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Can Orlando City Stop Jozy Altidore and Sebastian Giovinco?

Published

10 years ago

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Toronto FC comes into Orlando tonight with the hottest offense in MLS. Star duo Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore have combined for a staggering 12 goals and five assists during Toronto’s unbeaten run that now spans six games. It’s a seemingly unstoppable force meeting a movable object. The fact that it’s a quick turnaround for a critical Eastern Conference clash in a tight race for the final playoff spots just makes slowing them down all the more critical.

Stopping them seems unlikely as the pair have never been a welcome sight for the Lions’ defenders. The Lions have yet to keep Toronto from scoring fewer than two goals in a match and were shelled 5-0 and 4-1 last summer. Giovinco has four goals and three assists in four games against Orlando and Altidore also has four goals in half the matches. These two alone made up 14% of all league goals Orlando allowed in 2015. City was able to win its first contest ever against Toronto earlier this year but needed a penalty decision absurdly deep into extra time. Even then, that was Toronto without a healthy Altidore.

It doesn’t help that the rout at the hands of Seattle is still fresh in Orlando fans’ minds. The Sounders’ forward tandem ran riot through Orlando’s defense and put an end to Orlando’s home unbeaten streak. Giovinco and Altidore don’t have the pace of Jordan Morris and Clint Dempsey, but the Atomic Ant could still beat Orlando’s center backs in a foot race.

Even if the Lions’ back line doesn’t leave an acre of space between them and Joe Bendik this time, Seba’s technical skill and ability to take on defenders means that he is always a threat to score. Naturally, this draws defenders to him in droves, which opens up space for his teammates to run into. His assists against the Lions — notably his setup for the late equalizer in June — come from defenders not marking late runners in the box and committing too hard to the Italian. It’s a catch 22 for any defense.

The best method to combat this would be marking him with Orlando’s best one-on-one defender, Tommy Redding, and trying to maintain a disciplined shape around him. Once the rest of the team starts closing in on Giovinco, he can pick them apart with his passing. Orlando can still commit multiple defenders to stopping him, but there has to be a plan in place for the other attackers in the vicinity.

Servando Carrasco and Antonio Nocerino don’t have the same ability to break up attacks as the injured Cristian Higuita, but they can still jump passing lanes. The issue is — and has always been — balls over the top. The following clip is a good example of Orlando’s successful attempts to limit Giovinco using these tactics, even though they gave up a goal.

When the defenders realize that Seba is left in space, both Carrasco and David Mateos close the gap. Carrasco shuts down the direct route between the Italian and Jonathan Osorio. Mateos then recognizes where Osorio is going with the ball and turns to give himself a head start. Giovinco still beats him, but he’s ushered to the end line where his options are limited. He now has to whip a ball in at a tight angle to have any chance at threatening Bendik and does so, and Joe manages to divert it away from goal. Redding does his job and takes the other forward. Unfortunately, there’s still a runner waiting on the other side of the box. If Kevin Alston marks Justin Morrow, Orlando has neutered Toronto’s attack and likely walks away 2-1 winners instead of 3-2.

Giovinco’s strike partner, Altidore, is almost as much of a handful but in theory is easier to handle on his own. Altidore’s imposing frame and strength complement Giovinco, but only if he can hold the ball. His hold-up play gives the other attackers time to get into dangerous positions. This is where new acquisition José Aja could shine.

Orlando has lacked a physical central defender since the departure of Aurélien Collin, but the Uruguayan international can fill that void. He made a mark in his first start on Saturday against Colorado on the way to recording a clean sheet, but it will be interesting to see if he can do the same against better forwards. Seb Hines was held out of the match with the Rapids due to a problem with his knee but should be available tonight. Even so, if Aja is fit enough after playing the majority of Saturday’s fixture, his physicality has the potential to vault him ahead of Hines in this situation. It should be noted that Jozy beat Hines one-on-one for both goals in Orlando’s 2-0 loss last season.

It will be tough to deny Altidore service with the likes of Giovinco and Michael Bradley providing it, but harassing him once he is on the ball will be key to keeping him and the rest of the Reds at bay. Aja’s toughness can force the USMNT forward to give up the ball once he has it instead of shielding it. Altidore is also a threat on set pieces, but he has yet to overpower the Lions with his aerial ability. His goal against Orlando on a free kick last season was due to poor marking — he and Marky Delgado were both left alone at the post — which is an overarching issue that can’t be solved easily. He may use his size to collect the ball, but the biggest issue Orlando faces with Altidore is how easily he blew by the defense last year, burning the Lions for four goals in just 108 minutes. Orlando’s defenders will need to respect his speed on runs or else they’ll find him through on goal.

But live play isn’t the only area where the Reds can hurt teams.

Of Giovinco’s four goals against Orlando, two came from free kicks on the edge of the area. Both were unstoppable shots that rebounded off the woodwork and in, giving Tally Hall no chance. A major issue for Orlando’s defensive midfield and defenders has been giving away cheap fouls in dangerous areas. Most teams in MLS don’t have the weapons to punish Orlando, but Giovinco is deadly in dead ball situations. The best way to prevent him from hurting you is not giving him an opportunity.

Using Nocerino and Carrasco as the defensive midfielders should give the team more ball security in dangerous positions and they aren’t as prone to fouls as Higuita is. If the players can maintain their discipline and defensive shape, they’ll still need good team defense from the wingers and fullbacks. Of course, if Orlando can manage to neutralize Toronto’s forwards, it still has to contend with Michael Bradley.

But for the Lions, it isn’t so much about keeping a clean sheet tonight as it is containing the damage to a reasonable amount to keep their offense within striking distance. If the previous fixtures are any indication, there will be goals.

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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

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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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