Happy Friday, Mane Landers! The Orlando Pride are in action tonight and we also have an Orlando City B game on Sunday to look forward to. It’s been a bit of a hectic week on my end, but it’s at least helped make the U.S.’s World Cup loss feel like old news. Orlando City putting the Tampa Bay Rowdies to the sword in a friendly didn’t hurt either. Let’s get to the links!

Orlando City Reportedly Trading Duncan McGuire

Forward Duncan McGuire is reportedly being traded by Orlando City to the Houston Dynamo in exchange for $1.25 million in General Allocation Money, with another $1.15 million heading Orlando’s way if performance metrics are reached per Tom Bogert of The Athletic.

Selected by Orlando with the sixth overall pick in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft, McGuire has scored 29 goals across four seasons with the Lions. Injuries have plagued him in recent years, but let’s hope he can have a renaissance of sorts with Houston and hit those performance requirements if this move comes to pass. Orlando would be even lighter on options up top, but the money could help the club improve at a few positions.

Orlando Pride Host the Kansas City Current Tonight

Following a 2-0 loss to Angel City FC, the Orlando Pride will look to bounce back tonight when they host the Kansas City Current in the first meeting this season between the past two NWSL Shield winners. The Current are on a three-game win streak, with Michelle Cooper scoring twice in a 3-0 win over the Denver Summit last week. Temwa Chawinga also scored in that match to bring her tally to eight as she closes the distance on Pride forward Barbra Banda in the Golden Boot race. Hopefully the Pride can keep Kansas City’s offense in check and get back on track with a win at home.

Steve Cherendulo Named U.S. U-23 Men’s National Team Coach

U.S. Soccer appointed Steve Cherendulo as the head coach of the United States U-23 Men’s National Team as preparations begin for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Cherundulo is no stranger to success in the City of Angels, leading LAFC to a league title and MLS Cup victory in 2022 before winning the 2024 U.S. Open Cup as well. He represented the U.S. as a player starting at age 18 and played in three World Cups, which should be valuable experience to get these younger players ready to make an impact with the senior team. Tahir Reid-Brown, Justin Ellis, and Colin Guske are a few Orlando City players to keep an eye out for as possible Olympic roster candidates as they develop their games.

France Advances to World Cup Semifinals

France became the first team to secure its spot in the World Cup semifinals, beating Morocco 2-0. After a scoreless first half, Kylian Mbappe scored his eighth goal of the tournament to give France the lead and then provided the assist on Ousmane Dembele’s goal a few minutes later. While the offense is understandably grabbing headlines, the defense has now had a clean sheet in three straight games during this knockout phase. In the semifinals, France will take on whichever nation advances from today’s match between Spain and Belgium.

Free Kicks

• Less than 24 hours after scoring for Orlando City in a friendly, Antoine Griezmann was in Boston for France’s World Cup match.

• The Orlando Pride will have a new sponsor on the back of their jerseys, as Orlando-based company AluCup became the club’s official aluminum cup supplier.
• Christian Pulisic was reportedly diagnosed with a microfracture and bone bruise in his leg and he may miss several weeks as a result. The injury bug refuses to let go of him it seems.
• The Washington Spirit added Cameroonian midfielder Monique Ngock, signing her to a three-year contract.
• American right back Bryan Reynolds is reportedly being signed by Stade Rennais from Westerlo for a transfer fee around $5 million.

• Crystal Dunn, who set records at Florida State University before her storied professional career, joined the Tallahassee Reckoning’s ownership group. The organization aims to provide more opportunities for youth soccer players and improve the pathway towards playing professionally.
• English defender Jarell Quanash was given a two-game suspension for the serious foul play that earned him a red card against Mexico. He’ll miss Saturday’s quarterfinal against Norway and also England’s semifinal if it advances.

