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Orlando City Coach’s Show Recap: Adrian Heath Talks Red Bulls, Looks Forward to Montreal

Published

11 years ago

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On this week’s Orlando City Coach’s Show with Adrian Heath, the Lions’ boss discusses Friday night’s impressive 5-2 win over the New York Red Bulls, previews Saturday’s pivotal match-up against the Montreal Impact, and other news around Orlando City SC.

Current Run of Wins

"I think I said on this show and I've said it on numerous occasions lately that did I feel that this team was capable of winning four or five games, which we were going to need to make the playoffs? I said we could. I think one or two people raised their eyebrows at it."

"One thing I wanted to make sure of was that when the Montreal game came around, there was something to play for."

Red Bulls Game

"The first 10 or 15 minutes away from home in any game are so important. Especially when you play a team like the Red Bulls who have lost one game and drawn one before we played them. Their home record is probably the best in the whole of MLS. So it was important that we weathered the early storm. When we did that, I always felt comfortable that, the way our team matches up with theirs, we could actually cause them trouble on the break."

“We had a strange situation with Seb Hines dislocating his shoulder, the shuffle actually made us more dangerous on the counter attack because we moved Bodz across and moved Brek Shea. So we brought Rivas on and when Rivas has a lot of space in behind people, you can see how dangerous he was. But the most important thing was his final ball was absolutely fantastic on the evening.”

Cyle Larin Setting MLS Rookie Goal Scoring Record

"I said to him before I put the team sheet in, ‘Are you feeling really tired, or have you just not been playing well the last two or three games?' And he said, ‘I feel really good.'"

"I wanted him to break the record."

Team Morale

"Before the game I just sensed that the lads were really determined to get a result."

David Mateos Pregame Injury

"We thought David was going to be okay. He had a slight niggle in it but it didn't improve over the next 48 hours and we thought it would do. In New York, we knew we couldn't have anyone that was like 75 percent fit against them. So we decided to leave him out completely and hopefully save him for the next games."

Seb Hines Injury

"Seb's been working really hard and wanted to get back into the team and he dislocated his shoulder. And they couldn't put it back in and he was in a lot of pain so they tried and couldn't put it back in."

Luke Boden at Center Back

"He headed the ball more in 25 minutes than he has since he's been with us."

Early Second Half Goal

"The one thing we talked about at halftime was make sure we start quickly, because we knew they were going to come out, they were kicking toward their favorite end, they've scored more goals kicking that way than they have the other end, so we were aware they were comfortable kicking at that end. The most important thing was don't concede early on. Not only did we not concede, we obviously got the goal, which was huge for us."

Referee

"I thought the referee was fantastic."

Cristian Higuita

"When we signed Cristian, he was coming off the back of an injury. Six months prior to us signing him, it was looking like he was going to sign for Inter Milan. And the knee injury came at the wrong time for him. They sat and waited for him to get himself 100 percent fit again. We took a gamble. It wasn't a gamble on his ability but before people are fully 100 percent fit, we bought on the back of what we'd seen before and it's proven to be a really wise decision because we could've sold Cristian a couple of times before now. We'll hold onto him until we think the time's right. The time's right for him and the time's right for the club. If the kid keeps himself fit and God willing has no injuries, the kid's got everything ahead of him."

MLS Preferential Treatment

"The league's a bit biased. You look at LA and New York and sometimes you wonder if anyone else is in the league. But it is what it is and it was nice to go up there and win the game."

"Would I rather be in New York or LA? No. I like where I am and I like what we're trying to build here and we're going to be good."

Strikers

"You keep telling Cyle if he doesn't produce the level we expect of him he's coming out of the team then Bryan's earned his opportunity. And we keep saying to Bryan you're the next man up. You're the one that's putting pressure on Cyle. The minute that Cyle drops his performance to a level that we don't think is acceptable, Bryan will get his opportunity."

"I think the way Bryan has played recently has really been pushing Cyle hard."

Playoff Push

"If someone tells us that Montreal have won again or New York have won again, it doesn't really matter to us. We're still going to have to win our games. We tell the players, have a look at it if you want because that's human nature, but it doesn't matter because if we don't win, we're not going to the playoffs anyway."

Winning and Losing Streaks

"My thing is, you can't be too high when you're winning and you can't be too low when you're losing because it's very easy for players to sense when results are affecting the coaching staff."

Support Around the State

"I was down in Miami not long ago and there was a gang of four guys sitting in the corner having a beer and, they didn't even recognize me, but we went over and got talking and they've been to every home game. They're traveling three and a half hours to come to a game."

Starting Lewis Neal over Adrian Winter

"Lew's really disappointed with himself after the game because by his own admission, one of the things Lewis Neal's very good at is possession of the ball. And I don't think I've ever seen him give the ball away as much as he did in New York. He's certainly the most tactical footballer that we have. So when you're trying to change the shape of the team, normally people like Lew are the people you go to because they understand what you're trying to do. And Adrian's still trying to get on the same page with what we're trying to do anyway. Whether we change it this weekend remains to be seen."

Didier Drogba

"The fact that he's 36 or 37 will show everybody what he was like when he was 26, 27. I remember when he was in his prime when we were at Sunderland and he was virtually unplayable."

"He's been an iconic player for the last 20 years."

Tactics Against Montreal

"We can't get caught up with the fact that we have to win it so quickly and leave ourselves exposed. We proved at the weekend that if the people can weather the early storm and then you leave yourself open to the counter attack. I think the most important thing is we match up quite well. The one thing I'm not so sure about is if Piatti played at the weekend, we pretty much know how we would line up. They would've played four at the back, and then two, and then three, and then one up front. Similar to what we do. But the fact that Piatti's away in Argentina, I think his father is ill, we're not quite sure whether he'll be back. So they might change the way they play a little bit to a 4-1-4-1 which won't displease me if they do."

Center Backs Defending Drogba

“When the ball goes wide, you can’t watch the ball. The minute you watch the ball it’ll either be off your back shoulder, in between you, or the minute you turn it’ll be across the front of you. Didier Drogba is one of the best players you’ll see at attacking the ball in the box when the ball goes wide. They’ve put more crosses in since Didier Drogba’s been here than they’ve done nearly all season. So they’ve obviously worked on getting the ball in nice and early and Drogba getting on the end of it. So when the ball goes wide, we want to get in tight against him and make it difficult for him to get a run or a jump and basically not make mistakes around him.”

"If the goalkeeper spills anything, I guarantee you Drogba will be there to tap it in."

Montreal's Attacking Weapons

"The front of their team now has a real threat. They played Oduro wide so it stretches the width. They play Piatti behind, so obviously your two center backs are never certain to go tighter, and they're very good."

"They're a team that have been growing steadily."

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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 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

1 month 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

4 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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