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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. New York City FC: Player Grades and Man of the Match

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4 years ago

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That sucked. After a great win against the Philadelphia Union on Thursday, a hodgepodge Orlando City lineup got absolutely dusted in a 5-0 loss by a good New York City FC side in Yankee Stadium. Orlando was without its top offensive weapons and had so few players available that it put two goalkeepers on the bench.

This was one to forget, so let’s see how everybody played in this one.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 7 (MoTM)  — Gallese wasn’t his best in this game, but was easily Orlando’s best player. In the first half, he was a wall, keeping a lackluster Orlando side alive with multiple huge stops. He probably could’ve done better on at least one or two of New York’s goals, especially the third, but I’m not going to criticize him too much. The team around him collapsed and he had to make nine saves, eight of which were in the box. He completed 20 of 29 passes for a 69% success rate, including nine accurate long balls in a performance that was pretty on par from him in terms of distribution. 

D, Emmanuel Mas, 5 — The left back’s debut in MLS was solid. He didn’t look the part of an offensively-adept overlapping fullback, but he did well in a defensive role that was similar to a third center back. Mas made a handful of defensively savvy plays that you hope to see from an experienced player and his positioning disrupted a quality chance on goal for New York and helped clean up a rebound on a great Gallese save. However, when Orlando had the ball, Mas wasn’t particularly good. He completed only 57% of his 21 passes and didn’t do anything offensively. In 57 minutes of play, he finished with a tackle, an interception, and two clearances. It was a solid, although unspectacular, debut for the Argentine.

D, Antonio Carlos, 4.5 — This is the worst game Antonio Carlos has ever played for Orlando City. To his credit, he made several good plays, particularly in the first half, but as the game descended into disaster, he completely fell apart. Two of New York’s goals can be pegged on him, although the first also came from him being grabbed and pushed by Valentin Castellanos. Carlos didn’t look anywhere near the player he can be in the second half. Even when passing the ball he wasn’t particularly good, only completing 77% of his 35 passes. Carlos had no tackles in the match, but had four interceptions and six clearances.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 5.5 — This game was one of Schlegel’s weaker performances as a Lion. He occasionally got caught upfield or would put a foot wrong, giving NYCFC dangerous space to attack into. To his credit, he continues to stuff the stat sheet defensively, with three tackles, seven clearances, and an interception. When defending becomes desperate, Schlegel is good at making the necessary play. Like Carlos, he had a hard time building out of the back, with only 74% of his 34 passes finding their mark. Schlegel wasn’t good per se, but there were certainly worse performances on this team. 

D, Kyle Smith, 5 — It was not a great performance from Smith. He finally received a rest in this game, only playing the first half, and he definitely warranted the substitution. He completed 55% of his 22 passes and wasn’t much of a presence pushing forward with one attempted cross that was unsuccessful. His defensive work left something to be desired as he had no tackles or interceptions and made one clearance. NYCFC was dangerous attacking down Smith’s right flank and while he wasn’t terrible, he hardly shut things down. With all that being said, he gets some slack considering the sheer number of minutes he’s played this season.. 

MF, Andres Perea, 4.5 — Perea wasn’t good in this game. He had an excellent chance right on the doorstep to open the second half and perhaps could have changed the tone of the match, but couldn’t get a quality shot on the ball and hit it right at Luis Barraza. If he gets that ball just past the keeper, this could have been a much different game. Despite playing in a key midfield spot, Perea was barely involved in possession, only completing 14 of 18 passes in 90 minutes. That’s nowhere near good enough for a central midfielder, even if he was tasked with a more offensive role in this game. He completed one of his two attempted dribbles, made a clearance, and pressed the ball well, but his impact was barely felt throughout this game.

MF, Uri Rosell, 4 — Maybe I’m a little too harsh here, but I was thoroughly unimpressed with Rosell in this game. His lack of pace cost him when he got caught upfield and he provided next to nothing in terms of tenacity in the middle of the park. Keaton Parks and the rest of the NYCFC midfield were able to cut through Orlando City and routinely run into open space. The entire team is responsible for that, but Rosell was, to me at least, the most noticeably poor of the bunch. Rosell is a player whose passing ability typically compensates for his lack of defensive chops, but he only completed 78% of his 32 passes — though that was still fourth best on the team out of anyone who played more than half the game — and struggled to maintain possession or break the NYCFC defense. Defensively, he did chip in with three tackles.

