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Orlando City vs. D.C. United: Player Grades and Man of the Match

How did your favorite Lions perform in Orlando City’s 5-0 home win vs. D.C. United?

Published

9 months ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

On a night when the merch of the match was a shirt showing a picture of Orlando City legend Kaká in the midst of his iconic post-goal celebration, the current iteration of the Lions celebrated five times themselves after putting goals into the net and trounced the squad from our nation’s capital, 5-0.

Thankfully, the fans in The Wall did not shoot off all of their flares and fireworks on Independence Day, as they needed them all night long in Inter&Co Stadium on Saturday night. Nine different Lions had goal contributions, and the team kept a clean sheet. Games like these are the fun ones to evaluate and grade.

I have my purple pen out, and I am ready to issue those grades, so here we go. Let’s take a look at how Orlando City’s players rated individually in their Eastern Conference matchup.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 6 — It was a mostly quiet night for the Peruvian goalkeeper, especially after a red card was issued to D.C. United’s Lucas Bartlett in first-half stoppage time. Pedro recorded one save on United’s only shot on target and completed eight of his 12 pass attempts, but really was not called upon for very much after some initial action early in the match. Still, a clean sheet is a clean sheet, and he will be happy to have contributed the fifth shutout of the season for the Orlando City defense.

D, Kyle Smith, 6 — Kyle started for the second consecutive match on the left side of the defense and I thought he performed well on the night. He brings a different look to both the offense and the defense than when Rafael Santos is on the field, and on Saturday night I thought he had a good partnership with the defensive back line and also with the offense. He completed 44 passes at an 89.8% clip, and got two shots off as well, though neither were on frame. Defensively, he contributed two tackles, an interception, and three clearances before making way for Alex Freeman in the 82nd minute.

D, Robin Jansson, 9 (MotM) — I toyed with going even higher for Robin, as what more can you do as a central defender than be the captain, contribute to a clean sheet, score a goal, complete 97.3% of your passes, save a ball off the line, and basically smother a former Premier League starting striker in Christian Benteke? Jansson recorded a tackle, an interception, a blocked shot, and three clearances. His header was too powerful for Tyler Miller to stop on Orlando’s second goal, providing the Lions some breathing room early in the match, and he nearly scored a second goal in the 73rd minute off Miller’s fantastic save of Rodrigo Schlegel’s header, but the defender couldn’t make good contact with the ball while it was in the air. He helped break D.C.’s pressure with two successful dribbles, too. The only knock on Jansson was that he did not play the full 90 minutes, but when you sub out when your team is leading 4-0, is that a knock, really? The game was well in hand when he subbed off for the returning David Brekalo, and I believe the Beefy Swede was the top reason why the Lions were dominating the game, so for me he was the Man of the Match.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 8 — While the Argentinean defender’s night was a little quieter than that of his partner in central defense, he still put in an excellent shift and definitely contributed to the clean sheet. Rodrigo went the full 90 minutes, leading the team with four clearances in addition to an interception and a blocked shot. He completed 92.9% of his passes, including four of his six long balls, while nearly tucking away a header that was headed, literally, for the upper corner before a fine save by Miller kept it out. He also played a major role in keeping the aforementioned Benteke off the score sheet, something many teams have not been able to do this season, with a team-high four aerials won. His goal early was well taken, even if it didn’t count because he was well offside.

D, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, 7.5 — Dagur Dan got Orlando City going early in the match, intercepting a pass, smoking down the right side, staying on his feet despite a major shoulder bump from Christopher McVey, and then stopping on a dime to cut the ball back and play a perfect pass to Martín Ojeda for the opening goal. That was just one of 46 completed passes for the Icelandic right back on the night at a 97.9% completion rate, with three of those passes leading directly to an Orlando City shot. He also chipped in a clearance and two dribbles. Thorhallsson went the full 90, and he was still making runs up and down the field late in the game, even with the Lions clearly having the game in hand. When Smith subbed out, Thorhallsson switched over to the left side of the field and did not show any issues at all with playing in an unusual position, and he helped close out the final few minutes to earn the Lions their clean sheet.

MF, César Araujo, 6 — The Uruguayan defensive midfielder had a solid game, playing his usual destroyer role in the middle of the field and helped start the offense out of the back. As he always does, César drew a few fouls (2) and completed most (90.9%) of his passes, and I was somewhat surprised it was him who made way for Luis Muriel in the 58th minute, though it was likely to protect him from yellow card accumulation. In another surprise move, it was Araujo who attempted to score off a free kick when the Lions had a golden opportunity to score from just outside the box in first-half stoppage time. His effort, while hit very hard, cannoned off the wall and nothing came of that opportunity. It was one of his two shots on the night — both off target. He added a clearance on the defensive end. It was a strong, but quiet, game for César.

