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Grueling Test of Orlando City’s Depth Approaches

Published

6 years ago

August 19, 2020

Orlando City players better be in the best shape of their lives, because they’re going to need every bit of fitness for the Lions’ upcoming stretch of matches. The regular season resumes Saturday night in Miami with Orlando facing a run of five games in a 15-day span.

The Schedule Setup

The Lions will face Inter Miami on the road Saturday night, then will play every third day, on average, for the next two weeks. Three of the five games are on the road, and MLS has new pandemic protocols in place that have teams arriving in market on match day, rather than the traditional day before the game. Additionally, travel out of road markets will happen after the match. This is going to affect recovery.

The shortest period between games is two days. Orlando City will have just two days rest between games twice in the upcoming 15-day window — both times facing Atlanta on the back end. I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy to screw the Lions and prevent them from finally getting their first win against Atlanta United. I’m also not not saying it.

You can draw your own conclusions, but Orlando previously had three days off between the trip to Nashville on Sept. 2 and a Sept. 6 home game against Atlanta. That interval recently shrunk to two days when the game was moved up to Sept. 5. If you don’t believe in conspiracy theories, blame it on FOX for rearranging the schedule for a national broadcast. If you do believe in conspiracy theories well…it’s not like MLS hasn’t fed into those pretty heavily over the last five-plus years — but bear in mind that Atlanta also has two days rest between its previous matches and the games against Orlando. So, from a rest standpoint it’s a level playing field.

The longest duration between matches during the upcoming stretch is three days. This will happen twice. The first will be between Saturday’s game at Miami and next Wednesday’s home game against Nashville. The second will be between the road trips to Atlanta and Nashville.

For comparison, the Lions’ shortest layoff between matches during the MLS is Back Tournament was four days. This happened twice — between the final group match against Philadelphia and the first knockout game against Montreal, and between the semifinal against Minnesota and the final vs. Portland. That’s a pretty good recovery time frame for a tournament setting. But things are about to get real.

Squad Rotation, Positional Breakdown, and Shape

Orlando City’s deep run in the MLS is Back Tournament was facilitated by basically the same starting XI. The only exceptions were when an injury to Junior Urso elevated Sebas Mendez to the starting role and when Dom Dwyer went out for the tournament — and, ultimately, for all of 2020 — with muscle tightness, followed by a torn meniscus.

Oscar Pareja rolled through most of the tournament with Pedro Gallese in goal; a back line of Joao Moutinho, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Ruan; a central midfield duo of Mendez and Uri Rosell; an attacking midfield line of Nani, Mauricio Pereyra, and Chris Mueller; and Tesho Akindele up top. There is virtually no way Pareja can get away with that during the upcoming 15-day stretch. Squad rotation is about to become a huge factor for the Lions and we will get to see rather quickly how Papi’s strategy will play out and which games he’ll prioritize.

Gallese may very well be able to handle playing every night in goal, but if he needs a day or two off, backup Brian Rowe has proven to be a reliable option. No real worries there.

The biggest concern is striker. It’s a position that has yet to bear much fruit in 2020, and it’s already thin with Dwyer out for the year. Akindele performed well in relief last season, scoring 10 goals in a season for the first time in his career and adding two assists. Tesho already has two goals this season, but only one that counts on his official scoring record because stats from knockout stage matches don’t count toward the regular season.

When Akindele is rested, where will Pareja turn? Tesho can absorb minutes as well as anyone, but there will have to be rotation for the Atlanta matches, because that’s simply not enough recovery time between game days to throw Akindele out there for 70 minutes every night. That means second-year pro Santiago Patino and rookie Daryl Dike will need to supply some important minutes. The duo have a combined three starts in Major League Soccer.

Both got some mop-up duty during MLS is Back but it was apparent that neither player was polished enough to count on as a first-team starter just yet. Patino has a little more experience and has actually scored goals in this league — two of them, with an assist, last year in 11 total appearances and three starts. Dike has officially played zero minutes of MLS soccer because his appearances came in the knockout stage of MLS is Back.

Benji Michel is a viable option up top and has shown a bit more consistency; however, he’s not a pure striker and he’ll most likely be needed to spell Chris Mueller on the wing, anyway. Robinho could also play that wing spot, but he has pretty much disappeared deep at the bottom of the team’s pecking order. That brings up the next visible problem with squad rotation — the attacking midfield.