MF, Joey DeZart, 5 — I like DeZart and thought he showed flashes of quality in this game, but it wasn’t good enough. He’s a solid linking player, but lacks the ability to control the game with his passing. He completed 93% of his 27 passes, including a key pass. DeZart was a little too conservative with his passing and was generally too slow with the ball, being dispossessed twice. His technical ability is good, but the speed at which he plays and sees the game was not at an MLS level in this game. Defensively, he made eight ball recoveries, but got walked through at times alongside Rosell. He also had a shot, but it wasn’t much of a chance. In a better lineup, DeZart could be a solid role player, but in this setup, he lacked the quality the Lions needed. 

MF, Alexander Alvarado, 6 — It was the first MLS start for the Ecuadorian winger and it wasn’t bad. In a terrible offensive performance for Orlando City, Alvarado was the closest thing to a threat offensively. He created one of the only good chances for the Lions in the game, sliding Silvester van der Water in behind with a good through ball, and looked comfortable and occasionally dangerous with the ball. He completed 17 of his 21 passes for an 81% success rate and drew four fouls. However, Alvarado is still a little too slow with the ball and has a tendency to turn the ball over, being dispossessed twice in this game. He did make an interception and three ball recoveries defensively. 

F, Silvester van der Water, 6 — The Dutchman wasn’t outright bad in this game, but he hasn’t come close to his early season form. In his first few appearances, van der Water looked like a dynamic playmaker out wide, but he’s created nothing for himself or others in recent weeks. In one half of action, he only had 19 touches, but several of those were promising. He had a shot that forced a save out of Barraza, as well as a key pass and three successful long balls. For all the good some of these underlying stats show, he just wasn’t a particularly effective wide forward. Maybe if he continues to build his fitness and acclimate to Orlando and MLS he can perform more consistently, but right now he’s not much of a weapon for Orlando. He completed nine of his 11 passes and also had an interception. 

F, Benji Michel, 4 — Michel was in good form heading into the match, but he was completely ineffective playing up top against New York. He had no service and didn’t get into dangerous areas, registering no shots in 90 minutes. Michel also had a key pass and was successful on one of his four attempted dribbles. He needed to be more dangerous and much better in holdup play. To be fair, this isn’t really his fault as Michel has evolved into a legit inverted winger and isn’t effective as a striker. When Orlando switched to a 3-5-2, Michel looked a lot better, able to drift further wide with more numbers around him in attack. He also got back for some defensive work, finishing with five ball recoveries and a clearance. His passing stats were unsurprisingly low, with only 11 completed passes on 16 attempts for a 69% success rate.

Substitutes

D, Ruan (46’), 5 — Welcome back, Ruan! After a seemingly endless injury absence, the quick Brazilian made his return to the lineup, playing the entire second half. He did look dangerous on a few attacks, burning down the touchline with his blistering pace, but he lacked the final ball. He completed six of nine passes and completed a dribble but never had a big offensive moment. Defensively, he wasn’t great, giving up a lot of space for New York to attack into. He made a clearance, but wasn’t in good positions and made no impact on that side of the ball. But he received minutes and should give Orlando a serious boost once he’s back to his best. 

D, Robin Jansson (46’), 5 — A facemask-wearing Jansson came in to give Orlando a third center back in the second half, but he wasn’t particularly good. While solid with the ball, completing 11 of his 13 passes for an 85% completion rate, Jansson did little to prevent the onslaught from New York late in the half. He made two interceptions and two clearances, but his overall defensive performance left a lot to be desired. I don’t think Jansson was too terrible individually, but he wasn’t at his best and the entire defense was awful. 

D, Joao Moutinho (57’), 5.5 — The left back pushed forward and looked like an offensive threat, even though none of his four crosses found their mark. Moutinho finished with a pair of clearances and he completed eight of his 12 passes. This was a step forward for him as he continued to show some forward thrust, and hopefully he can reach his form from last year in a stronger lineup. 

