Connect with us

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. D.C. United: Final Score 2-1 as Daryl Dike’s Header Wins It at the Death

Published

5 years ago

on

Daryl Dike saved his best moment for last with a perfect header off a Chris Mueller cross to lift Orlando City to a 2-1 win over D.C. United at Exploria Stadium. The Lions (11-8-9, 42 points) snapped a five-game winless streak when Mueller’s corner kick delivery found Dike’s head and the ball skipped off the underside of the crossbar and in for the winner to beat D.C. (12-12-4, 40 points).

Robin Jansson’s goal off an earlier corner kick scramble had canceled out a Julian Gressel cannon shot in the first half and the teams seemed destined to split the points until Dike’s goal. It was the forward’s third straight game with a goal and lifted the Lions back over United in the tight Eastern Conference standings. Orlando swept the season series from D.C. (2-0-0) — the first time the Lions have done that to United since 2017.

“I think it was a very important night for us,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “And it was emotional for us, of course, because we have seen how hard (the players) worked to get over this hurdle, this period of three weeks where we couldn’t get results. Our players were very united.”

Pareja had just about his pick of the roster for this match as everyone was available except the injured Alexandre Pato and Uri Rosell and the suspended Rodrigo Schlegel. Pedro Gallese started behind a back line of Joao Moutinho, Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Ruan. Sebas Mendez and Junior Urso took their spots in the central midfield, with Benji Michel and Mauricio Pereyra connecting with Nani and Dike up top.

There wasn’t much going on for the first five minutes of the game except 22 guys kicking the ball around, but that changed in the sixth minute. A ball forward for Dike was won by D.C. and sent to the right side. Gressel smashed a shot from distance that caught Gallese a bit off guard and it had the power to beat him to make it 1-0.

The first look for Orlando came in the 14th minute when a corner kick found Nani who fired a shot that was deflected. The ball pinged around in traffic and found Dike, who hit a shot over the bar. Two minutes later, Ruan got down the right and sent in a good low cross that Steve Birnbaum deflected just inches wide of his own left post. But the ensuing corner led to the Lions’ equalizer.

A good service into the area was headed on goal by Urso and Bill Hamid made a sprawling save. Jansson was there to smash the rebound into the roof of the net to tie the game at 1-1 in the 17th minute.

“I went to the second post and I saw the guys were in the middle there,” Jansson said. “I think it was Antonio, Dike, and maybe Urso or someone else. They got a touch to the goalkeeper, who put the rebound off on the second post and I was there to grab that rebound up and hit it in the net. I’m happy about the goal and happy for the team that we broke the bad momentum we have had. Hopefully this is something we can keep building now the last couple of games.”

Orlando looked vulnerable after scoring, with Carlos doing some emergency defending a couple of times to break up play but conceding dangerous corners. But the Lions settled back down and held some possession to calm the game back down.

Michel should have put Orlando on top in the 35th minute. Nani made a ridiculous pass to send Michel into the box on the left side. The winger made a good move to cut inside on his right foot but then sent his shot just inches wide of the far post.

That was the last good opportunity for either side in the first half and the teams went into the break all even. Orlando dominated possession in the first half (64.7%-35.3%) but often couldn’t decide what to do with it in the final third. The Lions had more shots (7-4) and shots on goal (2-1), and was more accurate with the ball when passing (87.1%-76.7%).

Emmanuel Mas came on for Moutinho to start the second half and D.C. pressed to try to find a goal early in the half, keeping Orlando penned in its own end for the half’s opening minutes. The Lions helped them with that by being loose with the ball, turning it over and playing into D.C.’s hands.

The first good chance came when Paul Arriola fired over the bar in the 48th minute. A minute later, Gallese spilled a seemingly routine ball and allowed D.C. to recycle an attack into the area, ending in a weak header on goal. Moments after that, Urso gave the ball away cheaply and ended up having to clean up the ball just in front of his own goal line.

