Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Montreal Impact: Final Score 1-0 as Lions are Eliminated from the Postseason

Despite a wealth of possession and a lopsided shot advantage, the Lions can’t find a breakthrough, falling to the Impact for the first time in 2016.

Published

9 years ago

October 2, 2016

Michael Citro

Nick Leyva, The Mane Land

Orlando City was desperately in need of a win but it was the Montreal Impact that played with desperation. The Impact sat deep and defended for 90+ minutes, hoping for a moment of magic on the counter. They got exactly that with Dominic Oduro’s 56^th minute, 1-v-1 opportunity. Oduro beat Joe Bendik and ended Orlando’s playoff hopes in a 1-0 Montreal win.

The Lions finished the season series 2-1-0 against the Impact, but the one loss seems to more than cancel out the two wins — two of only seven times Orlando has collected all three points this season.

In the end, it didn’t matter that the Lions held the ball for 66.8% of the game (74.2% of the second half). It didn’t matter that Orlando (7-11-14, 35 points) out-shot the Impact, 22-4. It didn’t matter that City won more duels, passed more accurately, or had 12 corners to Montreal’s one. All that matters is that it’s another loss for the lads in purple, and this one hurts more than all the others because it puts a finality to even the faintest glimmer of postseason hopes.

“In my opinion we did everything other than finish our chances,” said Head Coach Jason Kreis after the match. “And if we’d have finished one of our chances, I think the game would have been much different.”

Oduro’s one moment of magic was all that Montreal (11-10-11, 44 points) wanted. And Impact Head Coach Mauro Biello even acknowledged after the game that he’d have been satisfied with a single point in a 0-0 draw. But he did get that moment – on his team’s only shot on target of the game, no less – and he has to feel like he’s sneaking out of Orlando having committed the great train robbery.

The Lions peppered 19 second-half shot attempts toward Evan Bush’s goal and not one of them fell favorably. Five of the 22 total OCSC shot attempts were blocked and 12 were off-target, leaving only five on frame, with Bush stopping all of them, including two of the Save-of-the-Week variety.

Give credit to Montreal. The Impact came in with the bus already parked and their game plan worked to perfection, as the Lions missed the target, rushed shots, or hit Bush squarely, with only a couple of exceptions. Only two denied first-half appeals for penalty kicks could have made a difference, but neither was awarded. Even without those, you’d have to think the Lions generated sufficient chances to bulge the net at least once or twice. They didn’t.

Neither team did much through a sleepy first half. Montreal was content to give Orlando City possession, which the Lions were happy to take, holding the ball 62.2% of the first half to the Impact’s 37.8%. To Orlando’s credit, there weren’t a lot of turnovers leading to dangerous counters, but the Lions also failed to threaten goal much, finishing with three first-half shots and none on target.

The Lions also largely wasted five corner kicks, either failing to find a teammate or not even beating the first defender with the cross. However, Jose Aja got onto a Matias Perez Garcia corner cross in the 20^th minute and directed his headed shot toward goal. The ball appeared to take a deflection and went over the end line. The Lions protested for a handball but the ref awarded a goal kick.

In the 23^rd minute, a nice bit of build-up led to a near chance but Kaká over-hit the pass and Bush came quickly off his line to beat Cyle Larin to the ball.

In the 41^st, Kaká got to the end line and tried to cross the ball in. It deflected off a defender and again the captain and the crowd howled for a penalty but to no avail. A minute later the Lions got their best opportunity of the half as Larin turned and blasted from the top of the box, but his shot was just wide. That summarized Larin’s afternoon.

Kreis brought Julio Baptista on for an ineffective Kevin Molino at the half and Orlando’s attacking mentality certainly changed. However, David Mateos sustained a right knee injury and forced a second substitution early in the second period, as Seb Hines came on.

Hines’ first touch served to send Kaká up the left flank, where the Brazilian crossed in for Larin, but the Canadian couldn’t quite get onto it. He may have been pushed, but there was no whistle from Armando Villarreal — a theme that played throughout the day.

In the 54^th minute, Kevin Alston’s long throw found Baptista in the box, but he couldn’t control it and it was cleared as far as Luke Boden, who shot just over the bar from the top of the box. Within a minute, Larin turned around Laurent Ciman and sped toward goal. Ambroise Oyongo appeared to foul Larin just outside the box but Villarreal saw nothing in the challenge and what was more or less a breakaway went without even an attempt at goal. A minute later, Kaká tried a shot but it went straight at Bush, much like his attempt late at Toronto found Alex Bono.

