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Orlando City

Orlando City’s 2024 Offensive Blueprint (So Far)

An evaluation of how Orlando City has been trying to score goals in 2024.

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2 years ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Jay-Z released one of my all-time favorite albums, The Blueprint, in 2001. With apologies to him, and his track on that album called “Girls, Girls, Girls,” what we as fans want are goals, goals, goals, and we want our team to score as many of them as possible. In this article I will explore Orlando City’s attacking style — some might say their attacking…blueprint — thus far this season and evaluate how the Lions have been trying create those goals we do adore.

All right, now that we have pushed the limit on puns and wordplay about that album, let’s look at some numbers related to Orlando City’s offense. First, let’s start with the direction of play, because Orlando City has a very clear plan of attack in 2024, and it involves the left side. According to the tracking from whoscored.com, Orlando City attacks down the left side on nearly half of its possessions.

No team in MLS favors one side of the field as frequently as Orlando City’s 45% on the left side, and it is interesting that it is so high down the left because Facundo Torres, generally regarded as the squad’s most creative and dangerous player, plays most frequently on the right side of the field. I think there are three primary reasons for the left side favoritism:

  • Iván Angulo is one of the fastest players in MLS and spends most of his time on the left side of the field, so the team tries to get him into space so he can use that speed to get the defense on its heels.
  • Orlando City has three left-footed players who love a cross so much I am surprised they play for Orlando City and not Vatican City. Rafael Santos averages 5.1 crosses per 90 mins (27th in MLS), Nico Lodeiro averages 5.6 (16th), and Martín Ojeda averages 9.61 (second). Ojeda has been playing more centrally recently, but he still drifts to the left frequently. Lodeiro does the same, and Santos nearly exclusively stays on the left side. All three of them are crossing machines.
  • Torres loves to cut back into the middle from his normal slot on the right side of the field, and so crossing it from left to right gives him space to operate, as the defense has to recover on a switch of field, and a scrambling defense against a talented attacking player is advantageous for Orlando City. Torres is fifth in MLS in receiving passes from 10+ yards away in the offensive area of the field, and his per-90-minute average for those receptions has increased from 2022 (8.4) to 2023 (9.8) to 2024 (11.4). Additionally, here is Facu’s shot chart for the year, courtesy of fotmob.com, and you can see that of his seven non-penalty-kick goals, all of them come from the right half of the field (his most recent goal against New England is highlighted with the red circle, because after a few minutes I gave up on trying to figure out how to show this without having one highlighted):

Expanding a little bit off of the direction of play, but returning to the second item in the list above, Orlando City leads all of MLS with an average of 21.32 crosses per 90 minutes. The other 28 MLS teams average 16.6 crosses per 90 minutes, so Orlando City is crossing the ball 28% more frequently than the average MLS team. The Lions have a physical presence in Duncan McGuire in the middle, so this makes sense to target him with crosses into the 18, and in fact the team is fourth in MLS this season with an average of 2.4 completed crosses into the penalty areas per 90 minutes.

It is not just Duncan though, of the 36 goals Orlando City players have scored this season (the other three are own goals), nine of them have come on a header and by eight different players. That 25% of goals scored on a header is the highest percentage for any Orlando City team in fbref.com’s tracking (goes back to 2018) and ranks the team only behind Austin FC’s 29% in MLS this season.

All crosses do not necessarily end in headers, but nearly all headers come from crosses, and the irony of the fact that Orlando City is scoring a high percentage of its goals from headers is that the Lions rank, to use a technical term, DFL in the league in percentage of aerial balls won (40.1%, and the next lowest is 45.4%). It’s kind of like the tagline to those Most Interesting Man in the World beer commercials from Dos Equis — the Lions don’t often win aerial balls, but when they do, they score goals.

Flipping from balls in the air to balls that are generally played on the ground, according to the data tracked by Opta on fbref.com, Orlando City is seventh in MLS in completed through balls per 90 minutes with an average of 1.5. The Lions have been in the top third of MLS in four of the last five seasons in this statistic, as this is clearly a staple of an Óscar Pareja-coached squad.

If you look at the individual MLS players who are leading the league in completing these dangerous balls, it is a veritable who’s who of creative players across the league. Say what you will about Luis Muriel, and I wrote a whole article about him a few weeks ago, but his passing ability is excellent, and it did not surprise me at all to see him high on this list and among the other well-known names. Here are the top 15, which also includes Lodeiro, among players who have played at least 500 minutes:

I touched on the left side focus earlier and how Angulo’s speed plays a large role in why the team plays more frequently down the left side, and that comes into play here as well with Orlando City’s predilection for playing through balls. It is also now time for Dagur Dan Thórhallsson to enter the chat, because he is just as much of a through ball target as Ruan was for several years in making speed runs up the right side of the field, and he ranks 24th among defenders in goal-creating actions per 90 minutes (0.24). Coincidentally, he also ranks 24th in shot-creating actions per 90 minutes (2.0). McGuire is also a target for these through balls as he makes excellent shallow runs behind defenders to then run onto balls played in front of him, and Ramiro Enrique is also pacey enough to do the same.

