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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Charlotte FC: Final Score 2-0 as Torres and McGuire Score Second-Half Goals

The Lions earned their third consecutive clean sheet victory and went 3-0-0 on their homestand.

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4 months ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Facundo Torres and Duncan McGuire scored in the second half and Pedro Gallese kept his third consecutive clean sheet as the Lions defeated Charlotte FC 2-0 at Inter&Co Stadium. Orlando City (12-10-7, 43 points) climbed above the .500 mark at home (6-5-4) with the victory, finishing the homestand 3-0-0 without allowing a goal and snapping a four-game winless skid against Charlotte (10-11-8, 38 points) in all competitions.

“Another three points. Important moment,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “And we played against a very difficult rival who played very organized. It’s difficult to break the lines, and one of the teams in Major League Soccer who condenses very well the box. And then it’s difficult to create that affect those spaces. That’s why the value of the game today and the points and scoring two goals against them just makes us feel good, and congratulations to our players as well for such an effort and a great game.”

Pareja’s lineup included Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena started in central midfield behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, and Torres, with Ramiro Enrique up top.

The first chance of the game fell for Orlando in the fourth minute off the recycle of the game’s first corner kick. The ball found Cartagena inside the box on the right and he put a lot of sting into his shot on goal but unfortunately hit it right at Charlotte goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, who fought it off. It was Orlando’s only shot on target in the opening half.

The visitors were content to stay organized and not try to play at all, hoping for the Lions to make a mistake on which they could capitalize. It nearly happened a couple of times with a pair of uncharacteristically poor giveaways by Jansson, but there was nothing too threatening to Gallese’s goal.

Meanwhile, Orlando was often unable to connect in the final phase of the attack. Ojeda had a nice cross in the 11th minute after being played down the left by Angulo, but Enrique couldn’t get on the end of it. Santos had a shot blocked off a short corner in the 14th minute on a play similar to the one he scored on Saturday. This time, however, the opposition covered him and Brandt Bronico blocked his attempt.

Santos sent in a good cross in the 19th minute that found Torres, but the Uruguayan sent his header over the bar. A minute later, Angulo stole the ball and ignited the break, finding Ojeda in space, but Enrique’s touch was poor while receiving the pass, spoiling the counterattack.

Jansson’s turnover in the 30th minute provided a chance for Charlotte. Patrick Agyemang got a shot off but sent it straight at Gallese.

Tim Ream headed wide on a long-range Charlotte set piece that was played short and then crossed from the right to the back post in the 40th minute. A minute later, Ream did well to clear a ball away from Ojeda in the Charlotte defensive end when the Argentine’s touch around Adilson Malanda was a bit too heavy.

No one generated anything of note in the final minutes of the first half and the teams went to the lockerroom scoreless.

At the break, Orlando had the advantage in possession (63.7%-36.3%), shots (6-3), corners (4-0), and passing accuracy (88.5%-82%). Charlotte put more shots on frame (2-1).

The second half started as dull as the first, but the Lions finally cracked the Charlotte defense in the 52nd minute. Ojeda got on the end of a ball down the left side of the box, picking up a pass from Angulo. With time and space, he sent a beautiful cross to the far side and Torres one-timed it past Kahlina to make it 1-0. It was Torres’ 12 goal of the regular season.

“We had really worked on that play during the week, just because of how they like to mark,” Torres said. “So, you know, Martin gave me just an incredible center. It was just right on point. It’s really difficult to not score a goal when it’s put on a platter like that. It’s a difficult play to finish off overall, but when he plays it like that, and when we had worked on it throughout the week, it was fantastic.”

Orlando’s energy dropped a bit after the goal and Charlotte started seeing more of the ball and dispossessing the Lions for a spell. The visitors won a couple of corners but weren’t able to pay them off.

“We knew they were going to come and they answered a little bit with some chances, but for me, if I think a lot back, I don’t remember, like, any big, big chance they had,” Thorhallsson said.

Angulo tried to add to Orlando’s lead in the 60th minute, whipping a shot toward goal that deflected out for a corner. Five minutes later, Torres blasted a shot from outside the area that forced Kahlina into a diving save. Second-half sub Nico Lodeiro got to the loose ball first and attempted to tap it home but Ream made a vital block to keep it a one-goal game.

The teams played a bit of sloppy soccer down the stretch as both were playing on short rest on a hot, humid night. Araujo gave up a dangerous free kick in the 83rd minute just outside the box and got a booking for it, meaning he’ll miss the next match for card accumulation. The free kick was sent toward the back post but over everyone and out for a goal kick.

