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Firing of OCB Coach a Harsh Reminder to James O’Connor and Marc Skinner

Published

7 years ago

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Orlando City once again showed its lack of patience, parting ways with Orlando City B Head Coach Fernando De Argila Irurita on Thursday, just four months into the team’s debut season in USL League One. Roberto Sibaja, the Orlando City U-19 head coach, has taken over in an interim capacity until the end of the year.

With one coach already out and the organization’s two other teams languishing near the bottom of their respective leagues, it’s hard to ignore the pressured environment and perpetual coaching carousel the club continues to create. The organization over-promises on projects only to quickly pull the plug on them and start over. This is the circumstance both Orlando City’s James O’Connor and the Orlando Pride’s Marc Skinner find themselves in at the moment.

Fernando Jose De Argila Irurita

Of course you can choose to attribute Irurita’s firing solely to Orlando City B’s on-field performance — the team is in terrible form, having taken one point in the coach’s final eight games, and is rooted to the bottom of the table. However, it is reductive to suggest that OCB’s success is just measured in league wins and not long-term player development targets. The team was re-established following hiatus in 2018, becoming a third-division side with the aim of acting as a stepping stone from the team’s development academy to the senior MLS team.

As a result, the brand new squad has the second-youngest average age in the league behind FC Dallas affiliate North Texas SC and is nearly three years younger than the league average. Irurita was brought in by Orlando City B General Manager Mike Potempa because of his wealth of coaching experience with the likes of FC Barcelona and his successful spell with Potempa at the Soccer Institute at Montverde Academy (SIMA). However, Irurita seemed to put a lot of stock in his more senior OCB players, especially those on loan from Brazil, limiting opportunities for Orlando’s own academy kids perhaps in a bid to better compete in what is a professional league.

Despite this, Irurita still only managed a measly 15.8% win percentage in his 19 league games in charge, the lowest compared to James O’Connor (22.5%) and Marc Skinner (21.4%). He had the second-worst loss rate at 63.2%, with the worst currently belonging to Orlando Pride’s Skinner (64.3%) in his even shorter spell in charge, while O’Connor has done markedly better, “only” losing 57.5% — although that is far from a figure to be proud of.

Scoring was a real issue during Irurita’s OCB tenure, only managing an average of 0.84 goals per game compared to Skinner’s 1.14 and O’Connor’s 1.23. Defensively, however, OCB under Irurita had marginally been the strongest, conceding 1.74 goals per game compared to O’Connor’s 1.75 and Skinner’s 2.21. Meanwhile, Irurita’s 0.68 points per game average was also the lowest compared to Skinner’s 0.79 and O’Connor’s 0.88.

While Irurita’s marching orders aren’t surprising, it’s not exactly outside the box to suggest that neither O’Connor’s nor Skinner’s numbers in Orlando are much better or more competitive. So does Irurita’s early sacking also mean Orlando’s other coaches are on the hot seat or does the club finally plan to see a project beyond a matter of months?

James O’Connor

No Orlando City head coach has been able to complete two seasons from start to finish. Adrian Heath completed the team’s inaugural season in 2015 but was let go halfway through 2016. Jason Kreis, Orlando City’s longest-tenured head coach, only managed his one complete season in 2017, book-ending his stay by two half-seasons after taking control in July 2016 and departing in June 2018.

The firings were seen as a desperate grab to rescue playoff aspirations, something the team has moved progressively further away from year after year: finishing in seventh, eighth, 10th, and 11th place in the conference, respectively. This was after club CEO Alex Leitão emphasized in June 2018 — just before O’Connor was appointed — that he expected whoever was coming in to get what he deemed a playoff-caliber roster to the postseason and that the team was not in a rebuild mode. Of course, we all know that it ended with O’Connor taking nine points from a possible 51, leaving the Lions second from the bottom behind the San Jose Earthquakes in the league standings and with an unwanted new league record for goals conceded.