D, Michael Halliday (69’), 4.5 — The Homegrown Player was on the field for 20 minutes, but was almost completely invisible. Halliday only had seven touches and completed both of his attempted passes. On defense he made a clearance, a ball recovery, and an interception. Frankly, it was an unremarkable outing from the young fullback.

MF, David Loera (69’), 5.5 — Loera has played sparingly for Orlando City, but got about 20 minutes of play in New York. He completed all four of his passes and looked solid on the ball in his eight touches. Loera even put a shot on target, one of just three all game for Orlando. I really wish there was a U.S. Open Cup this season, because that seems like a perfect setting for Loera to receive more minutes. He’s an intriguing player, but might not be good enough to contribute at an MLS level right now.

That’s how I judged this one, what were your thoughts? Leave your ratings below and vote for your man of the match.

Polling Closed

PlayerVotes
Pedro Gallese35
Alexander Alvarado1
Rodrigo Schlegel1
Other (Comment Below)3

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Opinion

Orlando City Has Been Better than Expected Halfway Through the Season

While there was plenty to worry about at the start of the season, Orlando has had a good first half of 2025.

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3 days ago

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June 20, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

With 18 matches in the books, we’ve moved just past the halfway point of the 2025 Major League Soccer season, and based off my feelings before Orlando City played its opening game of the season, the Lions have performed above expectations so far. There were plenty of valid reasons to be concerned heading into the year. Orlando had sold its all-time leading goal scorer, and there were questions about whether he’d been adequately replaced. There were worries about depth at multiple positions, and the defense was coming off an uncharacteristically poor year. Here we are though, with the Lions sitting fifth in the Eastern Conference, just three points out of second place and seven points out of first. So how did we get to this point?

For one thing, Marco Pasalic has been much better than I (and I think a lot of other people) expected him to be. The Croatian has six goals and four assists across 18 matches, and is second on the team in both categories. He scored 10 goals in 49 appearances in the Croatian first division before coming to Orlando and was extremely one-footed, which was enough evidence to sow real doubt about whether he could adequately replace the impact of Facundo Torres.

So far, it’s mostly been so good. His direct style of play is a good complement to the styles of Martin Ojeda and Luis Muriel, and he’s largely hit the ground running in a league that can be difficult to adapt to. It hasn’t been perfect, as he’s still very one-footed, and can sometimes disappear if he’s stringently man marked, but on the whole there’s been much more good than bad.

Speaking of Ojeda and Muriel, they’ve also had strong years. Ojeda in particular has continued his great second half of the 2024 season and has nine goals and five assists in 18 games to show for it. He looks fast, confident, and decisive and is a far cry from the player who struggled frequently during his first year as a Lion. Muriel has cooled off a little after a scorching start to 2025, but he still has six goals and three assists in 18 matches. He looks vastly improved from last year, when he looked a little off the pace of play and quickly lost the starting striker role. He still has a tendency to not be as selfish as he needs to be in front of goal, but he’s been much better than 2024.

I mentioned depth being a big concern, and not just at one position. At the beginning of the season Orlando City was, and arguably still is, thin at striker, center back, defensive midfield, and fullback. Duncan McGuire was injured to start the year and is now injured again, leaving Orlando with two true strikers in Muriel and Ramiro Enrique. There was no true backup left back, only one reliable backup center back, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson starting at right back meant that defensive midfield depth consisted of rookie Joran Gerbet and the Swiss army knife that is Kyle Smith.

Things have mostly worked out though. David Brekalo has supplanted Rafael Santos, meaning the Brazilian is now a proven backup option at the position, and Smith has filled in there as well. That means that in games in which Rodrigo Schlegel or Robin Jansson are unavailable, Brekalo fills in at center back, Santos starts at left back, and Smith is the backup for both positions, so it isn’t a flawless system. Gerbet has been playing better and better and got some valuable minutes when Eduard Atuesta and Cesar Araujo were unavailable. His emergence has been a crucial piece of the puzzle this year. So too has the rise of Alex Freeman, as his locking down the right back role has allowed Thorhallsson to fill in at defensive midfield, attacking midfield, and right back. The situation isn’t perfect, as a couple untimely injuries to the wrong guys would leave the Lions looking pretty threadbare, but so far it’s just about worked.

