Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew: Player Grades and Man of the Match

The home season is over and so are Kaká’s competitive matches for Orlando City. The Lions came into 2017 with a roar, and they finish the home schedule with a whimper, failing to get a single shot on target out of their 13 taken against the Columbus Crew.
Going out with a loss is not the storybook ending Kaká wanted, and his tear-filled eyes after the match showed the deep connection that he built with Orlando City fans in his three seasons in purple. He’ll reportedly not be making the trip to Philadelphia next week but will be part of the friendly to raise funds for Puerto Rico on Nov. 4.
But the club moves on now and so must we, so here are my player grades from a disappointing home finale.
Starters
GK, Joe Bendik, 6.5 — Joe saved three of the four shots Columbus put on target and could do nothing about the fourth. His distribution was OK, not great. His positioning was pretty good as far as I could tell. He’d probably have a higher score if he’d had more to do on the night.
D, Donny Toia, 6 — Despite having to deal with Pedro Santos and Harrison Afful, Toia looked to get forward and join the attack when possible, which admittedly wasn’t often. He did have a nearly catastrophic miscommunication with Yoshi that resulted in a Columbus counter attack but Seb Hines cleaned up the cross with his magic head. Toia was the lone defender on Orlando City to register a tackle on the night, but just one, to go with an interception and two clearances. He had one cross, but it wasn’t accurate, to go with just a 74% passing rate.
D, Jonathan Spector, 6.5 — Specs posted the team’s best passing percentage of anyone with at least 10 attempts (98%), although he didn’t really attempt a lot of difficult ones, so he should have a high passing rate. In fact, he didn’t attempt a single long ball. He led the team in interceptions (3) and clearances (3), with at least two of the latter preventing good scoring chances.
D, Seb Hines, 6 — Seb won a couple vital headers, with an interception, two clearances, and two blocked shots. His vital sliding block on Ola Kamara’s attempt in the 82nd minute kept the Lions within reach of Columbus. He connected on 93% of his passes. He was involved in the goal as he tried to get inside of Kamara but was a half a step late in getting there, but Hector Jimenez had absolutely no one marking him to try to disrupt his cross, as Scott Sutter had drifted inside. Neither man could get between the cross and Kamara, and honestly it looked like a forward pass to an offside player to me. Hines came within inches of knocking it away but it got through.
Interesting side note: For the first time in more than a full year — in games with both Orlando City and OCB — Hines suffered a loss in a game in which he started and played at least the first five minutes. Previously, the only loss in the last year in a Hines start was an OCB game in which he was injured three minutes in.
D, Scott Sutter, 6 — I thought it was a mixed night for Sutter. He was culpable on the Crew goal and seemed to get caught up field a few more times than usual. He had his hands full with Justin Meram at times but also came inside to help out when he could, including recovering to make a vital header to prevent a scoring chance. Sutter passed well (89%), created two chances, had eight cross attempts (three accurate) and defensively contributed a clearance, an interception, and a blocked shot. He seemed reluctant to take on Jimenez a few times on plays that could have seen him get in behind, though.
MF, Servando Carrasco, 6 — It was a solid but unspectacular night for the midfielder. Serva passed well (98%), recorded a tackle and an interception, and even created one scoring chance. But he also made a brutal turnover in the 64th minute that ended in a Federico Higuain shot that sailed high. He sometimes gave too much space to players on the ball, allowing dangerous entry passes that luckily the Crew weren’t able to capitalize on.
MF, Yoshimar Yotun, 7 (MotM) — It wasn’t Yoshi’s best night but he was still the most dangerous player on the pitch for Orlando City. His passing rate of 79% was rather pedestrian for him, but he had the most attempts, per usual. His corner kicks also weren’t as dangerous as usual. But still, the Peruvian created a game high three chances, fizzed his one shot over the bar, drew a game high five fouls and led the Lions in tackles (4).
