Orlando City
Intelligence Report: Scouting Orlando City at New York City FC

Orlando City has two points in two matches. While two draws to open the season might have been applauded just a year ago, they smack of disappointment in 2016. The club had a man advantage for a significant number of minutes in both games and failed to capitalize. Too many chances have gone wanting and the final ball seems to be teasingly absent.
Still, another game gives us hope for that elusive first victory. Yankee Stadium seems an unlikely place to get it. Orlando City hasn’t fared well on the narrow baseball field configurations the team has seen in its first year as a Major League Soccer franchise (one in MLS and two friendlies against lower leagues). Orlando City won and drew NYCFC at home and lost on the road a year ago.
This year, the New Yorkers seem to be in better early season form than Orlando. But the game must still be played and anything can happen when Cyle Larin travels to the Big Apple. Here to help us scout tonight’s opponent is Jake Gofman from our NYCFC sister blog, Hudson River Blue. And if you want to see how I responded to their questions, you can check that out here.
What are New York City FC’s key off-season additions and subtractions that we should know about and how have they affected the team?
Jake Gofman: NYCFC focused on improving its porous defense this off-season, so many of our key signings are on that side of the ball. Our most high-profile additions were internationals, including LB Ronald Matarrita from Costa Rica, CB Frederic Brillant from Belgium, and CDM Federico Bravo from Argentina. I think Jack Harrison, who we acquired in the SuperDraft via trade, would be included as a big addition for the club but he has yet to see the field. We also added some depth on defense by bringing in MLS veterans Mikey Lopez and Ethan White.
Matarrita has been plugged into the starting XI and has played very well, doing an excellent job of defending on the outside and working the ball into the midfield following successful tackles. He has good control of the ball and has great speed on the outside, which allows him to contribute to the attack and track back when required.
Brillant, on the other hand, has had a shaky go of things to start his MLS career. The 30-year old was brought in to provide stability, but has looked vulnerable at times as he adjusts to MLS.
Federico Bravo is a big addition to the club because of how he allows us to play. He is a hybrid CDM-CB in our 3-2-4-1, providing cover at the back for Jason Hernandez and in front for Andrea Pirlo. Matarrita is likely our most talented signing, but Bravo may be our most important.
Many of the subtractions to the squad came from the defense as well, with our biggest being the losses of Angelino, Shay Facey and Chris Wingert. Facey and Angelino were expected to return back to Manchester City, so their departure was an inevitability. Wingert was a solid player who made 25 appearances for NYC, but his loss is not devastating and was also anticipated. The most surprising loss was our trade of CM Andrew Jacobson. Jacobson appeared in 33 games for New York, but was likely shipped out because the midfield was getting too crowded.
In all, I think NYC brought in much more talent than they lost, and the contributions from the new players have been encouraging to start the season.
NYCFC is on its second manager in just a little over a season in the league. How has Patrick Vieira changed things from the Jason Kreis days?
JG: All things considered, firing Kreis was probably unfair to the manager. He was asked to build a culture and philosophy with an incomplete squad, and it certainly didn’t help that two of our DPs sauntered into the team after their European domestic seasons ended. Kreis had a style he wanted to instill and the team looked like it was getting there in the summer, only for New York to stumble towards the end of the season. That being said, Kreis made some tactical and squad-related decisions that drove fans crazy, mostly with how he interchanged the defense almost every game. Many supporters questioned the firing, and the hiring of Vieira from the ranks at City Football Group was provocative to say the least.
Vieira gradually gained the trust of fans, however, with his transparent and humble demeanor. I think many supporters see him as genuinely interested in growing with the club, and his outgoing personality is a welcome change from Kreis’s prickly demeanor. Tactically, Vieira, like Kreis, wants to play a ball-control game that produces aesthetically pleasing play.
Unlike Kreis, Vieira has shown himself to be more aggressive with the formation. The manager worked with the team in preseason on implementing a back three with Bravo playing as the hybrid, and he only waited one match before implementing it against Toronto FC. Vieira has also shown his resolute nature early, sending strong messages to the players for what he expects. For example, he came out early and told the media that Lampard and Pirlo were not going to play together in a three man midfield at any point. Additionally, he has been critical of Kwadwo Poku and has indicated that Poku must learn the game before he plays with the first team.
So far, so good for Vieira, with four points out of six, but his hiring was certainly a bit of a shock and if things go sour fans may not give him the same amount of patience they gave Kreis.
What kind of formation and tactics can we expect from New York City FC this weekend against what is most likely going to be some variation of a 4-3-2-1 or 4-3-3 by Orlando City, and what do you view as the game’s key match-up?