A minute after that, Oduro ripped the hearts out of the 26,041 at Camping World Stadium, finishing a 1-v-1 opportunity against Bendik. Patrice Bernier found room on the right side and centered for Matteo Mancosu. The Italian’s one-time pass took an unlucky deflection off Hines and right into the path of the onrushing Oduro, who easily out-paced Boden and found the upper right corner of the net.

Kreis didn’t fault Hines on the goal or suggest that had he not been forced to sub out the inured Mateos the outcome would have been any different.

“I honestly don’t think that had much to do with (the goal),” Kreis said. “We let that break happen with the player on the ball where he was allowed a little too much time and space. And then Oduro makes a run that we should have held our line and we didn’t hold our line. When you do that and you end up with a player with that kind of pace behind you, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Orlando had an opportunity in the 60^th with the ball pinging around in Montreal’s box after a corner kick, but every Lion shot or pass attempt was deflected by a Montreal boot and you just knew it wasn’t City’s day.

That became even more evident in the 62^nd minute. Antonio Nocerino sent a lovely ball to the left corner for Boden, who one-timed a perfect cross into the six-yard box for Larin. The Canadian got it on frame but Bush made a point-blank save to somehow keep it out.

Kreis withdrew Servando Carrasco for Carlos Rivas in the 64^th minute, going all-out in the attack. Just four minutes later, Rivas sent in one of his incredible crosses from the left flank that found Baptista’s head but he nodded off target. Baptista again missed the target in the 69^th, firing just over the bar after an Alston cross into the box deflected right onto the Brazilian’s foot.

Rivas sent a free kick just inches over the bar in the 72^nd minute, as it looked for all the world like a shot eventually had to find the net. He fired just over the bar again in the 80^th, however, and you started to realize that Bush could leave the stadium and somehow the ball would stay out. But he didn’t leave the stadium, instead robbing Larin on a header off a corner kick in the 88^th.

There were six minutes of stoppage time to try to at least pull a goal back, but the best chances were already behind the Lions and the Impact saw out the clean sheet for Bush.

“Obviously we’re all very, deeply disappointed,” Kreis said. “I think we all put in a tremendous amount to that game, really gave our hearts and souls to it in the buildup the past several days. I couldn’t be happier with the work everybody’s done and the effort everybody’s given, but soccer can be a cruel game and that’s what we saw today.”

The Lions are left to play two lame duck matches – two weeks from today at Philadelphia and again three weeks from today at home against D.C. United.

“We want to finish well,” Kreis said. “This group has worked extremely hard and it would be a real shame not to not give ourselves the respect and our fans the respect to do everything we can to get points and wins in these last two matches. I think we’re all too good of professionals to ever look at these games this way.”

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Opinion

Encouraging Early Signs in Orlando City’s Off-Season

It’s early, but Orlando seems determined to reshape its roster for the better after a disappointing 2025 season.

Published

10 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Ben Miller

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

We still have a long way to go until opening day of the 2026 Major League Soccer season, and a lot of work needs to be completed on Orlando City’s roster between now and Feb. 21, but there have been some encouraging developments so far.

For starters, the club inked captain Robin Jansson to a new deal. That takes care of at least one of the starting center back positions, potentially two if David Brekalo partners him, with Adrian Marin or someone else sliding in at left back. Aside from filling an obvious positional need, it also returns a veteran who (if Kyle Smith isn’t re-signed) is the longest-tenured player on the team and is someone who has experience coming out of his ears. For a roster that is going to experience a fair amount of overhaul this offseason, having a constants is important, especially when it comes to leadership both on the field and in the locker room.

That brings to an end the confirmed news when it comes to incoming/returning players, but there have been plenty of rumors gaining traction when it comes to Orlando City making signings. Tom Bogert has had a lot to say about incoming Lions transfers this week, and all of them should be encouraging to Orlando fans. Mr. Scoops reported that OCSC is finalizing a deal to sign 20-year-old Brazilian winger Tiago as an MLS U22 Initiative player, while also mentioning that a deal to sign 18-year-old midfielder Luis Otavio is still in the works.

Those would both be welcome signings, as Orlando needs capable bodies in central midfield behind presumable starters Eduard Atuesta and Wilder Cartagena. The fact that the Lions are reportedly shelling out $3.5 million to land Otavio suggests that if he can adapt well to his new surroundings, he might well push for more than just backup minutes before too long; and with Cartagena set to turn 32 in September, it’s good that Orlando is looking to find a young (eventual) replacement.