The completed crosses and through balls, as well as the fact that Orlando City is in the top 10 in total completed passes per 90 minutes, contribute to the team leading MLS with 10.1 completed passes into the penalty area per 90 minutes. The rest of MLS averages only 8.4, so Orlando City’s offensive tactics puts the team 20% higher than the rest of the league in terms of its frequency of completing passes to teammates inside the box.

Now, what teams want are goals, not completed passes into the penalty area, but you can see what the Lions are trying to do offensively by looking what these numbers reveal about how they are directing their attacking play.

Orlando City has a burner on the left (Angulo) and also several left-footed players who have the ability to whip in a dangerous cross (Ojeda, Lodeiro, Santos), so the focus is more on going down the left than the middle or the right. The Lions do have a fullback (Thórhallsson) with pace on the right too, so he is a target when they go right, and as a former midfielder, he has the ability to create offense coming forward, so he does with great frequency. The best finisher (Torres) is out on the right but loves to cut back to his left, and this year there is a higher focus on getting him the ball in space as opposed to having him leading the buildup.

Three players (Ojeda, Lodeiro, Muriel) are sharing the 10 role and releasing through balls to the outside and inside threats, and McGuire and Enrique are essentially serving as soccer versions of a basketball rim runner, attacking the goalmouth and trying to score in any way possible.

It all sounds great on paper, but for much of the season the offense was sputtering — so much so that Orlando City has scored more goals in the last seven games (20, 2.9 goals per game) than it did in its first 18 games (19, 1.1 goals per game). The first half of the season contained several issues that I believe contributed heavily to the low goal-scoring output, with several injuries, games missed for international duty, and competing in Concacaf Champions Cup at the same time as the start of the regular season, forcing squad rotation and players playing outside of their normal positions.

There was also just some poor play during those early months as well, some self-inflicted poor performances. I believe that Orlando City has found something though in the last few weeks, and while the Lions may not score 2.9 goals per game for the rest of the season, I think that what we have seen recently is a settled team of players who know their roles and understand the strategy, and who have the ability to execute that strategy.

Just 17 years after it was released, Jay-Z’s The Blueprint was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Let’s hope that 17 years from now, in 2041, we are all looking back fondly on what became an athletically significant 2024 season for Orlando City.

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 8/10/26

Lions and Pride lose, Americans abroad, Latest MLS transfer roundup, and more.

Published

12 hours ago

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August 10, 2026

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Image of Marco Pasalic dribbling the ball in the attack against Atlanta.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Justin Glatt

Hello, Mane Landers! I hope all is well with you down in Florida. I’ve been keeping myself busy at work and getting ready to cover high school sports again soon. Let’s wish a belated happy birthday to former Lion Alex Freeman, who turned 22 on Sunday, and a happy birthday to former Orlando City head coach Oscar Pareja, who turns 58 today. We’ve got plenty to cover today, so let’s get to the links.

Lions Fall to Club Leon in Leagues Cup

Orlando City fell 2-1 to Club Leon at home in the second matchday of the 2026 Leagues Cup on Saturday. Marco Pasalic scored for the Lions in the first half as Orlando took a 1-0 lead into halftime. In the second half, Club Leon overturned the one-goal deficit, responding with goals from Juan Guevara and Daniel Arcila to take a 2-1 lead as the Liga MX side edged the Lions for the win. Orlando City will be back at home on Wednesday to face Atletico de San Luis to close out the first phase of Leagues Cup.

Pride Winless Skid Continues with Loss to Racing Louisville

The Orlando Pride fell 3-1 to Racing Louisville FC at home on Friday as the club continues to slide down the NWSL table and has lost back-to-back league matches. Louisville struck first to take a 1-0 lead into halftime. In the second half, Emma Sears scored twice to give Louisville a 3-0 lead. In stoppage time, Kerry Abello scored for the Pride to avoid the shutout, but Louisville secured its third win in its last four games. Meanwhile, Orlando has lost four out of its last five matches. The Pride will be on the road for their next match on Saturday, taking on the Portland Thorns.