Another big concern was the defense. The Lions conceded 50 goals in the regular season last year, which was tied for the second-most of any Eastern Conference playoff team and fourth-most of any playoff team. With no defensive signings and the aforementioned depth concerns, there were plenty of reasons to worry about Orlando’s ability to keep the ball out of the back of the net.

Things have looked much better in 2025, though. The 22 goals OCSC has conceded are the fifth-fewest in the league, and Pedro Gallese’s eight clean sheets are tied for most in the league. Aside from a few egregious defensive performances against the Philadelphia Union, Atlanta United, and the Chicago Fire, things have mostly been tidy at the back, and when they haven’t been, El Pulpo has been around to pick up the slack. Again, things haven’t been perfect, as there have been moments where individual and collective errors have hurt the team, but it’s been better.

I thought the Lions would struggle this year. Going into the start of the season, we were talking about a team that lost Torres, arguably didn’t do enough to strengthen the team across the board, was facing depth issues, and was dealing with a leaky defense — all while pretty much every other contender in the East got stronger on paper. Instead, OCSC tied a club-best unbeaten streak and is just three points out of second place.

That being said, the East is so tight that Orlando is only five points above the playoff line, and injuries to the wrong guys could easily topple the fragile ecosystem that is the depth chart, but so far things are going better than I thought they would be. There are still a lot of matches to play, but this isn’t a bad position to be in at the halfway mark.

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 6/20/25

Orlando Pride take on Racing Louisville FC tonight, Orlando Pride players called up by Zambia, USMNT beats Saudi Arabia, and more.

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3 days ago

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June 20, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

Happy Friday! June continues to fly by as we enjoy the buffet of soccer here in the U.S. this month. I’ll be spending most of the weekend working, but I am hoping to get some reading done after being gifted some books for my birthday. But enough about me, let’s jump right into today’s links!

Orlando Pride Face Racing Louisville Tonight

The Orlando Pride are on the road tonight for a match against Racing Louisville FC at 8 p.m. in the final game before a league break until August. Going into the break with four straight wins would be nice for the Pride, but they’ve struggled at Lynn Family Stadium over the years. Louisville enters this match following a 4-2 loss to the league-leading Kansas City Current and has scored eight goals over the past three games. Orlando’s defense has been phenomenal this year, conceding just eight goals this season and only one during this win streak. Midfielder Cori Dyke spoke on how the team is finding its groove and shutting out opponents.

Zambia Calls Up Orlando Pride Trio

Barbra Banda, Grace Chanda, and Prisca Chilufya were all called up for Zambia’s CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations roster ahead of this summer’s tournament. Banda has eight goals this season with the Pride and had four goals at last year’s Olympics, including a hat trick against Australia. The Copper Queens claimed third place in the 2022 edition of this tournament, and they’ll need to be at their best to win this summer against tough opponents like South Africa and Nigeria. Zambia’s tournament campaign will kick off on July 5 against the host nation, Morocco.

USMNT Beats Saudi Arabia to Qualify for Quarterfinals

The United States Men’s National Team won 1-0 against Saudi Arabia to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals of this year’s Concacaf Gold Cup. After a scoreless first half, the Yanks broke through in the 63rd minute thanks to a free kick. Sebastian Berhalter served the ball on a silver platter to Chris Richards, who buried it for the crucial goal. The defense did well to secure its second shutout of the tournament, with Orlando City’s Alex Freeman starting at right back yet again. The USMNT will play Haiti on Sunday and should be able to win the group for a smoother path in the knockout stage.

FIFA Club World Cup Roundup

An MLS club finally won a game during this year’s FIFA Club World Cup, with Inter Miami beating Porto 2-1 in Atlanta. Lionel Messi scored the winner from a free kick to complete the comeback after conceding an early goal. The Seattle Sounders had a rougher day, falling 3-1 to Atletico Madrid, with Pablo Barrios scoring a brace. Former Lion Facundo Torres started for Palmeiras in the Brazilian club’s 2-0 win over Egypt’s Al Ahly.

Today’s action features more soccer at Inter&Co Stadium, with Benfica and Auckland City squaring off in the City Beautiful. Our Michael Citro will be on hand to report on it. Elsewhere in the U.S., Chelsea will take on Flamengo, LAFC will face ES Tunis, and Bayern Munich will play Boca Juniors.

