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Orlando City Heads Into Brutal July Schedule
Orlando City’s July schedule is an absolutely brutal gauntlet that will test the Lions in every way imaginable. With eight games in 28 days — an average of one game every 3.5 days — the month will have a huge impact on Orlando’s soccer fortunes during the 2022 season.
How Tough is the Schedule, Really?
Since joining MLS, Orlando City has never played eight matches in a calendar month. The upcoming slate is the most difficult stretch for the team in one month since the back-to-back seven-game months of July and August of 2019. That year, the Lions played seven times in 25 days in July (a game every 3.6 days), and seven more times in 29 days (a game every 4.1 days) in August. Prior to that, there were a couple of other seven-game months in the team’s history, but never an eight-match calendar month.
Major League Soccer’s schedule makers weren’t easy on Orlando City for the month of July and the club didn’t make matters any easier with their own success in the U.S. Open Cup or the club’s decision to participate in a friendly against Arsenal. Those latter two items ended up sticking two additional midweek games into an already busy month.
Making things even more difficult will be the ratcheting up of the intensity of these matches as well as location. Of the eight July games, two are against established southeast rivals Inter Miami and Atlanta United, one is against Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia, and one is a semifinal in a knockout competition. Although only three of the eight games are on the road, one of those is at altitude in Colorado, one is on the knee-devouring turf of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, with its hostile and sizable crowd, and the third — the final match of this trying stretch — is in the difficult environment of Audi Field.
The gauntlet starts Monday, July 4 when D.C. United visits Exploria Stadium. That match will kick off the first of three double-match weeks this month. The four days between Monday’s game against D.C. and Inter Miami’s visit on Saturday will be the most consecutive non-game days of July for Orlando City.
After facing Miami on Saturday night, the Lions will have a short turnaround before flying to Colorado to take on the Rapids, who are off to a poor start this year but have still managed to go 5-1-2 at home due to their unique advantage of living with the thinner air of their elevation every day. Orlando won’t have much time to recover from that trip before heading to Atlanta on July 17 for the first of three games in seven days.
The Arsenal friendly takes place July 20 and, although it’s a meaningless friendly, the stage provided by playing a big club from England basically demands at least a token appearance by the team’s top players. It’ll likely be a short appearance for them, but the bench is going to be tested this month so even those players who normally serve as second-half substitutes may be feeling a bit leggy at that point in the month. After two off days, the Philadelphia Union come to Orlando on July 23.
Before the events of Wednesday, that final week of July was going to present the Lions with a full week of rest before the trip to D.C. on July 31. However, by slipping past Nashville on penalties in Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal, the Lions have booked a home date with the troublesome New York Red Bulls for July 27.
Here’s the month at a glance:
- Monday, July 4 — vs. D.C. United
- Saturday, July 9 — vs. Inter Miami
- Wednesday, July 13 — at Colorado Rapids
- Sunday, July 17 — at Atlanta United
- Wednesday, July 20 — vs. Arsenal (friendly)
- Saturday, July 23 — vs. Philadelphia Union
- Wednesday, July 27 — vs. New York Red Bulls (USOC semifinal)
- Sunday, July 31 — at D.C. United
A Test for the Roster
July would be a problematic month for any MLS team, but it looms as an especially threatening iceberg in the water, waiting for the good ship Orlando City, which has shown its struggles with depth already this season. After a strong start to the season, Alexandre Pato’s play has tailed off and his postgame comments after Wednesday’s match seemed like those from a player who either is having a hard time accepting a backup role or who may be on his way out soon.
“So many things happened in my time here in Orlando. I am a little uncomfortable for my situation here,” Pato said. “I think my focus here is right now, in Orlando, I need to do my best.”
Aside from Pato struggling to achieve the same production level of Ercan Kara, the team has gotten virtually no offense from Benji Michel or Tesho Akindele, and for all of Facundo Torres’ obvious qualities and potential, the Uruguayan is still extremely young and has been more of a setup player than a scorer thus far. Additionally, Junior Urso’s offensive contributions have largely dried up in recent weeks, which includes missing a sitter on Wednesday night with the game still scoreless.
And the simple fact is that Orlando has no viable backup for Mauricio Pereyra — another player who is a provider but seldom scores goals himself. Everything that has been tried in his absences the last couple of years has failed to yield acceptable results, although the previous presence of Nani helped mitigate that at times.
