Orlando City
Orlando City vs. D.C. United: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More
The Lions host D.C. United in search of an elusive second consecutive win.

Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City and D.C. United at Inter&Co Stadium (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+). This is the second of the two scheduled MLS matches this season between the Lions (6-9-6, 24 points) and the Black and Red (4-10-8, 20 points).
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.
History
The Lions are 7-9-2 against D.C. in the all-time league series since the club joined MLS, and 7-9-3 in all competitions. Orlando is 4-4-1 in MLS home games against D.C. Oscar Pareja is 6-6-2 in his managerial career against United.
The Black and Red had managed four consecutive results in the series (3-0-1) prior to the Lions’ visit to Audi Field on April 13. United went ahead twice in the match on goals by Christian Benteke and Gabriel Pirani and led the game late. Dagur Dan Thorhallsson equalized in the first half on a great cross from Ivan Angulo, and David Brekalo scored down the stretch to make it 2-2. Duncan McGuire’s well-timed breakaway goal in stoppage time lifted Orlando to a 3-2 road win.
The last meeting in Orlando took place on April 22, 2023, with D.C. scoring twice in the second half to snap a 1-1 deadlock and win, 3-1. Taxiarchis Fountas, Donovan Pines, and Benteke scored for D.C. to more than offset McGuire’s strike.
These teams squared off just a few weeks before that in D.C., splitting the points in a 1-1 draw at Audi Field on March 11. McGuire scored his first MLS goal but Chis Durkin leveled things late in a match that was sandwiched between Orlando City’s two legs of Concacaf Champions League play against Tigres UANL.
D.C. swept the season series in 2022, despite being a terrible team that “won” the league’s Wooden Spoon by no small margin. The meeting in D.C. that year took place July 31 and saw Orlando City dominate the first half but miss multiple glorious chances to put the game away early. The Lions were wasteful and took only a 1-0 lead into stoppage time, thanks to Junior Urso’s first-half goal, only to fall 2-1 on stoppage-time strikes by Durkin and Fountas.
The teams also met on Independence Day at Exploria Stadium, with D.C. putting together a performance out of nowhere in a 5-3 road win. Fountas netted his first MLS hat trick and Kimarni Smith and Nigel Robertha added their first goals of the season. Facundo Torres, Ercan Kara, and Alexandre Pato scored for Orlando, threatening to bring the Lions back, but Orlando could never get on level terms.
The teams met twice in 2021, including Oct. 2 at Exploria Stadium. Daryl Dike scored deep in stoppage to lift the Lions to a 2-1 home victory. Robin Jansson scored a first-half goal off a corner kick scramble to offset an early Julian Gressel strike. The first match of 2021 took place on May 16 in D.C., with the Lions winning 1-0 on an early Mauricio Pereyra goal. That win snapped United’s 3-0-1 streak in the series in league play and 3-0-2 in all competitions dating back to City’s previously most recent win over D.C. back in 2017.
The teams did not meet in what was an odd 2020 season.
D.C. United swept the season series in 2019, winning 1-0 at Audi Field back on June 26, 2019. Wayne Rooney’s wondergoal from his own half of the pitch caught Brian Rowe napping. The Lions fell 2-1 at home on March 31, 2019, with set pieces ruining the night for Orlando. You might recall the controversy that surrounded the winning goal, with then-coach James O’Connor visibly upset after the match. Steve Birnbaum scored the first on a set piece and Rooney scored the second on a free kick that he took from wherever the hell he wanted rather than where the foul occurred. Frederic Brillant bulldozed Rowe on the play as the ball sailed into the net.
D.C. was 1-0-2 in three total meetings (two in league play) in 2018. Orlando swept the two league meetings in 2017, the teams split two lopsided games in 2016 — with each team winning at home — and the Black and Red went 2-1-0 in the first three meetings back in 2015.
Match Overview
Orlando City is coming off a 2-1 road win Wednesday at Toronto FC. The Lions fell behind in the fifth minute but rallied on a Martin Ojeda header and an own goal by Nicksoen Gomis forced by Facundo Torres put Orlando ahead by halftime. No one scored in the second period and Orlando grabbed the three points. The Lions return home where they are a disastrous 2-5-3 on the season so far, although they won their most recent match at Inter&Co Stadium against the Chicago Fire on June 22.