Free Kicks

  • Canada Head Coach Jesse Marsch, who is already serving a suspension for misconduct during the Nations League, is under investigation by Concacaf for incidents during this Gold Cup. Reports detail that Marsch disregarded regulations and used offensive language toward match officials.
  • Kylian Mbappe was discharged from the hospital after suffering from a case of gastroenteritis. It’s unclear if or when he’ll play for Real Madrid during the Club World Cup.
  • Carlos Cuesta was hired as Parma’s next head coach after five years with Arsenal as an assistant coach. The 29-year-old becomes the second-youngest coach in Serie A history.
  • Manchester City was fined over $1 million by the English Premier League for repeated delays regarding kickoff times.

That’s all I have for you all today. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!

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Orlando City

In 2025, OCSC Stands for Orlando City Scorers Club

How Orlando City’s top offensive performers this season compare to the rest of MLS…and the Premier League.

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4 days ago

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June 19, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Last week, I wrote about the state of Orlando City at the halfway point of the season, focusing mostly on the team’s accomplishments on offense and defense through 17 games. For this week, let’s look at some of the top performing Lions, because it’s always fun to talk about offensive success. I do not apologize if you take offense to my desire to only focus on offense, because that would be defensive, and there is no place in this article for defense.

Many moons ago, back in January during the preseason, I wrote an article looking at the best offensive seasons in Orlando City’s MLS history. I used a derived metric called game score to rank the seasons, and I’ll quickly explain again how that is calculated:

Goals Scored + Expected Assists + 0.0113 (Progressive Carries + Progressive Passes)

I went into much more detail about why that is the calculation in the original article, but the quick and dirty version is that scoring goals, completing passes to players in dangerous scoring areas, and progressing the ball by dribbling and passing are core components of a strong offensive player. Think of the game score as an offensive value calculation, and think of it simply as a value for which more is better and the most is best.

Opta only tracked the last three contributing statistics (expected assists, progressive carries, and progressive passes) from 2018 onwards, and the chart below shows Orlando City’s 10 best MLS regular seasons since 2018. It also shows the season that currently ranks 11th — Martín Ojeda’s 2025 season, which, as a reminder, is only in game 18 of a 34-game regular season. This means, if you get the extrapolation machine out, Ojeda is on pace for a season-long game score of 26.5, which would rank as the highest full season game score in Orlando City history.

PlayerSeasonSeason Game ScoreRank in MLSMLS Best that Season
Nani201922.0850.7
Facundo Torres202320.91031.1
Facundo Torres202420.02132.6
Facundo Torres202217.42533.7
Duncan McGuire202316.32631.1
Nani202116.22626.6
Sacha Kljestan201815.64638.0
Chris Mueller2020*14.81121.8
Yoshimar Yotún201814.75338.0
Dom Dwyer201814.35838.0
Martín Ojeda2025**14.1416.8
  • * The 2020 season contained only 23 games due to COVID-19
  • ** Ojeda’s stats are through 18 matches; MLS teams have played between 16-19 matches

Ojeda’s 14.1 currently ranks only behind Sam Surridge of Nashville (15.7), Anders Dreyer of San Diego (16.6), and some player from Miami who clearly wants to play for Orlando since he has lion as part of his first name (Messi, 16.8). During Ojeda’s first two seasons, he only accumulated 12.1 and 12.5, respectively, so this is already by far his best season in purple and it is just barely halfway complete.

Ojeda is not the only Orlando City player who is on pace to jump into the club’s all-time top 10 by the end of the season, as teammates Luis Muriel (10.76, on pace for 20.3) and Marco Pašalić (10.46, on pace for 19.8) are both in the top 30 in MLS this season. Muriel is 24th, and Pašalić is 27th. Orlando City is the only team in the league with three players in the top 30, or really the top 27 (shout out to my son, for whom 27 is his favorite number).