MF, Wilder Cartagena, 8.5 — I thought Wilder was excellent on Saturday night, as he led the team in passes completed (77), shots (4), and shots on target (3), and was also second on the team in tackles (3). The Peruvian midfielder also had an assist on two key passes, as he took a pass from Facundo Torres and played a perfect ball right onto Jansson’s head to put the Lions up 2-0. Cartagena also played the ball over the top that led to the red card foul by Bartlett on Iván Angulo, a wonderfully weighted ball in just the right spot that could well have been his second assist had there not been a foul. It was one of nine attempted long balls by the Peruvian and he completed all nine. After Araujo subbed out, Wilder also held down the center of the park for the rest of the game, recording one clearance and putting in an excellent shift on a very hot night in Orlando.

MF, Facundo Torres, 8.5 — I feel like the Facu we loved during his first two years has returned, and Saturday night’s match was emblematic of everything he is capable of doing on the field. The Uruguayan winger had five key passes, two secondary assists, and one goal (with his right foot!), and I think he should have also created two penalty kicks with shots that looked very much like they hit arms that were in places that should have led to a handball call. Neither was called, because…Orlando City. Back to Facu though, he now has four goals in his last five matches and is creating goal-scoring opportunities all over the field for his teammates. In addition, he added three tackles and an interception defensively. He was outstanding on Saturday, and he was definitely in contention for my Man of the Match.

MF, Iván Angulo, 8 — On the other side of the field from Facu was Iván Angulo, and his performance about as impressive. He scored his third goal of the season on a looked-intentional-but-perhaps-was-slightly-unintentional-but-it-worked-out-so-we’ll-call-it-intentional give and go with Martín Ojeda (though officially Ojeda did not get the assist as it came off a defender before Angulo shot it). It was his run that drew the DOGSO (denial of a goal scoring opportunity) foul that reduced D.C. United to 10 men late in the first half and, for all intents and purposes, ensured that Orlando City would win the match. Angulo also played the through ball to Duncan McGuire that led to Facu’s goal, and had that ball come back into the middle, he was in perfect position to tap it in for a goal as well. The Colombian also led the team in tackles, with four, and completed 53 passes, third on the team, at an 84.1% rate, with three of those passes leading directly to a shot. With D.C. United down a man, it was often Angulo who stretched the defense to the limit on the left side of the field; he received 21 passes from 10 yards or more away in the attacking half of the field on Saturday night, tied for third most by any player in a MLS game in 2024. One thing he could have done better was get his crosses past the first defender, as he went 0-for-2 on attempted crosses though he did win a couple of corners out of them.

MF, Martín Ojeda, 8 — Ojeda’s cannon shot opened the scoring as he timed his run perfectly to find a huge swath of space near the top of the 18 and then absolutely smashed the cross from Thorhallsson past three defenders and the goalkeeper to put the Lions on the board. He now has two goals and one assist in the last three games, and it seems like perhaps the South American trio of he, Torres, and Angulo are starting to gel as the attacking midfield group. He would have scored a second goal on a brilliant shot later but had strayed well offside on the play. As he nearly always does, Ojeda led the team in crosses (14) and completed half of them (7), part of an overall passing completion percentage of 93.8%. He was also second on the team with four key passes and added a tackle, before making way for Nico Lodeiro in the 78th minute.

F, Duncan McGuire, 6 — The effort was definitely there for Duncan during this game, and even though he did not score a goal himself, he did contribute a wonderful assist on a play he could have tried to take himself, but instead made a great pass across the box for Torres to run onto to and deposit into the back of the net. On a similar play a few minutes before, he had tried to take it himself and his timing was off and he ended up dribbling it out of bounds, but he got a second chance and he did not waste it, contributing to making the score 4-0 and effectively ending the game. He put one of his three shots on target, a flicked effort at the near post on a corner. I was unable to attend the game in person so I was watching on the AppleTV+ feed, and Duncan also led the team in getting caught on camera yelling “pass me the (inappropriate) ball” after making another run that went unrewarded, which meant he also led the team in comedic output. He only had 23 touches and only completed eight passes at a 66.7% rate, but on the whole I thought he was more positive than negative before he subbed out for Ramiro Enrique in the 77th minute.

Substitutes

MF, Luis Muriel (58′), 5 — It was a subdued performance from Muriel off the bench Saturday, as for the first time this season he did not even get a shot off, and the only real energy I saw from him was when he got into Torres’ selfie celebration. He completed 16 passes at a 94.1% rate, and he had a nutmeg while possessing the ball in the defensive end, adding a key pass and two dribbles. But on the whole, it was a rather pedestrian performance in a game where I thought he could have contributed more going against a hot and tired defense playing down a man.