Defensively, it’s great to have Antonio Carlos back, but it would be unwise to push his body too hard after coming back early from his thigh injury. With six league games in July, there’s a strong possibility that Robin Jansson will pick up three yellow cards, thereby earning himself a third accumulation suspension on the season. Another suspension for yellow card accumulation could also happen to Rodrigo Schlegel if he sees enough playing time. And fullback is already experiencing some issues with Joao Moutinho’s recent injury and Michael Halliday’s international duty.
The team’s only real depth is in central midfield, where Sebas Mendez could reliably spell either Cesar Araujo or Urso. The latter situation would push Araujo into the No. 8 role or necessitate playing Andres Perea, a still-young player who has had some trouble finding his form, or Joey DeZart.
While the depth will be tested in July, and reinforcements could be added in the transfer window — although they may not be cleared to play in time to be of much help before August — there is also the possibility in a stretch like this that tired bodies could sustain injuries that could keep players out even longer. Recovery and rest will be crucial and no training staff has a magic bullet to deal with the situation.
When the dust settles at the end of the month, if the team is healthy for the stretch run over the season’s last two full months and the start of October, that’s a win in and of itself.
Busy months are nothing new in soccer. More and more competitions seem to be added to the calendar each year. Friendlies and deep runs in cup competitions clutter the club fixture schedule sometimes. And that doesn’t even address those players who need to travel for international duty at times.
It’s a situation that teams have to deal with periodically and, as the Lions are professionals, they’ll roll up their sleeves and get to work with no complaints about the number of games, and you’ll likely hear the phrase “one game at a time” often this month. But this is a July that could mean the difference between a successful 2022 season and one that will have fans wondering what could have been.
When the Lions get through the gauntlet and Aug. 1 arrives, it will be interesting to see where this team stands and how much is left in the tank for the season’s final months.
Orlando City
Orlando City vs. San Jose Earthquakes: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More
Orlando City restarts its 2026 MLS campaign late tonight out west at San Jose.
Welcome to your match thread for a late night midweek matchup tonight between Orlando City (4-9-2, 14 points) and the San Jose Earthquakes (10-3-2, 32 points) at PayPal Park (10:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the only scheduled meeting between the teams in 2026 and the first time the teams have met since 2024.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of tonight’s match.
History
Orlando City is 3-1-3 in the previous seven MLS meetings with the Quakes since the club joined Major League Soccer in 2015. The Lions got their only away win in the series in the last meeting and enter tonight 1-1-2 on the road against San Jose.
The teams last met on May 18, 2024, with Jack Lynn coming off the bench to score the game’s only goal. Lynn’s strike in the 89th minute broke the scoreless deadlock and lifted the Lions to a 1-0 victory.
The teams met in Orlando most recently way back on June 22, 2021, with the Lions beating the Quakes down, 5-0. Orlando got things started with an early penalty kick goal by Nani, followed by braces from Benji Michel and Daryl Dike to easily put the game away. The lasting memory from the game is Michel’s celebratory dance wearing a cowboy hat that came out of the stands.
Prior to that Orlando City romp, the last time the teams met was on Aug. 31, 2019 when the Lions got freight trained 3-0 at Avaya Stadium, giving the Quakes their first win in the series. San Jose’s offense came via a Chris Wondolowski brace and an early opening goal by Magnus Eriksson. Orlando looked flat and weary out of the gate.
The Lions were victorious in Exploria Stadium in the 2018 meeting on April 21, a 3-2 Orlando win. It was the first win in the series for either side after three straight draws. Chris Mueller, Sacha Kljestan, and Dom Dwyer gave the Lions a 3-0 lead before Florian Jungwirth pulled two back in the game’s late stages.
The Lions led all of the first three matches in the second half only to see San Jose pull level, with two of those tying goals coming late. In the 2017 meeting, Carlos Rivas finally broke the scoreless tie and gave Orlando City the lead in the 81st minute, but Wondolowski spoiled the Lions’ night with an equalizer two minutes later as the teams drew at Avaya Stadium, 1-1.