Americans Abroad

Orlando City midfielder Colin Guske started and played a full 90 minutes for the U.S. U-20 Men’s National Team against Mexico in the Concacaf U-20 Championships. The U.S. fell 2-0 to Mexico in the final on Sunday. Max Arfsten and Sebastian Berhalter made their debuts for Middlesbrough in Round 1 of the Carabao Cup against Wrexham on Friday. Berhalter notched an assist as Middlesbrough defeated Wrexham 1-0 to advance to the second round. Ricardo Pepi started and played 80 minutes for PSV Eindhoven in a 2-2 draw against Fortuna Sittard in the Eredivisie on Saturday. Austin Trusty and Cameron Carter-Vickers were both in action for Celtic in a 5-1 victory against Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.

Latest MLS Transfer Roundup

The LA Galaxy have been busy making moves of late, signing former FC Barcelona and Como midfielder Sergi Roberto to a contract through June 2028 with an option for the 2028-2029 season. The Galaxy added winger Chucky Lozano from San Diego FC on loan through the end of the season and reached an agreement to transfer midfielder Edwin Cerrillo to Liga MX side Club America. Atlanta United has acquired midfielder Mauricio Amaro from Uruguayan top flight club Defensor Sporting. Amaro will be under contract through the 2028-2029 season with an option for 2029-2030. San Diego FC announced on Saturday that the club has transferred defender Andres Reyes to Atletico Nacional in Colombia.

Free Kicks

  • Orlando City forward Yutaro Tsukada, who is on loan at Rhode Island FC, scored his first goal in the USL Championship over the weekend.
  • Kansas City Current forward Temwa Chawinga scored for Malawi, which defeated Ghana 2-1 on Sunday in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time.
  • Nigeria fell 1-0 to Cameroon in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, resulting in Cameroon qualifying for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Nigeria will face South Africa on Thursday in a play-in match to qualify for the FIFA inter-confederation playoffs.
  • Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho revealed in a documentary that he had signed a contract to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2013, but later backed out of the deal and decided to return to Chelsea after his first stint at Real Madrid.

That will do it for me today, Mane Landers. Enjoy your Monday, and I’ll see you next time.

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Club Leon, Leagues Cup: Final Score 2-1 as Lions Blow Halftime Lead in Loss

Marco Pasalic gave the Lions a halftime lead, but the defense got leaky in the second half.

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2 days ago

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August 8, 2026

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Image of Harvey Sarajian getting elbowed in the neck by Juan Guevara of Club Leon
Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Marco Pasalic put Orlando City ahead in the first half, but two second-half mistakes and what appeared to be a clear foul in the penalty area late on Club Leon led to the Lions falling 2-1 at home tonight on the second matchday of Leagues Cup. Juan Guevara and Daniel Arcila pulled Leon back from a goal down in the second half, and an Orlando City (1-1) side that didn’t rotate much from Wednesday’s game looked a bit leggy in the second half against Leon (2-0).

“I think, of course, very very sad for the result for us, for our people, for everyone,” Orlando City interim head coach Martin Perelman said after the match. “We were trying to compete in the best way as possible and trying to win, and we couldn’t. Congrats to them; they did a really good job. We were there, trying to to compete. At the end, we were short.”

Perelman’s lineup featured Maxime Crepeau in goal behind a back line of Bernardo Rhein, Robin Jansson, Iago, and Zakaria Taifi. Luis Otavio and Wilder Cartagena started in central midfielders with Ivan Angulo and Tyrese Spicer in the attack and Marco Pasalic and Antoine Griezmann up top.

The start of the game was bereft of action as the teams tried to figure one another out. The Lions nearly created something magical five minutes after kickoff when Pasalic sent in a great ball over the top for Griezmann, who brought it down, but it bounced a bit wide, and when he went to ground to try to shoot, the defender caught up and blocked the effort.

Neither team could do much with a corner kick opportunity over the next 15 minutes and much of the action was played between the boxes. Pasalic earned a free kick in a dangerous spot when he blew past Juan Guevara, who brought him down and picked up a yellow card. Griezmann took the free kick from just outside the area but his delivery hit the wall and came back to him. He got under his second effort and put it out of play.

The first real danger from Club Leon came on a ball over the top in the 28th minute. Crepeau came off his line but couldn’t get there before Arcila, who tried to chip the goalkeeper but he sent it wide left. Sebastian Santos got to it before it went over the end line and tried to shoot from a tight angle with Iago defending but he got under his shot and put it over the bar.

Just moments after the ensuing hydration break, Leon nearly scored on another ball over the top that was just out of Iago’s reach. Arcila got to it first and fired a shot that Crepeau saved. Fernando Beltran picked up the rebound and tried to chip the Canadian, but Crepeau was able to go up and catch the shot to keep the game scoreless.

