I am sorry for what I am about to do to everyone, but I have to do it. The refrain from a song that I do not even like has been stuck in my head for days, because it fits so well with this week’s article, but I feel bad that you are about to involuntarily find yourself playing a fiddle and stomping around the room you are in, which may cause problems depending on where you are reading this.

Or, perhaps while on your third lap of the general area, you will see someone else exhibiting the same behavior, and you two will immediately become life-long best friends due to your mutual love of The Mane Land and our Orlando soccer clubs. Probably in the reverse order of how I wrote that though.

Without any further ado, I bring back to your consciousness a song from before the Civil War, and the line that has been stuck in my head for days:

Where did you come from?
Where did you go?
Where did you come from
Cotton-Eye Joe?

The rest of the article will be below when your euphoria wears off.

The reason I thought of this song was because I was reading all of the news about players Orlando City was trying to sign from other clubs, or clubs where current Orlando City players were allegedly considering transferring to, and I was thinking about whether these were steps up or steps down in the global soccer hierarchy. In most American professional sports, our teams are considered the best in the world, so players want to get here and stay here. In soccer, however, Major League Soccer is not considered the best league in the world.

Opta, one of the world’s leading soccer analytics companies, ranked MLS as the ninth strongest league in the world in October of 2024, the last time the company released its global league rankings. Globalfootballrankings concurs, also ranking MLS ninth. There is no shame in being the ninth-best league in the world. In fact, I think this is actually a major achievement considering that the first season of MLS was in 1996 and many of the leagues ranked lower than MLS have been around for significantly more years, and are in countries where soccer is the most popular sport.

As you might imagine, our group of writers at The Mane Land closely — some might say obsessively — follows every piece of news around the Orlando clubs. We talk about every player rumored to be possibly coming here, and consider the possible destinations for every player rumored to be departing and whether those would be steps up or down in our eyes — our discerning and never-biased eyes. And since we converse on an internal Mane Land Slack channel, I guess we could say that these players cannot escape our private eyes. We see their every move.

Hall & Oates may have crept into your head with those lines, and if they did not, then they definitely should have, but let us return to Cotton-Eye Joe and where did he come from and where did he go? Well, for this article the answer to where did he go is very simple, and that is Orlando City. I went back through every player on the senior roster and found the professional club where each player had most recently played, and went into Opta’s database of club rankings to see where they are ranked right now. Of course, many of Orlando City’s players joined the club several years ago, but alas Opta does not have a historical point in time tool I could use to see where a club ranked in the past.

These club rankings will likely not exactly match where the club was when the current Orlando City player was on the squad, but my bet is that each club is in at least a somewhat similar position as to where they were when their player became a Lion. So now let us look at the Orlando City Where Did He Come From list, complete with the current Opta ranking of each player’s team as of Feb 7, 2025. Orlando City is currently ranked No. 127, for comparison purposes.

A few quick notes on this list:

• Ten players on the senior roster (Alex Freeman, Colin Guske, Michael Halliday, Favian Loyola, Carlos Mercado, Shak Mohammed, Javier Otero, Tahir Reid-Brown, Yutaro Tsukada, and Thomas Williams) all played with Orlando City B last season.
• Duncan McGuire came to Orlando City from Creighton University via the MLS SuperDraft, but he did play 11 times for USL League Two club Lane United (Eugene, OR) during the summer of 2022, making that the last professional team he had played for before Orlando City.
• I did not include any of the players drafted in the most recent MLS SuperDraft, since as of the time that I am writing this none have signed a contract with Orlando City.

I found it interesting that some players from clubs towards the bottom of the list —Cear Araújo, Ivan Angulo, Dagur Dan Thórhallsson, and Wilder Cartagena — were all near the top in terms of minutes played during the 2024 season, while some of the players from clubs closer to the top of the list, like Luis Muriel, Nico Lodeiro, and David Brekalo, primarily came off the bench.

Orlando City’s ranking of 127 also stood out to me, as did what Opta calls its rating. Opta calibrates its ratings so that a rating of 100 goes to the team ranked as the best in the world, and then every team in the world indexes off of that 100 to create the rest of the ratings and rankings.