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

The calendar is finally showing less than two weeks until Orlando City’s next MLS game, though the team played a friendly against Tampa Bay Wednesday night and has another one scheduled against Dallas next week. When that next official game kicks off in San Jose on July 22, it will have been almost exactly two months since the Lions took the field, marking the continuation of what is an odd transition from the spring-to-fall schedule that Major League Soccer has employed since the league started in 1996.

There was a four-month break between Orlando City’s final game in 2025 and the start of the 2026 season, then three months of soccer, then this two-month break, then there will be five or possibly even six (if Orlando City can start playing defense more like lions instead of just lyin’ around) more months of soccer to close out 2026. After that, there will be a very short off-season followed by a “sprint season” from February to May in 2027, before the league moves to what I, as a former high school teacher, affectionally call the “school schedule” and start playing August to May like most of the soccer-playing world.

I miss the school schedule and two-month-long summer vacations. I digress.

The important thing to note here is that the 2026 season is going to restart soon, and then there will be a lot of MLS soccer in quick succession after that until a longer break in the summer of 2027. And speaking of quick, earlier this week I finally found some data I had long been looking for: tracking data on top sprint speed, number of sprints per 90 minutes, and total distance ran by MLS players. Sofascore started publishing this information for many top leagues in 2025, and for MLS, the outlet has the tracking information available for the 2026 season.

Unfortunately, the data display is not as simple as some other sites in terms of looking league-wide and ranking players all across the league, but it was set up to easily look at on a team-by-team basis. Sofascore did not share how it acquired this data, but presumably it either comes from the devices that you see all players wearing under their jerseys or some kind of automated tracking inside every stadium, as you could not rely on a tv broadcast to track running speed and distance traveled, considering not all players are on screen throughout the entire game.

Some context is important as well, especially for the top speed and number of sprints categories. From what I can tell, the top speed measured is a one-time top speed reached per player, which inherently gives an advantage to players who play in open spaces more often, like fullbacks, strikers, and wingers. Central defenders and midfielders certainly also have opportunities to go all out as well, but those positions do not lend themselves to as many chances for a player to get moving for the distance required to hit their top speed. As for the counts of total numbers of sprints, the site did not define what constitutes a “sprint,” but I am confident it tracked everyone in the same manner, so I think the data is unbiased by any subjective calculation.

As for the total distance ran, that is a straight-forward calculation, though it makes sense that some positions run far less distance than others. All of these distances run are exhausting to look at though. It takes most of us multiple days to accumulate as much distance covered as many players do in a single game. The “brothers” Ojeda have combined to run for nearly eight marathons worth of miles thus far this season. The only marathons happening in my house are tied to movies or TV shows.

That explanation felt more like a marathon than a sprint, so let’s get back on track (unintentional pun, I swear) and look at Orlando City’s running data for its players who have played at least 200 minutes (well, except for Colin Guske, who for some reason does not show in the database even though he has played nearly 300 minutes). We’ll skip the goalkeepers (Maxime Crépeau is faster than Javier Otero) and start with the defenders:

• *per 90 minutes

I was not surprised to see Griffin Dorsey near the top of these lists, but I was surprised to see Adrián Marín there, especially for the column on top speed reached. He must have really gotten moving on one run forward or, let’s be honest based on Orlando City’s defense thus far this season, a recovery run to get back on defense, because he ranks near the bottom of the group on the number of sprints per 90 minutes.

Robin Jansson, both for the position he plays and his age, unsurprisingly sits at the bottom of all three categories. All of the central defenders sit low on the number of sprints made and total distance covered, which makes sense based on how Orlando City deploys players in those positions — staying back on defense and rarely venturing up field unless it is in a dead ball situation.

The fastest defender tracked thus far this season was San Jose’s Daniel Munie, who clocked a 22.7 mph sprint, just a hare, sorry, hair, faster than Dorsey and Marín’s 22.3. San Diego’s Kieran Sargent leads all defenders by averaging 25.9 sprints per 90 minutes, but this is where Sofascore’s reporting was difficult to use. The site’s one chart with the top ranked players included every single player, meaning some players who had barely played all season were included, and their per-90-minutes values often looked out of whack compared to players who played lots of games. Sargent has only played 440 minutes thus far this season, enough that I included him as a top performer but far fewer than Orlando City’s primary defenders.