One last point on Ojeda: if we were to extrapolate his performance through 18 games to 38 games, his season game score would bump up to 29.6. Why did I choose 38? Well, 38 happens to be the number of games played in the world’s most popular league, England’s Premier League. I am well aware that the Premier League is a different level of competition than MLS, but just for fun I ran the numbers on the 2024-2025 Premier League season, and a season-long game score of 29.6 would coincidentally also rank Ojeda fourth in England, right behind Cole Palmer (29.7) and in front of Alexander Isak (29.2). I do not think Ojeda would actually finish fourth if he was in the Premier League, but my point is more that the frequency of Ojeda’s contributions for Orlando City thus far this season have been similar to that of Palmer for Chelsea and Isak for Newcastle, which is pretty heady company.

Speaking of heady, we also need to talk about the player who is leading Orlando City in aerial duel wins, Alex Freeman. Heady, aerial duels…you got the segue, right? Don’t answer that.

Freeman has been on a rocket ship in the last year, going from Orlando City B starter to Orlando City starter to U.S. Men’s National Team starter, and he likely will also be the MLS All-Star Game starter, too. My mention of his leading the team in aerial duel wins, while noteworthy, was really just a convenient way to cut over to talking about him and his season-long game score of 8.1.

According to Opta’s positional tracking, only two MLS defenders have accumulated game scores of more than six thus far this season — Philadelphia’s Kai Wagner at 6.88 and Freeman’s 8.1. The extrapolation machine says 8.1 through 18 games puts Freeman on pace for a final score of 15.2, which would be the second best performance by an MLS defender since tracking began in 2018. Freeman is going to miss at least a few more games due to being with the U.S. team during the Gold Cup, so that 15.2 will likely not happen, but wow, what a great first half of a season for Orlando City’s right back.

Going back to the Premier League for comparative context…actually, please sit down and buckle up first. Are you good? Ok.

Going back to the Premier League for comparative context, there is none. Freeman’s performance blows away every defender’s from that league. It will likely surprise few that the defender with the best season game score in the Premier League this season was Trent Alexander-Arnold, who accumulated a score of 13.5 during Liverpool’s championship run. That 13.5 was 15% better than the defender who finished in second place, and yet, if we extrapolate Freeman to 38 games, he would be on pace for 17.0, which is 26% better than Alexander-Arnold. Mind the gap.

Once again, I do not mean to say that Freeman is as skilled or would contribute like Alexander-Arnold did in the Premier League. It is instead that Freeman’s contributions to Orlando City’s offense are unlike that from any defenders in the Premier League. Freeman’s performance thus far this season places him 43rd in the overall MLS rankings, first among defenders, and ahead of strikers such as Christian Benteke, Emmanuel Latte Lath, and Brandon Vazquez. He ranks fourth on Orlando City, and the Lions are not only the only club with three players in the top 30, but also the only club with four players in the top 45.

Two teams had four players in the top 45 during the 2024 MLS season, and one of them was the LA Galaxy, the eventual MLS Cup champions. I am not saying that Orlando City having four players in the top 45 this season means they will win MLS Cup, but I am not not saying it either. I am saying I would like it to happen though, and saying that loudly and clearly.

The game score metric is not the be-all, end-all of measuring offensive prowess, but I think it does a good job of creating a ranking system where the eye test matches the math. Most fans would point to Ojeda as the player who has driven Orlando City’s offense more than any other this season, and being that the team is on pace to have one of the best, if not the best, goal-scoring seasons in the club’s MLS history, it should track that Ojeda is also on pace to have one of the best, if not the best, individual offensive seasons in the club’s MLS history as well.

There are 16 more MLS games to go, and the great thing about sports is that in any game anything can happen, and that is why we love to watch. It is awesome that all three Designated Players and Freeman are off to great starts, but nothing is guaranteed for the back half of the season. That’s why they play the games, as the saying goes. For all we know, Ramiro Enrique could come on like gangbusters in the final games and rip off double-digit goals to end as the team’s leading scorer.

Ramiro, this is a bold strategy, and I am on board for it. The more goals the merrier. Feel free to bring us fans some goals for Christmas in July.

Orlando City does not have a game this weekend, with next match coming June 25 on the road in St. Louis. Winning that game would give the Lions their third winning streak of the season and would be something I would very much like, since I will be doling out the grades for that game. And since I have been writing about the offense this week, how about three goals and three points?

Vamos Orlando!

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