Orlando tried a ball over the top for itself in the 36th minute. Spicer was first to it but as he swung his foot to shoot the bouncing ball, the defense arrived and bodied him, causing him to whiff on his effort. But the Lions scored anyway two minutes later.

Pasalic and Griezmann worked a nice give-and-go in the attacking half and the Frenchman sent Spicer down the left. Spicer fed Pasalic at the top of the area and the Croatian’s shot took a slight deflection and beat Oscar Garcia to make it 1-0.

“Happy to help in the first half with the goal,” Pasalic said.

After the goal, Leon showed more determination in keeping the ball and building up play. The guests couldn’t do much with a couple of corners over the next several minutes.

Leon created another chance in first-half stoppage time, when Iago was beaten and Jansson couldn’t quite get over in time to intervene. Arcila got there first and fired toward the near post but Crepeau knocked it out for a corner.

Griezmann headed away the ensuing set piece to end the first period.

The late spell of possession after Pasalic’s goal helped Leon lead in that category at the break (54.1%-45.9%). The Liga MX side also led in shots (8-6), shots on target (5-2), and corners (4-2). Orlando City passed slightly more accurately in the opening half (92.7%-91.8%)

Griffin Dorsey entered the game at halftime for Taifi, but it was Club Leon who brought the energy to the start of the second half. In the opening minutes, Crepeau was forced into two great saves. Rhein turned it over in his defensive third, and Arcila’s cheeky backheel of a cross in from the right forced the Canadian international to make a a diving stop. Leon sent the ball back in from the left to a wide-open Jordi Cortizo in front but sent it right at Crepeau for another save.

Orlando’s first chance of the second half came on a Griezmann corner kick. Dorsey headed it across the box and Iago made a flying attempt at a bicycle kick, but he missed the ball and committed a foul in the process.

Leon got back on the front foot after that, with Jansson doing well to block an Arcila shot at the top of the area in the 51st minute. Arcila then got to a cross and stabbed it wide a minute later, but the initial play was offside.

The visitors tied the game in the 54th minute off a long-range set piece near the left sideline. The cross appeared to go in off of Dorsey, who was trying to mark Juan Guevara. Crepeau got to it just after it crossed the line. Dorsey said something to Crepeau after the play, but Guevara was ultimately credited with the goal.

Orlando’s struggles throughout the game came in the attacking third, and it was magnified in the second half. One such play was a nice buildup in the 69th minute that ended up with Rhein on the left, but the youngster made a mess of his cross, sending it out of play. Two minutes later, substitute Justin Ellis headed a pass to Dorsey that he perhaps should have shot. Ellis got it to Dorsey, who didn’t make good contact and sent a weak shot for Garcia to collect.

It was a costly missed opportunity, as Leon scored the winning goal a minute later. Rhein got caught too far upfield after heading the ball forward, and Leon broke in transition down the right side in behind him. Ivan Moreno found Arcila at the top of the area and the striker found space in front of Iago and sent an inch-perfect shot inside the left post to make it 2-1 in the 72nd minute.

Perelman sent Daryl Dike into the game as Orlando chased the match, and the Lions should have gone to the spot in the 84th minute. Ellis sent a fantastic ball to send Harvey Sarajian into the area on the right. Guevara caught up from behind, threw an arm across the rookie forward’s face, and bundled him over from behind, but referee Jose Camacho Espinoza incredibly saw nothing wrong with what the Leon defender did. There did not even seem to be a stoppage for video review, although media were informed that the play was checked.

“Ellis played the ball through. I’m through. I felt contact to the back, and in my opinion, I thought it was a foul,” Sarajian said. “But the referee didn’t agree. So it is what it is. I felt the contact (to the head and neck area).”

“I saw it,” Perelman said of the play. “I think the same thing as (the media).”

Leon was content to put numbers behind the ball and use the dark arts as much as possible to slow things down. The Lions won a lot of set pieces but could not pay them off. Crepeau came up to join the last few, but in the end, the Lions couldn’t find a way through the mass of Leon defenders down the stretch.

With Leon ceding possession and staying compact late, Orlando City finished with more possession (51.7%-48.3%), while also having the advantage in corners (7-5) and passing accuracy (90%-88.2%). Leon attempted far more shots (18-10) and put more on target (10-3). It was the inability to threaten goal that ultimately prevented Orlando from building on its lead or clawing back into the match.

Pasalic spoke to the referee after the game. He had been taken out in the middle of the pitch in first-half stoppage time that not only didn’t earn Leon a yellow card, but it wasn’t even deemed a foul. He came out to try to play through it in the second half, but the earlier contact forced him off before the hour mark and appeared to be one of the more egregious fouls in the match, despite the no-call.

