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2018 Orlando City Season in Review: Donny Toia

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Donny Toia entered his second season with Orlando City in a battle for the starting left back position — a spot he nailed down to the tune of 30 appearances and 29 starts in 2017. Acquired from Atlanta United in December of 2016 for a first-round SuperDraft pick, Toia provided the defensive stability the Lions lacked at left back for their first two years in MLS but the veteran wasn’t able to get forward much to help with the attack. As a result, Orlando went out and signed Mohamed El-Munir this past off-season.

Last year, due mainly to providing consistent coverage on the left side, we gave Toia a season rating of 6 for his first season in purple. His 2018 season was a lot quieter.

Statistical Breakdown

Toia appeared in only four MLS matches in 2018, including three starts, totaling just 238 minutes — one season removed from playing more than 2,500 minutes. Much of the year he didn’t even dress for the 18. He provided no goals but did have an assist, attempting one shot that was off target. He was an 80% passer with one chance created and defensively he averaged 1.5 tackles, 0.8 interceptions, and 1.8 clearances without a blocked shot. Toia stayed out of the referees’ books in 2018, drawing neither a yellow nor a red card.

He also appeared in one U.S. Open Cup match on July 18 at the Philadelphia Union. He played the full 90 minutes at right back — instead of his usual left back spot — in the match, attempting one shot and committing a foul in the 1-0 road loss. Toia completed 84% of his passes in the match and finished with one tackle, one interception, four recoveries, and three clearances.

Best Game

It’s tempting to pick the only game the Lions won with Toia in the lineup in this section, but he only played 13 minutes off the bench in the July 14 win over Toronto FC. Orlando City lost the other three MLS games and the U.S. Open Cup game in which Toia started and only one of them was close. The 1-0 loss to Philadelphia in USOC play was the only one-goal game in the bunch, with lopsided shutout losses at home to Montreal (2-0) and on the road to New York City FC (3-0). I’m going to pick the remaining game — a 4-1 loss at Los Angeles FC.

Toia assisted on the lone Orlando City goal in the match — well, the only Orlando City goal in the match that ended up counting, anyhow — rating a score of 6 from the bearded guy in our player grades for the match. He attempted one shot in the match, passed at a 74% rate, notching one key pass and an assist on a long through ball for Sacha Kljestan’s cool finish to make it 2-1 at the time.

Sure, it helped that Walker Zimmerman slipped on the play, but that takes nothing away from Toia’s lovely, perfectly weighted ball for Kljestan to run onto. With 58 touches on the night, he was the more active fullback for Orlando in the match. The Lions’ back line struggled quite a bit in that game but Toia led all Orlando defenders in tackles (2) and interceptions (3, tied with Amro Tarek), and he was just behind Tarek with three clearances to the center back’s four. You may recall that the game was still 0-0 when Jonathan Spector left with an injury in the 25th minute and was replaced by Chris Schuler. The back line took a while to settle in after the substitution but, by the time it did, it was 2-0. LAFC tacked on two late goals after Dom Dwyer’s apparent tying strike was disallowed. You can’t say anyone on the team played particularly great soccer that night, but Toia was the most solid piece along the back line and in a limited number of appearances, and a lack of opportunities to find any rhythm this season, his assist pushes this performance to the top of his 2018 list for me.

2018 Final Grade

The Mane Land staff give Toia an incomplete grade for the 2018 season. With fewer than 250 minutes under his belt, he simply didn’t see enough of the field to warrant a rating for the season. Toia gives reliably quiet, steady performances and it was clear in 2018 that Jason Kreis and James O’Connor were looking for more from the left back position. They opted to live with El-Munir’s periodic defensive lapses and turnovers to get more creativity going forward, more pace, and more crosses from the left side. We perhaps should have seen more of Toia on the right side while Scott Sutter was out with injury, but it just never materialized and the journeyman found himself on the outside of position battles, looking in.

2019 Outlook

Toia is under contract through next season according to Transfermarkt. Assuming that’s true, the Lions would do well to try to find the Arizona native a new home for 2019. At $125,000 per year, Toia isn’t that expensive and provides quality depth. He was a bargain playing 30 games in 2017, but he’s too expensive for only four appearances a year. He’s still in the prime of his career at age 26. If the plan is to play a defensive-oriented four-man back line, Toia is a solid guy to have on your roster. However, if O’Connor wants more dynamic players on the outside, either at fullback or wingback (and likely a combination of the two for flexibility in shape), he’s a bit of a square peg for a round hole. The Lions may opt to try to find a transfer for Toia this off-season but at his salary it wouldn’t be the end of the world to have him providing depth at outside back.