JG: I would expect another three man back line again, with Bravo starting in between the midfield and the back three. The formation would be a 3-2-4-1 and it allows us to flex our muscle in the midfield and control the pace of the game. It can also leave us exposed at the back, and requires a full team effort for 90 minutes. This formation also highlights the importance of having athletic, two-way wingers who can track back defensively as well as initiate the attack and take their defenders on one-on-one. Khiry Shelton has been excellent so far in this role, and has provided plenty of cover for Frederic Brillant who is still settling into the team.
The key to the game will be these matchups on the outside. When Shelton and fellow winger Tony Taylor are caught out on attack, it leaves NYC exposed to the counter and requires strong one-v-one defending. I would anticipate Cyle Larin and Kevin Molino looking to exploit these opportunities and match-ups. How they play out on Friday could be the determining factor in the game.
What is your anticipated starting XI and score prediction for tonight?
JG: I think we see a similar formation to what we played against Toronto with the inclusion of Andoni Iraola at RB instead of Frederic Brillant.
Here’s our lineup prediction: Josh Saunders; Ronald Matarrita, Jason Hernandez, Andoni Iraola; Andrea Pirlo, Federico Bravo; Tony Taylor, Thomas McNamara, Mix Diskerud, Khiry Shelton; David Villa.
As for the match, I think both clubs have the firepower to make this a high-scoring affair. I see a 3-2 NYCFC win this, with goals coming from Larin and Molino, and on NYCFC’s side, from Villa, Shelton, and Mix.
* * *
Big thanks to Jake from HRB for giving us some insight on Orlando City’s fellow 2015 expansion side. These opposing team bloggers keep predicting Kevin Molino goals. It’s bound to happen sooner or later!

Orlando City
Orlando City Relies on Starters More Than Any Other MLS Team
An analysis of Óscar Pareja’s early lineup choices and substitution patterns and how that compares to the 2024 season.

Legendary swordsman Inigo Montoya, a man who is not lefthanded, once opened a conversation by asking the Dread Pirate Roberts if, by any chance, he had six fingers on his right hand. Nobody will need to prepare to die by the end of this column, but I will ask a similar question: I don’t mean to pry, but did you by any chance happen to realize that we are already more than one-sixth of the way through the MLS regular season? Six fingers, one-sixth of the season…close enough. Let’s go.
Time flies when you are having fun, and somehow Orlando City has already played 540 minutes of MLS soccer this season. I consider 500 minutes played to be a cutoff amount when looking at player and lineup performance, and with the conclusion of the most recent game in Los Angeles, the team has now surpassed that 500-minute threshold.
In looking at the opening 540 minutes, I was surprised to see how much continuity I found in the minutes played, considering how many injuries the Lions have had to work around during these first six games. In just the first six games, Orlando City has already had full games missed due to injury by César Araujo (1), David Brekalo (2), Robin Jansson (2), Duncan McGuire (3) and Nico Rodriguez (5). Brekalo and Pedro Gallese both missed a game for international duty as well. McGuire was not expected back during the first set of games, but all of those other players, with the possible exception of Rodriguez, were expected to contribute during the early part of the season.
These absences led to games where the substitutes list was full of players who will play big minutes for Orlando City B this year, but not players who Óscar Pareja was likely to turn to off the bench unless the game was out of hand or he was absolutely desperate. According to Opta’s tracking through the opening six games, Orlando City ranks last in MLS in the average minutes played by its substitutes, as the average amount of time per appearance for the players off the bench for the Lions is only 12 minutes. For context, 16 teams have an average amount of time per substitute appearance of 20 minutes or greater, and Inter Miami and Toronto are tied with a league-leading 27 minutes per substitute appearance.
The interesting thing about those two teams, Miami and Toronto, is that Miami leads the league in points per match with 2.6 and Toronto is second from the bottom with a scant 0.33 points per match. I think a lot of this data will even out over time, as right now there are several teams, including Miami, that are playing in multiple competitions and trying to keep players fresh for all of their matches.
When it comes to Orlando City, however, that is not the case, and thus far there has just been the standard one game per week on six consecutive Saturdays. The players are rested for each game. The issue has just been that Pareja has not had the depth and variety of players he thought he would have to bring off the bench to protect a lead or chase a deficit.
We often joke in articles or on The Mane Land PawedCast about how “Óscar gonna Óscar,” and once he finds a lineup he likes, he sticks with it. Even with all the injuries he has somehow managed to do this again this season, as you can see from the chart below. I started tracking lineup data last season, and even though the 2025 season is only six games old and there have been so many absences from key players this season, it was striking to see that the 11-man lineup that has played the most minutes together this season already outranks all but two lineups from the entire 2024 MLS season (including the five playoff games!):

Now, it is a little unfair to the one 2025 lineup on the above chart that it has such a negative goal differential per 90 minutes, because if it is only the 10 field players, with goalkeeper excluded, then that lineup has played 215 minutes together and has a +0.84 goal differential per 90 minutes. That group is +4 with Javier Otero in net in 74 minutes together, and removing the goalkeepers from the calculation turns that negative goal differential into a positive.
