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2024 Orlando City Season in Review: Kyle Smith

The Accountant turned in another solid season playing wherever and whenever he was asked to.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City signed fullback Kyle Smith on Dec. 21, 2018 when James O’Connor was Orlando City’s head coach. Since his arrival, Smith has proven time and again that he’s a valuable Swiss Army knife-type player, earning a new contract on March 29, 2021 through the 2022 season with a 2023 club option. Orlando City picked up his 2023 option at the end of the 2022 season but then signed Smith to a new one-year contract for 2023 just weeks later with an option for 2024. That sixth season concluded earlier this month, and it’s hard to imagine anyone (except perhaps Smith himself) expected him to still be getting lots of minutes with the Lions and sitting second on the club’s all-time list for appearances.

Let’s look back at the sixth MLS season — all in Orlando purple — from the man Oscar Pareja calls El Soldado.

Statistical Breakdown

Smith matched a career high with 29 appearances in the regular season in 2024, starting 12 matches and playing 1,143 minutes. He didn’t score a goal in the regular season, but he matched last year’s career high with three assists. The Cincinnati, OH native attempted just five shot, which is a career low, as was his single shot on target, which can account (see what I did there?) for his lack of goals in the 2024 regular season. He completed a career-high 83.7% of his 1,143 passes, which includes eight key passes, seven successful crosses, and 20 completed long ball. Although his seven successful crosses weren’t a career high, his 41.2% accuracy on cross attempts was the best success rate of his MLS career. The defender recorded 22 tackles, nine interceptions, 17 clearances, and three blocks. Smith committed 13 fouls on the season, drew 11 from his opponents, and picked up three yellow cards.

As with the regular season, Smith posted a career high in postseason appearances, playing in five games (although without a start) but logging just 51 minutes off the bench. He did not record a goal contribution and his lone shot attempt was off target. Smith completed 80.5% of his 41 passes with one key pass and two successful long balls but no completed crosses. He recorded a clearance on the defensive end, committed two fouls in the playoffs, suffered one, and did not pick up a booking.

In the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup, Smith started all four of Orlando City’s matches, logging 323 minutes. He scored a goal in the 3-1 home win over Cavalry FC but did not register an assist in the competition, attempting just the one (on-target) shot. Smith completed 81.5% of his 146 passes with two key passes, however none of his three crosses found the target. On the defensive end, he recorded five clearances. He committed five fouls, suffered two and received one yellow card.

In Leagues Cup, Smith appeared in two of Orlando City’s three matches, starting both but playing just 113 minutes because he was sent off against San Luis for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity, suspending him for the Cruz Azul game. He didn’t register a goal, assist, or a shot in the competition, passing at a 91.1% rate on his 79 attempts and tallying one key pass and one successful cross on two attempts (50%). He added a clearance on the defensive end, committed one foul without suffering any, and picked up the one red card.

Best Game

With any defender who only scores one goal across all competitions, it’s tempting to select the game in which he scored. In Smith’s case, his one goal was a well-worked give-and-go on the left side with Facundo Torres in the Concacaf Champions Cup home match against Cavalry FC.

It was an important goal, providing insurance late and helping propel the Lions into the second round against Tigres. However, I’m not choosing that match as Smith’s best.

The defender’s best match finished with the same 3-1 scoreline, but it came in his return home this year, as Orlando City traveled to face FC Cincinnati on Oct. 5.

Smith helped the Lions get the party started just 10 minutes into the match, sending a gorgeous, curling cross that wrapped beautifully around the back line and onto the run of Ramiro Enrique, who knocked it past Roman Celentano with his right foot to make it 1-0.

After Luciano Acosta tied the match just before halftime, Smith also played a role in the second goal of the game to put the Lions back in front in the 66th minute. Smith again picked out Enrique in the box with a great cross, but this time the striker had his back to goal. Enrique touched it back to Ivan Angulo, who got a bit fortunate that Celentano made a mess of the bouncing shot, letting it sneak into the net to make it 2-0.

Smith’s two assists were his only cross attempts of the match, making him 2/2 (100%), and his primary assist earned him a key pass. Those were the bright spots offensively, as the right back (in this game, anyway) did not attempt a shot and passed at just a 62.5% rate in his 81 minutes. However, Smith also was a force on the defensive end, finishing the match with a season-high four interceptions — his only multi-interception game of the season — to go along with a tackle and a clearance. He committed two fouls, suffering one, and he was not booked. It was a terrific homecoming for the veteran defender.

2024 Final Grade

The Mane Land awarded Smith a composite score of 6.5 out of 10 for the 2024 season. This equals the highest rating we’ve given him, which took place after the 2021 season. His grades haven’t fluctuated a ton from year to year, as he earned a 5.5 in 2019, again in 2020, and once more in 2022. He earned a 6 out of 10 in 2023. So, in six years, Smith’s score has been within a single full point on our 10-point rating scale. That’s the kind of remarkable consistency you want out of your accountant, and it’s what The Accountant has brought with his gritty, blue-collar style of play for Orlando City.

