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Orlando City Coach’s Show Recap: Adrian Heath Talks Charleston Battery and Montreal Impact, Looks Forward to Colorado Rapids

Published

11 years ago

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The Long Road Trip

  • “We try to prepare as best we can for the players in terms of traveling. Giving them more time to acclimatize to where they’re going, sleeping, etc. It is difficult.”

Charleston Battery

  • “We needed to give some of the guys who played most of the minutes some rest. I said before the game, we’ve probably got six or seven players who are carrying knocks at this moment in time.”
  • “We couldn’t afford the risk and had to give some of the younger guys a chance. I thought some of them handled themselves very well.”
  • “It was a difficult game against a team that was super-motivated.”
  • “All of their players want to play in the MLS so they have something to prove.”
  • “We made hard work of it.”

Earl Edwards Jr.

  • “We think over the next couple of years he’ll develop into a top-line goalkeeper.”
  • “He didn’t surprise me. I think the kid’s going to have a really bright future.”
Carlos Rivas
  • “He showed a lot of confidence to take the chances (on the penalties).”

Preparing for Shootout

  • “When you’ve 90 minutes in about 100 degree heat, by the time you get to penalties, the team looks nothing like the one that started. And you’ve got people who’ve got cramps. You’ve got people who can feel their ankle’s blowing up so they don’t want to take one.”
  • “It’s got nothing to do with ability. Eventually it’s all down to the mental strength that people have. On the night there’s about three or four of them that say, ‘No. I don’t want one.’ At the end you’re better asking people if they want a penalty rather than making people take a penalty.”
  • “I could see their faces. They (the latter kickers) weren’t as confident.”
Conor Donovan
  • “I think he’s got the ability to make a good MLS player. He’s strong. He’s aggressive. He wants to put his head on things. He wants to defend the box. His best days are ahead of him.”

On the Shooting at Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church

  • "It was a strange feeling. It was quite surreal. After the game we finished speaking about the game and then people starting telling us that there'd been an incident by the hotel. And obviously by the time we got on the coach, it's not an incident, there could be more and the killer's still on the run. And he's by the hotel. And by the time we get to the block where our hotel is, it's completely cordoned off. It was police cars everywhere. It was SWAT teams everywhere. It was quite surreal. When you start to watch the T.V. and watch everything unfold, then it really puts football into perspective a little bit because some people's mother or father or daughter had gone to the church and then (was) killed."

The Montreal Impact Match

  • “I was just disappointed in our application during the game. We had five or six players who hadn’t played in Charleston. So there was no real excuse and as I’ve said to you and I say to everybody, the one thing we pride ourselves in is having a right good go every time we play and I didn’t think we did that. And as I said to the guys, I’m the judge of that.”
  • “It was way below what we’re expecting.”
  • “It wasn’t that we were losing, it was the way that we were losing.”
  • “We played to the level of the game, not our own level.”

Halftime Talk

  • “You probably don’t want to hear what I said at halftime.”
  • “In the second half we didn’t get any better so it obviously fell on deaf ears.”

The Columbus Crew Match

  • “I hope we can finish with 11 players on the field. That’d be nice.”
  • “It looks like we’re starting to get a little bit chippy against Columbus.”
  • “I’ll wait and see (who we’ll start against Columbus) after tomorrow night’s game.”

Training

  • “The most important thing is that you don’t do too much on the field. Because obviously with the heat we’re dealing with now, we start at 9 o’clock and I think the other day it was nearly at 100 degrees again. So we’ve got players losing six, seven, eight, nine pounds a training session. So we have to be careful with what we do with them. So team shape and team work we’ve been doing more in the classroom, on video. And really on the grass we’ve just been ticking over and doing the odd set piece here and there and working on little bits of shape in certain areas.”

Brek Shea's Injury

  • “When he came back from the last trip playing Holland and Germany, we had a medical report from the U.S. Soccer Federation. One thing they put on it is you’re going to have to be careful with his groin area because he’s got a problem there. He missed a few training sessions. So we rang them up after the game on the weekend and said, “Listen, we think he’s going to be a gamble for you to play. You know, a game every three days, this kid needs rest.’ So thankfully a bit of common sense prevailed.”
  • “We have to get to the bottom of the injury and figure out if we shut him down for a period of time. Fortunately he’s not going to the Gold Cup. We’ll get an assessment. We’re going to see a specialist after the game tomorrow.”

What is Needed to Secure a Playoff Spot

  • “We need to keep more players fit than the first half of the season. We’ve had too many injuries. We’ve had to change the team around too much. I’d like to bring in one maybe two more people in the window to maybe give us a little bit more depth in one or two areas.”

MLS Referee Treatment

  • “I’m going to have to be careful with what I say. You got me in enough trouble a couple weeks ago. I’m still saving up to pay the fine.”
  • “At the end of the day every referee is trying to do his best. They’re not homers. They’re not trying to influence the game in any way. I think the one thing that we ask for is consistency. It’s something I’ve said in the past, I think the game in the MLS is growing substantially and it’s really improving week by week that maybe the officials are just a little bit behind there and not catching up. I think it’s getting better but there’s still a long way to go.”

On an Article by "Dennis" Chin (Actually Written by OCSC PR Man Jhamie)

  • “Somebody wrote it for him I think. Because he went to Rollins (College) for his education.”

When Rivas Will Score From Open Play

  • “Good question. I wish knew the answer.”
  • “He so desperate to score a goal. He’s rushing himself.”
  • “I didn’t think all the three young ones would contribute all at once and some are doing better than we thought.”
Pedro Ribeiro and Cyle Larin
  • “The way we play, we normally just play one through the middle and we try to get bodies joining them. We started with Cyle because Pedro had that injury for six weeks. The other thing is, we know that Cyle’s going away. He’s going to go away with the Gold Cup. So I’ve tried to use Pedro sparingly and we’re working him really hard behind the scenes so he’s ready for when the opportunity comes because we’re going to need him.”

European Clubs Having Interest in Orlando City Players

  • “Yes.”

Kaká's Poor Play

  • “Did he have his best game? No he didn’t. And that’s going to happen. I’ve been in football too long now to criticize players that have had the career he has when he has an off-game. When he doesn’t do as well as he normally does. But I’ll say it again, I think the second half of the season we’ll see the best of him.”

Colorado Rapids

  • “A couple of things stick out really. They’ve conceded the least goals, they’ve got nine draws, so they don’t give an awful lot away.”
  • “Our start is going to be important. That we get on top of them. That we can get a goal early and make them change the game plan.”

Rapids Often Score Late

  • “Concentration levels are always really important. Especially when you’re playing at home and you’re generally in the ascendency most of the time and you maintain the ball and what happens is, people switch off. We’ve got done twice by Toronto. You’ve got to be careful about it because as you said, they score late on, don’t give much away, don’t concede many goals, but it’s a game we can win. It’s a game we have to win.”

Colorado's Dangerous Players

  • “We liked him (Marcelo Sarvas). We had talks with him in preseason. He was one of the players that we were talking to and talking about to see if there was anything we could do but there was nothing we could do with a trade. Kevin Doyle’s come in. Played a lot of games for Ireland. And played a lot of games for QPR (Queens Park Rangers) and Wolves (Wolverhampton Wanderers) so they’ve got some good tools. They’ve got some weapons. And I don’t want anyone to be fooled by where they are in the standings.”
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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

2 weeks ago

on

July 22, 2026

By

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

3 weeks ago

on

July 14, 2026

By

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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