orlando Pride last took the field, but the calendar says otherwise. If you believe calendars, it’s only been a little less than three weeks, but time moves strangely in the post-pandemic apocalyptic world.

Anyway, we don’t have a match to recap, so we touched on a couple of Pride players putting the ball in the net during the international break and chat a bit about the United States Women’s National Team’s three-game friendly series against Japan. Emma Hayes used a lot of players, and the team looked solid for two of the three matches, but the rotated middle game seemed a bit disjointed. Hayes has greatly expanded the player pool and will have plenty of options when the World Cup approaches.

Our mailbagbox had questions about a potential change in the NWSL schedule, as the league explores adopting the fall-to-spring slate, and opposition own goals. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.

After the mailbagbox, we turned our attention toward Friday’s late afternoon tussle with Racing Louisville in Kentucky. The Pride have never won on the road against Louisville, and it’s about high time they did. This match begins a congested push to the June World Cup break, and although Friday’s hosts aren’t high in the table, the Pride must be at their best to get a road result in this fixture. We look back at the series history, compare the two sides, provide our key matchups in the game, and make our final score predictions.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 119 went down:

0:15 – We open the show with a little banter about the Pride in the international break and the USWNT’s series vs. Japan.

9:03 – The mailbagbox features questions via both eletronic mail and social media. We welcome all modes of delivery.

19:59 – The Pride travel to Louisville to face Racing. They’ve never won in Kentucky, but we inform them how to do so.

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