MF, Antonio Nocerino, 6 — Noce had two of the more audacious shots we’ve ever seen from him — the first was a volley shot that went screaming over the bar in the 20th minute. The second was off a short corner when the Italian found the ball above the penalty spot and smashed it just high. He passed well (92%) and made one tackle, but like Carrasco he sometimes allowed Columbus’ attacking midfielders too much space on the ball in front of Orlando’s back line, allowing them to feed balls in to Kamara, Justin Meram, and Pedro Santos.
MF, Giles Barnes, 5.5 — I thought Giles struggled a bit to make an impact on the game. He got his header completely wrong on an early set piece and he wrecked an attack by opting not to play in Dom and it broke down. He did earn a free kick in a great spot in the 36th minute as he tried to split defenders and was knocked down by Jonathan Mensah. But Barnes got neither of his two shots on frame, created no chances, and finished with just 17 pass attempts and 28 touches. He had a tackle and an interception on defense but became less effective in the second half and came off for Carlos Rivas shortly after the restart.
F, Kaká, 6 — In his last Orlando City game, Kaká tried for all the world to make a positive impact. But it was far from his best game in purple. He sent a dangerous cross through the box at 22’ that deflected off Josh Williams’ knee and nearly found its way into the net. He buzzed the roof of the net with a free kick in the 37th minute. He had a chance to be a hero with a very late free kick just inches outside the penalty area but he missed it badly. His 81% passing rate was just OK, and he created just one chance, although he tied for the team lead in shots (3), but none were on frame. He was dispossessed a team-high four times.
F, Dom Dwyer, 5.5 — Hustled well throughout the first half, firing just wide at 17’ and just over the bar at 40’. He had a great chance to make an impact with Zack Steffen out of position but a heavy touch allowed the goalkeeper to collect the ball far from his net. He didn’t pass particularly well (63%) but he did manage three shots, though none were on target. Dom managed only 18 touches and just eight pass attempts.
Substitutes
F, Carlos Rivas (57’), 4.5 — Well, I guess the Colombian ran fast a lot. Other than that, I didn’t see a lot out of Rivas on this night. He attempted no shots, touched the ball just 16 times, and made nine passes (67% accuracy). Neither of his two crosses were accurate and he recorded no defensive statistics after coming on for Barnes.
MF, Will Johnson (57’), 5.5 — With two shot attempts and an 88% passing rate, Johnson contributed as much as any of the substitutes on the night. Defensively, he added a tackle, an interception, and a clearance, and you got about the usual work rate from the Canadian.
MF, Richie Laryea (70’), 5.5 — He completed all seven of his passes but managed only 11 touches over the final 20+ minutes of the match and picked up a yellow card for his troubles. He added a tackle and a clearance on the defensive end. Ultimately, he didn’t make too much of an impact in his time.
That’s the way I saw the individual performances in a thoroughly dissatisfying home finale at Orlando City Stadium. What did you think? Share your ratings below and be sure to vote in our poll.
Polling Closed
Player | Votes |
Joe Bendik | 4 |
Yoshimar Yotun | 26 |
Kaká | 24 |
Antonio Nocerino | 4 |
Jonathan Spector | 3 |
Other | 6 |
Opinion
Orlando City Has Been Better than Expected Halfway Through the Season
While there was plenty to worry about at the start of the season, Orlando has had a good first half of 2025.

With 18 matches in the books, we’ve moved just past the halfway point of the 2025 Major League Soccer season, and based off my feelings before Orlando City played its opening game of the season, the Lions have performed above expectations so far. There were plenty of valid reasons to be concerned heading into the year. Orlando had sold its all-time leading goal scorer, and there were questions about whether he’d been adequately replaced. There were worries about depth at multiple positions, and the defense was coming off an uncharacteristically poor year. Here we are though, with the Lions sitting fifth in the Eastern Conference, just three points out of second place and seven points out of first. So how did we get to this point?
