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Orlando City vs. Seattle Sounders: Final Score 3-2 as Lions Come from Two Down to Win

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3 years ago

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Orlando City overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat the Seattle Sounders 3-2 at Exploria Stadium. The Lions (12-10-6, 42 points) created plenty of chances but fell behind by two before the shots started going in. It was Orlando’s first-ever win against Seattle (10-15-3, 33 points) and the team’s fourth victory in a row — with the last three game-winning goals coming in the 89th minute or later.

Facundo Torres, Ercan Kara, and Kyle Smith provided the goals in the comeback after Albert Rusnak and Raul Ruidiaz had staked the Sounders to a 2-0 lead.

“I’m very proud of this group of players,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “We understand that the best teams in the world are not the ones who don’t have difficult moments, but are the ones who overcome. This gives us today a lot of optimism of what we are and how things are coming (together).”

Pareja’s lineup was heavily rotated apart from goalkeeper Pedro Gallese and the back line of Joao Moutinho, Rodrigo Schlegel, Antonio Carlos, and Ruan. Mauricio Pereyra returned from yellow card suspension and played deep alongside Cesar Araujo in central midfield. From there it was almost all new faces. Joining Junior Urso in the attacking line was Ivan Angulo and Niko Gioacchini, who both made their first Orlando City starts. Tesho Akindele started, rather than coming off the bench as a super sub.

The game started almost two hours late due to lightning in the area. When play got underway, the first half was a bit back-and-forth, with Seattle having more possession in the opening 20 minutes and Orlando coming into the game after the visitors scored.

The Lions got a look in the first half when Gioacchini headed wide off a good cross by Moutinho 10 minutes in.

The visitors had their first decent chance in the 22nd minute when Ruidiaz got down the right but fired wide. But moments later, the Sounders scored.

Carlos was called for a foul about 25 yards out from the goal line and the Lions were incensed with the call, with three players surrounding referee Alex Chilowicz. Orlando was perhaps fortunate not to pick up a yellow card for dissent. Rusnak sent the free kick into the upper left corner where Gallese couldn’t reach it, putting Seattle up 1-0 in the 26th minute.

The Lions seemed to wake up after the goal and fashioned a chance in the 27th minute off a nifty set piece from distance. The ball was sent from left to right across the field and a diagonal ball came to Schlegel to the left of goal. Whether the defender meant to head on target or back across the box is unknown, but he ended up sending his effort at goalkeeper Stefan Frei.

The Lions had a golden opportunity to tie the match moments later. Gioacchini cut back to free himself for a shot and was taken down in the box by Jimmy Medranda. Chilowicz immediately signaled for a penalty kick. Pereyra took the spot kick after a lengthy discussion — for some reason — but sent his kick way too close to the middle and Frei made the save. Moutinho got to the ball and his follow-up shot was deflected out for a corner by a sliding save by Jackson Ragen.

In the 36th minute, Frei made a huge save to preserve Seattle’s lead. Pereyra sent a ball from the left to Gioacchini on the right. The forward headed across the box to Angulo to head toward goal but Frei got his hand on it.

Orlando couldn’t do much with a late corner kick and trailed 1-0 entering halftime.

Seattle held a slight edge in possession (52.1%-47.9%) and was more accurate in the passing game (85.1%-84%). Orlando had far more shot attempts (9-3), more shots on target (3-1), and corners (4-2).

Pareja sent Torres onto the pitch to start the second half in order to get a left-footed player on that side, withdrawing Gioacchini — a move he said he didn’t want to make because of the USMNT forward’s play, but felt he had to.

The visitors doubled their lead in the 52nd minute when they broke in transition and Ruan ended up isolated on Ruidiaz. Although the Brazilian tracked Ruidiaz across the front of goal, he was unable to prevent the Designated Player from scoring to make it 2-0.

Orlando’s reaction was immediate. Torres took a pass from Moutinho in the middle and found himself in space. The Uruguayan smashed a shot into the corner to pull the Ruidiaz goal right back and get the Lions back in it.

“I think he’s understanding much better the league and not just his role in the team, but I have seen too what this league is demanding,” Pareja said of Torres’ recent run of form. “I think he’s great and a fantastic moment for us that he stepped up and carried our team.”

The Lions continued attacking and looked dangerous. Angulo fired a shot but hit it right at Frei in the 62nd minute and seconds later Akindele got onto a Ruan cross but Yeimar blocked his header from point-blank range.