In 2016, the Lions were gut-punched in the 94th minute in an emotional match that ended in a 2-2 draw. It was the first home match following the Pulse nightclub tragedy and what appeared to be a storybook ending to a cathartic win turned sour on a last-gasp equalizer by Shea Salinas. Seb Hines — now the Orlando Pride’s head coach — opened the scoring for Orlando, only to see Chad Barrett tie it up. Julio Baptista restored the lead in stoppage time, but Salinas ruined everything.
The two teams also drew in the first meeting, a 1-1 affair at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, with the Lions down to 10 men after Brek Shea was sent off in the first half. Kaká and Wondolowski each scored from the penalty spot four minutes apart in that initial meeting.
Overview
The teams meet tonight to get their post-World Cup portion of the season started. Orlando City has been terrible on the road all season long, keeping only one MLS opponent under two goals all year away from home and allowing five goals twice (at New York City FC and Nashville) and six goals twice (at LAFC and in the team’s most recent match away at FC Cincinnati just before the break).
Orlando City is a putrid 1-6-1 on the road this season, and now the Lions must face the Western Conference co-leaders tonight before coming home to face Supporters’ Shield-leading Nashville SC at home on Saturday. They’ll have to play at least tonight’s game without Martin Ojeda, who is out with a thigh injury sustained some time between his first-half goal a week ago in a friendly against FC Dallas and the time the availability report dropped on Tuesday.
But it isn’t all bad news for the Lions, who should have both Antoine Griezmann and Dike in the lineup. Griezmann was the club’s highly prized and widely publicized summer Designated Player signing, while Dike’s return to Orlando came together more recently, following his departure from West Bromwich Albion. They’ll help the club’s offense, but the attack hasn’t been the issue in 2026 — it’s been the historically porous defense, which is on pace to shatter the MLS record for goals conceded.
Meanwhile, San Jose is one of the first half of the season’s biggest surprises, as the Quakes have been outstanding in 2026. Scoring 34 goals while conceding just 15, San Jose is among the league leaders in goals scored (tied for third), goals conceded (third), and goal differential (+19, third).
The Earthquakes are 4-2-1 at home and are coming off a 3-1 road win at Portland in their last game prior to the World Cup break. San Jose boasts Golden Boot challenger Preston Judd, who leads the Quakes with 11 goals, adding two assists in his 15 appearances. Ousseni Bouda has chipped in five goals and three assists. Niko Tsakiris leads the team with seven assists to go along with his two goals, but he’s still recovering from a lower body injury and is not available tonight. However, the arrival of Timo Werner (four goals and five assists in just seven games) has truly elevated Bruce Arena’s Quakes, and he’ll need to be one of the main focal points for the Orlando defense.
To have any shot at taking something from this game, the Lions will need to play better road defense than they have all season. Orlando can score goals, but with Ojeda out, Griezmann will need to adapt quickly, and someone other than the team’s leading scorer will need to find the net.
The Lions will play without Ojeda (thigh), Joran Gerbet (knee), Nolan Miller (knee), Colin Guske (international duty), and Clovis Archage (international duty). In addition, Marco Pasalic may or may not have returned to the team after the World Cup. He was not in training Monday, although interim head coach Martin Perelman said he expected the Croatian back soon. The Earthquakes will be without Nonso Adimabua (lower body), former Lion Earl Edwards Jr. (lower body), DeJuan Jones (lower body), and Tsakiris (you guessed it, lower body…come on, San Jose).
Match Content
- Our most recent PawedCast includes our key matchups and score predictions for tonight’s match.
Official Lineups:
Orlando City (4-4-2)
Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.
Defenders: Adrian Marin, David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Griffin Dorsey.
Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Tiago.
Forwards: Justin Ellis, Antoine Griezmann.
Bench: Javier Otero, Bernardo Rhein, Tahir Reid-Brown, Zakaria Taifi, Iago, Wilder Cartagena, Luis Otavio, Harvey Sarajian, Tyrese Spicer
San Jose Earthquakes (4-2-3-1)
Goalkeeper: Angus Gunn.
Defenders: Jamar Ricketts, Reid Roberts, Daniel Munie, Benjamin Kikanovic.
Defensive Midfielders: Beau Lerouox, Ronaldo Vieira.
Attacking Midfielders: Timo Werner, Nick Fernandez, Ousseni Bouda.