Orlando City’s Opta rating is currently 82.8, ranking them the aforementioned 127th in the world, and you can basically read that as the Opta rankings assessing that Orlando City is about 83% as good as the number one team on the men’s side, Liverpool. I did not enjoy typing that about Liverpool, though I know The Mane Land’s David Rohe is nodding along and saying yes, of course Liverpool is considered the best men’s team in the world. The Orlando Pride, incidentally, rank 11th on the women’s side.

Back to Orlando City, only three of the team’s current players came from clubs currently ranked better than the Lions. If Orlando City completes the signing of midfielder Eduard Atuesta, then that three becomes four, as Atuesta plays alongside Facundo Torres with Palmeiras in Brazil, and Palmeiras is currently ranked 55th in the world. Based on player performance though, club pedigree does not seem to actually have any kind of identifiable impact. Because some players came from these clubs years ago, their ranking may have been different in prior years, but I do not think that difference would be so large as to change the general pattern seen in the table I showed. And that pattern was really no pattern at all, with no real association between the pedigree of the former club and a player’s performance while playing for Orlando City.

Sometimes as fans or analysts we get a little overzealous in our thought process around “oh, this player comes from this well-known club so they must be great,” or the flip side of “this player is from this club I have not heard of in this smaller country’s league, so they must not be someone who will be a major difference maker.” I did not know anything about Peñarol or the Uruguayan league when Torres signed with Orlando City, but he left the club as the all-time leading goal scorer and, more importantly, as my son’s favorite ever Lion.

Peñarol ranks slightly higher (117) than Orlando City in Opta’s rankings, so perhaps I should have known more about them as they are close to a top 100 team in the world, but Montevideo Wanderers, the former club of Araújo, is also in the same Uruguayan league and they are ranked more than 750 places behind Orlando City. Araujo has been an amazing player for Orlando City, less prolific than his countryman Torres at scoring goals but every bit as good at his job in central midfield as Torres was out on the wing. One player came from the best team in his league, and a top team on the continent, and the other came from a team in the bottom half of the league who never made it out of domestic competitions.

Both, however, are Orlando City legends in my eyes, two of the best to ever wear purple, even though when both were signed I asked myself, where did he come from?

We are only two weeks away from real games. I hope you are as excited as we are at The Mane Land for the season to start.

Vamos Orlando!

Orlando City lost 2-1 to CF Montreal in front of a few thousand season ticket members in a preseason friendly scrimmage tonight at Inter&Co Stadium. Although the Lions played well overall for most of the match, and fashioned plenty of good scoring chances, it was the same old refrain: Orlando couldn’t finish. The Lions crashed a couple of shots off the woodwork, missed just high a few times, and left a pair of shots too close to the goalkeeper on a night when they could have built a big lead.

The teams played a scoreless 90 minutes in the scrimmage, with all of the scoring taking place in an extra 30-minute session. Dominic Iankov and Sunusi Ibrahim staked the visitors to a 2-0 lead before a late Nico Lodeiro free kick spoiled their shutout.

“We have that feeling of right now we need to move the team to that new step, where we can finally finalize those actions and have more precision, and today gave us again that sensation” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “We’re still missing that pass or missing that shot or that decision. I’m excited to see that we have players that are coming that I think they will increase that possibility. In terms of the function of the whole team, I think we’re playing even better. I think we’re good. We’re a good team, creating the chances.”

Pareja’s starting lineup featured a combination of young players and veterans, with Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. 2025 MLS SuperDraft pick Joran Gerbet joined Cesar Araujo in central midfield behind an attacking line of Yutaro Tsukada, Martin Ojeda, and Ivan Angulo, with Shak Mohammed as the striker.

Neither side got much going early, but Orlando City created some half chances, with a couple of decent balls into the area that no one could latch onto.

The most noteworthy thing that happened in the opening 20 minutes wasn’t good for the Lions. Tsukada went down near the left corner of the box during play and the trainers came on to see to him, appearing to work on his knee. After testing it and coming back on, the Lions had a promising attack building and Tsukada cut inside and crumpled to the ground without any contact. This time, he limped off with the trainers in obvious distress, with his shirt pulled up over his face. Hopefully the injury isn’t as severe as it appeared.

New Orlando City Designated Player Marco Pasalic subbed on for Tsukada in the 22nd minute, making his debut as a Lion and wasting no time showing off his skills in traffic, working Samuel Piette back and forth to lose him.

“He makes me feel very optimistic,” Pareja said of his new Designated Player. “I have been in this league for many years, and immediately when I see guys that have tools to make it work in Major League Soccer, I highlight it. I think he has that. I’m excited, happy, I’m very optimistic. So, a bunch of good things with him on the pitch and he’s just had two days of training with us.”