For one thing, Marco Pasalic has been much better than I (and I think a lot of other people) expected him to be. The Croatian has six goals and four assists across 18 matches, and is second on the team in both categories. He scored 10 goals in 49 appearances in the Croatian first division before coming to Orlando and was extremely one-footed, which was enough evidence to sow real doubt about whether he could adequately replace the impact of Facundo Torres.
So far, it’s mostly been so good. His direct style of play is a good complement to the styles of Martin Ojeda and Luis Muriel, and he’s largely hit the ground running in a league that can be difficult to adapt to. It hasn’t been perfect, as he’s still very one-footed, and can sometimes disappear if he’s stringently man marked, but on the whole there’s been much more good than bad.
Speaking of Ojeda and Muriel, they’ve also had strong years. Ojeda in particular has continued his great second half of the 2024 season and has nine goals and five assists in 18 games to show for it. He looks fast, confident, and decisive and is a far cry from the player who struggled frequently during his first year as a Lion. Muriel has cooled off a little after a scorching start to 2025, but he still has six goals and three assists in 18 matches. He looks vastly improved from last year, when he looked a little off the pace of play and quickly lost the starting striker role. He still has a tendency to not be as selfish as he needs to be in front of goal, but he’s been much better than 2024.
I mentioned depth being a big concern, and not just at one position. At the beginning of the season Orlando City was, and arguably still is, thin at striker, center back, defensive midfield, and fullback. Duncan McGuire was injured to start the year and is now injured again, leaving Orlando with two true strikers in Muriel and Ramiro Enrique. There was no true backup left back, only one reliable backup center back, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson starting at right back meant that defensive midfield depth consisted of rookie Joran Gerbet and the Swiss army knife that is Kyle Smith.
Things have mostly worked out though. David Brekalo has supplanted Rafael Santos, meaning the Brazilian is now a proven backup option at the position, and Smith has filled in there as well. That means that in games in which Rodrigo Schlegel or Robin Jansson are unavailable, Brekalo fills in at center back, Santos starts at left back, and Smith is the backup for both positions, so it isn’t a flawless system. Gerbet has been playing better and better and got some valuable minutes when Eduard Atuesta and Cesar Araujo were unavailable. His emergence has been a crucial piece of the puzzle this year. So too has the rise of Alex Freeman, as his locking down the right back role has allowed Thorhallsson to fill in at defensive midfield, attacking midfield, and right back. The situation isn’t perfect, as a couple untimely injuries to the wrong guys would leave the Lions looking pretty threadbare, but so far it’s just about worked.
Another big concern was the defense. The Lions conceded 50 goals in the regular season last year, which was tied for the second-most of any Eastern Conference playoff team and fourth-most of any playoff team. With no defensive signings and the aforementioned depth concerns, there were plenty of reasons to worry about Orlando’s ability to keep the ball out of the back of the net.
Things have looked much better in 2025, though. The 22 goals OCSC has conceded are the fifth-fewest in the league, and Pedro Gallese’s eight clean sheets are tied for most in the league. Aside from a few egregious defensive performances against the Philadelphia Union, Atlanta United, and the Chicago Fire, things have mostly been tidy at the back, and when they haven’t been, El Pulpo has been around to pick up the slack. Again, things haven’t been perfect, as there have been moments where individual and collective errors have hurt the team, but it’s been better.
I thought the Lions would struggle this year. Going into the start of the season, we were talking about a team that lost Torres, arguably didn’t do enough to strengthen the team across the board, was facing depth issues, and was dealing with a leaky defense — all while pretty much every other contender in the East got stronger on paper. Instead, OCSC tied a club-best unbeaten streak and is just three points out of second place.
That being said, the East is so tight that Orlando is only five points above the playoff line, and injuries to the wrong guys could easily topple the fragile ecosystem that is the depth chart, but so far things are going better than I thought they would be. There are still a lot of matches to play, but this isn’t a bad position to be in at the halfway mark.