Forwards: Preston Judd.
Bench: Jonathan Gonzalez, Dave Romney, Paul Marie, Jack Skahan, Jack Jasinski, Ian Harkes, Francesco Montali, Max Floriani, Darius Johnson.
Referees
REF: Elijio Arreguin.
AR1: Adam Wienckowski.
AR2: Mike Nickerson.
4TH: Timothy Ford.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki.
How to Watch
Match Time: 10:30 p.m.
Venue: PayPal Park — San Jose, CA.
TV/Live Stream: 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!
Podcasts
PawedCast Episode 542: Tampa Bay Friendly, McGuire Traded, OCB Beats Cincinnati, and More
Lions maul the Rowdies in friendly action, OCB wins on the road, and it’s transfer season.
Orlando City welcomed I-4 Derby rival Tampa Bay to Inter&Co Stadium for a friendly match on Wednesday and then proceeded to bludgeon the Rowdies with a couple of hammers named Antoine Griezmann and Justin Ellis. The two attackers combined for a goal and four assists in a 6-0 beatdown of the team from the Gulf Coast, with five different Lions scoring and Griffin Dorsey forcing an own goal. We discuss Griezmann’s first minutes with Orlando City, what the team showed in its formation, and how good Justin Ellis’ vision is.
Oh, and it’s also transfer season now. Duncan McGuire is on his way out and Marco Pasalic reportedly will follow soon, while a new left back may be headed from Spain to Orlando.
Following all of that, we discuss Maxime Crepeau being added to the MLS All-Star Team and the announcement that he’ll participate in the 2026 MLS All-Star Skills Challenge.
Our mailbagbox asked us about which World Cup semifinalist players we’d want to join Orlando this season (if we could only pick one), and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.
After the mailbagbox, we dive into OCB’s 2-1 road win at FC Cincinnati 2. It wasn’t the prettiest game by the Young Lions, but they managed to do enough to earn three points on the road, where they’ll stay to face Chattanooga on Saturday. We briefly preview that game.
Finally, Orlando City will be in Dallas Wednesday for the second of two friendlies leading up to the restart of the MLS season. It’s unlikely we’ll get a lot of details about that one, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe the FC Dallas folks will help us out.
Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.
If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.
Here’s how No. 542 went down:
0:15 – Orlando City crushed the Rowdies, the transfer season is in full swing, plus: hey now, Crepeau’s an all-star.
28:50 – The mailbagbox is always good for a hypothetical scenario.
36:54 – The Young Lions slipped past Cincy and head to Chattanooga, while the senior Lions head to Dallas.
Podcasts
SkoPurp Soccer Episode 119: International Break, USWNT, Louisville Preview, and More
The Pride return from a long international break looking to get their first-ever road win against Racing Louisville.
It feels like months since the Orlando Pride last took the field, but the calendar says otherwise. If you believe calendars, it’s only been a little less than three weeks, but time moves strangely in the post-pandemic apocalyptic world.
Anyway, we don’t have a match to recap, so we touched on a couple of Pride players putting the ball in the net during the international break and chat a bit about the United States Women’s National Team’s three-game friendly series against Japan. Emma Hayes used a lot of players, and the team looked solid for two of the three matches, but the rotated middle game seemed a bit disjointed. Hayes has greatly expanded the player pool and will have plenty of options when the World Cup approaches.
Our mailbagbox had questions about a potential change in the NWSL schedule, as the league explores adopting the fall-to-spring slate, and opposition own goals. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.
After the mailbagbox, we turned our attention toward Friday’s late afternoon tussle with Racing Louisville in Kentucky. The Pride have never won on the road against Louisville, and it’s about high time they did. This match begins a congested push to the June World Cup break, and although Friday’s hosts aren’t high in the table, the Pride must be at their best to get a road result in this fixture. We look back at the series history, compare the two sides, provide our key matchups in the game, and make our final score predictions.
If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.
Here’s how Episode 119 went down:
0:15 – We open the show with a little banter about the Pride in the international break and the USWNT’s series vs. Japan.
9:03 – The mailbagbox features questions via both eletronic mail and social media. We welcome all modes of delivery.
19:59 – The Pride travel to Louisville to face Racing. They’ve never won in Kentucky, but we inform them how to do so.
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