Shortly after that, Orlando started to settle down and pass the ball better. D.C. began to drop into a defensive formation, content to earn a point on the road at worst and to ideally score on the counter, if possible. The Lions were able to get into some good positions but couldn’t quite find that final pass to unlock the defense.

In the 88th minute, the Lions created some danger in transition. Second-half sub Silvester van der Water did well to deflect a ball and Dike got onto it. The big forward passed up a shooting opportunity to slip between defenders but lost his balance after contact with a defender and he could only slide the ball to the right. Tesho Akindele made a sliding effort to direct the ball toward goal but Hamid made a huge initial save and then it was cleared off the line before van der Water could tap it home.

That looked like it was going to be the last good chance of the match but the Lions won a late free kick and made the most of it. Mueller sent in a fantastic cross and Dike flicked it on, sneaking it just under the bar for the late winner in the 97th minute. For Mueller, it was his first direct goal contribution since July 3, when he scored in a 2-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls.

“Chris had just served a good ball near post, and so I decided to go near post this time and flicked it on to the goal and the ball went in and emotion just came over me,” Dike said. “I’m just so happy we got a win in front of the fans.”

Dike celebrated and somehow ended up with a pair of sunglasses on his face. He said that Andres Perea brought them to him.

“I don’t know where he got them from but they ended up on my face,” Dike said.

“It seems like one point was not enough for them in front of our fans,” Pareja said of his team. “They brought that energy at the end that was what we were looking for to change the road now.”

With D.C. content to look for counter opportunities, the Lions led in most statistical categories, leading in shots (12-11), shots on target (4-2), corners (9-5), possession (64.8%-35.2%), and passing accuracy (86%-75.3%).

“I think we were the best team on the field,” Pareja said. “I think we got the three points because we always were constant on our intentions in trying to hurt United, which is a very good team also, who have strong transitions. But today our heart was bigger and that’s why we’re very proud.”

The win, combined with other results, lifted Orlando from seventh back into third place in the Eastern Conference.

“At this time of the year, every single point matters,” Dike said. “We tell each other every single second of the game matters, every play matters, whether it be the first minute, whether it be the 90th minute. You saw it from last game, you saw it from this game, that we’re going to keep fighting until the whistle is blown in order to get the points that we need.”

Orlando City now gets a rare rest with the international break, resuming play on Oct. 16 at FC Cincinnati.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

The Lions and Crew do battle for the third time this season, with each looking to climb into a better spot in the playoff race.

Published

4 hours ago

on

October 10, 2026

By

Image of Ivan Angulo trying to break down the Columbus Crew while Braian Ojeda looks on.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City (10-13-4, 34 points) and the Columbus Crew (8-14-5, 29 points) at Inter.co Stadium (7:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the third meeting between the two Eastern Conference rivals across all competitions this season, the second in MLS play, and the first matchup in Orlando.

Here’s what you need to know about the match.

History

The Lions are 10-8-6 in the all-time, regular-season series and 7-3-3 at home in MLS play. Orlando City is 11-10-6 overall against the Crew in all competitions, which includes a home loss in the playoffs and a home win and road loss in the U.S. Open Cup.

The last time these teams met just a few weeks back with the Crew knocking Orlando out of the U.S. Open Cup in the semifinal round. Columbus got on the board first through Josef Martinez, only for Martin Ojeda to pull the Lions level before the break. Brais Mendez scored the game winner moments after Antoine Griezmann was injured, though he had not yet subbed off. Orlando looked lost from that point on and the Crew won 2-1 to advance to the final.

The Lions and Crew also met early in the 2026 regular season, a 1-1 draw in Columbus on April 12. It looked like Marco Pasalic’s early goal would stand up until Lion killer Diego Rossi struck with 10 minutes remaining in normal time. Orlando City earned its first road point of the season that night and its first away point under interim head coach Martin Perelman.

