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Orlando’s Improved Midfield Faces Its Biggest Challenge Yet

Published

6 years ago

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The 2019 MLS season was a rebuilding year for Orlando City. Following a hapless 2018 that saw coach Jason Kreis lose his job, Orlando City gutted the program and restarted basically from scratch.

While several key players remained, the roster was almost unrecognizable by season’s end. Despite the many vital additions, including Nani, Robin Jansson, and Ruan, the team still couldn’t put it all together and compete, missing the playoffs yet again. The biggest weakness was by far the team’s midfield. While the defense took a huge step forward thanks to Jansson and others, the team struggled to score and much of that had to do with the midfield’s inability to link with the forward line.

A 34-year-old Sacha Kljestan was no longer the playmaker the Lions needed and saw little playing time down the stretch, while a combination of young newcomer Sebas Mendez, Uri Rosell, and Will Johnson were incredibly limited going forward. Towards the end of the summer transfer window, however, the team’s fortunes began to change, thanks to the addition of Mauricio Pereyra on a free transfer.

While he didn’t play quite as well as a DP attacking midfielder is expected, he still finished as the team’s leading assister from midfield with three. Going into 2020, Luiz Muzzi and Co. were able to build upon 2019’s successes and construct one of Major League Soccer’s best midfield units.

The big signing was that of Junior Urso. The veteran Brazilian came with a good pedigree, arriving from one of Brazil’s biggest clubs, Corinthians. His physicality, technical ability, and leadership have been massive for a young Orlando City team, solidifying defensive midfield while being excellent in possession and transition. His signature performance against Atlanta United in late August was the best display of his talents, with his energy and fight dominating a mentally weak Atlanta team.

In addition to Urso providing the energy in the engine room of midfield, the play of a healthy Pereyra has been even better than anyone could’ve hoped. When he arrived from Krasnodar in the summer, he was nursing a bit of a knock and there wasn’t enough time to settle in and really contribute. He was just coming off a full season in Russia while also having to adjust to a new team, league, and country. With a full off-season to acclimate and rest, the Uruguayan has become one of the best players in all of MLS.

Despite battling a hamstring injury for a large chunk of the season, he still finished fifth in the league in assists with eight, though his influence is felt far beyond goal contributions. Pereyra’s incredible ability on the ball, combined with elite vision, makes him the single most important player on the entire team. His ability to pick up the ball deep and be a metronome in possession is vital to opening up space for everyone else. He was the missing link that has turned Orlando City from a frustrating side to an elite one.

While Urso and Pereyra are the main men in midfield, a rotating cast of Rosell, Mendez, Andres Perea, and even rookie Joey DeZart have also helped solidify the Lions in the center of the park. Early in the season and during the MLS is Back Tournament, it was Rosell who occupied the third starting spot amongst Pereyra and Urso, playing his best football in years and providing an excellent range of passing to complement solid defensive output.

However, an injury to Rosell challenged the depth of this team. Perea, a Tampa-born Colombian youth international on loan from Atletico Nacional in Colombia, has been supremely impressive as a role player, playing in every single match for Orlando City. When Rosell and later Pereyra were out with injuries, Perea became one of the most important players on the team, starting eight of nine matches since October. He hasn’t been particularly lethal, with only two assists and no goals, but he’s an incredibly solid player who’s improved every game. Similarly, Mendez has also been very solid in a rotational role. After starting 20 games in 2019, the young Ecuadorian has taken a backseat to the more experienced Urso but has still contributed in the minutes he’s played.

As a unit, the Orlando City midfield is the best it’s ever been. When healthy, the trio of Pereyra, Urso, and Rosell complement each other perfectly while providing a commanding veteran presence, with Perea, Mendez, and DeZart giving needed energy and cover off the bench. Not only has this been one of the most competent units in Orlando history, it’s been one of the best in the league. The Lions have been one of the best passing teams in MLS, ranking sixth in passing accuracy at 83.5% and they’ve held possession half the time (although that number is usually much better with Pereyra healthy). With a few weeks off and only one international absence (Mendez), this elite unit will be sitting pretty for Orlando’s first ever playoff appearance. But the competition ahead will be this midfield’s greatest challenge yet.

New York City FC has been a powerhouse in the Eastern Conference for a few years, and that’s largely on the back of the team’s own midfield excellence. Following a failed mix of aging superstars Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard early in their existence, the Pigeons have found immense success with the acquisition of Maxi Moralez and Alexander Ring. The pair of veteran midfielders made their MLS debuts against Orlando City three years ago and have been superstars ever since.

Moralez has been one of the premier playmakers in MLS with 34 regular-season assists with the Pigeons. The diminutive Argentine has been injured for much of the 2020 campaign but has gone the full 90 in the last four games for New York — the team’s best stretch of play of the season, including eight goals in the last two matches.

The return of Moralez leading the attacking charge has also allowed Ring to get back to his best. The Finnish international, who has served as club captain the past two years, is often regarded as one of the best defensive midfielders in the entire league, but is very good box to box. He loves a shot from distance and has shown elite playmaking from a deep position.

With Moralez injured, Ring was forced far higher up the pitch, but with NYCFC’s star playmaker back, it’s brought balance back to the midfield. The two veterans are complemented by an excellent youngster in Keaton Parks. The 23-year-old American midfielder arrived on loan in 2019 from Portuguese giants Benfica, and has been a huge acquisition. He’s proven to be an essential figure in the midfield, starting 20 games this season and bolstering what many consider the best midfield trio in MLS.

The match-up in the middle of the pitch Saturday will be an absolute masterclass. Assuming everyone is fit and ready, a fairly safe assumption by all reports (but this is 2020), this will be an absolute delight. Both units are incredibly fluid and competent going both ways. Ring and Parks will be a challenge to break through when the Lions have the ball, and Moralez will be the most important player to stop the other way.

For Orlando, it will be important to use pressure to disrupt the rhythm of the visitors’ passing and not let this unit assert its will. There will be times when both teams are in command and on the front foot, but the more Orlando is in control, the better. If Pereyra can do what he does best and find the linking balls and combine with Nani, Chris Mueller, and company, it will make things incredibly challenging for Ring and the New York defense.

However, it’s imperative to limit Moralez’s touches. Urso and one of Rosell or Perea will have to be very physical with Maxi before he’s able to create chances for New York’s red hot front three.

There are many match-ups to watch on Saturday, but the battle in the middle will be the most enjoyable. In many ways these are similar units both playing very well that want to assert themselves. It will be an absolute battle for control of this game, and it’s up to the new-look Orlando midfield to set the tone against an elite group. If the Lions want to find playoff glory for the first time in the team’s MLS history, it’s vital they find an edge in the midfield, but that’s much easier said than done.

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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

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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