Angulo made a good cross to the near post in the 26th minute but Jonathan Sirois was able to grab it just as Mohammed got there. There was minimal contact, but Montreal defender Joel Waterman took exception, shoving the Orlando forward multiple times, leading to a minor scuffle. It was a chippy game anyway because the referee wasn’t calling much and players were going harder into challenges as a result, but the unnecessary shoving on Mohammed did nothing to turn down the heat, as the Lions came to the defense of their young teammate.

“I would say both teams want to win,” Mohammed said of the chippy play. “Obviously, for us, we don’t really have a concept of a friendly game. We’re here to compete, and we understand as a team that we’re building towards something special, and it starts right now. So, you know, just a bit of energy, a lot of passion, and that’s the way we want it to be.”

The season ticket members in attendance booed every touch by Waterman after the altercation.

Gerbet came closest to scoring for Orlando in the 34th minute with a shot from distance that rocketed off the crossbar. It was nearly a reward for an all-around solid game for the young midfielder, but the game remained scoreless.

Four minutes later, Montreal should have scored. Ojeda was too careless with the ball in traffic and was dispossessed, igniting an unexpected counter for the visitors. Prince Owusu and Nathan Saliba each had golden opportunities to put Montreal in front on the break, but Gallese came way off his line to block the first shot and the second sailed over the crossbar on a wasteful effort with the keeper out of position.

Orlando had the last good look of the half in the 42nd minute when Santos sent in a great cross from the left. Mohammed rose to get his head to it but his shot went just over the crossbar.

Pasalic had the first look of the second half in the 55th minute, cutting inside and firing a curling shot just wide of the left post. Two minutes later, a good move by Angulo enabled him to get the ball to Ojeda who cut into the box and passed to Mohammed. With his back to goal, the 21-year-old laid it off for Pasalic, but the Croatian scuffed his shot.

Montreal got a good look in the 59th minute when a good ball from the left found Owusu, but the striker put his shot over the bar.

Seconds later, the Lions got forward for a chance of their own. Araujo sent a beautiful ball over the top, finding the perfectly timed run by Ojeda. Sirois came off his line to make a vital save on the Argentine.

Just past the hour mark, both teams made changes, replacing most of the players on the pitch. Orlando kept Pasalic on the field and brought on David Brekalo, Kyle Smith, and Lodeiro, but other than that it was all young players, most of whom played for OCB last season.

The Lions won a couple of corners shortly after the line change but played them short and nothing came of them.

Jules-Anthony Vilsaint fired shot for Montreal in the 74th minute, but he hit the effort from just outside the box right at goalkeeper Javier Otero. Four minutes later, a bad riccochet off a player set Vilsaint up with another opportunity, but he shot it wide.

Two of the younger Orlando players had golden opportunities in the 80th minute. The first saw Alex Freeman get in behind the defense. His shot got past Sebastian Breza but it crashed off the right post as the game remained scoreless. Seconds later, a good ball sent Colin Guske through into the right side of the box, but the young midfielder smashed his shot into the outside netting.

“We need to let them know that to be in front on a big option or a big opportunity, many good things should have happened, and they were part of that circuit,” Pareja said of how he can use those missed chances as teaching moments for the younger players. “And they finally make a movement, they put themselves in a great position to score, and that’s not an easy thing to achieve. So, let’s see if recognizing those moments they can gain more confidence, because it didn’t happen just to them, it happened as well to the other ones, the senior (players). It is not a secret that we need to improve that.”

Iankov fired off target for Montreal in the 83rd minute from the top of the penalty area.

Lodeiro fired just over the bar in the 84th minute, and the Uruguayan set up Freeman for a shot a minute later, but the Homegrown Player fired his shot too close to Breza, who made a vital save. Freeman then nearly picked out Jhon Solis in the 89th minute with a cross but Breza was able to catch it before it reached its intended target.

The teams were still knotted up at 0-0 after 90 minutes. The match would have continued for another 30 minutes whether it was tied or not, as that’s what the coaches had planned coming into the scrimmage. But it served the same purpose as extra time due to the scoreline.