Contrary to Leitão’s assertions, O’Connor survived and the team that supposedly wasn’t in need of rebuilding made no less than 13 senior acquisitions and let 15 players leave in the off-season. While there’s no doubt this is now the strongest Orlando City squad ever seen, with the club reaching its first ever U.S. Open Cup semifinal in the process, Saturday’s resounding defeat against the New England Revolution puts the team seven points adrift of the final playoff spot and on pace to finish ninth.

While the team has trended upwards in 2019, it must be unsettling for the Irishman to have seen the previous impatience within the front office and know that it might not be enough. Even isolating his 2019 numbers, O’Connor has a respectable 30.43% win percentage but that still puts him behind both Heath and Kreis. Will O’Connor become the first to survive two full seasons by seeing out the 2020 season? It’s tough to even know if he’ll last past 2019 without the postseason appearance Leitão emphasizes as the benchmark.

Not only does precedent suggest he won’t, but so does the current hierarchy shift. Orlando City is in the midst of a restructuring that should’ve taken place five years ago. The team may or may not finally be getting its own training facilities, part of the wider restructuring overseen by new Vice President of Soccer Operations Luiz Muzzi who was appointed in December.

News dropped in May of the team’s latest plan that also includes moving the academy and OCB to one single site: unifying every level of the club into one coherent pathway. It’s the third iteration of plans that first originated with the Lake Nona site in January 2016. That promise was quietly put on the back burner before though. In November 2018, the team announced that it would build a new shared facility for Orlando City and the Orlando Pride out in Osceola County. Fast-forward to May 2019 and the plan has changed again with the Pride now set to be based at a new facility at Sylvan Lake Park with the Osceola site now set for City, OCB, and the academy.

The relevance of this to O’Connor is that Muzzi now appears to be firmly in the driving seat. Irurita was hired by Potempa who was relieved of his GM duties earlier in the year and replaced by Marcelo Neveleff, who now reports directly to Luiz Muzzi. Now we’re at the point where Irurita is also out. O’Connor was brought in under the ill-fated Niki Budalić and while I’m not suggesting the two don’t have a good working relationship, it would not be difficult for Muzzi to look back at O’Connor’s body of work and thank him for steadying the ship before handing over the reins to someone who can coach the team to the next level, a move similar to what Matías Almeyda has now done in San Jose to incredible effect.

Marc Skinner

Skinner, meanwhile, is perhaps on the longest leash of all with the Pride roster most in need of some major surgery. Despite a very worrying start, the 2019 squad now sits as Orlando’s most in-form team after taking nine points from its last five games. It’s a points total City has to go back nine games to top and more than OCB has achieved in its last 12 games. The bigger difference with the Orlando Pride, however, is not form nor circumstance, but support.

The Pride has only had one previous head coach. Tom Sermanni guided the team to the playoffs in his second season of a three-year stint before the club decided to mutually part ways at the end of 2018. Since then, Erik Ustruck was promoted to the position of the Orlando Pride’s first ever dedicated general manager and was quick to heap praise on Skinner. The crucial point is that there was no immediate time-frame for Skinner start winning for.

Despite the lack of wins at the start of the campaign, the process has been there for all to see and this year isn’t a playoff-or-bust situation like Orlando City may be. Skinner has also received extremely vocal support from his players, nine of whom have missed a large part of the season because of the World Cup and related commitments. You’d be hard pressed to find a more unified team, especially one under such pressure given the poor early results. This suggests there is more belief and confidence in Skinner to see out his project than there was with Heath, Kreis, Sermanni, Irurita, or perhaps even O’Connor.

Skinner has addressed the #SkinnerOut sentiment head on:

“I’ll take all the flack. You can hate me. ‘Sack Skinner,’ blah, blah, blah, whatever. I’m not going anywhere. Because this team believes in what we’re doing and I believe in what we’re doing, and we’re going to make sure we get to where we need to be.”

Therein lies the difference. Not only has there been an emphasis on longevity but also an openness about it, unlike Leitão, who described 2018’s second-worst MLS team as playoff caliber. That isn’t to say this wave of realism makes Skinner entirely immune. 2020 will act as the real test after he’s done one lap around NWSL and with a full off-season to shape the team.

