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Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Player Grades and Man of the Match

How did your favorite Lions perform in a 3-1 victory at home against the Chicago Fire?

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2 years ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

It was a dominating performance across the board for Orlando City’s players. With the team outshooting the Chicago Fire 19-8 and creating a number of quality chances, there was never a question in my mind if the Lions would finish with a win. It was, “by how many?” Facundo Torres and Ramiro Enrique led the way in answering that question to the tune of a 3-1 victory. Even then, the scoreline likely favors the Fire as it could have been much worse while Orlando’s defense put in a great shift keeping Kei Kamara and Fabian Herbers at bay.

Here’s how I rated Orlando City’s individual performances at Exploria Stadium.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 7.5 — When Kamara comes to town, it doesn’t matter what team he is playing for. The man just loves to score against Orlando City. For Pedro Gallese, he was sure to ruin Kamara’s night and stifle and record-chasing performances for the striker. Perhaps Gallese’s finest moment of the match came in the 51st minute, as Kamara forced a header on goal from a corner kick and the keeper made a diving save to keep it off the goal line. In total, Pedro made a couple saves across the course of 90 minutes and conceded just one — from the penalty spot — in a match that saw him face 2.2 expected goals against. His 15 passes found their mark 86.7% of the time and he was accurate on one of his three long balls when trying to spring a quick counter.

D, Rafael Santos, 7 — Santos entered the match up for the task against Chicago’s attack. The Brazilian was rarely beaten down the left side and was able to find space to swing in a few fiery passes from distance while even taking the time to complete a pair of dribbles and put a shot on frame in the 40th minute. Defensively, he recorded one tackle, one interception, and an aerial duel won, while conceding two fouls. Offensively, he found himself on the ball 61 times, completing 86% of his 44 passes. He found his man with five of his eight long balls but was inaccurate on all three of his crosses. Ultimately, he defended well against those coming down his left wing.

D, Robin Jansson, 7 — If there were such things as assists for forcing penalty kicks, Jansson would have earned himself a nice statistic on the match sheet. To be fair, Fabian Herbers should have felt hard done as the Beefy Swede clipped the ball up and into his elbow which he was trying to pull back within his body’s silhouette. Nonetheless, this attempt towards goal led to Facundo Torres’ brace, as he collected another to his tally from the spot. From a defensive standpoint, you can tell the task was to follow Kamara absolutely everywhere he went on the pitch. Early into the match, Jansson could even be spotted in the attacking third as he trailed Kamara, who was dropping deep to try to find the ball. While he recorded zero tackles or interceptions, Jansson made his presence known. He offered a clearance, a foul, and a yellow card. With his 55 touches, the center back completed 87% of his 48 passes, with two of seven long balls also being accurate, and he drew two fouls.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 7.5 — Stepping in for first-choice Antonio Carlos, Rodri once again stood tall for Papi. The Argentinian defender almost even scored one of his own in the 32nd minute as he flicked a header towards goal from a corner kick forcing Chris Brady to make a save. In total, Schlegel attempted two shots with one on target. With 48 touches, he passed at an 89% success rate across 38 attempts but was incomplete on both of his long balls. While he didn’t have a tackle or interception, he certainly made the night easier on Gallese with his six clearances and won an aerial duel.

D, Kyle Smith, 7.5 — The 31-year-old utility man from Transylvania University slotted into the right back position. As always, Smith was his usual workhorse self and was rewarded with an assist that opened the scoring for the Lions. Picking out the most unlikely Orlando player to score with his head, Smith dropped a cross right on top of Facundo Torres in the 32nd minute. Smith should have easily had another assist prior to that, as Martin Ojeda missed from a quality position in front of goal. If it weren’t for Smith getting beaten badly and conceding the penalty kick that gave the Fire their only goal of the night, he would have made a real case for my personal Man of the Match honors. With 45 touches, Smith took a shot and had two key passes in his 34 attempts (64% accuracy). He was accurate on one of three crosses, one of six long balls, one through ball, made one tackle and one clearance, and added a foul. While these stats don’t typically scream “best player on the pitch,” Smith continues to show sparks and has the intangibles that I appreciate and respect.