D.C. jumped out to a three-match unbeaten start to the season under Head Coach Troy Lesesne and lost only once in its first six games of 2024 before hosting Orlando City in April. Since then, the team has sunk to the bottom of the Eastern Conference and enters on the heels of a hard-fought, 3-2 midweek home loss to FC Cincinnati — the club’s 10th consecutive match without a win (0-7-3). The Black and Red are just 1-4-5 away from Audi Field this season.
The Lions will need to be aware of where Benteke is at all times. The former Crystal Palace, Liverpool, and Aston Villa man leads D.C. in goals (14) and is in the thick of the MLS Golden Boot race. That pursuit was put on pause in the loss to Cincinnati, as Benteke was suspended for that match, meaning he’ll be fully rested for tonight. Benteke’s size and strength make him difficult to defend in the air, so Orlando City will need to pull out all the stops to make him uncomfortable. The Congo native has put up 62 shots on the season and 29 of them have been on frame. He’s also chipped in a pair of assists.
Behind Benteke, no D.C. player has more than two goals. Five different players have scored twice and six more have added one goal, so it’s difficult to say who the team’s secondary threat is. However, the Lions must pay attention to Mateusz Klich, who has a team-high seven assists to go with his two goals, and Aaron Herrera, who has six helpers to go with his pair of strikes.
“(Benteke) has that quality. We’ll prepare the best that we can,” Pareja said ahead of the match. “First is to recognize what are the strengths that [D.C. United] have and this is one of them. We’re just trying to be sharp, be conscious, be informed about what those things are that we need to move and how we can avoid that too. It’s not just that final phase of that play, marking him, but probably preventing them getting there to him too and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Lions will be without Michael Halliday (knee) and Mason Stajduhar (lower leg), while Homegrown fullback Tahir Reid-Brown (thigh) is listed as questionable. None of Orlando’s internationals are on the availability report anymore, so presumably Brekalo is available, although it’s possible he may start the match on the bench after returning from the 2024 Euros. As of this writing, D.C.’s availability report was…well, unavailable. However, entering Wednesday, the team reported several players out: Conner Antley (knee), Steven Birnbaum (hip), Russell Canouse (not due to injury), Kristian Fletcher (ankle), Jackson Hopkins (back), and Garrison Tubbs (head).
Match Content
- Our most recent episode of The Mane Land PawedCast includes our match preview, key matchups, and predictions for the game.
Official Lineups
Orlando City (4-2-3-1)
Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.
Defenders: Kyle Smith, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.
Defensive Midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.
Attacking Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres.
Forward: Duncan McGuire.
Bench: Javier Otero, Alex Freeman, Rafael Santos, David Brekalo, Jeorgio Kocevski, Nico Lodeiro, Ramiro Enrique, Jack Lynn, Luis Muriel.
D.C. United (3-5-2)
Goalkeeper: Tyler Miller.
Defenders: Christopher McVey, Lucas Bartlett, Garrison Tubbs.
Wingbacks/Midfielders: Pedro Santos, Martin Rodriguez, Gabriel Pirani, Matti Peltola, Aaron Herrera.
Forward: Christian Benteke, Theodore Ku-Dipietro.
Bench: Alex Bono, Jabob Murrell, Jeremy Garay, Matai Akinmboni, Hayden Sargis, Jared Stroud.
Referees
REF: Lukasz Szpala.
AR1: Logan Brown.
AR2: Mike Nickerson.
4TH: Elton Garcia.
VAR: David Barrie.
AVAR: Joshua Patlak.
How to Watch
Match Time: 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Inter&Co Stadium — Orlando.
TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).
Twitter: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at @TheManeLand, as well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).
Enjoy the match. Go City!
Lion Links
Lion Links: 3/14/25
Orlando Pride face the Chicago Stars tonight, 2025 NWSL season set to kick off, San Diego FC’s plan to stop discriminatory chant, and more.

Happy Friday! The Orlando Pride’s season starts today to kick off another three straight days of Orlando soccer. Orlando City is in action on Saturday, and then we have Orlando City B to enjoy on Sunday. Before we jump into today’s links, let’s all wish a happy birthday to Executive OCSC Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Luiz Muzzi!
Orlando Pride Take On Chicago Stars FC Tonight
The Orlando Pride’s first game of the 2025 NWSL season is finally here, with the team set to begin its title defense at home tonight at 8 p.m. against the Chicago Stars. Before the match, the club will raise banners to celebrate a historic season last year that included winning the NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship. It’s an unfamiliar position for the Pride to start a season from, as the club has undergone quite the transformation in both culture and expectations in recent years.
