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Entertainment a Hallmark of Winning Orlando City / Orlando Pride Quarantine Group

Published

6 years ago

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Our readers have spoken and you’ve selected the group of current and former Orlando City and Pride players and coaches with whom you’d like to spend a 14-day quarantine period. The groups were designed to make for difficult choices and the voting reflects that. Let’s get into the numbers.

Group 1 — 15% of the vote (fourth place)

  • Kaká
  • Claire Emslie
  • Jason Kreis
  • Justin Meram
  • Kristen Edmonds

This group features the runaway winner of our most popular Lion contest, Kaká. To balance out the Brazilian’s overwhelming popularity, I included the player Orlando City fans love to hate the most (Justin Meram) and a coach that seems to also have failed to capture the love and/or respect of Lion Nation (Jason Kreis). However, I feel like both would be incredibly interesting guys to be stuck with for two weeks. I’m sure Meram has some interesting stories of playing with Iraq and I’ve got a million questions for him about his time in Orlando. Kreis is a very smart coach and I’ve learned quite a bit from him during his time in Orlando but to have time to just sit and watch clips with him and break down what I’m seeing would be priceless.

On the Pride side, we’ve barely gotten to know anything about Claire Emslie since she arrived from Scotland after last year’s World Cup, and Kristen Edmonds is an original member of the Pride who is always great to talk to.

Group 2 — 13% of the vote (fifth place)

  • Jonathan Spector
  • Alex Morgan
  • James O’Connor
  • Brek Shea
  • Chioma Ubogagu

This is an interesting group. It’s got the star power of Alex Morgan, the quirkiness of Brek Shea, and the down-to-earth-ness of James O’Connor (with that killer accent). Chioma Ubogagu has played on both sides of the pond and likely has some great stories as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants who moved to England. I’d love to hear more about her. Jonathan Spector likely has some great stories as well, as a former USMNT defender and a guy with a lot of experience in England — including his time at Manchester United.

While kicking my feet up and nursing a beer, I’d like to sit and talk soccer with O’Connor, but the true MVP of this group is likely Shea, who might paint some vivid artwork and then go catch dinner with his fishing pole in a nearby lake.

Group 3 — 16% of the vote (third place)

  • Nani
  • Ali Krieger
  • Marc Skinner
  • Lamine Sané
  • Alanna Kennedy

This group has the star power of Nani and Ali Krieger, who are both no doubt good for a lot of stories as well as a lot of laughs during quarantine. Nani and Krieger share a zest for life and having both around would probably make the 14 days fly by more quickly. Additionally, Marc Skinner is a guy you can hold long conversations with (and I have), and that is a quality that would be incredibly useful during quarantine.

Lamine Sané is another one of those folks with an interesting background. He’s French. He’s Senagalese. He didn’t speak as much as some other players during his time in Orlando so I’m left with lots of questions for him and I’d just really like to learn more about him. For my money, he put together the best season in MLS so far by an Orlando City defender last year and I’d like to get more insight to his approach to the game. Speaking of defenders, Alanna Kennedy has had a lot of success playing that role for Australia in recent years. She’s played a lot of soccer in a lot of big tournaments over the last few years as the Matildas have risen in the world rankings. She seems to always have the right media-savvy answer during interviews, but it would probably be great to have her let her guard down and just talk to as a regular person.

Group 4 — 22% of the vote (second place)

  • Cyle Larin
  • Sydney Leroux
  • Adrian Heath
  • Chris Mueller
  • Emily van Egmond

When I made my own choice, this was the last group to get eliminated and it was a difficult one to cross off the list. I know firsthand how utterly captivating it can be to talk to Adrian Heath away from a soccer pitch. He’ll give you honest and direct answers and a good bit of humor. The same things I said above about Kennedy go for Emily van Egmond as well. Plus she entered the current lockdown in the form of her life, helping her team win the W-League. I want to talk to her about winning a championship trophy in that empty stadium.

Sydney Leroux’s humor and Chris Mueller’s positivity would help make the time go by in a much more pleasant manner. I imagine it’s something else to have Leroux and Heath in the same room while watching an Orlando City Classic. Meanwhile, Cyle Larin gave this city three years of standout play and Orlando City’s first major individual trophy in MLS. I’d like to get his perspective on the way his departure went down and what he learned from that experience, and I’d like to just chat with him not as a reporter sticking a microphone in his face but as just two dudes chilling.

Group 5 — 27% of the vote (first place)

  • Dom Dwyer
  • Ashlyn Harris
  • Tom Sermanni
  • Luke Boden
  • Marta

When it came right down to it, I picked this group because of Tom Sermanni. The former USMNT and Pride coach is just too fun to talk to for me to have gone any other way. Sermanni is a genuinely nice guy and, like Heath, can be open, candid, and entertaining in any conversation about soccer — and, I’d imagine, any other topic. Tom was the difference maker for me.

However, this group has more than Sermanni. Dom Dwyer has been in Orlando during the USL and MLS eras. I’d like to hear more stories from him about how his experiences in this city compare between those two times. Ashlyn Harris doesn’t pull any punches, so spending quarantine with her would likely be an eye-opening experience. Luke Boden is an original MLS Lion who made the jump from the USL side and who even played indoors locally with the Orlando SeaWolves. I’ve spoken to Bodz many times and it never gets old. He’s a good dude.

The star of quarantine, however, would be Marta. Her humor and passion would see you through the 14 days almost too easily and you could pick her brain about soccer at the club level or on the world stage and life in Brazil. She’s got an interesting background. And she’d have her guitar and ukulele to entertain the group on a daily basis.

It’s no surprise this group won. The combination of personalities here push the potential entertainment value through the roof.

Group 6 — 7% of the vote (sixth place)

  • Cristian Higuita
  • Camila
  • Oscar Pareja
  • Ruan
  • Carson Pickett

I’ll admit that this group was a bit of a social experiment on my part. Cristian Higuita and Ruan both went deeper than expected in our March Madness voting, so they are (by evidence of our readers’ selections) two of the eight most popular Lions of all time. That alone should have been enough to push this group higher than its last-place finish. Throw in new coach Oscar Pareja, who many fans still haven’t gotten to know very well and it seemed like this would be one of the strongest groups.

On top of that, I added two Pride players who fans seem to like quite a bit. Plus, I figured Camila could translate for Ruan when words failed him in English. After all, she’s been in the U.S. much longer. Pickett has captured Pride fans’ hearts for overcoming obstacles and serving as a shining example for people who might not think they can achieve their life’s goals.

I really thought this group would have a stronger showing. Was a perceived language barrier part of it for some voters? Maybe, but it shouldn’t be a problem.

That’s how our readers voted. The rundown again:

  • Group 5 (Dwyer, Harris, Sermanni, Boden, Marta) — 27%
  • Group 4 (Larin, Leroux, Heath, Mueller, van Egmond) — 22%
  • Group 3 (Nani, Krieger, Skinner, Sané, Kennedy) — 16%
  • Group 1 (Kaká, Emslie, Kreis, Meram, Edmonds) — 15%
  • Group 2 (Spector, Morgan, O’Connor, Shea, Ubogagu) — 13%
  • Group 6 (Higuita, Camila, Pareja, Ruan, Pickett) — 7%

My thanks to everyone who voted. It was a fun thought exercise and we hope you had as much fun with it as we did.

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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

By

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

By

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

4 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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