Then there’s Tiago, who will reportedly cost $4 million and is set to take up a valuable U22 Initiative slot. It’s no secret that the Lions badly needed more offensive production from the left winger position in 2025, and if/when Tiago does arrive, it presumably spells the end of Ivan Angulo’s time in Orlando while leaving the Brazilian and Tyrese Spicer to duke things out for a starting role.

That brings us to departures from the club. This week alone has seen young center back Thomas Williams traded to Nashville SC for the Coyotes’ first-round pick in the upcoming MLS SuperDraft, while Dagur Dan Thorhallson was traded to CF Montreal on Wednesday. The Lions got a tidy $500,000 in General Allocation Money for Dagur Dan, and while there was no player who immediately came the other way in the deal, that GAM will be very helpful in getting the club roster compliant for 2026. It’s no secret that the Lions are in the market for a new goalkeeper, and although Dayne St. Clair is probably too expensive, a guy like Carlos Coronel is a good fit on paper with Orlando City’s overwhelmingly South American stylings, but GAM will be needed to pay down a new face between the sticks.

It of course hurts to lose Thorhallsson, who was a capable and versatile servant during his time in Orlando, but the signing of Otavio and growth of Colin Guske, combined with what the (injured) Joran Gerbet showed in 2025, means that he was going to be a backup. Likewise, the emergence of Alex Freeman means he wasn’t going to be the starting right back, and even if Smith isn’t re-signed to be a backup fullback/utility man, the front office may feel that Zakaria Taifi is primed to take a step forward. We also can’t forget that the club has a whopping four first-round draft picks to play with this year and may look to find depth in that manner as well.

If you didn’t closely read the Bogert social media post earlier in this article, you may have missed the blurb at the end about OCSC closing in on a sale of Rodrigo Schlegel to Liga MX side Atlas. The fee is said to be in the neighborhood of $600,000, which means that Orlando will turn a profit on the center back. It’ll be a bittersweet parting if/when his departure becomes official. Schlegel has been an extremely capable backup center back for this team and has showed flashes of consistent starter-level play during the last several seasons, not to mention that save in a penalty shootout so many years ago.

The hard facts though, are that at 28 years of age, the Argentine defender isn’t likely to reach a significantly higher level of play than he’s at now, and his current level of play isn’t consistently at the required quality for a team with true championship aspirations. While it’ll be hard to say goodbye, the right decision at this point is probably to collect on your investment, and try to find either a young player that can be developed or an established veteran that’s a known MLS quantity.

Bogert has also stated that Orlando is in the mindset of wanting to move on from Luis Muriel. If the club is able to do so, it’ll free up a Designated Player spot while bringing an end to an experiment that showed plenty of promise, and wasn’t without its high points, but ultimately can’t be considered a successful one. After his hot start to 2025 faded into more of the inconsistency he displayed in 2024, it became clear that new blood at striker is needed, and it’s good to see that the front office feels the same way.

This isn’t all to say that the off-season has been a resounding success so far. After all, very little has actually been officially done to reshape the roster as of this writing. But there seem to be a number of moves nearing completion, and we’re hearing all the right things when it comes to areas of the field like goalkeeper and striker. Even if the players that get brought in don’t all work out, it’s just good to see that changes are in fact being made. The roster was mostly left intact after the 2024 season, and a lack of depth in several areas, combined with some unfortunate injury luck, doomed a once promising season.

It’s far too early to know whether or not the 2026 campaign will be better or not, but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. So far, the early signs point to Lions’ fans not needing to worry about any such insanity this off-season. Vamos Orlando!

Lion Links

Lion Links: 12/12/25

NWSL reportedly approves new roster mechanism, USMNT will play Senegal in May, USWNT second in FIFA rankings, and more.

Published

13 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Marcus Mitchell

Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

Happy Friday, Mane Landers! Counting today, there are just 20 days left of 2025. This year has felt like forever, but I also can’t seem to wrap my head around 2026 being just around the corner. I’m hoping to knock out a majority of my errands over the next few days to help ease into the coming weeks. Let’s get to the links!

NWSL Reportedly Approves New Roster Mechanism

The biggest storyline of the NWSL off-season so far is where Trinity Rodman will be playing next year, making the salary cap a notable talking point. The league’s NWSL Board of Governors reportedly approved a roster mechanism that would allow clubs to pay certain star players beyond the current salary cap. Clubs would be able to pay “High Impact Players” up to $1 million over the salary cap, with only a portion of that salary being a cap hit.