Previous Orlando City Season in Review Posts (Date Posted)

Orlando City

Top 10 Moments of 2024: Facundo Torres Breaks Lions’ All-Time Goal Record

In our No. 8 moment of the year, Facundo Torres sets a new Orlando City career record for goals scored.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

As we count down to the new year of 2025 — which will be Orlando City’s 11th in MLS, the Orlando Pride’s 10th in the NWSL, and OCB’s third in MLS NEXT Pro — and say goodbye to 2024, it’s time to look back at the club’s 10 best moments of the year as selected by The Mane Land staff via vote.

The 2024 season will always be a bittersweet one when it comes to remembering the contributions of Uruguayan winger Facundo Torres. He once again started the season slowly before locking in over the summer and dazzling crowds, befuddling opponents, and doing impressive things with a soccer ball on behalf of Orlando City SC.

He helped the team get to the second round of the Concacaf Champions League/Cup and to the Eastern Conference final — the first time the club accomplished either achievement. Then he left, transferring to Palmeiras just days before Christmas. He may be gone, but the transfer funds and open Designated Player slot the sale brought the club may yet make for even more success on the field in the seasons to come.

Torres put together another brilliant season, starting by scoring a brace in the team’s Champions Cup opener against Cavalry FC on Feb. 21. Here’s the first of those goals:

He added a nice header later to put the game away. The brace had many fans dreaming that he wouldn’t take until the summer to get into a groove during his third year in Orlando like he did in his first two seasons. But then he didn’t score again in the run of play until the fourth minute of a May 29 road game against the Chicago Fire. That isn’t to say he didn’t find the net in March or April. He scored from the penalty spot once in each of those months — at Tigres March 12 and at Montreal April 20 — but it wasn’t the hot start fans were hoping for.

Torres did, however, settle in eventually and had himself a season. In fact, he broke Cyle Larin’s club record for most goals in a season across all competitions, by hitting the net 20 times in 2024. He scored 14 times in the regular season, twice in the MLS Cup playoffs, three times in Champions Cup play, and once in Leagues Cup. That doesn’t even count his made penalties in the postgame shootouts against Cruz Azul or Charlotte FC (in Game 3).

As usual, he did most of his damage in the second half of the year, when he helped the club put together a remarkable run of form that lifted the Lions from near the bottom of the conference to fourth place by season’s end. During the team’s final 17 games, Torres scored 11 of his 14 regular-season goals and posted three braces. The light switch seemed to be flipped in the first game of the second half of Orlando City’s 2024 season. After just three goals in the first 17 games — one in the run of play and two from the penalty spot (he also missed a penalty for the first time in his career in Game 17 against LAFC) — Torres scored three goals in the next two matches, helping the Lions to a comeback draw at Charlotte and a 4-2 home win over the Chicago Fire, setting the tone for an 11-4-2 run in the second half.

His torrid run of form had him climbing the club’s scoring list all summer and that culminated in reaching the pinnacle of the team’s MLS era on Oct. 2, when he did this in the 57th minute at home against the Philadelphia Union:

As Torres goals go, it wasn’t one of his prettiest or most impressive, but it was his 45th as a Lion across all competitions, passing Larin’s career mark for Orlando City’s MLS era. It also helped propel the Lions to a 2-1 win over the Union, putting the team on the cusp of clinching home field in the first round of the playoffs. It was also Torres’ last regular-season goal with Orlando City. Bittersweet.

However, the Las Piedras, Uruguay, native wasn’t finished scoring in 2024. He notched the first goal of Orlando’s postseason run in the 32nd minute against Charlotte FC at home on Oct. 27 in a 2-0 win. Torres placed himself in the right spot at the right time, taking advantage of a deflected Rafael Santos cross that fell in front of him in the box. The winger blasted it off the underside of the crossbar and into the back of the net to open the scoring.

The goal drew him level with Dom Dwyer for the club’s all-time career goals mark when combining Orlando City’s USL and MLS eras.

He should have claimed that record for himself in Game 2 of the Charlotte series when he fired home in stoppage time on the road, but the flag came up for Nico Lodeiro being offside in the buildup — incorrectly, per the offside modeling Twitter account.

