Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Houston Dynamo: Player Grades and Man of the Match

Published

3 years ago

June 19, 2022

Orlando City held on to a 2-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo. Late into stoppage time, it looked as if the Dynamo had leveled it but the assistant referee raised his flag for an offside call. This was definitely one of the Lions’ best performances collectively as a unit across the pitch. What follows is how I rated the individual performances in this one.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 7 — El Pulpo did what he does best. He stepped up to make big saves at key moments yet again, proving why he is the first name on Orlando’s team sheet. He started his night making a great save in the sixth minute. But, there were two key plays in the second half where he earned his grade. The first came in the 64th minute, when he stopped a 1-v-1 situation by taking a yellow card well outside the area. Later, he made a huge save in the 71st minute low and on the line to secure the win. He finished with four saves, passed at an 86% rate and had 31 touches on the ball.

D, Joao Moutinho, 6.5 — It looked to be a night when Moutinho decided to come out of the locker room and put on a passing clinic. His first half was filled with pinpoint passes, long balls, and subtle dinks over top that might usually go unnoticed. He found his way into the attack on a number of occasions and played just as well when called upon in the back. There was a brief moment when Moutinho thought he had earned the team a penalty by crossing the ball into the box for a handball; however, it was rightfully overturned by VAR as a free kick just outside the box. He finished his night with two tackles and interceptions, completing three long balls and passing with 82% accuracy while touching the ball 45 times.

D, Robin Jansson, 5.5 — The Beefy Swede did himself no favors by earning yet another yellow card for dissent in the 14th minute. It will also cost him another suspension for accumulation, as the Lions head to Cincinnati on Friday. He had a typically buccaneering performance. Jansson passed with 84% success, with three long balls, completed a dribble, had three clearances, and a tackle on only 35 touches. This was definitely a game that as the lone first-team center back, he should have provided the club a bit more.

D, Kyle Smith, 6 — Smith spent most of the first half going unnoticed. But as a “break glass in case of emergency” option, there is nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, he did lose his mark and ultimately the header that ended up in the back of the net. There were also a few other errant passes throughout the night that could have cost the Lions, but thankfully Houston was unable to capitalize. Statistically, he won an aerial duel and a tackle, and recorded one interception. He also stepped up when he was needed most for seven clearances, passed at a 79% rate, and had the second-most touches on the back line, with 59. He often seemed to be in the right place at the right time, offering up his body to block hard-struck shots and take a little pressure off of Gallese.

D, Ruan, 6 — In the 17th minute, Ruan played a dangerous diagonal ball on a training ground set piece to Kara. Otherwise, it was a quiet night from the speedy right back. While he did find himself in the attack and making runs into the channels, he never really seemed dangerous coming forward like he is known to look. He was able to complete 32 passes at an 87% rate, with five crosses and three long balls. But defensively, he only mustered up a two tackles all night.

MF, Cesar Araujo, 6.5 — Araujo always seems to pop up just when you need him to. As he spent most of his night hanging back while Urso pushed forward, he was able to pass 50 times at a great 92% success rate, won a tackle, made three interceptions, and had 59 touches. He also committed two fouls while being fouled twice to keep things nice and even. There was never a highlight reel moment for Araujo in this match, but he also didn’t give any up and he shielded a makeshift center back pairing well.

MF, Junior Urso, 6 — The Bear spent much of his first half racking up yellow cards for the Dynamo players. He was fouled twice but knocked down many more times. He led the team in passing percentage (93.9%) across 33 passes. He went two for two on long ball accuracy and put one of his three shots on target. He did miss an easy tap-in finish in first-half stoppage time and had a chance saved in the 47th minute. Defensively, he made two tackles but also gave up two fouls.

MF, Mauricio Pereyra, 8 (MotM) — Pereyra was the maestro he was brought in to be on the night. He distributed well with cheeky chips and long balls throughout the match. He had 58 touches and passed at an 80% clip, while recording a game-high six key passes in the process. He is credited as having two assists on the night — one secondary and one primary — but really the goal on the latter should have been his. He pegged an unknowing Kara in the calf on a powerful shot that became Kara’s second goal, but it always seemed to be going into the back of the net regardless. On the first goal, he played a perfectly weighted ball to Torres that was then passed on to Kara for the opener. The only blemish on his night would be a yellow card that he really knew nothing about. Pereyra chested down a ball and went to play it on the volley at the same time a Dynamo player ran in from behind him. Striking the player with his boot earned him an unfortunate booking.