In order for players to qualify as a High Impact Player, they would have to meet commercial and sporting benchmarks. It’s a similar concept to Designated Players in MLS, with the limit to how much NWSL clubs can go over the cap being the biggest difference. All in all, this would help NWSL clubs compete with offers from clubs abroad for the league’s top players.

USMNT Will Face Senegal in May

The United States Men’s National Team will host Senegal on May 31 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte for its penultimate game before the World Cup. It will be the first-ever meeting between the two nations and it should be a good match between the U.S. and one of the top African teams. Senegal is currently ranked 19th in the FIFA men’s rankings and went undefeated in World Cup qualifying, winning seven games. Following this match, the USMNT will take on Germany in Chicago on June 6 for its send-off match before the tournament.

USWNT Remains Second in FIFA Rankings

The latest FIFA women’s rankings were released and the United States Women’s National Team maintained its spot in second place, although the gap between it and first-place Spain has widened. The U.S. won four of its five games this past window, but still lost points due to its 2-1 defeat to Portugal on Oct. 22. Spain benefitted from beating Sweden and Germany en route to winning the UEFA Nations League. Brazil, which beat England, Italy, and Portugal, moved up a spot to sixth in the rankings. Meanwhile, Canada fell to 10th after losing all four of its games.

Europa League Roundup

The latest round of Europa League action wrapped up and six teams have secured a spot in at least the knockout stage. Lyon, Midtjylland, and Aston Villa all won and are tied at the top with 15 points, while Real Betis, Freiburg, and Ferencvaros were victorious to remain unbeaten and claim spots in the next round as well. Roma edged closer to qualifying by beating Celtic 3-0, and Nottingham Forest also picked up three points after winning 2-1 against Utrecht in the Netherlands. Only two matchdays remain in the league phase and things are still far from certain for most clubs, which should set up for a fun finish next month.

Free Kicks

Goalkeeper Evan Bush re-signed with the Columbus Crew for the 2026 season. The 39-year-old was out of contract following this past season, but it looks like he’ll continue to serve as Patrick Schulte’s backup in Columbus.
Boston Legacy FC signed Japanese goalkeeper Hannah Stambaugh to a two-year contract. The 26-year-old became a free agent after two years with Angel City FC.
The Denver Summit signed defender Camryn Biegalski to a one-year contract as the expansion club continues to build its roster for 2026.
Vancouver and the Vancouver Whitecaps have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for exclusive negotiations next year in regards to building a new stadium.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday!

Orlando City

It’s The Most Wonderful Time To Wrap Up Orlando City’s 2025 Season

Let’s wrap up Orlando City’s 2025 season with a comparison to the ghosts of Lions past.

Published

1 day ago

December 11, 2025

S. Andrew DeSalvo

Michael Citro, The Mane Land

The 2025 MLS season is finally over, but another season has quickly arrived to follow it. No, I am not referring to an abbreviated spring-only MLS season; that is not happening until 2027. What I am referring to is the season that starts every year right around this time: wrapping season. Presents are getting wrapped, financial years are wrapping up, and Spotify once again is dominating social media feeds, as everyone is sharing their Spotify-curated 2025 Wrapped list of the songs they played the most this year.

I do not use Spotify (don’t tell Robin Jansson, but I’m not a fan of the Swedish product), so I do not have a list of my own to share, but I know that my 2025 was dominated by songs that my son and daughter wanted to hear over and over in the car, and so I am sure that my list would have appearances at or near the top from the Red Hot Chili Peppers (my son loves “Dani California”) and Rosé and Bruno Mars (my daughter loves the fun and upbeat “APT.”).

Orlando City players probably would not be quite as interested in hearing songs that mention California, after they had to trek to Los Angeles for two games in 11 days in August (sandwiched around additional road trips to Nashville and Miami, because why not really drive the players into the ground?), a disastrous series of games from which the team never really recovered. The trips to Los Angeles were avoidable, as the Lions did not take care of business during their Leagues Cup group stage games and thus had a low seed in the knockout rounds, but all of that travel and the disappointment of being the only team that made the final four of Leagues Cup to not earn a place in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup definitely played a major role in the Lions’ late-season collapse during MLS play.

Collapse they did, but despite the disappointment, the 2025 season was not a failure, something that The Mane Land’s David Rohe wrote about in this week’s TML Membership Newsletter, which you can sign up for by clicking right here (or, you can copy that link and send it to someone who might be looking for a last-second gift to give this holiday season).

