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Orlando City vs. Atlanta United: Final Score 1-1 as Lions Throw Away Second Road Lead This Week

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4 years ago

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For the second time this week, Orlando City struck first but then produced no offense at all, conceded late, and settled for a 1-1 draw. This time it was against rival Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Lions (8-7-6, 30 points) got an early goal from Mauricio Pereyra, but then struggled to find any possession beyond midfield for the rest of the game, and generated next to nothing in the attack. Atlanta (6-8-6, 24 points) generated plenty but once again Pedro Gallese helped his team at least earn one point after Juan Jose Purata equalized.

“A great point for us. Very proud of the work the players did in the field,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “Obviously, there is a lot of things that we would like to get better at, but at this stage of the season, this amount of games, the point is very, very valid for us against a rival that — especially in the second half — threw all that they had, and we couldn’t keep the ball and keep it away from those attacking sides.”

Pareja’s lineup included Gallese in goal behind a back line of Kyle Smith, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Ruan. Cesar Araujo and Junior Urso manned the central midfield behind an attacking line of Jake Mulraney, Pereyra, and Facundo Torres, with Ercan Kara up top. Joao Moutinho and Adam Grinwis returned to the team sheet on the Orlando bench.

The Lions started quickly and won several early set pieces. They made one pay off 10 minutes in due to a pair of Atlanta mistakes. Torres was losing the ball at the top of the box when George Campbell kicked him with a meaty challenge to draw the whistle. While goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo was setting up his wall on his left, he was still in that position well after the whistle blew and Pereyra smashed a perfect free kick into the inside netting on the opposite side of the goal to make it 1-0.

“I was waiting to shoot over the wall and then I listened to the whistle and the keeper stayed on the other post,” Pereyra said. “And I just kicked the ball. Always in soccer you should be more concentrated and be smarter, and I took advantage of that.”

It was Pereyra’s first goal since May of 2021.

After the goal, the rest of the first half was all Atlanta — to the point where I’m not even sure Kara touched the ball again before halftime with the exception of one or two aerial attempts that skipped off his head and to the defense when Orlando sent the ball long.

The hosts had a number of dangerous chances, starting in the 17th minute when a perfect ball from Luiz Araujo found Marcelino Moreno over the top. Rather than shooting first time, Moreno took a touch, which allowed Ruan to knock it free. Jansson did just enough to thwart the second ball in.

Much of the remainder of the opening period was spent in Orlando’s half. Atlanta won a series of set pieces and the Lions looked to counter but were never able to do so. In the 23rd minute, Aiden McFadden got a couple of crosses in. Torres cleared the first one down the pitch and the second was too close to Gallese.

Purata smashed a shot wide from distance in the 27th minute, just moments after Amar Sejdic sent a free kick from the right straight at Gallese.

Torres let Atlanta off the hook for an errant pass in its own third in the 33rd minute by collecting the loose ball and then promptly dribbling into a thicket of three defenders, where he was dispossessed.

Ronaldo Cisneros did well to direct a free kick cross on target while falling away from goal in the 38th minute, however, Gallese was able to tip the shot over the bar and Schlegel cleared the ensuing corner.

There was a scary moment late when Moreno beat Smith at the end line and dribbled into the area. While standing behind the end line the two players tangled and Moreno visibly flopped. There was a loud penalty shout from the crowd — less so from the Atlanta players — and Victor Rivas held up play for the video assistant referee to have a look, but there was nothing given.

Jansson cleared a late free kick service and that was it for the first half in which the Lions did nothing but defend after their 10th-minute goal.

Atlanta finished the half with more possession (58.1%-41.9%), shots (3-2), corners (2-1), and passing accuracy (86.7%-82.1%). Each team managed one shot on target.

The second half was, if anything, even more lopsided in favor of the hosts than the final 30 minutes of the first. The Lions struggled to string together two passes and could scarcely get out of their own half.