While the offside modeling site is hardly official, it illustrates how close the play was. Many teams tend to get the benefit of those types of calls and the flags stay down, but Orlando is generally not one of those teams.

However, he took sole possession of the record one match later, breaking the tie with Dwyer in the 12th minute of stoppage time of Game 3. The Lions trailed 1-0 and the season was on the brink when Duncan McGuire was pulled down in the box on a late set piece, injuring himself to the point he had off-season surgery to repair the labrum and rotator cuff in his shoulder. Torres took the ball and stepped to the spot to face one of the best goalkeepers in MLS, Kristijan Kahlina. The Croatian read Torres well and made the stop, but he couldn’t control the rebound. Torres got to it quickly, kept his composure, and fired it home to level the match.

It was not only an important strike, but it was also his 47th and final goal for Orlando City across all competitions, although he also calmly scored his penalty in the ensuing shootout to help send the Lions through to the conference semifinals against Atlanta United.

It’s fitting that Torres’ final Orlando City goal was such an important one, as he’s been such a big part of the team’s success over the past three seasons. He departed the club officially on Dec. 20 for a club-record transfer fee after scoring a total of 47 goals across all competitions. He added 25 assists in his time in purple, amassing a club-record 72 career goal contributions.

In a three-year Orlando career that was filled with highlight-reel plays, Torres brought a lot of joy to the club’s fans during his stay. His ascendance to the top of the club’s MLS and combined scoring lists is worthy of inclusion as one of our top moments of the season.


Come back through New Year’s Eve as we count down the remainder of the top 10 moments of 2024 for Orlando City, the Orlando Pride, and OCB.

Previous Top Moments of 2024

  1. 10. Orlando City’s massive second-half surge clinches top-four spot in Eastern Conference.
  2. 9. The Orlando Pride sign Zambian international striker Barbra Banda ahead of the 2024 season.

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 12/24/24

MLS transfer roundup, Americans in midweek action, NWSL news galore, and more.

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Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Happy Tuesday and merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I hope you’re all having a good start to your week and have some fun stuff planned for the upcoming holidays.

Before we get started with today’s links, we here at The Mane Land want to give a special shout out to Joe (a.k.a. fldatadude) for signing up for a Homegrown Player-level membership on our Buy Me a Coffee page. By signing up at one of our three levels of support, our readers and podcast listeners can enjoy added benefits in addition to keeping our bills paid so we can continue doing what we do.

Now we do have plenty of items to get to today, so let’s get into today’s news.

MLS Transfer News Roundup

Several MLS teams have been busy at work in the transfer market, so let’s break down the recent moves. LAFC signed free agent forward Jeremy Ebobisse to a three-year deal with an additional option year, adding more firepower to an already strong squad. The Portland Timbers also got some business done via free agency, as they signed winger Ariel Lassiter. FC Dallas acquired forward Anderson Julio from Real Salt Lake, with defender Sam Junqua and up to $500,000 in General Allocation Money going to RSL in exchange. Finally, Lorenzo Insigne has teased on his Instagram that he will play another season for Toronto FC in 2025.

Americans in Midweek Action

There are a number of Americans playing this week, so get everything marked down and enjoy some festive footy. Thursday’s Boxing Day slate features Americans heavily, with Chris Richards, Matt Turner, and Crystal Palace traveling to take on Tyler Adams and Bournemouth in Premier League play. Antonee Robinson and Fulham will play Chelsea that same day, while Brenden Aaronson and Leeds United face an unenviable trip to Stoke City to round things off on Thursday.

Keeping Up With NWSL Happenings

Let’s start our NWSL roundup with the San Diego Wave, which have reportedly hired Jonas Eidevall as their new head coach. The Swede most recently spent time coaching Arsenal and has reportedly been the Wave’s top choice for several weeks. We now move to the realm of fact, where Angel City FC has signed midfielder Macey Hodge to a two-year deal with an option for the 2027 season. Finally, expansion team BOS Nation FC agreed a lease with Boston Public Schools and the City of Boston that will allow the team to use White Stadium as its home ground starting in 2026.

European Transfer Rumor Mill

Europe’s club teams can’t do business quite yet, but rumors are flying thick and fast with January just around the corner. First up, Manchester United is said to be exploring a deal to sign Victor Osimhen in January, particularly with Marcus Rashford indicating that he wants out of the club. Staying in the Premier League, Christopher Nkunku’s agent has reportedly offered the forward’s services to Barcelona, as he hasn’t been starting for the Blues and wants a larger role. Finally, Bayern Munich is said to be closely monitoring Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, which would add him to a long list of Dortmund players snapped up by the Bundesliga giants.