In last year’s series, Orlando City hosted Columbus on Oct. 4, 2025, at Inter&Co Stadium. The Crew struck just past the half-hour mark through Andres Herrera, but Pasalic slammed home the rebound of a Luis Muriel shot two minutes later. That was all the scoring in a wasteful 1-1 draw for Orlando. The first meeting of 2025 took place July 25 in Columbus just prior to the Leagues Cup break. The Crew took the lead on Rossi’s spot kick shortly after the hour mark after Pasalic was called for a handball in the box. Ramiro Enrique struck 10 minutes later and again three minutes after that to turn the game around. Ojeda added an insurance goal in stoppage time as the Lions won 3-1.

The two sides faced each other in Columbus on Sept. 21, 2024 in a wild back-and-forth game, with the Crew winning 4-3. Rossi, Christian Ramirez, and Cucho Hernandez staked Columbus to a comfortable 3-0 lead by the 71st minute, and the game seemed over. But Enrique’s goal three minutes after Hernandez scored sparked the Lions, who added a Muriel penalty goal to make it a match again. Miscommunication and a poor back pass from Felipe led to a turnover that allowed Aziel Jackson to score in transition, making it 4-2. Muriel scored late in stoppage time, but the Lions ran out of clock and couldn’t complete the comeback.

The teams opened the 2024 season series against each other on May 25. As has been the case with so many matches between Orlando and Columbus over the years, there was controversy in the Crew’s 2-0 win in Orlando. The opening goal came in the second half on a penalty kick that was awarded upon video review following a penalty call at the other end of the pitch. Referee Jair Marrufo awarded the Lions a penalty for a foul on Steven Moreira against Muriel in the box late in the first half. Before Orlando could take the spot kick, Marrufo went to the monitor and ignored a blatant foul by Rossi in the buildup, ruling it a different attacking phase, despite the Lions never regaining clear control of the ball before the next attack, in which the referee ruled a routine shirt pull by Cesar Araujo — embellished significantly by Aidan Morris falling away from the direction of the tug — was clear-cut enough to wipe out the penalty seconds later at the other end. Rossi converted the penalty in first-half stoppage time, adding a second goal just past the hour mark.

The meeting between the teams with the biggest stakes came in the 2023 MLS Eastern Conference semifinals on Nov. 25, 2023. The teams played scoreless through the 90 minutes plus injury time, with Orlando City defender Rodrigo Schlegel getting sent off late with a second yellow card. The Crew were able to bundle home a goal in extra time and add an insurance marker for a 2-0 win en route to an eventual MLS Cup championship. Ramirez and Hernandez scored for the Crew.

The teams played a memorable game at Exploria Stadium on Sept. 16, 2023, with Orlando coming from behind to snatch a stunning 4-3 victory at the death. Julian Gressel gave Columbus an early lead that held up through the first half. Ojeda equalized just after the restart, but Rossi and Hernandez staked the Crew to a two-goal lead. Facundo Torres pulled one back and Enrique bagged his first MLS brace, with a goal just a few minutes from the end of normal time and another late in stoppage.

The teams met in Columbus on May 13, 2023, playing to a 2-2 draw. Orlando City fell behind 2-0 by halftime on goals by Darlington Nagbe and Jacen Russell-Rowe, but Ercan Kara pulled one back just a few minutes after the restart, and Duncan McGuire leveled the game in stoppage time.

The sides faced each other in Orlando on Decision Day 2022, with City erasing a 1-0 deficit from a Derrick Etienne Jr. goal to win 2-1 and clinch a playoff spot. Junior Urso leveled the game in the second half and Torres struck from the penalty spot late. The meeting in Columbus that year took place on April 16, 2022, with the Lions winning 2-0 on goals by Schlegel and Kara.

The 2021 season series concluded on Oct. 27 in Columbus with the Crew winning 3-2. Columbus had lost five straight to Orlando prior to Lucas Zelarayan’s one-goal, two-assist performance. Miguel Berry and Etienne also scored for the Crew. Daryl Dike pulled a goal back from the spot and Robin Jansson struck late, but it wasn’t enough.