“The strategy since the beginning was to reduce the spaces between the lines of (Atlanta), where they have very crafty players who can use those spaces,” Pareja said. “And on the other side, we wanted as well to have control of the ball and create some sequences that provide us some chances. I think we did it in the first half. In the second half, we knew the reaction of Atlanta was coming. We were not very clear in keeping the sequences longer, and then it was heavy to maintain our team in a different place on the field. We couldn’t keep the ball.”  

Mulraney conceded a free kick in the 49th minute and Ruan followed that up by conceding the first of several corners he gave Atlanta shortly after that. Despite the set pieces, it was Sejdic who got the first real look at goal in the second half, but he fired wide of the left post in the 54th minute.

Tesho Akindele and Benji Michel were sent on for Kara and Mulraney to add fresh legs but not much changed on the field. Atlanta, getting all of the attack and rarely being threatened, threw even more offense on the pitch after that, introducing Josef Martinez and Thiago Almada.

Orlando won a corner on a rare foray up the field in the 64th minute but it was Atlanta that nearly scored off of it. The clearance turned into a transition opportunity and multiple Lions failed to break it up until Araujo finally tracked down the ball and made a good play to prevent a scoring chance.

Pareja sent on Carlos and Perea for Smith and Torres to try to find some more width on the defensive end and create some natural outlets since the team couldn’t get out of its own third. That didn’t work as well as he’d hoped as poor passes and anywhere-will-do clearing nearly always found an Atlanta player instead and in fact the move ended up costing the Lions moments later.

On a long-range set piece, Perea was lined up by Purata and was late stepping up, keeping him onside. Carlos was the next closest defender but expected Perea to have Purata covered. As a result, the Atlanta defender got in alone behind the defense and headed home the service from Almada to make it 1-1 in the 71st minute.

Former Lion Dom Dwyer spelled Cisneros three minutes later and his introduction gave the Atlanta offense an additional boost.

After Orlando defended a few more set pieces — and Jansson did well to smother a cross attempt in the six after a turnover by Carlos — Martinez fired just wide in transition in the 80th minute after a poor touch by Pereyra turned the ball over near midfield. Two minutes later, Gallese made a huge save to thwart a 2-v-1 opportunity and although the rebound fell to Martinez, the bounce was too much for him to handle. Then, Gallese made an even bigger stop moments later. Dwyer received the ball at the top of the area and was able to turn and smash a hard shot toward the upper left corner. Gallese somehow got over and got a hand to it to keep the game tied in the 82nd minute.

“We are trying to get better in the offensive side and (figuring out) how can we keep the ball longer and how can we create actions since we’re still battling with that side of the game,” Pareja said. “We have been depending a lot on our defenders to maintain us in the games and Pedro is part of them. It’s not what we want when Pedro has to work that much. He is part of our team. He’s doing a good job. Hopefully in the next (games) we don’t make him work that hard.”

The save took its toll on El Pulpo, who had to receive treatment from the training staff after landing on his right shoulder following the acrobatic save.

Martinez nearly single-handedly provided a late winner for the host a few times down the stretch. In the 89th minute, he fired a blast just over the bar. In the 92nd minute, Martinez hit the post on a transition opportunity.

The Lions nearly stole all the points in the 94th minute. Second-half sub Alexandre Pato ended up with the ball just outside the top of the area. He fired a hard, low shot to the right that crashed off the post, coming within inches of finding a winner.

Moreno hit a shot wide in the 95th minute and the Lions had to survive a 97th-minute corner to bring home a point.

Atlanta dominated on the stat sheet as much as it did on the field after the 10th minute, finishing with much more possession (61.9%-38.1%), shots (18-3), shots on target (4-1), corners (10-2), and passing accuracy (88%-80.6%).

This is a game Orlando could have lost by four or five goals if the Five Stripes had been a little more accurate with shots or if Gallese hadn’t come up huge a few times. The Lions were fortunate to get anything from a performance like this, but they’ll take it because it was on the road in a rivalry game. The performance, however, underlined the problems this year’s team has — primarily the imbalance between the offensive and defensive ends of the pitch.