MF, Wilder Cartagena, 8 — The Peruvian picked up right where he left off against Seattle’s attackers. This time he was challenged with the likes of Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri. And while Shaqiri did end up on the scoresheet, it was only due to a penalty kick. Cartagena consistently puts in great defensive shifts and even made the highlight reel, clearing the ball off of the goal line in the 51st minute. While the statistics state he only made two tackles, he also won an aerial duel, had an interception, a crucial clearance, a blocked shot, and four fouls conceded, while drawing one himself. Cartagena was on the ball 52 times, completing 86% of his 43 passes. He missed his only cross but was perfect on his three long ball attempts.

MF, Mauricio Pereyra, 6.5 — With Cesar Araujo out for the match on bad behavior, El Capitan was relegated to a deep-lying position on the pitch. Similar to what we saw Head Coach Oscar Pareja experimenting with last year, it once again just didn’t do it for me. Pereyra is a maestro on the ball and in the attacking third, but when it comes to connecting from the back all the way to the front, it just isn’t his specialty. His play is much more fruitful clipping the final ball behind the back line or threading tough seams with pinpoint accuracy. Offensively in the match, he was fouled three times and gave shouts for a possible penalty but went to ground too easily and didn’t earn the call. From a defensive standpoint, he offered two interceptions and a foul. He had 43 touches, attempted 33 passes (84% accuracy), completed one of his two crossing attempts, and completed two of his four long ball attempts.

MF, Ivan Angulo, 8.5 — I love the play and tenacity of Angulo. The Colombian winger uses his pace in a way that would be utterly terrifying to line up against. This rang true for Arnaud Souquet, who had to foul Angulo twice in the same play just to stop from being embarrassed down the sideline and earned himself his first of two yellow cards on the night in the 20th minute. In the 75th minute, Enrique was about to ruin what would ultimately be his scoring play by chasing down a pass in the channel from an offside position. Instead, it was a smart play from Angulo — once again using his pace — to run over and collect the ball, then passing it to Enrique and earning the assist. Defensively, he made two tackles and an interception while conceding three fouls. Offensively, he used his 39 touches to take two shots, putting one on goal and tallying an additional two key passes. He completed two dribbles and drew three fouls. Of his 23 passes, 87% hit their marks, as did his only long ball and through ball attempts.

MF, Facundo Torres, 9 (MotM) — This match was all about the resurrection of last year’s Torres. If the whole season has been building up to this moment, I feel like the first meeting with the Chicago Fire was the tipping point. With a headed goal in the 36th minute, what could have easily been an earned penalty in the 42nd minute, converting a penalty in the 55th minute, and a couple other genuine chances throughout the match, Torres made a meal of the Fire defenders. His night finished with three of six shots on target, two key passes, two dribbles, and an aerial won on 55 touches. Torres drew two fouls and completed his long ball but missed both crossing attempts, while distributing the ball with 85% accuracy on 35 passes.

MF, Martin Ojeda, 7 — The past few matches have equated to Ojeda and Pereyra exchanging minutes in the No. 10 role. With Araujo forcing Pereyra into a deeper position, this was Ojeda’s moment to step up and show why he deserves the weekly start. Early on in the first half, Ojeda had a couple scoring opportunities and even forced a good save from Brady after rifling a strike at goal, but he also missed what should have been a tap in. Despite only putting one of two shots on target, Ojeda did create three key passes with his 44 touches. His 22 passes came at a 90% rate, and he was pinpoint on his one long ball, but he found the target on only four of 12 crosses. Defensively, Ojeda conceded a foul but also tallied an interception and a tackle.

F, Duncan McGuire, 6 — The rookie striker didn’t live up to his own high standards on the night. Don’t get me wrong though, McGuire was fine. But he wasn’t “outstanding.” There was no real danger created by the forward, and he only found himself on the ball 13 times in 66 minutes. With those touches, he only completed three of four passes, so he wasn’t exactly creating for others either. His only shot was off target, and his only defensive stat was a conceded foul.

Substitutes

MF, Felipe (67′), 7 — Brought on to rotate the defensive midfield with another game soon to be played, Felipe came on and helped see out the win. He likely should have done better in the dying moments as Orlando greatly outnumbered the Fire on a counter attack but he left his shot close enough to Brady for him to make a save. With 39 touches, Felipe completed his 36 passes at an astounding 97% rate and was accurate with his only long ball.