MF, Jake Mulraney, 6.5 — I have become a Mulraney fan over his past few appearances. But tonight, we were shown a new aspect of his game. While he is pacey and dangerous on the wings, it seemed he was given more freedom to cut inside and make runs. The free flowing role with the player drifting inside is something we are accustomed to seeing Torres do, but at times it caught the Dynamo off guard when it came from the other side. He looked even more dangerous on the inside than on the touchlines, and it will be interesting to see this develop more over the coming weeks. He passed at a 76% rate and offered four shots but none were on target. He had no defensive statistics on the night, but he did stand up attackers well in hold-up play.

MF, Facundo Torres, 7 — Torres had a series of great passes throughout the match. In the 19th minute, he played a perfectly weighted ball to Ruan, setting up a cross and chance. In the 25th minute, he made the extra pass to Kara for the first goal and his fifth assist of the year. In the 47th minute, he took on the back line and was able to lay off to Urso for a shot. While only one of these plays led to a goal, he was able to keep the attacking pressure and momentum up for the Lions. He had one shot and four key passes. He got stuck in for three tackles and a clearance. He crossed the ball four times and went two for two on long balls with his 87% passing rate. Overall, it was a solid shift for the Designated Player.

F, Ercan Kara, 7.5 — The stat sheet shows two goals for Kara, but he really only knew about one of them, securing the team’s first brace of the year. He opened the scoring in the 25th minute, sliding at the back post to tap in and finish off a DP-to-DP-to-DP sequence. In the 58th minute, Kara found himself standing near the six-yard box when Pereyra struck a ball low and hard in his direction. The deflection off his calf gave him a brace for the night, but I’m sure he will give credit to Pereyra in the locker room. Kara put four of his five shots on target, won an aerial battle, won two tackles, and had a clearance.

Substitutes

F, Benji Michel (64’), 5.5 — It never seemed like Michel got involved in the game. He wasted what could have been the nail in the coffin with a stoppage-time chance. But even before then, he only touched the ball 13 times across nearly 30 minutes of play. As he continues to work back from injury, he will need to offer the team more or else he might just find himself being replaced permanently.

MF, Andres Perea (68’), 6 — Perea had 18 touches in the final minutes of the game. He won two aerial duels, a tackle, and had a clearance to see the Lions to victory. He completed his 12 passes at a 75% rate.

F, Tesho Akindele (78’), N/A — Lately, it seems like Akindele finds himself playing on the wings opposed to striker — as he often did under Pareja in Dallas. He came on late in the match to offer some fresh legs and size defensively. He was able to offer the club a much-needed clearance late.

F, Alexandre Pato (78’), N/A — Pato came on to offer that super-sub spark. While there weren’t enough minutes left in the game for him to get his own goal, he did find himself in behind the back line in the 93rd minute. He laid the ball across the face of goal for an onrushing Michel, but the chance was ultimately wasted. Pato likely could have done better firing at the goal, and in the future, we need to see him finish teams late in games.

MF, Sebas Mendez (78’), N/A — With only four touches, there’s not much by which to judge Mendez’s performance. He completed two of his four passes.

That’s how I saw the performances on Saturday night in Exploria Stadium. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to vote for Man of the Match.

Polling Closed

Player	Votes
Mauricio Pereyra	20
Ercan Kara	37
Pedro Gallese	6
Facundo Torres	7
Other (Let us know who in the comments)	1

Related Topics:Player Grades SBN_migrated

Up Next

Intelligence Report: Orlando City vs. FC Cincinnati

Don't Miss

Orlando City vs. Houston Dynamo: Five Takeaways

Opinion

Encouraging Early Signs in Orlando City’s Off-Season

It’s early, but Orlando seems determined to reshape its roster for the better after a disappointing 2025 season.

Published

14 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Ben Miller

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

We still have a long way to go until opening day of the 2026 Major League Soccer season, and a lot of work needs to be completed on Orlando City’s roster between now and Feb. 21, but there have been some encouraging developments so far.

For starters, the club inked captain Robin Jansson to a new deal. That takes care of at least one of the starting center back positions, potentially two if David Brekalo partners him, with Adrian Marin or someone else sliding in at left back. Aside from filling an obvious positional need, it also returns a veteran who (if Kyle Smith isn’t re-signed) is the longest-tenured player on the team and is someone who has experience coming out of his ears. For a roster that is going to experience a fair amount of overhaul this offseason, having a constants is important, especially when it comes to leadership both on the field and in the locker room.

That brings to an end the confirmed news when it comes to incoming/returning players, but there have been plenty of rumors gaining traction when it comes to Orlando City making signings. Tom Bogert has had a lot to say about incoming Lions transfers this week, and all of them should be encouraging to Orlando fans. Mr. Scoops reported that OCSC is finalizing a deal to sign 20-year-old Brazilian winger Tiago as an MLS U22 Initiative player, while also mentioning that a deal to sign 18-year-old midfielder Luis Otavio is still in the works.