“It’s something that we need to keep improving and growing up together,” Pereyra said about Orlando’s league-worst minus-10 goal differential in the final 30 minutes this season. “We know that defending is not just a thing from defenders and the goals are not just a thing for the forwards. It’s a collective thing and we are a group and we try to pull together.”

The Lions are right back in action Wednesday night in a midseason friendly against Arsenal. The next Orlando City regular-season match will take place Saturday when the Lions host the Philadelphia Union at Exploria Stadium.

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Orlando City

Flashback Friday: June 3, 2023 vs. New York Red Bulls

Let’s rewind to an eventful match on the road up in New Jersey that took place just over three years ago.

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2 days ago

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June 5, 2026

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

With Orlando City on break for the foreseeable future, it falls to me to keep bringing you fond memories from OCSC games of years gone by. We won’t be going quite as deep into the vault as we did last week, when we rewound to nine years ago and relived a wet and weird win over D.C. United. Today, we’ll go a little over three years into the past to June 3, 2023, when the Lions hit the road to take on the New York Red Bulls.

As Orlando prepared to face the Red Bulls after opening the season against them at home, things were going pretty well for the Lions. They were riding a four-game unbeaten streak that included some solid results on the road and sought to continue that trend up in Harrison, NJ.

To do that, then-coach Oscar Pareja sent out the team in his traditional 4-2-3-1. Pedro Gallese was in net, while Kyle Smith, Antonio Carlos, Robin Jansson, and Rafael Santos manned the back line. Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena sat in deep midfield as the double pivots, Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres were the attacking midfielders, and Ercan Kara was deployed as the tip of the proverbial spear.

By and large, the first half wasn’t the most engaging 45 minutes of soccer that Orlando City has ever graced us with. The first 15 minutes saw a lot of fouls and fairly sloppy play, with the game lacking any real rhythm but featuring plenty of stops, starts, and turnovers. That all changed in the 18th minute when Orlando broke the deadlock through an unlikely source. The Lions managed to break New York’s press, and Cartagena took advantage of an out-of-position John Tolkin to play Angulo behind the defense with a great ball. The Colombian carried the ball into the box, cut onto his left foot to avoid the sliding challenge of Dylan Nealis, and beat goalkeeper Carlos Coronel to score his third goal of the season.

The Red Bulls had a great opportunity to tie the game in the 30th minute after a bad Pereyra giveaway at midfield, but Luquinhas hit a tame shot at Gallese and failed to capitalize. Smith of all people had a crack at goal from inside the box just a few minutes before halftime, but he sent his effort wide of the post when he really should have hit the target. Tom Barlow then wasted another chance to put the game at 1-1 going into halftime but contrived to fire over the bar from the top of the area when all he had to do was hit the empty net.

That proved to be the last action of the half, and it was surprising to see Orlando in the lead based on the stats. Orlando held slightly more possession (52.1%-47.9%) and passed marginally better (76.1%-74.9%) but those were the only categories in which it led. The Lions were outshot (7-2), had fewer shots on goal (2-1), and took no corner kicks while the Red Bulls had one.

Fortunately, the Lions got a break just a couple minutes into the second half. Kara ran onto a ball over the top and New York center back Andres Reyes pulled him back, picked up a deserved second yellow card, and hit the showers early in the 47th minute.

New York cleared the danger from the ensuing free kick, but referee Victor Rivas was advised to go to the monitor and check for a foul during the play. Further examination revealed that Sean Nealis took Jansson down from behind as the ball was in the air, and he rightfully pointed to the spot. Enter Torres, who stepped up and beat Coronel (who guessed the right way), to double Orlando’s advantage despite the Paraguayan trying to get in his head beforehand.

The good vibes were dented slightly when Araujo went down injured in the 57th minute, with Felipe coming on in his place. The Red Bulls kept up their traditional high pressing despite being down a man, and with the Lions continuing to be sloppy in possession, it was hard to blame them. The teams traded chances right after Araujo made his exit, and some close calls for New York spurred Pareja into further changes, with Duncan McGuire and Martin Ojeda entering the fray for Kara and Pereyra in the 62nd minute.

