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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Nashville SC: Player Grades and Man of the Match

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4 years ago

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Orlando City earned its third-straight 1-1 draw against an MLS opponent, although this one came on the road against Nashville SC. After a sloppy first half, the Lions battled back to score and leave Nissan Stadium with a point. There were times when the Lions looked as if they would be blown out and times when they nearly took all three points.

Let’s dive into how each Lion rated in this draw on the road.

Starters

GK, Mason Stajduhar, 6 — The rainy conditions turned routine saves into balls that needed to be punched away by Stajduhar. He wasn’t able to come up with the save on C.J. Sapong’s goal, the forward’s shot neatly tucked in the bottom right corner. Stajduhar made three saves, his most in an MLS game, and looked comfortable rushing out to shut down Nashville’s attack to add two clearances to his stats. He also made a great save on Alistair Johnston’s low shot towards the near post, but Johnston was ruled offside so Stajduhar didn’t get official credit. The 23-year-old was only accurate on one of his five attempted long balls, completing just 14 of his 18 total passes. He also spilled a couple of crosses, although given the conditions this isn’t completely surprising and none of them ended up being costly. So his distribution definitely needs some work, although Nashville did a good job winning the ball in the air. While he’s still on the hunt for his first clean sheet, Stajduhar hasn’t been a liability for the Lions while Pedro Gallese recovers.

D, Joao Moutinho, 6 — His poor giveaway created the scoring opportunity that resulted in Nashville’s goal, Sapong pouncing on his pass back to Robin Jansson and storming down the field with Hany Mukhtar to score. It wasn’t his only mistake either, as he struggled defensively at times against Mukhtar. But Moutinho found moments of redemption as the game wore on. He was successful on one of his two crosses, sending a beautiful ball into the box that was reminiscent of the crosses Moutinho made last year. On one of them, Tesho Akindele’s header hit the crossbar, just inches away from letting Moutinho atone for his earlier mistake. The left back stepped up on defense late in the match too by making a crucial clearance at the back post. Moutinho led the team with 100 touches and 81 passes. Of those 81 passes, Moutinho completed 68 of them for an 84% success rate. That aforementioned clearance was his only one of the game, but he did have an interception and a defensive block as well.

D, Robin Jansson, 6.5 — The masked Swede had a tackle, two clearances, and a defensive block in a solid defensive performance against a Nashville offense that entered this match with 27 goals scored at home in 2021. Jansson wasn’t able to make much of a difference on Nashville’s goal, forced to keep a body on Mukhtar during a fast break after Moutinho’s turnover. He picked up a yellow card by pulling down Mukhtar right outside of the box to snuff out a dangerous opportunity. The free kick was from a good spot, but Mukhtar hit the top of the crossbar. Jansson had 76 touches and was successful on 90% of his 69 passes. Although style points don’t factor into his rating, it’s worth noting the cool factor of Jansson’s mask in the heavy rain.

D, Antonio Carlos, 7 (MotM) — Don’t look now, but Carlos is evolving into a force to be reckoned with in dead ball situations. The center back scored his second goal of the season, powering a header past Nashville SC goalkeeper Joe Willis after a free kick cross from Mauricio Pereyra. Carlos has been working on his headers all season long, so it’s nice to see that paying off. Defensively, he led the team with a whopping six clearances, with three of those coming after the 80th minute mark as Nashville pushed forward to try and take all three points. Carlos also had a tackle, an interception, a defensive block, and won five of his nine aerial duels. He had 73 touches and completed 87% of his 60 passes. On Nashville’s goal, his sliding tackle couldn’t disrupt Sapong from surging past the defense. Like Jansson, he picked up a yellow card for a professional foul to stop a potential counter.

Carlos is our Man of the Match for scoring the equalizer in a match that looked grim at times for the Lions. His work late in the match also helped secure a result on the road. If he can continue to score to add another element to his game, then he will certainly become an MLS Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

D, Kyle Smith, 6 — It was a quiet night for Smith, which is hardly a bad thing from a defensive point of view, considering he’s had to make game-saving plays for the Lions this year. He finished with a tackle, an interception, and a clearance in his 19th start this season. Smith played all 90 minutes and ended the game with 55 touches and completed 34 of his 39 passes for an 87% success rate. The right back didn’t make much of an impact on offense, with neither of his two crosses finding their mark. He picked up a yellow card, but the foul was in Nashville’s half so it didn’t end up hurting the Lions.

MF, Junior Urso, 6 — The Bear had a busy night, playing all 90 minutes and finishing with 82 touches and 67 passes at a strong 93% completion rate. Urso was fouled five times and won the free kick that led to Orlando’s goal. One of his two shots were deflected while the other was from distance after a series of passes, but the ball went high even though it was a decent try. He had a tackle and an interception when helping out on defense and did a good job feeding the ball to Pereyra and the offense once the Lions were trailing. All in all, it was nice work from Urso despite some miscues here and there. Urso’s endured plenty of fouls from opponents in recent weeks, but did well to keep his cool and bring some stability to Orlando’s midfield.