Montreal had a lot more guys in lower numbers on the field in the later stages of the game than Orlando, meaning the visitors had fewer academy or reserve players on the pitch, and it showed. CF Montreal was much more composed in front of goal, allowing the visitors to take control of the match in the final 30 minutes.

Iankov scored in the first third of the extra session. Vilsaint appeared to leave his half before the pass to him was played, but the flag stayed down. Montreal ended up with a 2-on-1 break and Vilsaint got the pass through to Iankov, who tapped it in to make it 1-0.

A couple of careless giveaways by Otero allowed Montreal to keep the pressure on, and the visitors appeared to score a second off a recycled corner kick but the flag came up as the ball found the back of the net.

Academy prospect Bernardo Rhein had a good chance to equalize moments later but he fired his shot just over the bar. The Lions were punished for the miss with another ball over the top that beat the back line. Sunusi Ibrahim got in behind Thomas Williams — perhaps with a pull-back that wasn’t called — and chipped Otero to make it 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining in the extra session.

Zakaria Taifi came close to pulling one back late with a shot from the left that fizzed just wide of the right post.

Just when it appeared the game was heading for a 2-0 final, a foul at the death gave Lodeiro a free kick from just outside the box. The veteran midfielder curled a beautiful shot past Breza, off the left post, and in with his set piece shot, making it 2-1 and spoiling Montreal’s clean sheet.

The final whistle blew just after the restart to end the scrimmage.

“I think we all have the same feeling, the same sensation, that we’re playing really well as a team, and we’re building, getting ready for the season,” Mohammed said. “Obviously, there’s stuff that we need to work on in the final third and getting goals, and yeah, it’s our responsibility, and we understand that as a team (we need) to keep working and pushing to get ready for the season. But a good test, nonetheless.”

Next up for Orlando City is a preseason scrimmage against Rhode Island FC Tuesday afternoon. The Lions will wrap up the preseason schedule Friday against Inter Miami at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Pareja said he plans to play younger players on Tuesday and more of the MLS regulars Friday, approaching the final tuneup as if it were a regular-season match.

Just like that, another week of Orlando City’s preseason is in the books. We’ll be staring down the barrel of the season opener before we know it, but let’s make sure we take the time to stop and reflect on some good and some not-so-good things that took place this week.

Likes

Marco Pasalic Arrives

Orlando City is back up to three Designated Players after the club completed the signing of Croatian winger Marco Pasalic. It’s a piece of business that has been rumored for awhile now but took some time to get done and across the line. Between Pasalic and the previous signing of Nicolas Rodriguez, the Lions have got bodies to fill the right wing position. While neither is likely to be able to immediately replace the production of Facundo Torres on their own, they’re both young and will have the chance to grow their games and show what they can do.

Season Ticket Member Match

OCSC will take on CF Montreal Saturday in a preseason scrimmage which is an event exclusive to season ticket holders. This is the sort of thing that I, along with my fellow season ticket members on staff, love to see. An event that rewards you for that membership and does so by giving you an extra peek at the team before everyone else. It might not be some wildly extravagant event, but it doesn’t need to be. The club has formed a habit of designating one of the preseason scrimmages a season-ticket-members-only event, and for my money, it’s been a good call.

Dislikes

Closed Door Scrimmage Radio Silence

This feels a little nitpicky, as closed-door scrimmages are by their very nature, closed door. The whole point of them is to not have a ton of access and insight about what’s going on, and teams will often agree beforehand about what level of information, if any, will make its way out to the public afterwards. We know that Orlando took on Atlanta United in a preseason scrimmage Wednesday, and we know that Alex Freeman put in a goal from a header, thanks to a post from the club on the website formerly known as Twitter, but that’s about it. It feels greedy to ask for information from something we weren’t guaranteed to get any from in the first place, but the brief taste has me wanting more, damnit.

Depth Still a Worry at Several Positions

As stated above, getting Pasalic in the door means that the Lions now have the winger slots fairly well stocked, but there are still other areas on the field that could use some reinforcement. The most crucial of those remains defensive midfielder, and although the rumored arrival of Eduard Atuesta would help considerably, I’m not counting him as a Lion until pen has been put to paper. If he does get signed, that still leaves striker and fullback perilously thin when it comes to guys who are proven MLS-caliber players, and the first game of the season is just shy of two weeks from now. There’s still time to do business, but the clock continues to tick.

What jumped out at you from this week of OCSC’s preseason? Be sure to have your say down in the comments. Vamos Orlando!