“It’s going to be such a special moment,” defender and vice-captain Kylie Nadaner said. “I got here when things weren’t great in this club, and there were times where I don’t think that I would ever have predicted that this would be possible. So when that banner is raised, it’s going to be such a special moment, and to see this star on our chest—every time I see it, I’m just so proud and honored to be a part of it.”
The Pride’s season will start with a matchup against a Chicago team they eliminated in the first round of last year’s playoffs. The Stars won’t be the only team with revenge on their mind when facing the Pride, and Orlando will have to navigate the season with a large target on its back. It’s still a bit surreal to acknowledge that considering where this club was only a few years ago.
2025 NWSL Season Kicks Off Tonight
Tonight’s matches are just the first in what should be an exciting start to the NWSL season across the country. While most of us will likely be watching the Pride, the Washington Spirit are also in action at 8 p.m. tonight when they face the Houston Dash. Saturday’s slate features four games with staggered start times for a nice day of soccer, including an intriguing late match pitting NJ/NY Gotham FC against the Seattle Reign. The weekend wraps up on Sunday night with a Cali clash between Angel City FC and the San Diego Wave. If in need of a refresher on each team after a busy off-season, ESPN provided a nice guide heading into this season.
San Diego FC Launches Plan to Stop Anti-Gay Chant
After the use of a homophobic chant in its inaugural home game earlier this month, San Diego FC has announced a plan for addressing it. Starting as soon as Saturday’s home game against the Columbus Crew, there will be increased communication to fans reinforcing that the chant has no place at the stadium. There will be increased security measures as well, with the plan noting that offenders will be identified and ejected. FIFA’s protocol to abandon the match if the behavior persists is also part of the club’s announced plan. Hopefully this all will help nip the problem in the bud.
Europa League Quarterfinals Are Set
Only eight teams remain in this year’s Europa League after some exciting round of 16 matchups. A hat trick by Bruno Fernandes lifted Manchester United to a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad at Old Trafford, while fellow English club Tottenham also advanced after a 3-1 home victory against AZ Alkmaar. As for the Italian clubs, an early red card to Mats Hummels doomed AS Roma in its 3-1 loss to Athletic Club and Lazio’s 1-1 draw with Viktoria Plzen was enough to advance. Fenerbahce beat Rangers 2-0, but Rangers ultimately came out on top in the penalty shootout.
In the quarterfinals, Manchester United faces a Lyon side that breezed through the round of 16, and Rangers will battle Athletic Club. On the other side of the bracket, Tottenham plays Eintracht Frankfurt and Lazio is matched up against Bodo/Glimt.
Free Kicks
- Enjoy this look into the Pride’s history of home openers over the past nine years in the NWSL.
- NWSL players will be able to decrease their yellow card accumulation through good behavior this season.
- The first two rounds of the 2025 U.S. Open Cup will exclusively be broadcast on U.S. Soccer’s YouTube channel.
- UEFA will reportedly reach out to FIFA and the International Football Association Board over changing the rule that disallowed Julian Alvarez’s penalty in the Champions League after a slip of his plant foot caused him to brush the ball before he struck it, resulting in a double kick.
- In a bizarre bit of scheduling, Chelsea and Manchester City’s women’s soccer teams will face each other four times over the course of 12 days across all competitions.
That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend. Go Orlando!
Orlando City
Orlando City’s Designated Players Delightfully Productive to Start the Season
A performance evaluation of Orlando City’s Designated Players through three games and how they compare to the rest of the league.

There will come a point someday in the future when Major League Soccer will stop using all its silly roster rules and allow teams to build their rosters however they would like to à la the rest of the world, but until then we must continue to live in the alphabet soup of acronyms like BAM, GAM, HAM, and TAM (two of those are actual MLS roster-building methods, one is a food often eaten with green eggs — back when eggs were affordable — and the other is onomatopoeia; I am confident you can identify the two acronyms that are MLS allocation money).
The other commonly used term, as it relates to roster-building methods in MLS, is DP, or Designated Player — a player who can be paid any amount as their salary while having a fixed amount that counts against the salary cap. The amount depends on the age of the DP. Players above the age of 24 count as $743,750 against the team’s salary budget; ages 21-23 count as $200,000; and players aged 20 or younger count as $150,000. You can read all you ever wanted to know about this subject and more by checking out the 2025 MLS Roster Rules and Regulations. Bring snacks. And a pillow.