What that also tells us, however, is that when it comes to the 10 field players, Pareja has played the same unit in the field for 40% (215/540) of the team’s minutes already. Granted it is early in the season, but after six MLS games last season, the lineup that had played together the most had played a grand total of 74 minutes together (14% of all minutes). The top five most used lineups in last season’s opening six MLS games combined to play 302 minutes, or 56% of all minutes, and in 2025 it is 402 minutes, or 80%. My math, and everyone else’s math, says that is a much higher percentage and indicates that the team is focused on continuity early.
That continuity thus far this season has paid dividends, with the Lions earning 10 points from the first six games, twice as nice as last season’s five points after the first six games. Last year, the team was balancing midweek Concacaf Champions Cup games in addition to injuries and an international break during the opening weeks of the MLS season, so there were some good reasons for the lineup rotation and the slow start. This year’s squad will have to navigate two upcoming cup tournaments in the coming months, and so we likely will see a lot of new lineup configurations or more rotation once the U.S. Open Cup starts in May and then again when Leagues Cup starts in July.
Thus far though, Pareja has been able to stick with his starters deep into matches, and has only given playing time to 20 players, which is tied for third fewest across all of MLS. Fan bases often clamor for the coach to “play the kids,” but while Pareja has had young and inexperienced players on the senior roster for every game, he really has only given significant minutes to Alex Freeman from the group of players that could be referred to as “the kids.” Gustavo Caraballo has played nine minutes, which is incredible for a 16-year-old (15-year-old Cavan Sullivan of Philadelphia is the only player younger than Caraballo to have played this season, and he has also played only nine minutes), and new signing Nico Rodriguez (20 years old) has played 11 minutes, but the next three youngest players to play are all at least 22 and were with the senior club last season (Otero and Ramiro Enrique) or came to the club after four seasons of college soccer (23-year-old, but nearly 24-year-old, Joran Gerbet).
The team’s record thus far shows that Pareja has been right to limit the minutes to the small group of players he trusts, and with one game per week for the next six weeks it will be interesting to see if the early trend of starters playing long minutes and only a few players getting all the minutes off the bench continues. The next match is on the road against Philadelphia, which so rudely came into Orlando and defeated the Lions 4-2 in the season opener, and my expectation is that while we likely will not see any players make their season debut in this game, I do think we will see a different starting lineup than the season opener and probably a different one than the game last weekend against the Galaxy.
No matter who the Lions go with, I am sure they will want to avenge the season-opening loss and bring three points back home to Orlando.
As we wish.
Vamos Orlando!
Orlando City
Orlando City at Philadelphia Union: Three Keys to Victory
What do the Lions need to do to earn all three points on the road against Philly?

Orlando City is on the road yet again, this time heading to Pennsylvania to take on the Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park Saturday night. The Lions will look to get a second road win in a row after the smash-and-grab victory against the LA Galaxy. Things don’t get any easier with the Union sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference, but a win would catapult Orlando City above Philadelphia in the standings. Here’s what Orlando City needs to do to earn all three points against the Philadelphia Union.
Tie up Tai
Tai Baribo leads the way-too-early-to-call Golden Boot race with six goals in five matches. The Union striker has taken 13 shots, putting eight on target and the aforementioned six in the back of the net. He scored a brace in the season opener against Orlando to bag a third of those goals. It’s a pretty easy call to say stopping the league leader in goals is an important part of shutting down the Philadelphia attack.
It will be up to Cesar Araujo and whichever center back pairing we get to shut Baribo down. Of course, he’s not the only one the Lions need to worry about since the Union also have striker Mikael Uhre, and midfielders Daniel Gazdag and Jovan Lukic providing goals and assists. The point is that Philadelphia is second only to the Lions in offensive production with 13 goals compared to Orlando City’s 15 goals.
Formation Change
In the last match against the LA Galaxy, the Lions struggled to get things going with Luis Muriel up top, Ojeda at the No. 10 spot and Ivan Angulo on the left. Once Duncan McGuire came on, Muriel shifted back, Ojeda went wide, and Angulo subbed off. That really opened up the attack and allowed the Lions to get the two goals needed to secure the victory.