Free Kicks


That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas Eve!

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Orlando City

2024 Orlando City Season in Review: Ivan Angulo

The midfielder started every regular season and playoff game in 2024.

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Image courtesy or Orlando City SC

Orlando City acquired midfielder Ivan Angulo on a 12-month loan from Brazilian Serie A side Palmeiras on July 25, 2022. The Lions accepted the option to extend the loan for six months on June 22, 2023, before making a permanent transfer for the winger on Jan. 3, 2024. Angulo has since become a mainstay in Oscar Pareja’s starting lineup. The Colombian played a big role in helping the Lions claim the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and advance to the Eastern Conference final for the first time.

Let’s take a look at how Angulo did during the 2024 MLS season.

Statistical Breakdown

Angulo started all 34 regular-season matches on the left side of the midfield this year, recording 2,772 minutes played. He put 10 of his 34 shots on target and scored five goals. Despite being on the left, 24 of his shots came with his right foot. As you would expect from someone in his position, his biggest contribution came in the build-up. He completed 86.7% of his 1,063 passes, including 41 key passes, 11 crosses, three long balls, and 10 assists — third most on the team. Defensively, Angulo won 35.3% of his 17 aerial duels, 47 tackles, 19 interceptions, 12 clearances, and two blocks. He was called for 23 fouls, drew 24 fouls, and was booked four times in his 34 games.

The left-sided midfielder also started all five MLS playoff games in his usual spot, recording 408 minutes. He put two of his five shots on target and didn’t score but completed 90.1% of his 145 passes, including three key passes and an assist. On the defensive end, Angulo tallied five tackles, three interceptions, and five clearances in the postseason. He committed seven fouls while drawing five and was booked once in those five postseason appearances. 

Angulo appeared in three of the four Concacaf Champions Cup games (all starts) — all except the home match against Cavalry FC — playing 231 minutes. He didn’t score or put any of his three shots on target, but he completed an impressive 89.3% of his 75 passes with four key passes, two crosses, and an assist. He contributed one tackle and two interceptions defensively, drawing three fouls while conceding two. He wasn’t booked.

The Colombian played in two of the three Leagues Cup games (both starts) and recorded 179 minutes without a goal contribution. The midfielder didn’t put his only shot on target, but he completed 84.5% of his 71 passes, including two key passes. Defensively, he chipped in two tackles, three interceptions, and a clearance. Additionally, Angulo was fouled four times and committed two himself without being booked.

Best Game

Angulo’s two best games came in a 5-0 win over D.C. United on July 6 at Inter&Co Stadium and in a 3-1 win at FC Cincinnati on Oct. 5. He had a goal and an assist in both games, but while the Cincinnati game was more impactful on the team claiming the fourth seed in the playoffs, Angulo’s best game was against D.C.

The midfielder started and played all 90 minutes, completing 84.9% of his 66 passes. He only put one of his three shots on target that night, but had three key passes, including his secondary assist on Facundo Torres’ goal. However, his biggest moment of the game came in the 42nd minute.

Receiving the ball from Torres, Angulo played Martin Ojeda into the box. D.C. goalkeeper Tyler Miller blocked Ojeda’s attempted cross, but Angulo followed the play. Nobody else pounced on the ball and the midfielder passed it calmly in to give his team a commanding 3-0 lead.

Additionally, Angulo made four tackles that night and drew two fouls without conceding any.

2024 Final Grade

The Mane Land staff gave Angulo a composite grade of 6.5 out of 10 for the 2024 MLS season. It’s the same grade the staff gave him for his 2023 campaign and also equaled the rating we gave him in 2022. The highs of Angulo’s season were tremendous, but his inconsistency continued this year. He would see his grade rise if he would put a string of quality performances together. Regardless, it was another good year for the winger.

2025 Outlook

Angulo signed a two-year contract with Orlando City before last season, keeping him on a guaranteed deal through the 2025 season. He has a club option for 2026, so he could be in purple for the next two seasons before the club has to decide on his future. He played in every league game the last two years, starting all but five. It’s hard to see anyone else taking over the left side of the midfield in the near future with how Pareja trusts the 25-year-old. The departure of Facundo Torres this off-season causes bigger concerns than the Colombian, and knowing he’s back in the attack provides some comfort for the front office as it prepares for next season.


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