MF, Joey DeZart, 5 — The 23-year-old was often Orlando’s weakest link on the field. DeZart lacked precision and presence at times. It might be because DeZart is usually used as a late substitute with fresh legs in most matches, but he played a bit slower than his teammates and didn’t win any of his battles in the air. DeZart was a step behind Nashville’s midfielders, but did have an impressive 92% completion rate on his 50 passes and led the team with three interceptions. He played all 90 minutes and also came up with a late clearance that stopped a flurry of attacks by Nashville. DeZart didn’t have any impact on offense and ended the game with 57 touches. While these are the growing pains that come from earning needed minutes in MLS, DeZart certainly struggled at times in his second start of the season — mainly in the first half.

MF, Silvester van der Water, 6.5 — The Dutchman led the Lions with four shots, putting one on target while another was deflected. His best opportunity came in the 11th minute when he curled a shot past defenders to force Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis to make a tough save. He had a poor first touch at times in the match, even when taking the rain into consideration. The winger’s lone cross of the match found Akindele’s head in the box, but the shot was too high. Van der Water also led the team with three tackles, hustling so Nashville couldn’t have complete control of the midfield. He completed 80% of his 25 passes, was successful on two of his three attempted dribbles, and had 44 touches.

MF, Mauricio Pereyra, 7 — With Nani absent, Pereyra wore the captain’s armband and stepped up to create chances for Orlando. The Uruguayan led the team with six key passes. Four of those came in the second half as Orlando pushed higher upfield while chasing the game and had more success breaking Nashville’s lines. While this helped Orlando put more pressure on Nashville’s three-man defense in open play, Pereyra’s assist came from a free kick. Pereyra served a terrific ball over the top of Nashville’s defenders for Carlos to head home. It was Pereyra’s eighth assist of the season and 20th as a Lion since joining in the summer of 2019. His only shot was from another free kick, but it went over the bar. Pereyra was subbed off in the 84th minute and finished with 68 touches and an interception, and he was successful on one of his two attempted crosses in open play. He completed 48 of his 58 passes for a decent 83% completion rate. It was another good showing from the maestro as he pulled the strings of an offense that was without some of its weapons.

MF, Benji Michel, 5.5 — Playing on the left wing, Michel had 37 touches and completed 84% of his 19 passes. He didn’t have any crosses or key passes and two of his three shots were deflected while another went just wide. Michel was the least effective of Orlando’s attacking players and wasn’t able to get past Nashville’s formidable defense as he was only successful on one of his five attempted dribbles. He didn’t have any tackles or interceptions and was subbed off in the 83rd minute. The Homegrown Player has started in eight straight MLS games for Orlando, but only has one goal and an assist during that stretch.

F, Tesho Akindele, 6 — Walker Zimmerman and the rest of Nashville’s defense made Akindele’s night difficult as he only won two of his seven aerial duels. He was still effective on offense though, nearly scoring in the dying moments of the first half by getting his head on the end of a good cross into the box by Pereyra. But he wasn’t able to get enough on the wet ball to really drive it at goal, the bouncing shot saved by Willis, just inches from getting through. Akindele had a similar opportunity in the 75th minute when Moutinho found him wide open in the box, but his shot smacked into the crossbar. The Canadian striker finished with three shots and a key pass that gave van der Water a good chance to score. Akindele had 41 touches and completed 25 of his 27 passes for a great 93% success rate. He also chipped in with two clearances and interception to help out on defense. It was a game of inches for Akindele as Orlando awaits the return of its more lethal strikers.

Substitutes

MF, Chris Mueller (82’), N/A — The stage wasn’t exactly set for Mueller to come on and find a game-winner, so don’t look too much into his lack of offensive stats in his cameo. He only had four touches and was unsuccessful on his only attempted dribble, which wasn’t the worst thing in the world as he ate up a little time with the ball deep in Nashville’s half while Orlando’s defense caught its breath and reformed its shape. He completed his only attempted pass, a short pass to Ruan on the right side.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel (82’), N/A — The center back came on to strengthen Orlando’s defense once Nashville really started to throw numbers forward. Schlegel had a clearance and nine touches. He only completed two of his six passes, although the incompletions weren’t short attempts. Schlegel did what he came on to do, giving Orlando another defender for Nashville to deal with.

D, Emmanuel Mas (88’), N/A — The left back was inserted into the left field to give the Lions a little more defensive bite late in the match. Mas had three touches and completed all three of his passes in a brief outing.

F, Ruan (88’), N/A — The right back was actually deployed at the top of Orlando’s offense late in the match. An onslaught of attacks by Nashville didn’t open much opportunity for Ruan to use his speed to beat defenders. Ruan had two touches and completed both of his passes.

That’s how I saw things play out in Orlando’s 1-1 draw against Nashville. Make sure to weigh in on how you feel about the grades in the comments below and to vote for who you think deserves the title of Man of the Match.

Polling Closed

PlayerVotes
Antonio Carlos36
Mauricio Pereyra7
Robin Jansson0
Silvester van der Water6
Other (let us know in the comments)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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3 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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