We will roll out the top 10 moments of the 2025 season here on our site in the coming weeks (nota bene: those top 10 moments are across Orlando City, OCB, and the Orlando Pride), but for now, let’s bring the ghosts of Christmas past and present together to wrap up Orlando City’s 2025 MLS season, comparing this season to the previous 10 seasons during the club’s MLS era (points, goals scored, goals allowed, goal differential, and attendance are all on a per-game basis, and all data comes from Opta’s tracking on fbref.com):

Metric	2025 Performance	Rank of 11 OCSC Seasons	Best OCSC Season
Points	1.56	3	1.85 (2023)
Goals Scored	1.85	1	1.85 (2025)
Goals Allowed	1.50	5	1.09 (2020)
Goal Differential	+0.35	3	+0.65 (2020)
Supporters Shield	13th	5	2 (2023)
Leading Scorer	16 (Martín Ojeda)	2	17 (Cyle Larin)
Home Attendance	20,573	8	32,847 (2015)*

*Orlando City played in the Citrus Bowl in 2015, a stadium with significantly higher capacity than Inter&Co Stadium.

While it may have been frustrating that the team’s performance fell off late in the season, 2025 was still the third-best regular season in the club’s MLS era, and a slight improvement in points per game as compared to 2024 (1.53). The 2024 team made a deeper run in the playoffs, which made 2025 feel worse, but the Eastern Conference was better in 2025 than 2024, and Orlando City’s 1.53 points per game in 2024 would not have even qualified for the playoffs during the 2025 season.

The 2025 offense was also the best in club history, scoring nearly two goals per game during MLS play and finishing with the sixth-most goals in the league. Ojeda set the club’s single-season goal contribution record with 31, adding 15 assists to go along with his 16 goals to finish as one of only five players to reach 15 in both categories. During Ojeda’s debut season with Orlando City he started fewer than half of the games, and it seemed like perhaps he was going to be another in a long line of underperforming Designated Player acquisitions, but two years later he rewarded the team’s faith in him by setting the club record for single-season goal contributions. I am not saying it was exclusively because my son switched from wearing a Facundo Torres jersey to games to wearing an Ojeda jersey to games, but I am not not saying that either.

Ojeda was not the only offensive powerhouse this season, as Marco Pašalić’s debut season in purple was one of the best in the club’s history. The Croatian took the list of Orlando City players who had scored at least 12 goals in an MLS season from six to seven (yes, that was intentionally written that way), and his five primary assists gave him 17 direct goal contributions, which puts him into an eight-way tie (an octo-tie?) for the fourth most in a single season.

And speaking of octopi, kind of, while we did not know it at the time, we were all witnesses to the final season in purple for El Pulpo, Pedro Gallese. The 2025 campaign was not Gallese’s best season with the Lions, but he was still more than solid between the sticks, and as one of only three players to ever appear more than 200 times for the Lions, he is a club legend and definitely in contention to be on the club’s Mount Lionmore (this should be a thing, right?).

As it usually does, time has (mostly) healed my irritation and frustration with how the season ended, and as I look back now, I think more about the positive than negative, because my mind is already shifting to 2026 and how the team can build on 2025 to return the upper echelon of the league. For the most part, the team was competitive, and the Lions were among the league’s best for the first two-thirds of the season. Most of this article was about the MLS season, but they also made the final four in the Leagues Cup, and had they not been hosed by the referees in Miami, they could have advanced to the final with a chance to add a Leagues Cup to the trophy case.

The season did not end up how the team or the fans wanted, but it was still a positive year and probably the fourth-best season in the club’s MLS era behind 2022 (U.S. Open Cup champions), 2023 (second place in the Supporters’ Shield standings), and 2024 (Eastern Conference playoff finalist). The USL era, when the team had the best regular-season record in 2011, 2012, and 2014 and won the playoffs in 2011 and 2013, is not to be forgotten, but the MLS era is a different level of competition, and in recent years Orlando City has been among the best.

Among the best is great, but the goal is to match the 2024 Orlando Pride team and bring home a championship. That will not happen in 2025, but several moves that are reportedly being finalized this week show that the front office is not satisfied with the status quo. Here’s to hoping that the club unwraps some exciting new acquisitions in the next few weeks as we say goodbye to 2025 and move on to the 2026 Orlando City season.

And that’s a wrap.

Vamos Orlando!