Lion Links
Lion Links: 6/20/25
Orlando Pride take on Racing Louisville FC tonight, Orlando Pride players called up by Zambia, USMNT beats Saudi Arabia, and more.

Happy Friday! June continues to fly by as we enjoy the buffet of soccer here in the U.S. this month. I’ll be spending most of the weekend working, but I am hoping to get some reading done after being gifted some books for my birthday. But enough about me, let’s jump right into today’s links!
Orlando Pride Face Racing Louisville Tonight
The Orlando Pride are on the road tonight for a match against Racing Louisville FC at 8 p.m. in the final game before a league break until August. Going into the break with four straight wins would be nice for the Pride, but they’ve struggled at Lynn Family Stadium over the years. Louisville enters this match following a 4-2 loss to the league-leading Kansas City Current and has scored eight goals over the past three games. Orlando’s defense has been phenomenal this year, conceding just eight goals this season and only one during this win streak. Midfielder Cori Dyke spoke on how the team is finding its groove and shutting out opponents.
Zambia Calls Up Orlando Pride Trio
Barbra Banda, Grace Chanda, and Prisca Chilufya were all called up for Zambia’s CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations roster ahead of this summer’s tournament. Banda has eight goals this season with the Pride and had four goals at last year’s Olympics, including a hat trick against Australia. The Copper Queens claimed third place in the 2022 edition of this tournament, and they’ll need to be at their best to win this summer against tough opponents like South Africa and Nigeria. Zambia’s tournament campaign will kick off on July 5 against the host nation, Morocco.
USMNT Beats Saudi Arabia to Qualify for Quarterfinals
The United States Men’s National Team won 1-0 against Saudi Arabia to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals of this year’s Concacaf Gold Cup. After a scoreless first half, the Yanks broke through in the 63rd minute thanks to a free kick. Sebastian Berhalter served the ball on a silver platter to Chris Richards, who buried it for the crucial goal. The defense did well to secure its second shutout of the tournament, with Orlando City’s Alex Freeman starting at right back yet again. The USMNT will play Haiti on Sunday and should be able to win the group for a smoother path in the knockout stage.
FIFA Club World Cup Roundup
An MLS club finally won a game during this year’s FIFA Club World Cup, with Inter Miami beating Porto 2-1 in Atlanta. Lionel Messi scored the winner from a free kick to complete the comeback after conceding an early goal. The Seattle Sounders had a rougher day, falling 3-1 to Atletico Madrid, with Pablo Barrios scoring a brace. Former Lion Facundo Torres started for Palmeiras in the Brazilian club’s 2-0 win over Egypt’s Al Ahly.
Today’s action features more soccer at Inter&Co Stadium, with Benfica and Auckland City squaring off in the City Beautiful. Our Michael Citro will be on hand to report on it. Elsewhere in the U.S., Chelsea will take on Flamengo, LAFC will face ES Tunis, and Bayern Munich will play Boca Juniors.
Free Kicks
- Canada Head Coach Jesse Marsch, who is already serving a suspension for misconduct during the Nations League, is under investigation by Concacaf for incidents during this Gold Cup. Reports detail that Marsch disregarded regulations and used offensive language toward match officials.
- Kylian Mbappe was discharged from the hospital after suffering from a case of gastroenteritis. It’s unclear if or when he’ll play for Real Madrid during the Club World Cup.
- Carlos Cuesta was hired as Parma’s next head coach after five years with Arsenal as an assistant coach. The 29-year-old becomes the second-youngest coach in Serie A history.
- Manchester City was fined over $1 million by the English Premier League for repeated delays regarding kickoff times.
That’s all I have for you all today. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!
Orlando City
In 2025, OCSC Stands for Orlando City Scorers Club
How Orlando City’s top offensive performers this season compare to the rest of MLS…and the Premier League.