The teams met at Exploria Stadium on Sept. 4, 2021, with the Lions winning 3-2. Orlando built a 2-0 lead on goals by Dike and Silvester van der Water, but a bizarre own goal by Antonio Carlos threw the Crew a lifeline, and a Berry equalizer turned the game around. Urso provided a nice game winner in the 69th minute.

City won the only meeting of the 2020 pandemic season when the 10-man Lions got a late Benji Michel goal to defeat the Crew 2-1 on Nov. 4. Chris Mueller gave Orlando the lead, but Harrison Afful was able to equalize just moments after referee Ramy Touchan sent off Nani on a ludicrous call that was overturned by the MLS independent panel a few days later. Thanks to Michel’s goal, the officiating error didn’t end up costing the Lions, who clinched their first-ever MLS playoff spot with the win.

The Lions swept the season series in 2019, defeating the Crew 1-0 on July 13, 2019, and two weeks previously getting their first road win in the series, 2-0.

Orlando won 2-1 on Oct. 21, 2018 to start a five-game winning streak against the Crew on a pair of penalty kick goals. Yoshimar Yotún and Sacha Kljestan provided the spot kicks to offset Federico Higuain’s opening goal.

The last Crew win in the series prior to the Orlando winning streak was assisted by a horror call by Silviu Petrescu in the 88th minute on July 21, 2018, giving Columbus an equalizer from the penalty spot. Wil Trapp then scored the kind of goal in stoppage time that he’ll probably never score again to lift the Crew to a 3-2 victory in a game the Lions had stolen away from them on a call that Petrescu’s own organization said was an error.

Columbus got the better of Orlando in 2017, going 2-0-1. The Lions were 0-1-1 against Columbus in 2016 and 1-1-1 in the series in 2015, with a home U.S. Open Cup win that season against the Crew as well.

Overview

Orlando City enters tonight on a poor run of form, having lost three straight in all competitions and conceding 10 goals across those matches. All of those games, however, were on the road, where the Lions tend to concede goals by the boatload. The Lions have also been falling behind early in games. The opposition has scored the game’s first goal in the ninth, 19th, and 11th minutes in the team’s last three contests. Each of the last two opponents have found the net four times and have built multiple-goal leads, including the last game against the Philadelphia Union. The Union scored four times before Orlando found the net twice late in a 4-2 loss two weeks ago.

If there are bright spots, Ojeda has scored in three consecutive games in all competitions and Ivan Angulo has a goal in four consecutive league matches — a career-high streak for the Colombian. Another positive for the Lions is that they have been much better at home, especially since the league restarted after the World Cup break. Orlando is 7-4-2 at home in 2026, with a mark of 4-1-1 in MLS matches since the restart.

Columbus enters tonight having won three straight matches in all competitions, including the aforementioned U.S. Open Cup semifinal game against Orlando, as well as its most recent outing two weeks ago — a 2-1 home win over Inter Miami. The recent surge has moved the Crew from the Eastern Conference basement to 12th place and just a few points out of the playoff places. Martinez and Mendez each have two goals in the last three Crew games, and the Crew have been boosted by the additions of Martinez, Santiago Rodriguez, and Anass Zaroury in the summer window. Road games have been one of the team’s areas of concern, as the Crew are 2-8-3 away from home in 2026, including a 1-3-1 road record since the league restarted.

For Orlando to get a result and advance to the semifinals, it must get back to playing sound transition defense and eliminate the need to defend counterattacks by being more careful on the ball. Turnovers in dangerous areas have been lethal to the Lions during this recent skid. Orlando will also have to corral longtime Lion killer Martinez, as well as dynamic scorers Mendez and Rodriguez.