F, Ramiro Enrique (67′), 7.5 — Literally just last match I put the sentence, “There are certain truths in the world, and one of them seems to be Ramiro Enrique’s lack of real impact coming off the bench.” into Ramiro Enrique’s player grade segment. Well, the 22-year-old Argentine took it to heart because he was determined to get in behind and score against Chicago. Right from the jump, Enrique was finding balls played into the channel and speeding past the defensive line. For his efforts, Enrique found himself open at the top of the box to finesse the ball across goal and into the net in the 75th minute. We witnessed 10 touches, one of two shots on target, and a 100% passing accuracy on six attempts. Go on, Enrique. Let’s see more of this and I’ll eat my hat.

MF, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson (88′) N/A — Dagur Dan was able to find the ball 12 times in his brief stint on the field. He fed Petrasso an exquisite cross shortly after coming on, but Petrasso blasted the volley high. Dagur Dan seemed to be begging for a card and earned himself one as time expired. Aside from that, he completed all eight passes, one of two crosses, a tackle, and two fouls conceded.

D, Luca Petrasso (88′) N/A — Aside from wasting Dagur Dan’s cross, we didn’t see much of Petrasso in his few minutes back on the pitch. He recorded seven touches, a key pass, and a clearance. He completed just 60% of his five passes.

MF, Favian Loyola (90+3′) N/A — Making the most of the nine minutes of stoppage time, Loyola made his MLS debut and ran everywhere to try and get some touches. In the dying moments, he got on the ball six times, completed all six of his passes, turned one of those into a key pass, and conceded a foul.

That’s how I saw the performances in 3-1 home win against the Chicago Fire. Congrats to Homegrown attacker Favian Loyola for making his senior team debut. The best is yet to come for you! Be sure to cast your vote for this game’s Man of the Match in the poll below, and tell us your thoughts about this one down in the comments.

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Lion Links: 4/4/25

Orlando City gets ready for the Philadelphia Union, OCSC partners with Footy Access, USWNT prepares for Brazil, and more.

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5 hours ago

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April 4, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

Happy Friday! It may feel a bit like the calm before the storm today, as Orlando City, Orlando City B, and the United States Women’s National Team are all in action on Saturday. It all makes for a fun next few days and I’m looking forward to it and also watching some kart racing on Sunday. Let’s get to the links!

Orlando City Gets Ready For the Philadelphia Union

The Lions are back in action Saturday with an away game against the Philadelphia Union at 7:30 p.m. Orlando has won its past two games and leads the league with 15 goals this season. The Union remain near the top of the Eastern Conference, but have lost two of their past three games. Duncan McGuire detailed how healthy competition and a willingness to defend has the offense firing on all cylinders heading into this match.

This will also be a rematch of the season opener on Feb. 22 when the Union won 4-2 at Inter&Co Stadium. Philadelphia Union Head Coach Bradley Carnell spoke on how Orlando is a different team compared to that match due to changes on offense and center back Robin Jansson’s recovery from a knock.

Orlando City Partners With Footy Access

With the Generation Adidas Cup set to take place later this month, Orlando City has partnered with Footy Access, which is a media company focused on youth soccer. This collaboration means fans will be able to enjoy highlights and interviews from Orlando’s academy as it progresses through the tournament. I’m pretty excited about being able to see how well Orlando’s academy is doing.

MLS NEXT also announced that new rankings focused on development rather than results will be used for its U-13 and U-14 age groups. These rankings will use an analytical formula that measures game play and the caliber of offensive and defensive actions. There will also be encouragement for teams to have their own identities on how they want to play.

USWNT Prepares to Face Brazil in Friendlies

The United States Women’s National Team will take on Brazil on Saturday in the first of two friendlies this international break, with the second match set for Tuesday. These friendlies will be rematches of last year’s Olympic gold medal match, which the U.S. won 1-0. Marta has retired from international soccer, but Pride midfielder Angelina was called up for these friendlies, along with former Pride forward Adriana. Lorena, who has only conceded one goal in three games for the Kansas City Current this season, will likely get the start in goal for Brazil behind a talented back line anchored by Tarciane. The USWNT will need to find ways to limit attacking threats like Kerolin and Gabi Portilho as well. These should be matches, with familiar faces on both sides for Orlando fans.

U.S. Set to Host 2031 Women’s World Cup

It looks like the 2031 Women’s World Cup will be held in the U.S., as FIFA President Gianni Infantino stated that the only bid came from the U.S. and potentially other Concacaf nations. The U.S., which withdrew from hosting the 2027 World Cup, would be the first country to host the tournament three times and last hosted it in 2007. The United Kingdom was also revealed as the lone valid bid to host the 2035 World Cup and it would be the first time the tournament is hosted there.