Last week, I wrote about the state of Orlando City at the halfway point of the season, focusing mostly on the team’s accomplishments on offense and defense through 17 games. For this week, let’s look at some of the top performing Lions, because it’s always fun to talk about offensive success. I do not apologize if you take offense to my desire to only focus on offense, because that would be defensive, and there is no place in this article for defense.
Many moons ago, back in January during the preseason, I wrote an article looking at the best offensive seasons in Orlando City’s MLS history. I used a derived metric called game score to rank the seasons, and I’ll quickly explain again how that is calculated:
Goals Scored + Expected Assists + 0.0113 (Progressive Carries + Progressive Passes)
I went into much more detail about why that is the calculation in the original article, but the quick and dirty version is that scoring goals, completing passes to players in dangerous scoring areas, and progressing the ball by dribbling and passing are core components of a strong offensive player. Think of the game score as an offensive value calculation, and think of it simply as a value for which more is better and the most is best.
Opta only tracked the last three contributing statistics (expected assists, progressive carries, and progressive passes) from 2018 onwards, and the chart below shows Orlando City’s 10 best MLS regular seasons since 2018. It also shows the season that currently ranks 11th — Martín Ojeda’s 2025 season, which, as a reminder, is only in game 18 of a 34-game regular season. This means, if you get the extrapolation machine out, Ojeda is on pace for a season-long game score of 26.5, which would rank as the highest full season game score in Orlando City history.
Player | Season | Season Game Score | Rank in MLS | MLS Best that Season |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nani | 2019 | 22.0 | 8 | 50.7 |
Facundo Torres | 2023 | 20.9 | 10 | 31.1 |
Facundo Torres | 2024 | 20.0 | 21 | 32.6 |
Facundo Torres | 2022 | 17.4 | 25 | 33.7 |
Duncan McGuire | 2023 | 16.3 | 26 | 31.1 |
Nani | 2021 | 16.2 | 26 | 26.6 |
Sacha Kljestan | 2018 | 15.6 | 46 | 38.0 |
Chris Mueller | 2020* | 14.8 | 11 | 21.8 |
Yoshimar Yotún | 2018 | 14.7 | 53 | 38.0 |
Dom Dwyer | 2018 | 14.3 | 58 | 38.0 |
Martín Ojeda | 2025** | 14.1 | 4 | 16.8 |
- * The 2020 season contained only 23 games due to COVID-19
- ** Ojeda’s stats are through 18 matches; MLS teams have played between 16-19 matches
Ojeda’s 14.1 currently ranks only behind Sam Surridge of Nashville (15.7), Anders Dreyer of San Diego (16.6), and some player from Miami who clearly wants to play for Orlando since he has lion as part of his first name (Messi, 16.8). During Ojeda’s first two seasons, he only accumulated 12.1 and 12.5, respectively, so this is already by far his best season in purple and it is just barely halfway complete.
Ojeda is not the only Orlando City player who is on pace to jump into the club’s all-time top 10 by the end of the season, as teammates Luis Muriel (10.76, on pace for 20.3) and Marco Pašalić (10.46, on pace for 19.8) are both in the top 30 in MLS this season. Muriel is 24th, and Pašalić is 27th. Orlando City is the only team in the league with three players in the top 30, or really the top 27 (shout out to my son, for whom 27 is his favorite number).
One last point on Ojeda: if we were to extrapolate his performance through 18 games to 38 games, his season game score would bump up to 29.6. Why did I choose 38? Well, 38 happens to be the number of games played in the world’s most popular league, England’s Premier League. I am well aware that the Premier League is a different level of competition than MLS, but just for fun I ran the numbers on the 2024-2025 Premier League season, and a season-long game score of 29.6 would coincidentally also rank Ojeda fourth in England, right behind Cole Palmer (29.7) and in front of Alexander Isak (29.2). I do not think Ojeda would actually finish fourth if he was in the Premier League, but my point is more that the frequency of Ojeda’s contributions for Orlando City thus far this season have been similar to that of Palmer for Chelsea and Isak for Newcastle, which is pretty heady company.