After both teams sent some substitutes on for the final minutes, the Lions doubled their lead. The play started with a superb kick by Gallese that picked out sub Luis Muriel, who immediately played a perfectly weighted ball to a streaking McGuire, who carried the ball into the box and chipped Kahlina beautifully to make it 2-0 in the 89th minute, putting the game to bed with his ninth goal of the season.

“It was just these 10 minutes where we, like a little bit, dropped back, but then once we pushed up again, and Duncan finished it with the second goal, then it was just game over,” Thorhallsson said.

Charlotte still had eight minutes of stoppage time to climb back into it but it was Orlando that came closest to adding a goal in the added minutes. Luca Petrasso, who had come on at left wing, sent a perfect back-post cross to McGuire on the right. McGuire sent a powerful header just wide in the 98th minute on the final clear-cut chance of the evening.

The Lions finished with the advantage in possession (58.1%-41.9%), shots (12-4), corners (7-3), and passing accuracy (88.4%-81.1%). Both teams finished with two shots on target.

“It’s a credit as well to the response of the players who came in the second half,” Pareja said. “We felt that what we needed was not combinations but somebody who can run in behind of the central backs and that’s why we included Duncan, knowing that Ramiro was playing well. But Duncan just opened those spaces for us. Also he’s dynamic in the way he presses and those things help us a lot. And then also Luis (Muriel) and Nico (Lodeiro) that give us that creativity, and they know how to play in between the lines too. So, that helped us. It was very difficult to break those lines.”

For the Lions, it was the first time stringing three consecutive shutout wins together since the season finale and two playoff games against Nashville at the end of the 2023 season.

“Defending well as a group with consistency is probably one of the most difficult parts of the game. The back four and those midfielders are sustaining the team in a very good way. We’re solid. And the individual performance has risen as well. It’s better. Individually, they have grown a lot during this period.”

“Most important thing is just we’re all doing it together,” Thorhallsson said. “Me and Rodri and Robin and Rafa, and then Pedro as well behind us, and of course, everybody in the team. But I feel like the defense has been clicking a lot.”

The Lions head out on the road this weekend, visiting the Columbus Crew on Saturday night.

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Orlando City

Previewing Luis Muriel’s Second Year in Purple

Orlando City needs more production from its Colombian striker in 2025, so what’s the best way to get it?

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18 hours ago

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January 10, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

The 2025 season will be Luis Muriel’s second as an Orlando City player following a 2024 campaign that wasn’t bad but was uneven and marked by potential that ultimately went unfulfilled. With the Colombian striker still occupying a Designated Player slot, there’s a lot of questions about how he’s going to fit into the team.

With him occupying a precious DP slot and commanding the highest salary on the team by a comfortable margin, it’s essential that the Lions get maximum output from him on the field. What’s the best way to do that, though? With the departure of Facundo Torres and Muriel getting a full off-season and preseason under his belt, there are a few different ways to achieve that goal.

Striker

The obvious answer is the reason that he was brought to the City Beautiful in the first place — to play him at striker. Duncan McGuire likely won’t be available until sometime in April, meaning that Muriel will be duking it out in preseason with Ramrio Enrique (and to a lesser extent, Jack Lynn) for the right to start as the tip of Orlando City’s proverbial spear. He got some time there last year in the first few months of the season, but ultimately his production, or lack thereof, opened the door for McGuire, and later Enrique, to supplant him.

The most straightforward way to get him in the team is to get him scoring in the volume that he’s shown himself to be capable of. It wouldn’t require any alterations to the formation or moving players around to areas where they might not be comfortable. Orlando could try to go big for a winger with proven goal-scoring threat to help replace the Facundo Torres-sized hole on the right wing, Ivan Angulo can stay out left, Martin Ojeda retains his place at the 10, and things keep ticking along.

The big question is whether he can find the back of the net consistently enough to justify going this route, particularly when McGuire and Enrique have proven themselves to be capable of providing solid scoring output. However, if he shows better than Enrique and Lynn in preseason, this is probably the most likely route.

Winger

Another solution, and probably the one that would be second easiest, would be to deploy him at the winger spot vacated by the now-departed Torres. This would allow Enrique and McGuire to compete for the no.9 slot, while filling Torres’ place with someone who is capable of creating and producing goals for others at the same, if not higher, level, and it wouldn’t require any formation or positional shifts.

A downside is that the right-footed Muriel wouldn’t be inverting the way that Torres did, which would tweak some of the team’s tactics and patterns of play in the final third. Additionally, it would be gambling on Muriel improving his goal-scoring numbers despite being shifted out wide and presumably not having as many looks at goal.