F, Ramiro Enrique (75′), 6.5 — A late game sub, Ramiro made his presence felt with his first goal of the season on a glancing header in the 85th minute off a headed ball from fellow sub Alex Freeman. He provided his usual energy and hustle off the bench, and completed all five of his passes for a perfect 100% completion rate.

MF, Nico Lodeiro (77′), 6.5 — Nico only played 13 minutes plus stoppage time, but he managed to complete 19 passes (at a 90.5% rate) and have 32 touches of the ball, so he definitely came into the game like a firework. (It’s still close enough to Independence Day for this reference to work, right? Don’t answer that.) The Uruguayan also played the corner kick that Alex Freeman headed across for Enrique’s goal, made two tackles and had one interception, so I felt that even in a short performance he did earn a grade, and a good one, with how he contributed to the final portion of the game.

D, David Brekalo, (77’), N/A — The Slovenian subbed in at the same time as Lodeiro, but since he subbed in for Jansson, and D.C. United barely had the ball while he was on, I did not think there was enough there for him to earn a grade. Brekalo completed all 11 of his passes, including two long balls, but aside from that he did not have any other involvement in the game.

D, Alex Freeman (82′), 6.5 — The final Orlando City substitution of the game, Freeman came on for Smith, playing right back, which pushed Thorhallsson to the left side. In his short time on the field, he completed all nine of his passes, including a perfect flicked header across the box for his first career MLS assist. On the play, he made a run from the center of the box to beat a D.C. United defender to Lodeiro’s corner kick, sending across to Enrique, who nodded it home. This was Freeman’s longest appearance of his young MLS career, and I thought he looked very comfortable on the field.

That’s how I saw the individual performances on Saturday night. What did you think? Be sure to let us know in the comments and vote in the poll below for your Orlando City Man of the Match.

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Orlando City

Orlando City’s Offense Looks Different With Marco Pašalić on the Right

How Orlando City’s offensive style changed from the end of 2024 to 2025 and how the Croatian contributes differently than Facundo Torres did.

Published

14 hours ago

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March 27, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

As I often like to do, I will start this article on Orlando City by writing about…baseball. America’s pastime — or at least it was for most of the 20th century — is celebrating opening day for the 2025 season this week, but that is not why I mention baseball. Rather, when I think about baseball I often think about baseball movies, and that brings me to one of the seminal sports films of all time, The Sandlot.

There are many great characters and moments in this movie, but a fan favorite was Michael “Squints” Palledorous. If you have not seen The Sandlot, you should, because that movie is fun and fun is good, but the reason I brought Squints up is because…wait for it…if you squint really hard when looking at Orlando City’s newest Designated Player, Marco Pašalić, then you can see Orlando City’s former Designated Player, and all-time leading scorer, Facundo Torres.

I say you have to squint really hard because aside from being similarly aged (Torres is 154 days older than Pašalić), left-foot-dominant players who play on the right side of the field, the styles of play for both players are quite different, as is how Orlando City has played in 2025 with Pašalić vs. toward the end of 2024 with Torres.

Let’s start with Orlando’s style of play in 2025 vs. the end of 2024, and we will look at the two individual players after that. I am choosing the final games of last season, because those are the most recent games played by the team, and as was frequently discussed in the run-up to this season, Orlando City brought back many of its key players from last season and has much of the same coaching staff as well. If you look at the statistics though, the team is playing differently this season as compared to 2024.

I’ve broken this out into three sections: the first five games of the 2025 regular season, the five 2024 playoff games, and the final five 2024 regular-season games. Playoff games are played differently than regular-season games, so I did not want to just compare the most recent five games of 2024 to the first five of 2025. This data is sourced from fbref.com, tracked by coders from Opta (all data is on a per-game basis):

Category2025 Reg. Season
(First 5 Games)		2024 Playoffs
(5 games)		2024 Reg. Season
(Last 5 Games)
Possession46%56%52%
Passes Attempted473538536
Touches in Attacking Third142195183
Shots16.012.413.4
Expected Goals2.01.31.9
Attacks Down Right Side37%31%28%

We will get back to the attacks down the right side more specifically when we look at Pašalić and Torres, but look at the major differences in all of these numbers. This year’s team, at least through the first few games, is playing a different style of soccer than the 2024 team played at the end of the season. They are possessing the ball less throughout the game but also in particular while in the attacking third of the field. This comes from rapid counterattacks and excellent transition offense as well as a more direct approach to creating shots.