Orlando City will be without Braian Ojeda (foot) and Tyrese Spicer (foot), while Griffin Dorsey (back) is questionable. While we don’t know the status of Justin Ellis, who picked up a knock on international duty with the USMNT, he isn’t listed on the availability report, but the club may not have had any test results back before having to file player availability for the weekend. Columbus is nearly 100% healthy, with just Wessam Abou Ali (knee) listed as out.

Match Content

Projected Lineups:

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.

Defenders: Bernardo Rhein, Robin Jansson, David Brekalo, Zakaria Taifi.

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Eduard Atuesta, Joran Gerbet, Marco Pasalic.

Forwards: Martin Ojeda, Antoine Griezmann.

Columbus Crew (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Nicholas Hagen.

Defenders: Brooks Lennon, Malte Amundsen, Sean Zawadzki, Steven Moreira.

Midfielders: Taha Habroune, Andre Gomes, Santiago Rodriguez, Anass Zaroury.

Forwards: Josef Martinez, Brais Mendez.

Referees:

REF: Rosendo Mendoza.
AR1: Jason White.
AR2: Kevin Klinger.
4TH: Alejo Calume.
VAR: Jair Marrufo.
AVAR: John Krill.

How to Watch

Match Time: 7:30 p.m.

Venue: Inter.co Stadium — Orlando.

TV/Streaming: 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!

Continue Reading

Opinion

Orlando City’s Final Playoff Push Filled with Challenges

The Lions will need to contend with a busy schedule, tricky opponents, and injury concerns while pushing to secure a playoff spot.

Published

1 day ago

on

October 9, 2026

By

Image of Martin Perelman celebrating his first MLS win as coach.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City has seven games remaining in the 2026 MLS season, which means that crunch time is officially upon us. The Lions currently sit seventh in the Eastern Conference with 34 points but are only one point ahead of FC Cincinnati in 10th place. As a result, OCSC’s final matches of the season are of massive importance, but the men in purple will need to deal with a number of different hurdles if they want to keep the longest active postseason streak in the league alive for another year.

Fixture Congestion

As has been the case with much of a season that went on a two-month break for the 2026 World Cup, Orlando City is staring down the barrel of another busy month. Of the Lions’ seven remaining matches, six will take place in a jam-packed 21-day stretch during the month of October, before Decision Day against the New England Revolution on Nov. 7. Things get started Saturday at home against the Columbus Crew, and then OCSC plays away against Toronto on Wednesday, home against D.C. United on Saturday, Oct. 17, home against New York City FC on Saturday, Oct. 24, before finishing the month with back-to-back away games against the Chicago Fire on Oct. 28, and against Charlotte FC on Halloween. While there’s an even split of home and away matches, it’s still an absolutely hellish stretch.

Fortunately, most teams are in the same boat, and there’s a week in between the home matches against D.C. and NYCFC that may help a little, but it’s still a lot of games in a short amount of time. That won’t be anything new to this team after how busy August and September were, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be any easier to deal with.

Tricky Opponents

Let’s talk more about the games themselves, specifically the teams Orlando will be up against, because it’s an interesting mix. I wouldn’t classify the set of teams that the Lions will face down the stretch as either easy or difficult. Rather, it’s a tricky bunch that should both provide some good opportunities to pick up points, while also throwing up some pretty unappetizing matchups. First up is the Crew. The bad news is that they knocked Orlando out of the U.S. Open Cup in fairly convincing fashion, but on the flip side, the game is at home and the team will be well-rested — two conditions that usually lend themselves to OCSC playing fairly well. Hitting the road to Toronto on short rest feels like a recipe for disaster, but the Reds haven’t been playing great after losing 3-0 to Orlando back in September. Then it’s another game on short rest, but it comes against a D.C. side sitting in 11th and is winless in its last three.

After that, there’s a week off before welcoming an NYCFC team that has been in the midst of a free fall down the table, and then road trips to two strong teams in Chicago and Charlotte, both of which are on short rest. The team gets a week to prepare before facing another strong side on Decision Day in the Revs.