Perhaps Oscar Pareja could start things off like that against Philadelphia. Angulo hasn’t been great the last few matches, and perhaps some time on the bench will get his head straight. McGuire is still early in his return from injury, but Ramiro Enrique can start up top with Big Dunc coming in later as he has the last few matches. I think making this change could help Orlando City get an early goal on the road.
Vengeance is Thine
When the two teams met on opening day, the Union dropped four goals on Orlando City in Inter&Co Stadium. You would think it a completely dominating performance, but the Lions actually had more shots, more shots on target, and more possession than the Union. Philadelphia simply put each of its four shots on target past Pedro Gallese. That type of luck is unlikely to happen again.
Since that time, the Orlando City defense has stiffened — at least a little bit — and the team has been more difficult to break down. I’m not saying the defense is as stalwart as last season, but it has improved. Orlando City needs to use that four-goal drubbing at the hands of the Union to galvanize the defense to enact revenge with a multi-goal victory of its own.
That is what I will be looking for Saturday night. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!
Lion Links
Lion Links: 4/3/25
Martin Ojeda in the MLS MVP mix early, Orlando Pride players won’t play for Zambia this window, Tierna Davidson out for the NWSL season, and more.

How’s it going, Mane Landers? I hope this week has been going well for you as we gear up for a busy Saturday filled to the brim with soccer to enjoy. Despite my blender’s protests, I’ve finally figured out how to make frozen coconut mojitos and plan on having those get me through the rest of the week. Before we dive into today’s links, let’s all wish a happy 28th birthday to Orlando City legend Rodrigo Schlegel!
Martin Ojeda’s MVP Credentials
Orlando City’s Martin Ojeda placed second in Sacha Kljestan’s MLS MVP power rankings this week. With four goals and three assists so far this season, Ojeda leads the league in goal contributions and is a major reason why the Lions have scored a league-high 15 goals. It’s great to see the 26-year-old take the reins of the offense after Facundo Torres’ departure. Inter Miami’s Luis Suarez tops Kljestan’s rankings, despite only having a goal in five games this season. Tai Baribo, Evander, and Lionel Messi round out the top five in what could be an interesting MVP race this year.
Pride Players Won’t Join Zambia For International Duty
Zambia will be without four NWSL players when it takes part in the Yongchuan International Tournament in China this month. Along with Bay FC forward Rachael Kundananji, Orlando Pride trio Barbra Banda, Grace Chanda, and Prisca Chilufya were withdrawn from international duty, with the Football Association of Zambia stating it was due to additional travel measures by the current U.S. administration. FAZ General Secretary Reuben Kamanga expects the quartet to be available for future matches and both Banda and Kundananji played in friendlies in Zambia in February. Restrictions like this may limit the appeal of the NWSL to foreign players in the future.
Fan Banned For Hateful Language Towards Banda
NJ/NY Gotham FC announced that the fan who directed hateful language towards Banda has been banned following an investigation that included interviewing witnesses and reviewing security footage. The incident took place at the Pride’s match against Gotham on March 23 at Sports Illustrated Stadium. The fan was found to be in violation of the NWSL Code of Conduct and their season ticket was revoked as well. Gotham also encouraged fans to report inappropriate behavior through the team’s encrypted text message service to inform the stadium’s incident management team.
USWNT Defender Tierna Davidson Out for the NWSL Season
American center back Tierna Davidson will miss the remainder of the 2025 NWSL season after tearing the ACL in her left knee in the club’s draw against the Houston Dash. It’s tough news for her, Gotham, and the United States Women’s National Team, as she captains the NWSL club and featured heavily in the Olympics last year. Davidson sustained an ACL injury in her right knee back in 2022, which contributed to her missing out on the 2023 World Cup. Gisele Thompson replaced Davidson for the USWNT’s upcoming friendlies with Brazil, and Pride defender Emily Sams will likely receive more playing time as the team prepares for the 2027 World Cup.
Free Kicks
- Orlando City received $100,000 in General Allocation Money in exchange for former academy goalkeeper Zack Campagnolo’s Homegrown Player rights. The Lions will receive another $100,000 in GAM if conditions are met, and they retain a sell-on percentage if Campagnolo is transferred.
- San Diego FC added Milan Iloski on loan from FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark through July of this year. Iloski is a San Diego native and won the USL Golden Boot for Orange County SC in 2022.
- New England Revolution midfielder Carles Gil won MLS Goal of the Matchday for his free kick against the New York Red Bulls.
- El Farolito SC, which is named after a burrito chain and bar local to San Francisco, has reached the third round of the U.S. Open Cup for the second straight year. The National Premier Soccer League side took down Monterey Bay FC to reach this point of the tournament.
- Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 to book its ticket to the Copa del Rey final, where it will face rival Real Madrid on April 26.
That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a terrific Thursday and rest of your week!
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