Top 10 Moments of 2023: Orlando City Sweeps Nashville in Playoff Series

As we count down to the new year of 2024 — which will be Orlando City’s 10th in MLS and the Orlando Pride’s ninth in the NWSL — and say goodbye to 2023, it’s time to look back at the club’s 10 best moments of the year as selected by The Mane Land staff via vote.

It was like Champions League all over again, as Orlando City drew one of the toughest assignments to kick off their run in the 2023 MLS Cup playoffs. For the Lions to advance past the first round, they’d have to win a best-of-three series against one of the league’s most stingy defensive clubs in Nashville SC. This was a lot like drawing Tigres to start the Concacaf Champions League’s opening two-legged tie.

By finishing second in Major League Soccer, the Lions got to have home field for the first and (if necessary) third games of the series. But Orlando City entered the postseason just 2-2-4 against Nashville in MLS regular-season matches and 2-3-5 in all competitions, which included a 1-2-1 record at home in the series in league play and 1-2-2 at home in all competitions and the Tennessee side had won the only postseason meeting between the clubs.

It’s true that Orlando City had won the most recent meeting — a 1-0 regular-season match in Nashville, which was the Lions’ first-ever road win in the series. But that game was anything but convincing. Duncan McGuire scored just before halftime on Orlando City’s only shot on goal in the match and on one of only two attempts at goal all night.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I wasn’t looking forward to facing the Nashville defense or Hany Mukhtar needing to get the better of them twice in three matches.

But the Lions were on a brilliant run of form, having gone 8-1-2 since their Leagues Cup run ended in early August. They were confident and winning games in a variety of ways, from the high-scoring 4-3 comeback home win over Columbus, to the aforementioned 90-minute nailbiter in Nashville.

Orlando City took to the pitch on Oct. 30 for Game 1 as a confident team and it played that way. Oscar Pareja mildly surprised by sticking with Rodrigo Schlegel at right center back instead of reinserting Antonio Carlos, who had gone 90 minutes against Toronto FC and played well on Decision Day. Aside from that, there were no other surprises of any kind in the starting XI. Pedro Gallese started behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, with Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena in the central midfield. Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres started in the attacking midfield behind striker McGuire.

The Lions started the game well but couldn’t push a shot past Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis. Orlando City caught a huge break in the 19th minute when Sam Surridge missed a sitter in front of goal, sending his shot over the bar. It was an absolutely stunning miss and the Lions took advantage later in the first half.

With the defense and central midfielders frustrating the Nashville attack, and Pedro Gallese coming to the rescue when needed, the game remained scoreless approaching halftime. Cartagena found himself on the ball near the middle of the field outside the area in the 41st minute. He dribbled forward and no one closed him down, as the Nashville defenders collapsed on McGuire and Torres. Cartagena accepted the invitation to shoot and sent the blast of his life off the underside of the crossbar near the right post, leaving Willis no chance of stopping it and giving Orlando a 1-0 lead.

It was an incredible strike and it sent the Lions to the locker room up a goal at halftime. However, it wasn’t as simple as that. Gallese came up big on a swerving shot from distance from Mukhtar, tipping it off his crossbar.

Unlike in the previous match in Nashville, Orlando generated plenty of shots in this match, including a whopping 16 in the first half to Nashville’s three.

The second half saw no goals between the sides, but the game pretty much continued the same way as the first half, except Nashville never got another look quite as good as Surridge’s. Orlando wasted a couple of decent chances at an insurance goal, but in the end it was a dominant win despite ending in just a 1-0 scoreline. That’s precisely why Nashville was such a difficult opponent to get in the first round.

“I thought we had a good game, especially that first half where we we connected much more in the final third and then we created many options,” Pareja said after the match. “We could probably have been more precise and opened the game earlier, and they may have a couple goals too. The game is tight, especially against Nashville. They place a lot of players in their final third and it was difficult for us to break it up and it is a test for us to accomplish and just be more precise in that last part of the field so we don’t need to suffer that much.”

The series shifted to Nashville on Nov. 7 for Game 2. A win or a draw with a shootout win would see Orlando through to the conference semifinals. A loss would give Nashville momentum heading back to Exploria Stadium for the deciding game.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so Oscar Pareja made no changes to his starting XI for the first-ever playoff match at Geodis Park.

The Lions again started well, firing a couple early shots and finding the breakthrough much earlier this time out. It came in just the sixth minute, when a poorly weighted back pass by Dax McCarty was closed down quickly by Angulo. The winger won a 50/50 challenge, survived a tug from behind by McCarty and then sent a shot off the Nashville midfielder that beat Willis over the top to make it 1-0.

Surridge sent a potential equalizer just wide of the post a couple of minutes later, and then the game got a bit stuttery, with injury delays for Walker Zimmerman and Gallese, with both players able to continue, and some general chippiness between the teams. Each team picked up a couple of yellow cards in the middle stages of the first half.

Shaq Moore and Angulo wasted opportunities for each team as the opening half wound down. Mukhtar scored shortly after that but the flag came up because he was offside on the initial shot, which Gallese uncharacteristically spilled. Mukhtar then missed the net in the 41st minute with a header and the Lions took their 1-0 lead into the break.

Torres had a chance to double the lead after the restart but hit a right-footed shot at Willis. Moments later, Araujo made a vital stop on Mukhtar in the penalty area to dispossess the Nashville star on the break.

Sean Davis made a similar desperation defensive play on Junior Urso in the 79th minute, sliding in to deflect a shot when the midfielder was in 1-v-1 on Willis.

Nashville’s last gasp was a header wide from Zimmerman in the 90th minute. Neither team got a scoring chance in the four-plus minutes of injury time and the Lions did well to keep winning fouls and throws to see out most of that time. The whistle finally blew to end the series.

Orlando led in most of the important statistical categories but by no means were the advantages as lopsided as in Game 1, but that didn’t matter to the Lions, who got the sweep after a second 1-0 win in the series.

“It’s important to know how to play these kind of games where they’re very tight, very intense,” Pareja said. “There is a lot of emotions during the game. The way we handled it today was good. Learning how to play these kinds of games made us a better team.”

Orlando City set several milestones in the series. The Lions won their first MLS playoff game in Game 1 (they had previously advanced on penalties after drawing with New York City FC in 2020, but that was it for the joy in the postseason up until this year). The series win was also a first in the postseason for Orlando and the Lions claimed the first playoff win in Geodis Park history.

Although the run ended in the conference semifinals in a hard-fought game against Columbus, the Lions digging deep and gutting out a pair of tight, nervy 1-0 wins against a determined Nashville side was one of the highlights of the 2023 season and definitely worthy of a high spot in our list of top moments of the year.

Come back through New Year’s Eve as we count down the remainder of Orlando City’s top 10 moments of 2023.

Previous Top Moments of 2023

10. The Orlando Pride select breakout stars Emily Madril and Messiah Bright in the 2023 NWSL Draft.
9. OCB draws at Chicago and then wins a shootout, clinching its first playoff spot since 2016.

8. Orlando Pride dump Portland Thorns 3-1 in June, kick-starting the team’s push for the playoffs.

7. Orlando City gets a late goal to defeat Santos Laguna 3-2 in Leagues Cup play, earning its first win over Liga MX competition.

6. Orlando Pride sign Brazilian international Adriana.

5. OCB forward Jack Lynn named MLS NEXT Pro MVP.

4. Orlando City makes its debut in Concacaf Champions League and battles Liga MX giants Tigres to a 1-1 aggregate.

3. Orlando City roars back from two goals down, scoring three times from the 73rd moment onward to stun Columbus at the death.