On paper, the games against Columbus, D.C., and NYCFC feel winnable. While Orlando lost to the latter two teams on the road earlier in the year, I think this version of Orlando is better than what it was in March and April when it lost to those teams, and the Lions have been infinitely better at home than on the road.

Conversely, I’ll be thanking my lucky stars if any points are picked up from back-to-back road trips to Chicago and Charlotte on short rest, while playing the Revs on Decision Day feels like a tough task even at home.

The backdrop of all this is the fact that the six teams immediately below Orlando in the table are all within at least five points of it. Plus, the Lions play four of those six teams in NYCFC, D.C., Columbus, and Toronto. At this point in the season, every game matters, but each of those contests takes on added importance because of how much of an impact they can have on the table. Win, and you put distance between yourself and one of the teams below you. Lose, and that team reels you in a little bit more if not outright leapfrogging you altogether.

Health and Availability

While Orlando’s list of unavailable players doesn’t look nearly as bad as it has at times this season, there are still some big absences that the team will have to contend with.

For one thing, barring a run all the way to the MLS Cup final, Tyrese Spicer’s season is over after he had surgery to repair a Jones fracture in his right foot. For those of you keeping score at home, that is now the third Jones fracture suffered by an Orlando City player this season, after Robin Jansson had surgery to repair one before the season started, and Braian Ojeda went under the knife to fix one back on Aug. 6. While the attacking positions aren’t looking as thin as they once were now that Martin Ojeda is fit and Marco Pasalic is staying put, Spicer was in the midst of an excellent season and had six goals and two assists in just 869 league minutes. Not having his spark off the bench is a big miss, and it also provides less options when it comes to rotation.

Then there’s the cases of Griffin Dorsey, and more recently, Justin Ellis. Let’s start with Dorsey, who hasn’t played since going off at halftime of the 3-2 win over Atlanta United due to a back issue, and while he carried a questionable designation for Orlando’s most recent game against the Philadelphia Union, he ultimately did not play. Presumably, two extra weeks of recovery will see him ready to go this weekend, but even if he does make a much-needed return to the field, Orlando needs to be careful with managing him.

Even after missing four games through injury, Dorsey has still played the fifth-most league minutes on the team behind Ivan Angulo, Maxime Crepeau, David Brekalo, and Robin Jansson — in that order. Angulo is the type of physical specimen that should be studied in a lab, while Crepeau, Brekalo, and Jansson aren’t asked to do nearly as much running as Dorsey is when he’s healthy. The Lions’ defense hasn’t been great all season, but it was mostly doing enough to keep the team in games before the right back went onto the shelf. Without him, it’s given up 10 goals in four games across all competitions and has won just one of those contests. I understand the temptation to keep Dorsey on the field as much as possible, given what he adds both offensively and defensively, but Martin Perelman needs to use him in tandem with Zakaria Taifi or risk losing the defender for another extended period of time when Orlando can least afford it.

That brings us to Justin Ellis. If you watched the United States Men’s National Team take down Canada 1-0 on Tuesday, then you probably got an almighty scare when Ellis went down after a physical play during the first half and had to leave the field after receiving treatment. He eventually returned in style and scored the game’s only goal, but he was visibly hobbled in the minutes after he came back on, and left the stadium at halftime to have an MRI done.

While we haven’t heard any updates since then and no news is presumably good news, caution may be needed when it comes to Saturday’s match against the Crew in order to prevent the injury turning into a more long-term issue.

Outside of Spicer, Braian Ojeda, and any lingering issues for Dorsey and Ellis, the team should have a clean bill of health to begin the final run-in, so that’s good news.

At the end of the day, the home stretch of this season is not going to be easy. The Lions will need to contend with fixture congestion, games against tricky opponents that have huge implications in the standings, and the ever-present injury and availability challenges. The Eastern Conference table has razor thin margins at the moment, and there’s very little room for error. We’re about to learn a lot about what this team is really made of over the course of the next seven games, for better or worse. Here’s hoping we like what we see. Vamos Orlando!