Angulo squeezed off a shot from an acute angle three minutes later and Coronel saved it well, with the game entering a bit of a lull after he did so as the teams traded fouls and McGuire was caught offside.

Things sprang back into life in the 72nd minute. Ojeda cleared his lines and managed to find Angulo in the process, who absolutely torched Frankie Amaya down the left wing. The Colombian carried the ball into the box, drew Tolkin to him, and crossed perfectly for the unmarked Torres, who fired low and hard past Coronel with conviction to put the game away for good.

Despite being down 3-0, the Red Bulls kept up the fight and Jansson was forced into a good block just four minutes after Facu bagged his brace. The Lions spurned a few more half chances as the game wound down, and there was a scary moment in the 82nd minute when Dylan Nealis fell into Gallese’s leg, but the goalkeeper was able to soldier on after getting some treatment, although he looked a little shaky.

That more or less did it for the notable moments of action, as Orlando saw out a healthy eight minutes of stoppage time to make it five games unbeaten. The Lions finished with more possession (51.2%-48.8%) and more shots on target (5-2), but New York was crisper with its passing (79.2%-78%), took more shots (14-7), and won more corners (8-2).

David Rohe was on hand for our Player Grades column in this one, and Angulo took Man of the Match honors with an 8 out of 10 for his one-goal, one-assist performance that also included three completed dribbles, two tackles, and an interception. Torres unsurprisingly also graded out high with a 7.5 out of 10, as did Cartagena, who received the same grade.

The Lions went on to grab one more victory before the undefeated streak ended at six up in Foxborough against the New England Revolution. Fortunately, they started picking up points again immediately afterward and had a largely strong summer and back half of the year that saw them finish second in both the Eastern Conference and Supporters’ Shield race. Hopefully, this year’s side can take some cues from the 2023 squad and start stacking points with more regularity once the season resumes in July. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 6/5/26

Maxime Crepeau named Canada’s starter, analyzing Germany before USMNT friendly, USWNT prepares for Brazil, and more.

Published

2 days ago

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June 5, 2026

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Image of Maxime Crepeau making a save against the New York Red Bulls.
Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Happy Friday, Mane Landers! It’s been a pretty hectic week for me, but I’m looking forward to a weekend filled with soccer and celebrating with some friends. It should be a nice next couple of days before the World Cup is here in full force next week. Before we dive into today’s links, let’s all wish a happy birthday to Orlando City B midfielder Dylan Judelson!

Canada Chooses Maxime Crepeau as Starting Goalkeeper

Orlando City goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau was named as the starter for Canada for the upcoming World Cup. The 32-year-old has been in a tight battle with Dayne St. Clair for the starting job for quite some time and he’s done well enough for Jesse Marsch to choose him for the role. This will be Crepeau’s first World Cup since he wasn’t able to take part in the 2022 competition due to a broken leg. Canada will play Ireland today in a friendly before hosting Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup on June 12.

Analyzing Germany Ahead of USMNT Clash

The United States Men’s National Team will take on Germany on Saturday in Chicago in its final friendly before the World Cup starts next week. This will be the 13th match between the two nations, with the most recent one being a 3-1 loss by the U.S. in October of 2023. Manuel Neuer is Germany’s starting goalkeeper, but he’s dealing with an injury and backup Oliver Baumann could play on Saturday in his place. Hopefully the U.S. can make his life difficult, but Germany has tough defenders in Jonathan Tah and Nico Schlotterbeck. Florian Wirtz, Kai Havertz, and Leroy Sane are dangerous attacking threats, while Nick Woltemade brings both height and solid ball movement at the top of the formation. It should be a great test for the USMNT before the games get serious.