Second-half sub Kara tried an audacious shot from a tight angle in the 66th minute and got it on target, forcing Frei to be alert to make the save. A minute later, the Lions got their second penalty of the game when the ball hit Morris’ arm in the box. Kara took the spot kick and fired home his ninth goal of the year to tie the match at 2-2 in the 68th minute.

Orlando had two golden chances to take the lead in the 70th minute. Kara and Michel each got headers in front but Frei made a good save to deny the Austrian and the Homegrown couldn’t get much power on his and it fell into the goalkeeper’s arms.

Kara got his head to Torres’ corner kick cross in the 77th minute but his shot was just wide of the left post as the Lions continued to seek the game winner.

But the Sounders started to control the match over the final minutes, taking the ball away, keeping possession, and looking for a winner of their own. Lodeiro shook free from long range in the 82nd minute and forced a great diving save from Gallese.

Two minutes later, second-half substitute Andres Perea turned the ball over and the counter ended up with Morris, who fired wide. Lodeiro then baited Chilowicz into a soft foul call to set up a dangerous free kick but nothing came of it when Ragen popped his header over the bar and onto the roof of the net in the 86th minute.

Momentum flipped again as the end of the game approached. Smith sent a good cross to Perea at the back post but the midfielder headed his shot right at Frei in the 89th minute. Two minutes later, the Lions put the ball in the net but it initially didn’t seem to count.

Smith took a pass from Torres on the right and got into the box. He smashed a left-footed shot across the front of goal that deflected in but the flag came up as Kara was caught offside. Chilowicz went to the monitor and saw that the ball had hit Ragen and deflected past Frei and judged that Kara did not interfere with play, so the goal stood in the 91st minute and Smith had the game winner.

“ I was originally trying to get cross off,” Smith said. “But then I thought it was crowded in the box. So I chopped it back and then, at that point, I just wanted to put it on target as hard as I could. And then I hit it off the defender, I believe in the stomach and, you know, fortunately it went in.”

Smith said he originally thought he was being called for offside on the play.

After seeing out the last couple of minutes of stoppage time, the Lions had their initial win over the Sounders.

Seattle finished with more possession (54.1%-45.9%) and passing accuracy (84.2%-83.9%). The Lions had more shots (17-8), shots on target (8-3), and corners (7-3).

“We all know how good of a team we are,” Smith said of the current run of late game-winning goals. “And we all know that even if the goals don’t come in the first 60, 70 minutes, that they they still can come and very quickly. And we scored tonight three goals I think in like the last 30 minutes, maybe. So yeah, I think it’s just having confidence in ourselves to score goals.”

“One thing I like about the boys is they have their feet on the ground. They know where they are,” Pareja said of his team’s run of success with the upcoming cup final looming. “The league is still hard and we know we have a big challenge in front of us with our schedule and need to get points to qualify into the playoffs. We’re trying to live in the present today with Seattle. We didn’t want to touch the topic of playing in the final the last week or so. And after the game, I saw their faces and they said, ‘OK Oscar, we’re ready for the cup.’ Those things make you think that the team is getting mature. That’s important unity. But one day at a time. We’ll rest tomorrow. We’ll do anything that we have in our heart and in our bodies to give this trophy to Orlando in the next step — and without forgetting the commitment that we have in the league.”

The Lions will take a break from league play now as the Inter Miami game originally scheduled for this weekend was pushed into October. Orlando City’s next match will be the U.S. Open Cup final against Sacramento Republic FC next Wednesday at Exploria Stadium.

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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.

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1 day ago

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December 12, 2025

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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.

🟣🇧🇷 Sources: Orlando City finalizing a deal to sign winger Tiago (20) from Bahia. ESPN Brazil 1st.$4m fee. Joins via U-22 initiative.➕🇦🇷 Sources: Atlas nearing deal to sign Rodrigo Schlegel from Orlando. Orlando will sell for more than they signed him.www.nytimes.com/athletic/687…

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert.bsky.social) 2025-12-10T14:34:49.629Z

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!

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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.

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2 days ago

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December 12, 2025

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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.

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

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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.

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2 days ago

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December 11, 2025

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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):

Metric2025 PerformanceRank of 11 OCSC SeasonsBest OCSC Season
Points1.5631.85 (2023)
Goals Scored1.8511.85 (2025)
Goals Allowed1.5051.09 (2020)
Goal Differential+0.353+0.65 (2020)
Supporters Shield13th52 (2023)
Leading Scorer16 (Martín Ojeda)217 (Cyle Larin)
Home Attendance20,573832,847 (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!

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