Continue Reading

Lion Links

Lion Links: 10/9/26

Daryl Dike’s soccer journey, Orlando City B signs Landon Okonski and Matthew Belgodere, analyzing Spain before USWNT match, and more.

Published

1 day ago

on

October 9, 2026

By

Image of Matthew Belgodere of OCB firing a shot against Philadelphia Union II.
Image courtesy of Orlando City B / Justin Glatt

Happy Friday, Mane Landers! It’s been a bit of a hectic week for me, but I’m looking forward to a weekend filled with soccer. Both Orlando City and the United States Women’s National Team are in action on Saturday, so be sure to plan your day accordingly. Let’s jump right into today’s links from around the soccer world!

A Day in the Life of Daryl Dike

Orlando City forward Daryl Dike was the latest MLS player to be featured as part of the league’s “Off the Ball” video series that shows what life is like for them outside of soccer. Dike, who returned to Orlando this summer, spoke on how the facilities in MLS were better than many in England but that the level of play was vastly different. Dike also gave insight into the toll the multiple injuries he dealt with had on him while abroad, although he also detailed how that adversity helped him learn more about himself and what makes him happy apart from soccer. It’s great to see Dike out and about in Orlando doing things we all do, although his anime taste is a bit basic in my opinion.

Orlando City B Signs Pair of Academy Players

Orlando City academy players Landon Okonski and Matthew Belgodere were both signed to Orlando City B contracts as they progress through the club’s pathway for young players. Okonski made his professional debut with the Young Lions this year and started 16 games as part of OCB’s defense. Belgodere also made his professional debut this season, recording five goals and two assists across 25 appearances. The 16-year-old was also named MLS NEXT Pro Rising Star of the Week for his role in OCB’s 3-2 comeback win over Carolina Core FC after scoring his first OCB goal in style.

Analyzing Spain Ahead of USWNT Friendlies

The United States Women’s National Team will take on Spain in a pair of friendlies this month, starting with Saturday’s match at Audi Field in the nation’s capital. While Spain’s roster for these friendlies will be without notable players like Aitana Bonmati, Mariona Caldentey, and Esther Gonzalez, there are still plenty of stars who could give the U.S. trouble. Alexia Putellas is more than capable of creating chances and putting them away, while Claudia Pina and Edna Imade are other attackers the U.S. will have to find ways to stop. We may also get to see Orlando Pride defender Oihane, who is the only NWSL player called up by Spain for this window.

NWSL Transfer News Roundup

The NWSL roster freeze took place Thursday and various teams that aren’t the Orlando Pride made moves right before the deadline. The Chicago Stars sent $700,000 in intraleague transfer funds to Bay FC for forward Racheal Kundananji, who recorded 12 goals and 11 assists across 63 games for Bay FC. She’s not the only forward on the move, as the Washington Spirit traded Nigerian forward Gift Monday to Boston Legacy FC in exchange for $500,000 in intraleague transfer funds. The North Carolina Courage made a pair of trades as well, adding defender Ella Hase from Racing Louisville for $35,000 in intraleague transfer funds and transferring forward Olivia Wingate to Gotham FC for free.

Free Kicks

  • Barbra Banda and Zambia lost 2-1 to Uganda in the first leg of the series between the two nations in Africa’s Olympic qualifying tournament. Banda assisted on Zambia’s goal to open the scoring, connecting with former Pride player Prisca Chilufya.
  • Portland Thorns forward Sophia Wilson was suspended for an additional game for violent conduct after pulling the hair of Boston Legacy player Lais Araujo.
  • This year’s Best XI was announced for the MLS NEXT Pro, and there are unsurprisingly no OCB players listed.
  • The U.S. U-23 Women’s National Team will be without midfielder Jaedyn Shaw for its upcoming friendlies due to injury precautions.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your week!

Continue Reading

Trending