Free Kicks

  • Shout out to Orlando City’s U-19 team for its title win and securing a spot in the MLS NEXT Cup playoffs.

That’s all for this fine Friday, I hope you all have a fantastic day and a relaxing weekend!

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Orlando City

Orlando City Relies on Starters More Than Any Other MLS Team

An analysis of Óscar Pareja’s early lineup choices and substitution patterns and how that compares to the 2024 season.

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24 hours ago

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April 3, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Legendary swordsman Inigo Montoya, a man who is not lefthanded, once opened a conversation by asking the Dread Pirate Roberts if, by any chance, he had six fingers on his right hand. Nobody will need to prepare to die by the end of this column, but I will ask a similar question: I don’t mean to pry, but did you by any chance happen to realize that we are already more than one-sixth of the way through the MLS regular season? Six fingers, one-sixth of the season…close enough. Let’s go.

Time flies when you are having fun, and somehow Orlando City has already played 540 minutes of MLS soccer this season. I consider 500 minutes played to be a cutoff amount when looking at player and lineup performance, and with the conclusion of the most recent game in Los Angeles, the team has now surpassed that 500-minute threshold.

In looking at the opening 540 minutes, I was surprised to see how much continuity I found in the minutes played, considering how many injuries the Lions have had to work around during these first six games. In just the first six games, Orlando City has already had full games missed due to injury by César Araujo (1), David Brekalo (2), Robin Jansson (2), Duncan McGuire (3) and Nico Rodriguez (5). Brekalo and Pedro Gallese both missed a game for international duty as well. McGuire was not expected back during the first set of games, but all of those other players, with the possible exception of Rodriguez, were expected to contribute during the early part of the season.

These absences led to games where the substitutes list was full of players who will play big minutes for Orlando City B this year, but not players who Óscar Pareja was likely to turn to off the bench unless the game was out of hand or he was absolutely desperate. According to Opta’s tracking through the opening six games, Orlando City ranks last in MLS in the average minutes played by its substitutes, as the average amount of time per appearance for the players off the bench for the Lions is only 12 minutes. For context, 16 teams have an average amount of time per substitute appearance of 20 minutes or greater, and Inter Miami and Toronto are tied with a league-leading 27 minutes per substitute appearance.

The interesting thing about those two teams, Miami and Toronto, is that Miami leads the league in points per match with 2.6 and Toronto is second from the bottom with a scant 0.33 points per match. I think a lot of this data will even out over time, as right now there are several teams, including Miami, that are playing in multiple competitions and trying to keep players fresh for all of their matches.

When it comes to Orlando City, however, that is not the case, and thus far there has just been the standard one game per week on six consecutive Saturdays. The players are rested for each game. The issue has just been that Pareja has not had the depth and variety of players he thought he would have to bring off the bench to protect a lead or chase a deficit.

We often joke in articles or on The Mane Land PawedCast about how “Óscar gonna Óscar,” and once he finds a lineup he likes, he sticks with it. Even with all the injuries he has somehow managed to do this again this season, as you can see from the chart below. I started tracking lineup data last season, and even though the 2025 season is only six games old and there have been so many absences from key players this season, it was striking to see that the 11-man lineup that has played the most minutes together this season already outranks all but two lineups from the entire 2024 MLS season (including the five playoff games!):

Now, it is a little unfair to the one 2025 lineup on the above chart that it has such a negative goal differential per 90 minutes, because if it is only the 10 field players, with goalkeeper excluded, then that lineup has played 215 minutes together and has a +0.84 goal differential per 90 minutes. That group is +4 with Javier Otero in net in 74 minutes together, and removing the goalkeepers from the calculation turns that negative goal differential into a positive.

What that also tells us, however, is that when it comes to the 10 field players, Pareja has played the same unit in the field for 40% (215/540) of the team’s minutes already. Granted it is early in the season, but after six MLS games last season, the lineup that had played together the most had played a grand total of 74 minutes together (14% of all minutes). The top five most used lineups in last season’s opening six MLS games combined to play 302 minutes, or 56% of all minutes, and in 2025 it is 402 minutes, or 80%. My math, and everyone else’s math, says that is a much higher percentage and indicates that the team is focused on continuity early.