Overall, I don’t see Marc Skinner going anywhere any time soon — not unless the Pride undo all their hard work and revert to early-season form. The team is already better than when he joined it with international players returning and will look forward to closing out the season with fight before a busy off-season under Skinner.

O’Connor’s safety, however, is more tenuous. I expect him to see out the rest of the year, but beyond that he really has to prove himself to Leitão and the OCSC staff. That doesn’t necessarily mean a trip to the postseason but another showing like the Revs game won’t make the hierarchy believe he can take them further. While the deep U.S. Open Cup run bought him a lot of good sentiment, the team was also only one point shy of the final playoff spot at the time of the quarter-final shootout win. Now after falling seven points off pace, it’s not unrealistic to imagine another change of personnel in the off-season if the front office feels O’Connor has reached his peak and it needs to move on to someone with a higher ceiling. The bigger question if and when he does go is whether or not Orlando can finally make the right hire and give enough pieces to elevate the team to a genuine and consistent contender. Surely that’s not too much to ask for from an organization that has not yet met the expectations it once so brazenly set out to defy, right?

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. San Jose Earthquakes: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

Orlando City restarts its 2026 MLS campaign late tonight out west at San Jose.

Published

2 weeks ago

on

July 22, 2026

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Image of Braian Ojeda taking a shot in a friendly against FC Dallas.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Justin Glatt

Welcome to your match thread for a late night midweek matchup tonight between Orlando City (4-9-2, 14 points) and the San Jose Earthquakes (10-3-2, 32 points) at PayPal Park (10:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the only scheduled meeting between the teams in 2026 and the first time the teams have met since 2024.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of tonight’s match.

History

Orlando City is 3-1-3 in the previous seven MLS meetings with the Quakes since the club joined Major League Soccer in 2015. The Lions got their only away win in the series in the last meeting and enter tonight 1-1-2 on the road against San Jose.

The teams last met on May 18, 2024, with Jack Lynn coming off the bench to score the game’s only goal. Lynn’s strike in the 89th minute broke the scoreless deadlock and lifted the Lions to a 1-0 victory.

The teams met in Orlando most recently way back on June 22, 2021, with the Lions beating the Quakes down, 5-0. Orlando got things started with an early penalty kick goal by Nani, followed by braces from Benji Michel and Daryl Dike to easily put the game away. The lasting memory from the game is Michel’s celebratory dance wearing a cowboy hat that came out of the stands.

Prior to that Orlando City romp, the last time the teams met was on Aug. 31, 2019 when the Lions got freight trained 3-0 at Avaya Stadium, giving the Quakes their first win in the series. San Jose’s offense came via a Chris Wondolowski brace and an early opening goal by Magnus Eriksson. Orlando looked flat and weary out of the gate.

The Lions were victorious in Exploria Stadium in the 2018 meeting on April 21, a 3-2 Orlando win. It was the first win in the series for either side after three straight draws. Chris Mueller, Sacha Kljestan, and Dom Dwyer gave the Lions a 3-0 lead before Florian Jungwirth pulled two back in the game’s late stages.

The Lions led all of the first three matches in the second half only to see San Jose pull level, with two of those tying goals coming late. In the 2017 meeting, Carlos Rivas finally broke the scoreless tie and gave Orlando City the lead in the 81st minute, but Wondolowski spoiled the Lions’ night with an equalizer two minutes later as the teams drew at Avaya Stadium, 1-1.

In 2016, the Lions were gut-punched in the 94th minute in an emotional match that ended in a 2-2 draw. It was the first home match following the Pulse nightclub tragedy and what appeared to be a storybook ending to a cathartic win turned sour on a last-gasp equalizer by Shea Salinas. Seb Hines — now the Orlando Pride’s head coach — opened the scoring for Orlando, only to see Chad Barrett tie it up. Julio Baptista restored the lead in stoppage time, but Salinas ruined everything.

The two teams also drew in the first meeting, a 1-1 affair at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, with the Lions down to 10 men after Brek Shea was sent off in the first half. Kaká and Wondolowski each scored from the penalty spot four minutes apart in that initial meeting.

