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Staff Roundtable Week 1: Orlando City vs. Real Salt Lake

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10 years ago

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Orlando City kicks off the 2016 Major League Soccer season tomorrow in what we all hope is the club’s second straight opening day sellout at the Citrus Bowl. With the entire season in front of us, we can entertain literally any possibility for the campaign ahead. But there are still a lot of questions as we prepare to square off against Real Salt Lake on Sunday.

Here to discuss the opener vs. RSL, we've assembled yet another stellar team of Mane Land staffers, seated comfortably around our large, round, purple table. This week we've got Brad Newton, Eric Ely, and Meg Van Dyk. This trio of staff writers opine below on such topics as who will score the Lions' first goal of the season, what we might expect from the referee, and the team's strengths and weaknesses as we enter the 2016 season.

To the roundtable!

The first match is imminent and the opponent is Real Salt Lake. What excites you most about this match-up?

Brad: Seeing how Kevin Molino fits back into the lineup after missing so much time. When he came on in the second half during a preseason friendly between Orlando City and Toronto FC the entire pace of the game swung in Orlando City’s favor the second he stepped onto the pitch, and his play was directly responsible for both goals that helped OCSC overcome an early deficit against a team that gave the lions plenty of difficulties last season.

Eric: Apart from the new-season giddiness that the first match of the season brings, I’m looking forward to Cyle Larin picking up right where he left off after an amazing rookie campaign. I’m excited to see what he and the rest of our attack can do to a relatively aged RSL backline. I’ll also be watching RSL returnee Yura Movsisyan closely to see how he re-acclimates to the league following adventures in Russia.

Meg: I am most excited to see how Adrian Heath plans to take on this somewhat evenly matched team. With lots of new players coming in and out of camp, it will be interesting to see how Orlando fares against a team who hasn't been without as many players. Also, the new influx of talent up top should allow Orlando to score more easily against a strong Real Salt Lake defense, and the fact that the bowl will be close to filled should create a fun atmosphere.

Orlando City drew last season at Real Salt Lake in a game that saw Kaká (of all people) get sent off. Last year’s season opener saw Aurelien Collin get red carded. Can Orlando City make it through this match without a player sent off?

Eric: We can only hope so! Although I doubt last season's controversial sending off of Kaká will linger into this year's opener, it is a remote possibility. I expect an intense game as both teams look to start their MLS campaigns off on the right foot, but hopefully there won't be any nonsense and we see a clean, well-played game at the Citrus Bowl.

Meg: The hope is that no one ever gets a red card. Often times a red card signifies that a game has gotten out of hand and is being played sloppily. So, yes I would hope to not see anyone sent off, because I want to see Orlando play with class and skill, not aggression.

Brad: Collin is a reserve now and Sorin Stoica (the ref who sent off Kaká) isn't officiating this game, so, probably? On the other hand it's Chris Penso who handed OCSC seven cards in last season's disappointing finale against Philadelphia, including a red card to Christian Higuita, so probably not? Yeah, Someone is getting sent off for something dumb. This is going to mirror Orlando City's big problem last year in that they lacked discipline and would let their emotions get the better of them. Having gotten as close as they did to making the playoffs but ultimately missing out I believe will help get them focused and limit the unnecessary disciplinary actions.

Call your shot. Who will score the Lions' first goal of the 2016 season? And will it come Sunday against a pretty good defensive club in RSL?

Meg: Cyle Larin will score the first goal. We've seen him score against some strong sides and I think he is ready to step up and take more of a goal-scoring role.

Brad: I expect that the Lions’ first goal may come from an unlikely source. Pedro Ribeiro has been a revelation since moving into midfield and working alongside Antonio Nocerino might prove to be very fruitful, but I would not be surprised to see “Offensive Maestro Seb Hines” (that’s his official title now, per me) open up Orlando City’s 2016 book. Either scenario is more than likely coming off a Kaká set piece.

Eric: I'll go with Kaká via free kick or penalty.

What is Orlando City's greatest strength entering 2016? What is the team's biggest weakness?

Eric: Two weaknesses stand out, one more so than the other. I am concerned about Joe Bendik in goal. After splitting time last year in Toronto I hope the move to Orlando has a positive effect on his attitude and motivates him to perform well. The other is the potential lack of depth depending on summer call-ups. Without knowing how this will shake out, the severity of this issue is a great unknown, especially when injuries are also considered. On the other side, OCSC’s midfield play stands out as a strength. I’m expecting big things from Kaká in year two. At times last season he seemed to drift out of matches and almost seem disinterested. Hopefully a season-long playoff push will keep him and the rest of the roster playing at a high level. I like what Darwin Ceren brings to the table. It will also be interesting to watch Kevin Molino throughout the year after last season’s injury shortened campaign.

Brad: Their greatest strength is easily their attack. If Molino, Kaká, and Larin all get into the area they’re as dangerous as any trio in the league. There is some real potential to see an offense that MLS teams just aren’t equipped to handle. MLS goalkeeping isn’t stellar and these players can generate some potent offense once they slip past defenders. As for weaknesses? It’s their goalkeeping and back line. Joe Bendik isn’t worse than Tally Hall and he isn’t much of a markable improvement over him either (aside from not having ligaments in his knees made of tissue paper). If Brek Shea can stay healthy and anchor the line, he can help turn Orlando’s biggest weakness into a strength before the season’s end.

Meg: Their greatest strength is going to be their depth, while last year it was their biggest weakness. I think during the offseason the front office worked to eliminate that weak spot and in my opinion they were successful. Now their struggle is going to be chemistry. They have new players who may still not be familiar with one another. With other players coming in and out of training it will be interesting to see how they play together, not having a whole lot of time to mesh.

What is the key to Sunday's match and what kind of result will Orlando City get from its meeting with Real Salt Lake?

Brad: This game may not come down to last minute heroics off a set piece from Orlando City's captain the way last year's game concluded, but it will be a close affair. Assuming Real Salt Lake (ugh, why are they called that? What royalty has emerged from Utah? The Osmonds?) parks the bus and stifles Orlando City's attack, there may be some fatigue that sets in and the Lions may fade down the stretch, allowing RSL to open up the attack. Conversely, if Orlando City can capitalize early and keep the foot on the gas, this may be the first chapter in a season to remember in the City Beautiful.

Meg: The key will be communication. There are a lot of new players who don't yet know the atmosphere Orlando plays in and it can be a bit of a shock to new players. If the team can communicate, execute, and play with class, there is no reason they shouldn't walk away with the win.

Eric: It’s obviously early, but RSL’s participation in CCL play in midweek may psychologically, if not physically, have a carryover effect on the players. For me, the key to Sunday’s opener will be the battle in the midfield. I’ll be watching Kyle Beckerman and Kaká in particular to see who will be able to impose himself on the game. I’m not one for predictions, but I see a draw, so I’ll go with RSL 1-1 OCSC.

* * *

That's your roundtable discussion for opening week. Feel free to add your answers to these questions or explain why our staff is right/wrong in their predictions or analysis in the comments section below.

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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

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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

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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