That continuity thus far this season has paid dividends, with the Lions earning 10 points from the first six games, twice as nice as last season’s five points after the first six games. Last year, the team was balancing midweek Concacaf Champions Cup games in addition to injuries and an international break during the opening weeks of the MLS season, so there were some good reasons for the lineup rotation and the slow start. This year’s squad will have to navigate two upcoming cup tournaments in the coming months, and so we likely will see a lot of new lineup configurations or more rotation once the U.S. Open Cup starts in May and then again when Leagues Cup starts in July.

Thus far though, Pareja has been able to stick with his starters deep into matches, and has only given playing time to 20 players, which is tied for third fewest across all of MLS. Fan bases often clamor for the coach to “play the kids,” but while Pareja has had young and inexperienced players on the senior roster for every game, he really has only given significant minutes to Alex Freeman from the group of players that could be referred to as “the kids.” Gustavo Caraballo has played nine minutes, which is incredible for a 16-year-old (15-year-old Cavan Sullivan of Philadelphia is the only player younger than Caraballo to have played this season, and he has also played only nine minutes), and new signing Nico Rodriguez (20 years old) has played 11 minutes, but the next three youngest players to play are all at least 22 and were with the senior club last season (Otero and Ramiro Enrique) or came to the club after four seasons of college soccer (23-year-old, but nearly 24-year-old, Joran Gerbet).

The team’s record thus far shows that Pareja has been right to limit the minutes to the small group of players he trusts, and with one game per week for the next six weeks it will be interesting to see if the early trend of starters playing long minutes and only a few players getting all the minutes off the bench continues. The next match is on the road against Philadelphia, which so rudely came into Orlando and defeated the Lions 4-2 in the season opener, and my expectation is that while we likely will not see any players make their season debut in this game, I do think we will see a different starting lineup than the season opener and probably a different one than the game last weekend against the Galaxy.

No matter who the Lions go with, I am sure they will want to avenge the season-opening loss and bring three points back home to Orlando.

As we wish.

Vamos Orlando!

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Orlando City at Philadelphia Union: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to earn all three points on the road against Philly?

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1 day ago

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April 3, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City is on the road yet again, this time heading to Pennsylvania to take on the Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park Saturday night. The Lions will look to get a second road win in a row after the smash-and-grab victory against the LA Galaxy. Things don’t get any easier with the Union sitting in second place in the Eastern Conference, but a win would catapult Orlando City above Philadelphia in the standings. Here’s what Orlando City needs to do to earn all three points against the Philadelphia Union.

Tie up Tai

Tai Baribo leads the way-too-early-to-call Golden Boot race with six goals in five matches. The Union striker has taken 13 shots, putting eight on target and the aforementioned six in the back of the net. He scored a brace in the season opener against Orlando to bag a third of those goals. It’s a pretty easy call to say stopping the league leader in goals is an important part of shutting down the Philadelphia attack.

It will be up to Cesar Araujo and whichever center back pairing we get to shut Baribo down. Of course, he’s not the only one the Lions need to worry about since the Union also have striker Mikael Uhre, and midfielders Daniel Gazdag and Jovan Lukic providing goals and assists. The point is that Philadelphia is second only to the Lions in offensive production with 13 goals compared to Orlando City’s 15 goals.

Formation Change

In the last match against the LA Galaxy, the Lions struggled to get things going with Luis Muriel up top, Ojeda at the No. 10 spot and Ivan Angulo on the left. Once Duncan McGuire came on, Muriel shifted back, Ojeda went wide, and Angulo subbed off. That really opened up the attack and allowed the Lions to get the two goals needed to secure the victory.

Perhaps Oscar Pareja could start things off like that against Philadelphia. Angulo hasn’t been great the last few matches, and perhaps some time on the bench will get his head straight. McGuire is still early in his return from injury, but Ramiro Enrique can start up top with Big Dunc coming in later as he has the last few matches. I think making this change could help Orlando City get an early goal on the road.

Vengeance is Thine

When the two teams met on opening day, the Union dropped four goals on Orlando City in Inter&Co Stadium. You would think it a completely dominating performance, but the Lions actually had more shots, more shots on target, and more possession than the Union. Philadelphia simply put each of its four shots on target past Pedro Gallese. That type of luck is unlikely to happen again.

Since that time, the Orlando City defense has stiffened — at least a little bit — and the team has been more difficult to break down. I’m not saying the defense is as stalwart as last season, but it has improved. Orlando City needs to use that four-goal drubbing at the hands of the Union to galvanize the defense to enact revenge with a multi-goal victory of its own.

That is what I will be looking for Saturday night. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

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