Overview

The teams meet tonight to get their post-World Cup portion of the season started. Orlando City has been terrible on the road all season long, keeping only one MLS opponent under two goals all year away from home and allowing five goals twice (at New York City FC and Nashville) and six goals twice (at LAFC and in the team’s most recent match away at FC Cincinnati just before the break).

Orlando City is a putrid 1-6-1 on the road this season, and now the Lions must face the Western Conference co-leaders tonight before coming home to face Supporters’ Shield-leading Nashville SC at home on Saturday. They’ll have to play at least tonight’s game without Martin Ojeda, who is out with a thigh injury sustained some time between his first-half goal a week ago in a friendly against FC Dallas and the time the availability report dropped on Tuesday.

But it isn’t all bad news for the Lions, who should have both Antoine Griezmann and Dike in the lineup. Griezmann was the club’s highly prized and widely publicized summer Designated Player signing, while Dike’s return to Orlando came together more recently, following his departure from West Bromwich Albion. They’ll help the club’s offense, but the attack hasn’t been the issue in 2026 — it’s been the historically porous defense, which is on pace to shatter the MLS record for goals conceded.

Meanwhile, San Jose is one of the first half of the season’s biggest surprises, as the Quakes have been outstanding in 2026. Scoring 34 goals while conceding just 15, San Jose is among the league leaders in goals scored (tied for third), goals conceded (third), and goal differential (+19, third).

The Earthquakes are 4-2-1 at home and are coming off a 3-1 road win at Portland in their last game prior to the World Cup break. San Jose boasts Golden Boot challenger Preston Judd, who leads the Quakes with 11 goals, adding two assists in his 15 appearances. Ousseni Bouda has chipped in five goals and three assists. Niko Tsakiris leads the team with seven assists to go along with his two goals, but he’s still recovering from a lower body injury and is not available tonight. However, the arrival of Timo Werner (four goals and five assists in just seven games) has truly elevated Bruce Arena’s Quakes, and he’ll need to be one of the main focal points for the Orlando defense.

To have any shot at taking something from this game, the Lions will need to play better road defense than they have all season. Orlando can score goals, but with Ojeda out, Griezmann will need to adapt quickly, and someone other than the team’s leading scorer will need to find the net.

The Lions will play without Ojeda (thigh), Joran Gerbet (knee), Nolan Miller (knee), Colin Guske (international duty), and Clovis Archage (international duty). In addition, Marco Pasalic may or may not have returned to the team after the World Cup. He was not in training Monday, although interim head coach Martin Perelman said he expected the Croatian back soon. The Earthquakes will be without Nonso Adimabua (lower body), former Lion Earl Edwards Jr. (lower body), DeJuan Jones (lower body), and Tsakiris (you guessed it, lower body…come on, San Jose).

Match Content

Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.

Defenders: Adrian Marin, David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Griffin Dorsey.

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Tiago.

Forwards: Justin Ellis, Antoine Griezmann.

Bench: Javier Otero, Bernardo Rhein, Tahir Reid-Brown, Zakaria Taifi, Iago, Wilder Cartagena, Luis Otavio, Harvey Sarajian, Tyrese Spicer

San Jose Earthquakes (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Angus Gunn.

Defenders: Jamar Ricketts, Reid Roberts, Daniel Munie, Benjamin Kikanovic.

Defensive Midfielders: Beau Lerouox, Ronaldo Vieira.

Attacking Midfielders: Timo Werner, Nick Fernandez, Ousseni Bouda.

Forwards: Preston Judd.

Bench: Jonathan Gonzalez, Dave Romney, Paul Marie, Jack Skahan, Jack Jasinski, Ian Harkes, Francesco Montali, Max Floriani, Darius Johnson.

Referees

REF: Elijio Arreguin.
AR1: Adam Wienckowski.
AR2: Mike Nickerson.
4TH: Timothy Ford.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki.

How to Watch

Match Time: 10:30 p.m.

Venue: PayPal Park — San Jose, CA.

TV/Live Stream: Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish), Nossa Rádio 1160 AM-WRLZ (Portuguese).

Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at @themaneland.bsky.social or follow Orlando City’s official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC) feed.

Enjoy the match. Go City!

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Podcasts

PawedCast Episode 542: Tampa Bay Friendly, McGuire Traded, OCB Beats Cincinnati, and More

Lions maul the Rowdies in friendly action, OCB wins on the road, and it’s transfer season.

Published

3 weeks ago

on

July 14, 2026

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Image of Antoine Griezmann and Ivan Angulo celebrating a goal in a friendly against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City welcomed I-4 Derby rival Tampa Bay to Inter&Co Stadium for a friendly match on Wednesday and then proceeded to bludgeon the Rowdies with a couple of hammers named Antoine Griezmann and Justin Ellis. The two attackers combined for a goal and four assists in a 6-0 beatdown of the team from the Gulf Coast, with five different Lions scoring and Griffin Dorsey forcing an own goal. We discuss Griezmann’s first minutes with Orlando City, what the team showed in its formation, and how good Justin Ellis’ vision is.

Oh, and it’s also transfer season now. Duncan McGuire is on his way out and Marco Pasalic reportedly will follow soon, while a new left back may be headed from Spain to Orlando.

Following all of that, we discuss Maxime Crepeau being added to the MLS All-Star Team and the announcement that he’ll participate in the 2026 MLS All-Star Skills Challenge.

Our mailbagbox asked us about which World Cup semifinalist players we’d want to join Orlando this season (if we could only pick one), and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

After the mailbagbox, we dive into OCB’s 2-1 road win at FC Cincinnati 2. It wasn’t the prettiest game by the Young Lions, but they managed to do enough to earn three points on the road, where they’ll stay to face Chattanooga on Saturday. We briefly preview that game.

Finally, Orlando City will be in Dallas Wednesday for the second of two friendlies leading up to the restart of the MLS season. It’s unlikely we’ll get a lot of details about that one, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe the FC Dallas folks will help us out.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how No. 542 went down:

0:15 – Orlando City crushed the Rowdies, the transfer season is in full swing, plus: hey now, Crepeau’s an all-star.

28:50 – The mailbagbox is always good for a hypothetical scenario.

36:54 – The Young Lions slipped past Cincy and head to Chattanooga, while the senior Lions head to Dallas.

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Podcasts

SkoPurp Soccer Episode 119: International Break, USWNT, Louisville Preview, and More

The Pride return from a long international break looking to get their first-ever road win against Racing Louisville.

Published

3 months ago

on

April 22, 2026

By

Image of Haley McCutcheon scoring the opening goal in Orlando's home playoff win over Seattle.
Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

It feels like months since the Orlando Pride last took the field, but the calendar says otherwise. If you believe calendars, it’s only been a little less than three weeks, but time moves strangely in the post-pandemic apocalyptic world.

Anyway, we don’t have a match to recap, so we touched on a couple of Pride players putting the ball in the net during the international break and chat a bit about the United States Women’s National Team’s three-game friendly series against Japan. Emma Hayes used a lot of players, and the team looked solid for two of the three matches, but the rotated middle game seemed a bit disjointed. Hayes has greatly expanded the player pool and will have plenty of options when the World Cup approaches.

Our mailbagbox had questions about a potential change in the NWSL schedule, as the league explores adopting the fall-to-spring slate, and opposition own goals. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.

After the mailbagbox, we turned our attention toward Friday’s late afternoon tussle with Racing Louisville in Kentucky. The Pride have never won on the road against Louisville, and it’s about high time they did. This match begins a congested push to the June World Cup break, and although Friday’s hosts aren’t high in the table, the Pride must be at their best to get a road result in this fixture. We look back at the series history, compare the two sides, provide our key matchups in the game, and make our final score predictions.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 119 went down:

0:15 – We open the show with a little banter about the Pride in the international break and the USWNT’s series vs. Japan.

9:03 – The mailbagbox features questions via both eletronic mail and social media. We welcome all modes of delivery.

19:59 – The Pride travel to Louisville to face Racing. They’ve never won in Kentucky, but we inform them how to do so.

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