USWNT Prepares for Brazil

The United States Women’s National Team is in action on Saturday as well, with the team set to play Brazil in Sao Paulo in the first of two friendlies. Plenty of attention will be on the reunited attacking trio of Sophia Wilson, Trinity Rodman, and Mallory Swanson that combined for 10 goals and five assists in the 2024 Summer Olympics. As for Brazil, the Orlando Pride are well represented, with Marta, Angelina, and Rafaelle all called up for these friendlies. There’s plenty of competing talent on Brazil’s roster, so it will be interesting to see who starts on Saturday. I’m most interested to see how the U.S. defense manages against Brazilian attackers like Ludmila, Dudinha, and Kerolin without having Naomi Girma on the back line.

Liverpool Hires Andoni Iraola as Next Manager

Liverpool didn’t waste much time finding a new manager after firing Arne Slot last week, hiring Andoni Iraola as his replacement. Iraola joins Liverpool after three years with Bournemouth that included securing Europa League qualification for the first time in club history this past season. He now joins a Liverpool team that qualified for the Champions League, but lost 12 league games after winning the league title in 2025. It will be interesting to see how Iraola does at one of England’s biggest clubs, particularly in regards to how his high-octane approach is applied.

Free Kicks

  • While the Pride haven’t provided an injury update on Barbra Banda according to reporter Jeff Kassouf, she did reportedly travel for Zambia’s friendlies against Kenya and Burkina Faso as the team prepares for next month’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

I checked in with the Orlando Pride: no official update on Barbra Banda after sustaining an injury over the weekend in #NWSL play. A spokesperson confirmed that Banda did travel to join Zambia for international duty. Hopefully more answers soon. No NWSL games until July 3.

— Jeff Kassouf (@jeffkassouf.bsky.social) 2026-06-04T19:11:37.433Z

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

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Orlando City

According to Math, Orlando Among Top Soccering Cities in North America In 2026

A ranking of every North American city by its soccer performances thus far in 2026.

Published

3 days ago

on

June 4, 2026

By

An aerial image of Inter&Co Stadium
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

The opening match of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup kicks off one week from today, when Mexico hosts South Africa at Estadio Azteca Mexico City Stadium (thanks FIFA, for your silly stadium-naming policy). Like most soccer fans, I am excited for wall-to-wall games starting next week, but I will definitely also be missing the men and women in purple as Orlando City and the Orlando Pride will not play again until early July (Pride) and late July (Orlando City).

MLS NEXT Pro channeled its inner Red Hot Chili Peppers and said they “can’t stop, they’re addicted to the shindig” and will continue to play a normal weekly schedule throughout the World Cup, so thankfully we will still have the Young Lions to root for during this break. But aside from that, it will be all international soccer for the upcoming weeks, and primarily in North America.

With that in mind, I took a deeper look at the beautiful game on our beautiful continent and evaluated which cities in North America are having the best soccer-related 2026 so far. There are no actual rankings for this, so I created my own, using the following components:

  • I awarded a half point to the city of every team in Liga MX, Liga MX Femenil, Major League Soccer (MLS), NWSL, and the Northern Super League (Canada’s top domestic women’s league). This covers the highest levels of club competition on the continent. I did not include the Canadian Premier League (men’s, ranked 159th among men’s leagues by Opta) or the Gainbridge Super League (women’s, ranked 35th among women’s leagues), because even though those are considered leagues at the highest level of competition in their countries, they do not compare to the five leagues I included. Also, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver all have teams in MLS.
  • I awarded a full point to every city that is hosting World Cup games. This is a little sticky because some stadiums and/or teams represent metropolitan areas as opposed to the actual zip/area code location for the team or stadium, but I did some rounding. I had to put my mathematics degree to good use.
  • I averaged the points earned per match per team in that city, and awarded that total number of points to the city. Orlando, for example, received 1.18 points in this category, as Orlando City is averaging 0.93 (this was disappointing to type) and the Pride are averaging 1.42.
  • I awarded a point to the city of each quarterfinalist in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup and U.S. Open Cup, and a subsequent point for each win by those teams.
  • I awarded a point to the city of each semifinalist in the 2026 Concacaf W Champions Cup (this tournament went straight to the semifinals after the group stage), and a subsequent point for each win by those teams, excluding the third-place game.