We can see this more direct approach by looking at the reduction in touches per game in the attacking third of the field juxtaposed against an increase of more than 20% in shots per game, meaning that the ratio of touches per shot in the attacking third has decreased dramatically from last year to this year. During the final five regular-season games, the Lions were averaging 13.7 touches per shot, and thus far in 2025 that number is 8.9.

In this context, a touch is counted not as every individual dribble or pass but rather as a count of each person who possesses the ball in the attacking third of the field. So, a pass from player A to player B, who then takes four dribbles and passes to player C is three touches, even though player B dribbled the ball four times.

The upshot of the reduction of touches per shot is that Orlando City is getting to its shots in a reduced number of possessors of the ball, meaning that there has been lower risk of a bad exchange since there have been fewer exchanges. This year’s team is generating shots from more dangerous locations (using expected goals) as well, and the Lions’ 13 goals scored in the first five games leads the league at this point of the season.

Looking at the final row in that table, there is also a big difference in the location of where the Lions are emanating their attacks from. The team is more frequently launching attacks down the right side, and that is where the comparison of Torres and Pašalić starts to come into play. It must also be noted that the primary right back in 2024 was Dagur Dan Thórhallsson, whereas in 2025 it has been future USMNT starter Alex Freeman (I crossed it out, but I do believe that Freeman is a serious candidate to play on the national team), and it is likely not coincidental that there have been more attacks down the right side with the direct playing style of the Pašalić-Freeman combination.

Torres also always made a point to play all across the attacking zone, often switching sides with Iván Angulo, whereas that has not been the case this season with Pašalić. I pulled the heatmaps (thank you very much, whoscored.com) for Pašalić and Torres from the same five-game periods from the table above, and you can see that in Torres’s heatmaps the blue shading goes all over the field, whereas for Pašalić he stays mostly to the right side (Orlando City is attacking from left to right on all of the heatmaps below).

These heatmaps and the following stats show some stark differences between the Croatian Designated Player and the Uruguayan former Designated Player in terms of how they play/played for Orlando City (all data is on a per-game basis):


Category		Pašalić:
2025 Regular Season		Torres:
Playoffs		Torres:
Last 5 games of
2024 Regular Season
Touches37.861.050.8
Take-Ons4.82.81.2
Passes Attempted23.252.043.4
Shots3.02.41.6
Shot-Creating Actions3.23.82.4
Progressive Passes Received5.69.88.0

Across nearly every metric there are big differences between the players, but in particular the ones that stand out to me are how much of the offense flowed through Torres last season and how the Lions looked for him to initiate as compared to how Pašalić appears to get his offense in the flow of play — at least through the first five games of this season. Pašalić also attacks more off the dribble than Torres did, as shown by his much higher rate of take-ons per game, and he is able to get shots off at a higher rate as well.

That leads me to the last comparison, which is not shown in the table above, but is the most critical category for any offensive player — goals scored. Orlando City has not yet played 15% of its 2025 MLS regular-season games, but Pašalić has scored four goals and assisted on another. With so many games still to play, we can extrapolate the numbers to see a pace of 27 goals scored and seven assists, but we can also consider that defenses will adjust over a long season and it is unlikely that the pace will remain the same for the next seven months.

Torres, sadly, is not on pace to score any more goals for the Lions, but he did score 37 MLS regular-season goals during his three seasons, including two seasons of 14 goals each, and he added 20 assists as well. His numbers are real, not theoretical or extrapolated, and while it is incredibly exciting to think about Orlando City’s offense and what it could be and what Pašalić could achieve, we are still only five games into the new season, so let’s keep our excitement from boiling over for at least another week.

Pašalić still has a way to go to show that he can consistently create goals the way that Torres did, but if you squint real hard, you can see that the potential is there for him to do so or perhaps even surpass his predecessor out on the right wing. He is playing with a different offensive style but going after the same result.

We will see.

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. LA Galaxy: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to secure their first road win of the season?

Published

16 hours ago

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March 27, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City heads to the other coast to take on the defending MLS champions LA Galaxy Saturday. The Lions are coming off a dominating 4-1 victory over D.C. United at Inter&Co Stadium. Orlando City looks capable of beating any team with the way the offense is humming, but road wins are tough to come by in MLS. Here’s what Orlando City needs to do to earn all three points against the LA Galaxy.

Keep the Good Times Rolling

Orlando City leads MLS in scoring with 13 goals so far this season. Just as importantly, the Lions’ three Designated Players — Martin Ojeda, Luis Muriel, and Marco Pasalic — have accounted for nine of those goals. Additionally, the trio has provided seven of the 16 total assists this season. I’m no math guy, but 20 goal contributions from the players that are supposed to be doing just that is good stuff.