“Suddenly, I get the hit in my knee, so my knee was getting a lump,” Pasalic said. “And I spoke with them in the halftime. I tried it to go out in the second half, but I felt that my knee is not going to help the team. It’s nothing serious, but I just want to be sure that the team has 10 players on the pitch who can play fully. I mean, I don’t want to get fined. No, just I want to speak in a respectful way about (the referee). For me, it’s unacceptable that he don’t give even the foul when I get fouled, and because of this, I was not able to play again in the second half, fully. This was not even a yellow card.”

The Lions will close out the first phase of Leagues Cup Wednesday at home against Atletico de San Luis.

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Club León, Leagues Cup: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

The Lions look to keep pace with the other MLS sides that won in the first round when León visits Orlando tonight.

Published

2 days ago

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August 8, 2026

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Image of Antoine Griezmann taking a set piece against Monterrey in Leagues Cup action.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Welcome to your match preview and live thread for a Saturday night Leagues Cup matchup between Orlando City (1-0) and Liga MX side Club León (1-0) at the building formerly known as Orlando City Stadium (6:30 p.m., Apple TV). Tonight’s meeting is the first between these two sides.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.

History

As this is the first-ever clash between these two clubs, there is no history between them. Orlando City is 4-2-7 in competitive matches against Liga MX teams.

Match Overview

Orlando City is coming off Wednesday’s 2-1 win over CF Monterrey in its 2026 Leagues Cup opener. Antoine Griezmann and Tyrese Spicer (penalty) scored on either side of halftime, but Hugo Cuypers pulled one back deep in stoppage time, which could be a problem for the Lions in the tiebreakers if they can find success tonight and Wednesday.

León enters tonight off a 1-0 win against a heavily rotated Nashville SC side that played without Hany Mukhtar and didn’t have Sam Surridge in the match until after the hour mark. Daniel Arcila scored in the 79th minute as León snatched a late win in the competition. León is the competition’s No. 28-ranked team (Orlando is No. 19) and is 14th in the Liga MX table after three rounds, with a 1-2-0 record. Los Panzas Verdes have won two straight in all competitions, however, having beaten Nashville a few days ago on the heels of Saturday’s 1-0 home win over 10-man Pachuca. León lost its first two league matches of the season — 3-2 at home to Atlas and 1-0 at Club Tijuana.

Orlando must stay focused defensively for the entirety of the game, as with any Liga MX side, and the priorities should be taking care of the ball while being quick to transition back defensively if the attack turns it over. If the Lions can keep scoring goals at home as they have, that would help.

“We did the recovery process in this short window between one game and the other, and getting ready the team to be able to perform and win, because this is what we want every time we jump on the field, especially at home,” Orlando City interim head coach Martin Perelman said ahead of the match. “We enjoyed the victory (Wednesday) but it’s over and now we need to think on the next game and this is the mode we’re in now.”

Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.

Defenders: Bernardo Rhein, Robin Jansson, Iago, Zakaria Taifi.

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Luis Otavio, Wilder Cartagena, Tyrese Spicer.

Forwards: Antoine Griezmann, Marco Pasalic.

Bench: Javier Otero, Tristan Himes, Adrian Marin, Griffin Dorsey, David Brekalo, Joran Gerbet, Issah Haruna, Gustavo Caraballo, Tiago, Harvey Sarajian, Justin Ellis, Daryl Dike.

León (4-1-4-1)

Goalkeeper: Oscar Garcia.

Defenders: Sebastian Vegas, Juan Guevara, Jhohan Romana, Ivan Moreno .

Defensive Midfielder: Ivan Rodriguez.

Midfielders: Sebastian Santos, Rodrigo Echeverria, Fernando Beltran, Jordi Cortizo.

Forward: Daniel Arcila.

Bench: Irving Martinez, Julio Gonzalez, Bryan Colula, Juan Dominguez, Sebastian Fierro, Jose Alvarado, Paul Bellon, Salvador Reyes, Luis Valadez, Christopher Mora, Gael Camarena, Jesus Lara.

Referees:

REF: Jose Camacho Espinoza..
AR1: Jeriel Valverde Diaz.
AR2: David Moran Santos.
4TH: Hector Said Martinez.
VAR: Yasith Monge.

How to Watch

Match Time: 6:30 p.m.

Venue: Inter.co Stadium — Orlando.

TV/Live Stream: Apple TV.

Radio: None.

Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at @themaneland.bsky.social or follow Orlando City’s official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC) feed.

Enjoy the match. Go City!

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