Those would both be welcome signings, as Orlando needs capable bodies in central midfield behind presumable starters Eduard Atuesta and Wilder Cartagena. The fact that the Lions are reportedly shelling out $3.5 million to land Otavio suggests that if he can adapt well to his new surroundings, he might well push for more than just backup minutes before too long; and with Cartagena set to turn 32 in September, it’s good that Orlando is looking to find a young (eventual) replacement.

Then there’s Tiago, who will reportedly cost $4 million and is set to take up a valuable U22 Initiative slot. It’s no secret that the Lions badly needed more offensive production from the left winger position in 2025, and if/when Tiago does arrive, it presumably spells the end of Ivan Angulo’s time in Orlando while leaving the Brazilian and Tyrese Spicer to duke things out for a starting role.

That brings us to departures from the club. This week alone has seen young center back Thomas Williams traded to Nashville SC for the Coyotes’ first-round pick in the upcoming MLS SuperDraft, while Dagur Dan Thorhallson was traded to CF Montreal on Wednesday. The Lions got a tidy $500,000 in General Allocation Money for Dagur Dan, and while there was no player who immediately came the other way in the deal, that GAM will be very helpful in getting the club roster compliant for 2026. It’s no secret that the Lions are in the market for a new goalkeeper, and although Dayne St. Clair is probably too expensive, a guy like Carlos Coronel is a good fit on paper with Orlando City’s overwhelmingly South American stylings, but GAM will be needed to pay down a new face between the sticks.

It of course hurts to lose Thorhallsson, who was a capable and versatile servant during his time in Orlando, but the signing of Otavio and growth of Colin Guske, combined with what the (injured) Joran Gerbet showed in 2025, means that he was going to be a backup. Likewise, the emergence of Alex Freeman means he wasn’t going to be the starting right back, and even if Smith isn’t re-signed to be a backup fullback/utility man, the front office may feel that Zakaria Taifi is primed to take a step forward. We also can’t forget that the club has a whopping four first-round draft picks to play with this year and may look to find depth in that manner as well.

If you didn’t closely read the Bogert social media post earlier in this article, you may have missed the blurb at the end about OCSC closing in on a sale of Rodrigo Schlegel to Liga MX side Atlas. The fee is said to be in the neighborhood of $600,000, which means that Orlando will turn a profit on the center back. It’ll be a bittersweet parting if/when his departure becomes official. Schlegel has been an extremely capable backup center back for this team and has showed flashes of consistent starter-level play during the last several seasons, not to mention that save in a penalty shootout so many years ago.

The hard facts though, are that at 28 years of age, the Argentine defender isn’t likely to reach a significantly higher level of play than he’s at now, and his current level of play isn’t consistently at the required quality for a team with true championship aspirations. While it’ll be hard to say goodbye, the right decision at this point is probably to collect on your investment, and try to find either a young player that can be developed or an established veteran that’s a known MLS quantity.

Bogert has also stated that Orlando is in the mindset of wanting to move on from Luis Muriel. If the club is able to do so, it’ll free up a Designated Player spot while bringing an end to an experiment that showed plenty of promise, and wasn’t without its high points, but ultimately can’t be considered a successful one. After his hot start to 2025 faded into more of the inconsistency he displayed in 2024, it became clear that new blood at striker is needed, and it’s good to see that the front office feels the same way.

This isn’t all to say that the off-season has been a resounding success so far. After all, very little has actually been officially done to reshape the roster as of this writing. But there seem to be a number of moves nearing completion, and we’re hearing all the right things when it comes to areas of the field like goalkeeper and striker. Even if the players that get brought in don’t all work out, it’s just good to see that changes are in fact being made. The roster was mostly left intact after the 2024 season, and a lack of depth in several areas, combined with some unfortunate injury luck, doomed a once promising season.

It’s far too early to know whether or not the 2026 campaign will be better or not, but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. So far, the early signs point to Lions’ fans not needing to worry about any such insanity this off-season. Vamos Orlando!

Lion Links

Lion Links: 12/12/25

NWSL reportedly approves new roster mechanism, USMNT will play Senegal in May, USWNT second in FIFA rankings, and more.

Published

18 hours ago

December 12, 2025

Marcus Mitchell

Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

Happy Friday, Mane Landers! Counting today, there are just 20 days left of 2025. This year has felt like forever, but I also can’t seem to wrap my head around 2026 being just around the corner. I’m hoping to knock out a majority of my errands over the next few days to help ease into the coming weeks. Let’s get to the links!