Pareja may have no choice but to change shape or play his players out of position. There simply aren’t enough attacking pieces to make a full, like-for-like squad change. He’ll need to protect Nani and Pereyra and their older legs. So, what does that look like? Well, Michel and Robinho are options on the wings, as mentioned. There might be an opportunity here for extremely young and unproven players like David Loera or Jordan Bender to get on the field, or Pareja can shift to a more traditional-looking 4-3-3.

If he uses a 4-3-3, he’ll only need two attacking midfielders who can play on the wing. However, that impacts the defensive midfield, and it means when he rotates out Rosell and Mendez, he’ll have to find someone else to play with Urso and, presumably, Andres Perea. That could be rookie Joey DeZart, who has shown great maturity and growth already.

Defensively, there is little chance to use one of the team’s greatest strengths more than every other game during the upcoming crowded fixture schedule. Orlando City’s fullbacks help drive this team’s attack and both Ruan and Moutinho recover well when they get caught up field on turnovers. The backups give the team a very different look and simply aren’t as dynamic. The likelihood is that Kyle Smith will slot in for Ruan and Rodrigo Schlegel or Kamal Miller can play in place of Moutinho. However, Schlegel may be needed to spell a center back. He and Alex De John are the center back replacements, although Miller can also play there.

Could young fullback Michael Halliday — a recent Homegrown Player signing — be recalled from OCB? The 17-year-old has looked pretty good for the Young Lions but jumping up two divisions would be a lot to ask.

One way to mitigate the unproven midfield and attacking depth is to mix in a little 3-5-2. In this case, the team can use its strength — a strong group of back line players — and remove a midfielder. By alternating this lineup, Pareja can either protect his backup fullbacks by negating some of the space they have to defend, or play Ruan and Moutinho and rest one of Nani or Pereyra, to save them for the next match.

When you consider the backups, it’s natural to be a bit nervous. This team has an excellent starting XI and a lot of question marks on the bench. But it’s more likely that Pareja doesn’t go with a full change from game to game to keep legs fresh. It is more probable that he’ll go with a mixture of starters and backups so that it’s not a complete second-team look against any of the upcoming opponents.

Tactics

Orlando has been able to press high in 2020 and win the ball back so as not to allow the opposition time on the ball to build up a dangerous attack. The Lions will need to pick their spots to press a bit more carefully during the upcoming stretch of matches. However, Orlando doesn’t play at breakneck speed. The Lions patiently build up from the back and often reset by sending the ball backwards, which can slow the game a bit and eliminate some of the running that the midfielders and attacking players have to do. This can somewhat add to the fullbacks’ workload at times, but there is some natural recovery time built into how Orlando has played so far this season.

Possession will be a premium, because players generally use up more energy defending than attacking. The Lions have done well in possession so far this season, and if that trend continues they may be able to wear down opponents late in games during this stretch.

Outlook

The good news is that the Lions’ opposition is in the same boat in terms of fixture congestion. Atlanta United’s matches are on the exact same days as Orlando City’s. Miami will have not played a game in more than a month when the two teams meet this Saturday, and both will be on a more normal rest schedule when they face each other again at the end of this first phase of the restart. Nashville will be on the same amount of rest for the Aug. 26 meeting and on one fewer day of rest than Orlando for the Sept. 2 match-up. The Lions play on Aug. 29 before that second game against Nashville, while the first-year MLS side will face Inter Miami on Aug. 30.

If Pareja goes with a “best XI” approach, he could get his first choice lineup (minus Dwyer) for up to (most likely) three of the upcoming five games. This would give him his best chance to get three wins, but the most likely way to do that would be to play his starters Saturday at Miami, then again next Wednesday vs. Nashville, which means rotating to backups at Atlanta. Then he could use the starters in either the second Nashville or Atlanta match, but not both. With a normal week off after the second Atlanta game, he can use his starters for as many as four of the six games in phase one. Any dropped points in the games the starters play would be magnified because of the difficulty of playing such a young and unproven squad in the other two matches.

A split approach would be perhaps less problematic, but also might be more unpredictable. The starters are fairly familiar with each other by now under game conditions. Any mistake by a new cog in the machine could be a fatal one for a team that doesn’t score a lot of goals.

All I know is that I’m glad I don’t have to make these kinds of decisions and that Orlando City has someone trustworthy in charge of making them. It’s also good that the teams will have five substitutions available, because they’ll be needed.

In a few days, we’ll start seeing how this will all play out.

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

July 22, 2026

Michael Citro

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

Our most recent PawedCast includes our key matchups and score predictions for tonight’s match.

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!

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

July 14, 2026

Michael Citro

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.

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

April 22, 2026

Michael Citro

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.