Orlando City has three Designated Players on the 2025 roster: Luis Muriel, Martín Ojeda, and Marco Pašalić. Among the 30 teams in MLS, 11 teams, including Orlando City, have three Designated Players, 17 have two, and two teams only have one, for a total of 69 DPs on rosters as of Week 4 of the 2025 MLS season.
Only 61 of those 69 Designated Players have played thus far this season, however, as five are currently injured (CF Montréal’s Giacomo Vrioni, LA Galaxy’s Joseph Paintsil and Riqui Puig, New England’s Tomás Chancalay, and Portland’s Jonathan Rodríguez). In addition, one is on loan until June (NYCFC’s Talles Magno), one still does not have his paperwork in order to play in MLS (LAFC’s Cengiz Ünder), and one has been a healthy scratch in each game this season, as his team was actively looking to transfer him to another club (Toronto’s Lorenzo Insigne).
Most clubs use their Designated Player spots for attacking players, which makes sense considering attacking players tend to command the highest salaries, and with a DP only counting a set amount against the salary cap, teams can afford to pay high salaries to bring in attacking talent without the risk of jamming up their salary cap utilization. Only three of the 69 DPs in MLS this season are primarily defenders — Inter Miami’s Jordi Alba, Nashville SC’s Walker Zimmerman, and NYCFC’s Thiago Martins — and frankly, I am surprised it is even that many.
Orlando City has deployed 16 Designated Players since entering MLS, with all of those players in attacking roles while wearing purple. During some years, the performance by the club’s Designated Players was, shall we say, underwhelming, but through three games in 2025 (I know, I know, it is only three games), Orlando City can make a case that the performance of its DPs has been nearly the best in the league.
Let’s make that case. Right here. Right now. Bonus points if you remember this outstanding adidas commercial using Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now.”
Ultimately, soccer matches come down to two measures: goals scored and goals allowed. Being that nearly every Designated Player plays in an attacking position, we can focus more on the goals scored as a measure of comparison. In order to score a goal, you need to create a shot, so I used Opta’s tracking on fbref.com to aggregate every Designated Player’s performance thus far in 2025 and normalize it to a per-90-minute basis.
Every blue circle in the table below is the average performance by a team’s Designated Players per 90 minutes for shot-creating actions and goals scored (example: the Houston Dynamo are the lonely circle closest to the bottom left corner; the Dynamo’s two Designated Players create, average, exactly one shot per 90 minutes and zero goals per 90 minutes, which is not ideal). The purple bullseye is Orlando City, which has DPs averaging 4.73 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes and scoring 0.57 goals per 90 minutes. The orange circle is the MLS average.

The ideal location on a chart like this would be for your team’s circle to be as far to the upper right as possible, with DPs creating lots of shots for their teammates and scoring lots of goals as well. If you had to choose one axis, you would of course prefer to be higher on the y-axis than the x-axis (your seventh grade Algebra teacher promised you that you would use the cartesian plane in real life someday), since goals scored are more important than shots created.
The Mane Land’s Ben Miller wrote a piece in our Monday newsletter, exclusively available to those who subscribe (which you can do by clicking on this hyperlink) about the goal-scoring performances of Orlando City’s three Designated Players thus far this season. Expanding on what Ben wrote, here are the per-90-minute stats for Orlando City’s three DPs thus far:
Player | Mins Played | SCA | Goals | Assists | Goal Contributions |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Luis Muriel | 151 | 3.58 | 0.60 | 0.60 | 1.20 |
Martín Ojeda | 243 | 6.67 | 0.37 | 0.37 | 0.74 |
Marco Pašalić | 234 | 3.46 | 0.77 | 0.38 | 1.15 |
The combined averages of these players’ performances are the aforementioned 4.73 shot-creating actions and 0.57 goals scored per 90 minutes. Orlando City’s DPs rank third in the league for shot-creating actions and fifth in goals scored. Seattle’s DPs (Jordan Morris and Albert Rusnák) are the reverse — fifth in shot-creating actions and third in goals scored — tying them with Orlando City at an average of fourth. Both teams trail expansion team San Diego FC, which is off to a strong start with two wins and a draw in its first three matches, and which has DPs (Anders Dreyer and Hirving “Chucky” Lozano) who rank fourth in shot-creating actions and second in goals scored, leading all clubs with an average of third across the two measures.
Looking at this a little differently, we can use standard deviations to compare just how much better or worse each club’s Designated Players compare to the league average. The axes look flipped from the last chart, but they are not. Shot-creating actions are still on the x-axis and goals on the y-axis. In this case, on the x-axis we are comparing a team’s average per 90 minutes in shot-creating actions to the league average, and we can see that Orlando City, again located in the purple bullseye, is 1.33 standard deviations better than league average.