The same issue came up with total distance covered, and no defender in the site’s overall top 50 had played more than 400 minutes, so I could not find a good player comparison for a top defensive player in terms of distance covered.

On to the midfield (the positional allocations are Sofascore’s):

*per 90 minutes

The eye test has always said that Iván Angulo is not only the fastest player on Orlando City but also among the fastest in the league, but Sofascore says otherwise, as the site has him third on the team behind Dorsey and Marín and 25th overall in MLS. I’d like to see a race among the three Lions, my money is on the Colombian Lion.

Angulo may be listed as the third fastest on the team but he is the leader in sprints per 90 minutes, and his 27.3 also ranks first in the entire league among midfielders, and second overall among all qualified players (those who have played at least 400 minutes). Sporting Kansas City’s Capita boasts the fastest top speed for a midfielder at 22.4 miles per hour — slightly faster than Angulo by Sofascore’s measurements.

Orlando City’s central midfielders cover the most ground, but while Eduard Atuesta and Braian Ojeda do so without a high number of sprints, Luis Otávio plays a faster and more aggressive type of game when he is on the field. Fellow central midfielder Patrick Yazbek of Nashville is the distance covered leader for midfielders, averaging a whopping 8.0 miles per 90 minutes.

Justin Ellis is an interesting case, as he seems to be a player who is always in a good position without doing a lot of running all over the field, while moving at a cruising pace. I do not mean to burden him with a comparison to Lionel Messi, but Messi is renowned for his ability to affect games even though he tends to run the least among all players on the field (Opta ranked Messi 618th of 618 players in the World Cup group stage for distance covered). Ellis plays a similar position in a similar style, is showing advanced ability at a young age, and both players have six letters in their first name and five in their last name. I’m just saying.

We’ll close with the forwards:

*per 90 minutes

Duncan McGuire definitely leaves it on the field every time he plays, ranking second on the team with nearly 26 sprints per 90 minutes, well ahead of every other player except for Angulo. Spicer’s top speed being fourth on the team is another reason that it is often better to bring him off the bench than start him, as he can come in and leave it all on the field in 30-ish minutes against players that likely have tired legs. Martín Ojeda is a workhorse, covering nearly the same distance as box-to-box midfielders Atuesta and Braian Ojeda, and Tiago makes the most of his time on the field as well, putting in nearly 23 sprints per 90 minutes — sixth on the team.

The forward group in Orlando ranks well behind the league leaders in the two categories where there were qualified forwards in the league’s top 50, as Seattle’s Osaze De Rosario is the fastest at 22.5 mph and Columbus Crew’s Wessam Abou Ali (pre-ACL injury) is the leader in sprints per 90 minutes with 33.

For those wondering about about new Lion Antoine Griezmann, Sofascore shows him matching the speed of Tiago, the number of sprints of Nolan Miller (25% more sprints per 90 minutes than Ellis may be a more useful comparison), and the total distance covered of Martín Ojeda during La Liga play this past season. I think he is going to slot in quite nicely in Orlando.

Just because a player runs fast, sprints a lot, or covers a lot of ground does not make them a good, or even useful, player. Speed and endurance are coveted in most sports, but those two alone rarely lead to wins and success. They are helpful traits, and Angulo’s speed and endurance help to partially explain why he has always been indispensable for the former and current Orlando City coaching staffs.

The second half of the race season is about to start, and we will take a look at all of these metrics at the end of the year to see if anything changed after the World Cup break. Hopefully the Lions come out of the blocks fast and run circles around their competition.

Vamos Orlando!