After I awarded all those points, I rested for a minute, and then I summed up all the points for each city to see which cities are having the best 2026 so far (there are 47 North American cities/metro areas with at least one team in the leagues I included).

As this is an Orlando-focused publication, let’s take a look at the City Beautiful and how we fared. There are two professional teams in Orlando that count, so a half point for Orlando City plus a half point for the Pride accounted for one total point. With how well OCB has been playing (fourth in the Eastern Conference and winners of three of its last four games), I wish I could have included MLS NEXT Pro teams in the points system, but including that league did not make sense.

OCB would have helped with the average points metric as well, as it is averaging 1.83 points per match, the best in Orlando. Restricting it down to Orlando City and the Pride, however, added the 1.18 points that I referenced in the bullets earlier.

The Lions are in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, which earned them one point for being a quarterfinalist and another point for winning that quarterfinal match, so they picked up two points from the U.S. Open Cup.

Orlando was not selected to be a host city for any World Cup games, Orlando City did not qualify for this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup, and the Pride nearly qualified for the semifinals of the Concacaf W Champions Cup but fell just short (ugh, because they really should have advanced), so Orlando did not pick up any points from any of those three categories.

With the points that Orlando accumulated it has tallied a total of 4.18 points so far in 2026. Let’s take a look at where 4.18 puts Orlando in the city rankings:

Chart showing all North American cities in the study and its score, organized alphabetically.

The cities in the chart above are sorted alphabetically, for ease of finding any cities you are interested in picking out, but the chart below shows the same data but sorted from most to fewest points earned:

Chart showing all North American cities in the study and its score, organized by score, showing Orlando in 13th.

In looking at this chart, you will find Orlando just outside the top 10, sitting in the lucky number 13 spot. Unsurprisingly, most of the teams at the top are among the largest cities on the continent and were also selected to be World Cup host cities. Among cities not selected as host cities, and therefore cities that did not receive a one-point bump in my rubric, Orlando ranked fifth, trailing Toluca (Mexico), Nashville, Washington D.C., and Denver.

If the Pride had played a little better in the Concacaf W Champions Cup, and had Barbra Banda not gotten injured and missed the entire group stage last summer, Orlando likely would have qualified for at least the semifinals in that cup and finished in the top six, or perhaps even higher, of these rankings.

It should come as no surprise to soccer fans that Mexican cities dominate the top of this ranking system, as Mexico City boasts a continent-high six teams (men’s and women’s heavyweights Club América, Cruz Azul, and Pumas), Monterrey houses four (men’s and women’s for Tigres and Monterrey), and Toluca, which only has men’s and women’s teams called Toluca but is the reigning Concacaf men’s champion after defeating Tigres on May 30.

With Miami to the south and Atlanta to the north, it was always unlikely that Orlando was going to be selected as a host city, but based on performance alone, our city is among the top soccer cities on the continent this year. And this is even with Orlando City having a down year during league play in 2026 and the Pride only recently putting together some decent results.

Last year, through 15 games Orlando City was nearly one full point better, averaging 1.80 points per game compared to this year’s 0.93, and the 2025 Pride were two-thirds of a point better than this year’s team through their first 12 games, averaging 2.08 points per game last year compared to 1.42 in 2026.

That was then and this is now, and neither season ended the way Orlando City or the Pride wanted in 2025, so hopefully the slower starts portend something better for this year’s teams. There is still a U.S. Open Cup, Leagues Cup, and MLS playoff spot for Orlando City to play for when its season resumes, and the Pride can solidify, or preferably, improve their playoff spot as well.

As we get closer to the end of 2026 I will update this chart to see where Orlando finishes in the full-year rankings, but for now we once again have unimpeachable evidence that shows that Orlando is the soccer capital of the southeast. We have all known this for years and years, but it is important to remind the people of Atlanta and Miami about it from time to time.

This was that time.

Vamos Orlando!

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