The Lions are also 0.99 standard deviations better than league average in goals per 90 minutes, making them one of only six clubs who have Designated Players performing better than league average in both metrics (positive values are better than league average, negative values are worse than league average), and in a smaller group of three clubs that can claim to have had the best performance in terms of both creating shots and scoring goals.

The two circles located in the vicinity of Orlando City are again Seattle and San Diego, performing better in goals per 90 minutes but not as well in shot-creating actions. The outlier on the y-axis is D.C. United, as that club’s DPs are averaging 1.04 goals per 90 minutes, nearly three standard deviations (read: a lot) more than league average. The outlier on the x-axis is Nashville, which is surprising given that Zimmerman, a central defender, is one of the team’s DPs. Nashville is averaging nearly six shot-creating actions per DP per 90 minutes — almost 2.5 standard deviations more than league average.
If you recall your statistics classes, the general rule is that 95% of data points fall within two standard deviations above or below the average, so when any person or any team is more than two standard deviations better than the average either a) they are doing incredibly well, or b) the sample may not yet be big enough to feel confident in the standard deviations. In this case, it is probably both, as the teams have only played three games.
Even though the samples are small, it is still completely OK to feel great about the initial performances of Orlando City’s three Designated Players. The group has combined for four goals and three assists, and Muriel, Ojeda, and Pašalić have been a driving force behind a strong start to the season on the offensive end of the field.
Here’s to hoping that Orlando’s Designated Players will continue their torrid pace when the club returns back to the New York City metro area to play the Red Bulls on Saturday and their performance evokes a phrase from another Fatboy Slim song, and come Saturday, we find ourselves praising them like we should.
Vamos Orlando!
Orlando City
Orlando City at New York Red Bulls: Three Keys to Victory
What do the Lions need to do to bounce back on the road and secure a victory against the New York Red Bulls?

Orlando City heads north for the second week in a row, but this time to Red Bull…er…Sports Illustrated Stadium to take on the New York Red Bulls. The Lions are coming off a disappointing loss to New York City FC. A win gets Orlando City back to .500 before returning to Inter&Co Stadium next week.
On paper this looks like a low-scoring match, so it will probably be a barn burner. What does Orlando City need to do to earn all three points on the road against the New York Red Bulls?
Oh Captain, My Captain!
Robin Jansson is back, but the defense still gave up two goals against New York City FC. That’s eight goals shipped in three games for those who are counting. It’s not particularly surprising that Orlando City is 1-2-0 given the leaky defense. It doesn’t get any easier this Saturday with yet another road trip to play a New York team, albeit this time in New Jersey. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse, but we do know they will at least be playing on a normal-sized soccer pitch this week.
The Red Bulls aren’t exactly prolific scorers so far this season with only two goals so far — one from Emil Forsberg and one from Mohammed Sofo — but that doesn’t mean they can’t score this weekend. Now that the captain is back, the defense needs to get things sorted out. I’m hoping that the normal spacing of SI Stadium will allow the defense to refocus with Jansson back in charge.
Break on Through
New York may not score a ton of goals, but it gives up even fewer. The Red Bulls have only allowed one goal this season. It came in the match against FC Cincinnati off a long pass and off the head of Kevin Denkey. Even then, there were two defenders on him and it was a race between Denkey and keeper Carlos Coronel to see who would reach the ball first. I’m saying it’s not easy to score against them.
On the flip side, Orlando City has been able to score seven goals in its first three matches. Those goals have come from six different players. I think that there will be two players I’ll be watching in particular in the buildup. Jansson is fairly accurate at delivering long passes like the one on which Cincinnati scored. We also know that one of Eduard Atuesta’s strengths is connecting the defense to the offense. If the two can break the lines of the opposition, then the Lions have enough options up top to spread out the chances.
Use the Space
If Orlando City never plays in Yankee Stadium again it will be too soon. Luckily, the passing lanes and spacing will be back to normal standards this weekend. That should mean better passing from Orlando City, and the ability to run the offense how Oscar Pareja prefers.
As such, I want the Lions to take their time, be methodical, and strike when the time is right. That doesn’t mean they have to build out of the back all night. If the Red Bulls are creeping up, go route one. Use whatever space New York gives, but don’t let up. You can’t win if you don’t score, and one goal may determine this match.
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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