NWSL Reportedly Approves New Roster Mechanism

The biggest storyline of the NWSL off-season so far is where Trinity Rodman will be playing next year, making the salary cap a notable talking point. The league’s NWSL Board of Governors reportedly approved a roster mechanism that would allow clubs to pay certain star players beyond the current salary cap. Clubs would be able to pay “High Impact Players” up to $1 million over the salary cap, with only a portion of that salary being a cap hit.

In order for players to qualify as a High Impact Player, they would have to meet commercial and sporting benchmarks. It’s a similar concept to Designated Players in MLS, with the limit to how much NWSL clubs can go over the cap being the biggest difference. All in all, this would help NWSL clubs compete with offers from clubs abroad for the league’s top players.

USMNT Will Face Senegal in May

The United States Men’s National Team will host Senegal on May 31 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte for its penultimate game before the World Cup. It will be the first-ever meeting between the two nations and it should be a good match between the U.S. and one of the top African teams. Senegal is currently ranked 19th in the FIFA men’s rankings and went undefeated in World Cup qualifying, winning seven games. Following this match, the USMNT will take on Germany in Chicago on June 6 for its send-off match before the tournament.

USWNT Remains Second in FIFA Rankings

The latest FIFA women’s rankings were released and the United States Women’s National Team maintained its spot in second place, although the gap between it and first-place Spain has widened. The U.S. won four of its five games this past window, but still lost points due to its 2-1 defeat to Portugal on Oct. 22. Spain benefitted from beating Sweden and Germany en route to winning the UEFA Nations League. Brazil, which beat England, Italy, and Portugal, moved up a spot to sixth in the rankings. Meanwhile, Canada fell to 10th after losing all four of its games.

Europa League Roundup

The latest round of Europa League action wrapped up and six teams have secured a spot in at least the knockout stage. Lyon, Midtjylland, and Aston Villa all won and are tied at the top with 15 points, while Real Betis, Freiburg, and Ferencvaros were victorious to remain unbeaten and claim spots in the next round as well. Roma edged closer to qualifying by beating Celtic 3-0, and Nottingham Forest also picked up three points after winning 2-1 against Utrecht in the Netherlands. Only two matchdays remain in the league phase and things are still far from certain for most clubs, which should set up for a fun finish next month.

Free Kicks

Goalkeeper Evan Bush re-signed with the Columbus Crew for the 2026 season. The 39-year-old was out of contract following this past season, but it looks like he’ll continue to serve as Patrick Schulte’s backup in Columbus.
Boston Legacy FC signed Japanese goalkeeper Hannah Stambaugh to a two-year contract. The 26-year-old became a free agent after two years with Angel City FC.
The Denver Summit signed defender Camryn Biegalski to a one-year contract as the expansion club continues to build its roster for 2026.
Vancouver and the Vancouver Whitecaps have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for exclusive negotiations next year in regards to building a new stadium.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday!

Orlando City

It’s The Most Wonderful Time To Wrap Up Orlando City’s 2025 Season

Let’s wrap up Orlando City’s 2025 season with a comparison to the ghosts of Lions past.

Published

2 days ago

December 11, 2025

S. Andrew DeSalvo

Michael Citro, The Mane Land

The 2025 MLS season is finally over, but another season has quickly arrived to follow it. No, I am not referring to an abbreviated spring-only MLS season; that is not happening until 2027. What I am referring to is the season that starts every year right around this time: wrapping season. Presents are getting wrapped, financial years are wrapping up, and Spotify once again is dominating social media feeds, as everyone is sharing their Spotify-curated 2025 Wrapped list of the songs they played the most this year.

I do not use Spotify (don’t tell Robin Jansson, but I’m not a fan of the Swedish product), so I do not have a list of my own to share, but I know that my 2025 was dominated by songs that my son and daughter wanted to hear over and over in the car, and so I am sure that my list would have appearances at or near the top from the Red Hot Chili Peppers (my son loves “Dani California”) and Rosé and Bruno Mars (my daughter loves the fun and upbeat “APT.”).

Orlando City players probably would not be quite as interested in hearing songs that mention California, after they had to trek to Los Angeles for two games in 11 days in August (sandwiched around additional road trips to Nashville and Miami, because why not really drive the players into the ground?), a disastrous series of games from which the team never really recovered. The trips to Los Angeles were avoidable, as the Lions did not take care of business during their Leagues Cup group stage games and thus had a low seed in the knockout rounds, but all of that travel and the disappointment of being the only team that made the final four of Leagues Cup to not earn a place in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup definitely played a major role in the Lions’ late-season collapse during MLS play.