In this scenario, the Lions likely aren’t going out and adding a third Designated Player, or if they are, it’s probably an attempt to upgrade over Angulo — something which just doesn’t seem super likely to me, given how ever-present he’s been in the lineup since joining the team. I also don’t know if I can see Luiz Muzzi and Co. standing pat with the current state of a roster that couldn’t win it all and then lost its best player.

No. 10

A different route would be to trot him out at the no.10 position, where he often found himself deployed when coming on as a substitute during the second half of the year. The advantages of this solution are that it would allow the Colombian to utilize his considerable passing range and ability on the ball while minimizing his need to contribute large amounts of goals. On the downside, it would require shifting Ojeda out of the central position that he occupied to such great effect during the second half of the 2024 season. While Muriel has played well in this position, I can’t see the decision-makers being willing to gamble on Ojeda regressing if moved out wide again.

Shadow Striker/Roving Playmaker

The final, and most intriguing (and complex) of the options would be to deploy him as a shadow striker/roaming playmaker as part of a front two. Muriel drops into the hole behind the striker and moves around, finding space just behind his fellow forward, popping up wherever the spaces are and making it difficult for teams to zero in on patterns of play.

Again, it would allow him to use his excellent passing and dribbling ability to create scoring chances for McGuire/Enrique, while still getting him some looks at goal. It’s also a position that he’s played at various times throughout his career, including last year, when we saw him partnered with McGuire in either a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. The two played well together during those games, and showed signs of a flourishing partnership that ultimately wasn’t pursued further as the team got more bodies healthy and Ojeda began to shine as the central player in the three-man attacking midfield.

The biggest problem would be finding a formation that gets Orlando’s best players on the field in their best positions. A 4-4-2 would allow a midfield of Ojeda, Angulo, Wilder Cartagena, and Cesar Araujo, but Ojeda would need to be out wide and we’ve already covered why that’s an issue. A 3-5-2 would also allow for those guys to be on the field, but then Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Rafael Santos would likely be sacrificed, and Cartagena would move to center back while Nico Lodeiro slotted into the midfield in his place. OCSC is better when Cartagena and Araujo are partnering in the midfield, and I love having Santos’ crossing ability and DDT’s versatility on the field. For me, it would be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

An interesting solution could be trying a 4-2-2-2, with Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel/David Brekalo, and Thorhallson at the back, Araujo and Cartagena as the defensive midfielders, Angulo and Ojeda as the attacking midfielders, and Enrique/McGuire and Muriel up top, with Muriel operating as the shadow striker. To get the necessary width in attack, one of the fullbacks (presumably DDT) could invert into the midfield when in possession, and one of the defensive mids (likely Cartagena) would drift out wide while Ojeda plays centrally, where he operates best. The biggest issues here are that it would necessitate a lot of tactical variation from what the team is accustomed to, requires Thorhallsson to run his guts out, and is susceptible to getting torched on the counterattack. There’s a world where it could work, but I wouldn’t expect to see it.

At the end of the day, everyone’s lives are made easier if having a full off-season and preseason under his belt helps the Colombian DP find his shooting boots and he hits the ground running as the striker in Oscar Pareja’s preferred 4-2-3-1. Orlando adds firepower at right wing, Ojeda stays in the middle, and Muriel does what he was primarily signed to do — score goals. If that doesn’t happen, there are still ways to try to get him involved, but each solution comes with its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages to navigate. Either way, Muriel’s fit during the 2025 season is an intriguing storyline to watch as we build towards the start of the new campaign. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links: 1/10/25

Orlando City reportedly nears signing Nicolas Rodriguez, Orlando Pride re-sign Marta, Americans abroad this weekend, and more.

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21 hours ago

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January 10, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Mark Thor

Happy Friday! I’m already pretty much over this cold weather. While it was a nice change of pace, I’ve never been a huge fan of shivering in my car while waiting for the heat to get going. Thankfully, it looks like some warmer weather is coming this weekend before temperatures dip again next week. But enough about the weather, let’s get to today’s links!

Orlando City Linked With Nicolas Rodriguez

According to Fabrizio Romano, Orlando City is close to signing Colombian winger Nicolas Rodriguez from Fortaleza in Colombia’s top flight.

The 20-year-old would bring the club some needed attacking power and Orlando has open U22 Initiative slots to make it happen. The Lions have yet to make much noise this off-season beyond transferring Facundo Torres to Palmeiras, so hopefully signing Rodriguez kicks off the excitement ahead of the 2025 season. Another report has the transfer fee coming in around $2 million, with Fortaleza keeping a 30% sell-on fee if he’s sold in the future.