Speaking of heady, we also need to talk about the player who is leading Orlando City in aerial duel wins, Alex Freeman. Heady, aerial duels…you got the segue, right? Don’t answer that.
Freeman has been on a rocket ship in the last year, going from Orlando City B starter to Orlando City starter to U.S. Men’s National Team starter, and he likely will also be the MLS All-Star Game starter, too. My mention of his leading the team in aerial duel wins, while noteworthy, was really just a convenient way to cut over to talking about him and his season-long game score of 8.1.
According to Opta’s positional tracking, only two MLS defenders have accumulated game scores of more than six thus far this season — Philadelphia’s Kai Wagner at 6.88 and Freeman’s 8.1. The extrapolation machine says 8.1 through 18 games puts Freeman on pace for a final score of 15.2, which would be the second best performance by an MLS defender since tracking began in 2018. Freeman is going to miss at least a few more games due to being with the U.S. team during the Gold Cup, so that 15.2 will likely not happen, but wow, what a great first half of a season for Orlando City’s right back.
Going back to the Premier League for comparative context…actually, please sit down and buckle up first. Are you good? Ok.
Going back to the Premier League for comparative context, there is none. Freeman’s performance blows away every defender’s from that league. It will likely surprise few that the defender with the best season game score in the Premier League this season was Trent Alexander-Arnold, who accumulated a score of 13.5 during Liverpool’s championship run. That 13.5 was 15% better than the defender who finished in second place, and yet, if we extrapolate Freeman to 38 games, he would be on pace for 17.0, which is 26% better than Alexander-Arnold. Mind the gap.
Once again, I do not mean to say that Freeman is as skilled or would contribute like Alexander-Arnold did in the Premier League. It is instead that Freeman’s contributions to Orlando City’s offense are unlike that from any defenders in the Premier League. Freeman’s performance thus far this season places him 43rd in the overall MLS rankings, first among defenders, and ahead of strikers such as Christian Benteke, Emmanuel Latte Lath, and Brandon Vazquez. He ranks fourth on Orlando City, and the Lions are not only the only club with three players in the top 30, but also the only club with four players in the top 45.
Two teams had four players in the top 45 during the 2024 MLS season, and one of them was the LA Galaxy, the eventual MLS Cup champions. I am not saying that Orlando City having four players in the top 45 this season means they will win MLS Cup, but I am not not saying it either. I am saying I would like it to happen though, and saying that loudly and clearly.
The game score metric is not the be-all, end-all of measuring offensive prowess, but I think it does a good job of creating a ranking system where the eye test matches the math. Most fans would point to Ojeda as the player who has driven Orlando City’s offense more than any other this season, and being that the team is on pace to have one of the best, if not the best, goal-scoring seasons in the club’s MLS history, it should track that Ojeda is also on pace to have one of the best, if not the best, individual offensive seasons in the club’s MLS history as well.
There are 16 more MLS games to go, and the great thing about sports is that in any game anything can happen, and that is why we love to watch. It is awesome that all three Designated Players and Freeman are off to great starts, but nothing is guaranteed for the back half of the season. That’s why they play the games, as the saying goes. For all we know, Ramiro Enrique could come on like gangbusters in the final games and rip off double-digit goals to end as the team’s leading scorer.
Ramiro, this is a bold strategy, and I am on board for it. The more goals the merrier. Feel free to bring us fans some goals for Christmas in July.
Orlando City does not have a game this weekend, with next match coming June 25 on the road in St. Louis. Winning that game would give the Lions their third winning streak of the season and would be something I would very much like, since I will be doling out the grades for that game. And since I have been writing about the offense this week, how about three goals and three points?
Vamos Orlando!
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