Collapse they did, but despite the disappointment, the 2025 season was not a failure, something that The Mane Land’s David Rohe wrote about in this week’s TML Membership Newsletter, which you can sign up for by clicking right here (or, you can copy that link and send it to someone who might be looking for a last-second gift to give this holiday season).

We will roll out the top 10 moments of the 2025 season here on our site in the coming weeks (nota bene: those top 10 moments are across Orlando City, OCB, and the Orlando Pride), but for now, let’s bring the ghosts of Christmas past and present together to wrap up Orlando City’s 2025 MLS season, comparing this season to the previous 10 seasons during the club’s MLS era (points, goals scored, goals allowed, goal differential, and attendance are all on a per-game basis, and all data comes from Opta’s tracking on fbref.com):

Metric	2025 Performance	Rank of 11 OCSC Seasons	Best OCSC Season
Points	1.56	3	1.85 (2023)
Goals Scored	1.85	1	1.85 (2025)
Goals Allowed	1.50	5	1.09 (2020)
Goal Differential	+0.35	3	+0.65 (2020)
Supporters Shield	13th	5	2 (2023)
Leading Scorer	16 (Martín Ojeda)	2	17 (Cyle Larin)
Home Attendance	20,573	8	32,847 (2015)*

*Orlando City played in the Citrus Bowl in 2015, a stadium with significantly higher capacity than Inter&Co Stadium.

While it may have been frustrating that the team’s performance fell off late in the season, 2025 was still the third-best regular season in the club’s MLS era, and a slight improvement in points per game as compared to 2024 (1.53). The 2024 team made a deeper run in the playoffs, which made 2025 feel worse, but the Eastern Conference was better in 2025 than 2024, and Orlando City’s 1.53 points per game in 2024 would not have even qualified for the playoffs during the 2025 season.

The 2025 offense was also the best in club history, scoring nearly two goals per game during MLS play and finishing with the sixth-most goals in the league. Ojeda set the club’s single-season goal contribution record with 31, adding 15 assists to go along with his 16 goals to finish as one of only five players to reach 15 in both categories. During Ojeda’s debut season with Orlando City he started fewer than half of the games, and it seemed like perhaps he was going to be another in a long line of underperforming Designated Player acquisitions, but two years later he rewarded the team’s faith in him by setting the club record for single-season goal contributions. I am not saying it was exclusively because my son switched from wearing a Facundo Torres jersey to games to wearing an Ojeda jersey to games, but I am not not saying that either.

Ojeda was not the only offensive powerhouse this season, as Marco Pašalić’s debut season in purple was one of the best in the club’s history. The Croatian took the list of Orlando City players who had scored at least 12 goals in an MLS season from six to seven (yes, that was intentionally written that way), and his five primary assists gave him 17 direct goal contributions, which puts him into an eight-way tie (an octo-tie?) for the fourth most in a single season.

And speaking of octopi, kind of, while we did not know it at the time, we were all witnesses to the final season in purple for El Pulpo, Pedro Gallese. The 2025 campaign was not Gallese’s best season with the Lions, but he was still more than solid between the sticks, and as one of only three players to ever appear more than 200 times for the Lions, he is a club legend and definitely in contention to be on the club’s Mount Lionmore (this should be a thing, right?).

As it usually does, time has (mostly) healed my irritation and frustration with how the season ended, and as I look back now, I think more about the positive than negative, because my mind is already shifting to 2026 and how the team can build on 2025 to return the upper echelon of the league. For the most part, the team was competitive, and the Lions were among the league’s best for the first two-thirds of the season. Most of this article was about the MLS season, but they also made the final four in the Leagues Cup, and had they not been hosed by the referees in Miami, they could have advanced to the final with a chance to add a Leagues Cup to the trophy case.

The season did not end up how the team or the fans wanted, but it was still a positive year and probably the fourth-best season in the club’s MLS era behind 2022 (U.S. Open Cup champions), 2023 (second place in the Supporters’ Shield standings), and 2024 (Eastern Conference playoff finalist). The USL era, when the team had the best regular-season record in 2011, 2012, and 2014 and won the playoffs in 2011 and 2013, is not to be forgotten, but the MLS era is a different level of competition, and in recent years Orlando City has been among the best.

Among the best is great, but the goal is to match the 2024 Orlando Pride team and bring home a championship. That will not happen in 2025, but several moves that are reportedly being finalized this week show that the front office is not satisfied with the status quo. Here’s to hoping that the club unwraps some exciting new acquisitions in the next few weeks as we say goodbye to 2025 and move on to the 2026 Orlando City season.

And that’s a wrap.

Vamos Orlando!