How’s it going, Mane Landers? After nearly a full month of daily World Cup soccer, it felt a bit weird not having a game to watch on Wednesday. Only eight games remain in this year’s tournament, and each one should be a doozy as some of the top nations square off. We also have plenty of Orlando soccer to get excited about as the summer rolls on. Let’s get to the links!

Orlando City Dominates Tampa Bay in Friendly

The Lions returned to action with a friendly against the Tampa Bay Rowdies and cruised to a 6-0 victory at home. It was Antoine Griezmann’s first game as a Lion and he showed Orlando supporters and Season Ticket Members what he’s capable of with a goal and an assist in the match. The team’s younger players picked up where the starters left off once subbed on in the second half, with Justin Ellis providing three assists to help pile on more goals. Friendlies should always be taken with a grain of salt, but it’s hard not to feel excited for the second half of the season. The Lions will play another friendly on the road against FC Dallas on Wednesday before league play resumes, and that match might give us a more accurate picture than Wednesday’s game.

Maxime Crepeau Named to MLS All-Star Roster

Orlando City goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau was chosen to be a part of the 2026 MLS All-Star roster as a coach’s selection by Charlotte FC Head Coach Dean Smith. Crepeau started in all five of Canada’s World Cup games this summer and has recorded 63 saves as a Lion so far. While Orlando’s defense has done him few favors this season, it’s still a bit surprising to see Crepeau included, considering the Lions have conceded a league-high 44 goals this season. The All-Star Game will take place in Charlotte on July 29 and will once again pit the MLS against the top players from Liga MX.

Anna Moorhouse Nominated for Save of the Week

Orlando Pride goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse was up for NWSL Save of the Week for catching a hard shot from Jun Endo at fairly close range in the team’s 2-0 loss to Angel City FC. She ended up finishing fourth in the voting, but it’s still nice to see a Pride player recognized in at least some capacity after a rough result.

The honor ultimately went to the Houston Dash’s Jane Campbell, who made a nice diving save to deny a glancing header following a corner kick. Moorhouse and the Pride will look to turn things around in a home match against the Kansas City Current on Friday.

Gabriel Pec Transferred to Cruzeiro

The LA Galaxy have transferred Brazilian winger Gabriel Pec to Cruzeiro for a club-record transfer fee reported to be around $13.5 million. The 25-year-old joined the Galaxy prior to the 2024 season and was named MLS Newcomer of the Year that year, helping LA win the league title. He’s recorded 42 goals and 28 assists in 101 appearances with the Galaxy, and he now returns to Brazil’s top flight. Along with that hefty transfer fee, Pec’s exit notably opens up a Designated Player spot for the Galaxy as well.

Predicting the USMNT’s 2030 World Cup Roster

The United States Men’s National Team’s 2026 World Cup campaign came to a close a few days ago and the focus has now shifted on what the team will do to improve by 2030. While Mauricio Pochettino’s inclusion is arguably the biggest question mark looming over the team, Ben Wright from SixOneFive Soccer examined what the roster could look like for the next World Cup. Former Lion Alex Freeman was the youngest player on the USMNT this time around and was predicted to return in 2030, while aforementioned Orlando City forward Justin Ellis is in the mix of young attackers on the rise like Julian Hall, Zavier Gozo, and Cole Campbell. Plenty can change between now and then, and it will be interesting to see just how different the two rosters will be.

Free Kicks

• American goalkeeper Matt Turner is returning to the New England Revolution on loan from Olympique Lyonnais once again. The loan will last through the 2026 season, with an option to buy.
• Enjoy this analytical dive into the impact Mauricio Pochettino had on the USMNT’s success and failures at the World Cup.
• The World Cup quarterfinals kick off today with an intriguing matchup between France and Morocco, who squared off in the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup.
• Zlatko Dalic’s time as Croatia’s head coach has come to a close. Under Dalic, Croatia was a World Cup finalist in 2018 and claimed third in 2022.
• Rafael Marquez was officially announced as Mexico’s next head coach for the 2030 World Cup.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!