Marta Re-Signs With the Orlando Pride

The Orlando Pride have re-signed Marta to a new contract that will keep her in the City Beautiful through 2026. Whether or not Marta would return was the biggest question mark surrounding the club after her contract expired following a historic season that included winning both the NWSL Shield and the NWSL Championship. Marta is one of the best attacking midfielders in the league and was a finalist for both the NWSL MVP and NWSL Midfielder of the Year awards last year. Enjoy how Marta revealed the big news through the club’s social media. She definitely had me in the first half.

Keeping Up With the Americans Abroad

Goalkeeper Ethan Horvath had a stellar game in Cardiff City’s 1-0 win over Sheffield United in the FA Cup, making seven saves in the shutout. It was his first start for the club since August and he could get the nod in Cardiff’s next FA Cup match in February. Lindsey Horan had an assist in Lyon’s 2-0 road win over Dijon, while Cameron Carter-Vickers and Auston Trusty started in Celtic’s 2-0 win against Dundee United.

As for upcoming action, Joe Scally will have a chance to impress when Borussia Mönchengladbach hosts Bayern Munich on Saturday. Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, Giovanni Reyna and Borussia Dortmund will take on Bayer Leverkusen today. Serie A should feature the usual suspects on Saturday, with Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, and AC Milan playing Cagliari and Tim Weah, Weston McKennie, and Juventus facing off against Torino. We also might get to see Matt Turner in goal when Crystal Palace plays Stockport County in the FA Cup.

FA Cup Third Round Storylines

There’s plenty of more FA Cup soccer all over England this weekend to check out. While we were robbed from seeing Ashley Young and his son Tyler Young play against each other in Everton’s 2-0 win against Peterborough United, there are still many storylines in the third round. The heavyweight matchup is between Arsenal and Manchester United on Sunday. While it may be too much to say some of the English Premier League’s bigger clubs are on upset alert this weekend, Tottenham’s road game against Tamworth and Liverpool’s match with Accrington Stanley could prove interesting. Manchester City is set to take on a Salford City side owned by several former Manchester United players as well.

Free Kicks

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!

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Orlando City

Orlando City is Often Late to the Transfer Party

Why you shouldn’t worry that we’re still waiting on Orlando City’s off-season signings.

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2 days ago

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January 9, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Here we are yet again. It’s that time of the year when seemingly every MLS club is making moves, signing new players, and going about the business of getting better for the coming season. It’s also the time of the year when supporters of Orlando City are looking around like Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, wondering where the signings are for the Lions.

I’m here to tell you not to panic. As frustrating as it is, this is business as usual for Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Luiz Muzzi and Vice President of Soccer Operations and Technical Director Ricardo Moreira. In case you’ve forgotten, here are some late signings that the club has made over the years.

January Signings

Despite how it feels, Orlando City signs plenty of players in January. Some of those have been earlier than Jan. 9. Nicolas Lodeiro signed with the club on Jan. 4, 2024, Rafael Santos signed on Jan. 5, 2023, and Cesar Araujo signed Jan. 7, 2022. I understand if you think they shouldn’t count since it was before this exact time of the month, but some fans have been freaking out for a week.

Let’s look at those on this day of the month or later. That list includes Martin Ojeda, who became a Lion on this day in 2023. In addition, Pedro Gallese signed Jan. 17, 2020, Ramiro Enrique signed on Jan. 30, 2023, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson signed the very next day. All four of those players were consistent starters in 2024.

February/March Signings

Muzzi and Moreira aren’t afraid to wait to see if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow to sign new players. Just last year, the club signed David Brekalo on Feb. 8 and Luis Muriel on Feb. 15. Muriel really came on late in the season, and Brekalo will certainly be vying to get his starting spot back in 2025.

I’ve saved my most compelling example for last. Orlando City signed Robin Jansson on March 12, 2019. All he’s done is become Orlando City’s captain and all-time appearance leader. His contributions to the club are extensive. Not too bad for a very late signing.

Historically speaking, Orlando City isn’t doing things any slower than usual. That is why I’m saying not to panic…yet. The Lions made it to the Eastern Conference final for the first time in 2024. If they want to win MLS Cup, the club will need to continue to improve the team.

Given the departure of Facundo Torres, at least one major signing needs to happen. Like you, I hope that signing happens sooner than later. Indeed, I’d like to see several signings, as the club wisely uses the money from the Torres deal to bolster the club for the upcoming season.

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