The Galaxy have shipped 10 goals so far this season. The champs are vulnerable and the Lions are on a goal-scoring hot streak. If the Lions can get the first goal of the match early, they will better be able to dictate the terms to the home team. As such, the Orlando City offense, led by the Designated Players, needs to keep things going against the Galaxy. I expect it will take multiple goals to secure a win.

Get Gritty

Cesar Araujo made his return against D.C. United and it was the first time Orlando City didn’t give up multiple goals this season. I want to see him be the enforcer he usually is against the likes of Edwin Cerrillo and Christian Ramirez. However, I also want to see Eduard Atuesta show a bit more grittiness in the defense as well. You can’t push the ball forward if you don’t take it away from the opposition.

Pedro Gallese will be back for this match, and he will rightly get the start. I’m not taking anything away from Javier Otero’s first start, but sometimes defenses take on more responsibility when you have a younger, less experienced keeper in goal. That shouldn’t mean Araujo or the back line can take it easy. We’ve seen what happens when this defense loses focus and it isn’t good. Show me the grit.

The Intangibles

Traveling all the way across the country to play is never an easy proposition. Away matches in MLS are always difficult because your routine is a bit messed up. You don’t get to sleep in your own bed, the climate is different, and in L.A. you’re kicking off when you are usually going to bed. The Lions need to overcome all of those elements to maximize their chances.

Of course, not all the intangibles are against the Lions. The Galaxy have struggled to start the season, and a team can press too much when looking for a win in front of the home fans. Additionally, the Galaxy are playing in Concacaf Champions Cup, with their next match three days later on Tuesday night against Tigres UANL. Hopefully they’ll be keeping an eye on minutes played for their starters in anticipation of the Champions Cup 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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Lion Links

Lion Links: 3/27/25

Marco Pasalic wins Goal of the Matchday, Orlando Pride members join U.S. U-23 camp, Orlando City B beats Crown Legacy FC, and more.

Published

19 hours ago

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March 27, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

We’re another day closer to what should be an awesome Saturday, with both Orlando City and the Orlando Pride in action. All three of Orlando’s soccer teams have been doing well lately, which is not something we can say too often. Hopefully that trend continues this weekend and beyond. Let’s get to today’s links!

Marco Pasalic Wins MLS Goal of the Matchday

An Orlando City player has won MLS Goal of the Matchday for the first time this season, with Marco Pasalic claiming the award for his strike against D.C. United. The goal was a real team effort from the Lions, as all three Designated Players linked up to get the ball up the field in a hurry for a counter. Pasalic did well to create space and then curl the ball into the back of the net from distance. His goal garnered 64.7% of the vote, beating out goals from Daniel Rios, David Martinez, and Deandre Kerr. In his first year as a Lion, the Croatian winger has already recorded four goals and an assist so far.

Pride’s Zara Chavoshi and Yolanda Thomas Join U.S. U-23 Camp

Orlando Pride defender Zara Chavoshi was called up for the first U-23 United States Women’s National Team training camp of the year, which will run alongside the senior team’s camp in California. The 22-year-old, who was signed by the Pride directly out of college after four years at Wake Forest, will develop her game at the camp alongside other promising young defenders like Savy King, Gisele Thompson, and Eva Gaetino. Orlando Pride Assistant Coach Yolanda Thomas will also be in attendance as an assistant coach at the camp, and it’s great to see her get this opportunity.

Orlando City B Defeats Crown Legacy FC on the Road

Orlando City B won its first road match of the 2025 season, beating Crown Legacy FC 1-0 to extend its unbeaten run to three games (2-0-1). The Young Lions didn’t make things easy on themselves by not converting some solid opportunities to extend their lead, but they ultimately held on to secure all three points. Orlando is now tied at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with New York City FC II with eight points from three matches. OCB’s next match will be a road game against Chattanooga FC on April 5.

Say Hello to Boston Legacy FC

Boston’s NWSL team has rebranded itself as Boston Legacy FC, which is leagues better than BOS Nation FC. The team initially went with that anagram of Bostonian as its name back in October as part of a brand launch that also included a widely criticized marketing campaign involving the slogan “Too Many Balls.” While I’m not crazy about the name, the team deserves credit for not defaulting to something too generic after whiffing on its first swing. The Boston Legacy will take the field for the first time next year as the NWSL’s 16th team.

Free kicks

  • Pride midfielder Angelina was called up by Brazil for its friendlies against the United States in California on April 5 and April 8.

That’s all I have for you this fine Thursday. I hope you all have a terrific day and rest of your week!

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