2025 Outlook

Although he was out of contract after the 2024 season, Orlando City immediately looked to re-sign the veteran defender to a new contract and did just that on Friday. Smith is back for 2025 on a new one-year deal. The 32-year-old, who will turn 33 on Jan. 9, will likely fill the exact same role he’s held for his entire Orlando City career. He’ll fill in wherever he’s asked, spending time in the starting lineup when other players’ injuries or form require his services. He’ll be solid but not spectacular nearly every outing, and occasionally he’ll be overmatched by a pacey opponent. But he won’t short you on his effort and he’ll make it hard for Pareja to leave him on the bench for the entire match, regardless of whether the team is ahead or behind.


Previous Season in Review Articles (Date Posted)

Lion Links

Lion Links: 4/25/25

Orlando City gets ready for Atlanta United, Luiz Muzzi and Ricardo Moreira promoted, NWSL MVP candidates, and more.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Happy Friday! Today starts three straight days of Orlando soccer to enjoy, so make sure to plan your weekend accordingly. It was a fairly fast week for me, and I was able to read three books somehow. Before we dive into today’s links, let’s all wish a very happy 21st birthday to Orlando City winger Nicolas Rodriguez!

Orlando City Gets Ready for Rivalry Match

The Lions are back in action Saturday night against rival Atlanta United in what should be one of the more interesting matchups of the weekend. Both teams are looking for answers on offense heading into this match, as Orlando is coming off of three straight scoreless draws and Atlanta hasn’t won since March. Taking on a rival at home could be just what’s needed for the Lions to jumpstart their attack and return to the form they had earlier this season. Head Coach Oscar Pareja spoke on how it’s an important game to win for Orlando, as well as how the offense needs to exercise some calmness to finish its chances.

Orlando City Promotes Luiz Muzzi and Ricardo Moreira

Luiz Muzzi and Ricardo Moreira were both promoted by Orlando City, with Moreira taking over as the club’s general manager and sporting director and Muzzi becoming senior advisor to ownership, global soccer ventures. It’s a natural step up for Moreira, who joined the club in 2018 and has helped build a competitive roster that’s made the playoffs for the past five seasons. Muzzi’s new role is a bit of a mouthful, but he’ll be taking on an advisory role focused on the growth of the club while working closely with ownership.

“I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as Orlando City Soccer Club’s EVP of Soccer Operations and General Manager for seven seasons, and I am excited to continue my journey with the club in this new role,” said Luiz Muzzi. “I look forward to working alongside the Wilf family and the leadership team to help shape the future of the club and its continued success, both on and off the field, and I know Orlando City’s Soccer Operations will be in great hands under Ricardo’s leadership.”

Orlando Pride Players in the NWSL MVP Hunt

Now that we’re over a month into the NWSL season, ESPN‘s Jeff Kassouf highlighted the league’s early MVP candidates, and there are a couple of familiar faces in his rankings. Orlando Pride forward Barbra Banda is predictably in the mix in sixth on the list, as she has three goals and an assist to her name so far. But a surprise inclusion is midfielder Haley McCutcheon, who has impressed on both sides of the ball to earn ninth place in the rankings. While I think the MVP race will ultimately be between scorers like Banda, Temwa Chawinga, Ashley Hatch, and Debinha, it’s pretty great to see McCutcheon receive deserved praise for her performance this year.

MLS Transfer News Roundup

The transfer deadline may be over for MLS clubs, but deals that crossed the finish line are still coming in. The Columbus Crew added yet another forward by sending up to $1.2 million to the Houston Dynamo in exchange for Aliyu Ibrahim. The 23-year-old will maintain his U22 Initiative Player status in Columbus and recorded 12 goals and nine assists across 90 appearances for Houston. LAFC signed 26-year-old midfielder Ryan Raposo, who spent the past five seasons with the Vancouver Whitecaps and was a free agent this year. St. Louis City also made things official with Simon Becher by making his loan move a permanent one so that he stays with the club.

Free Kicks


That’s all I have for you this time around. Mother’s Day is less than a month away, just as a warning. If the mothers in your life like romance books and you’re looking for a gift, I can’t recommend The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center enough. Have a great Friday!

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Orlando City Was Hot, But Now Is Not — An Explanation

A comparison of the Lions’ start to the season vs. recent form.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Years ago, back during the early days of the new millennium, one of the first websites to ever “go viral” was the matchmaking site AmIHotOrNot.com. I, of course, never visited this site, as I had access to a mirror on the wall and already knew who was the fairest of them all (not me, the mirror was pretty clear about that). But as a college student during those years, I knew of the site and how it quickly was getting millions of views per day. Today’s topic is related to hot and not, but it is the significantly more important topic of Orlando City’s performance on the field during the 2025 season.

During the first six games of the season, the Lions looked better than any previous Orlando City team in the club’s MLS era in terms of early season offensive prowess. The squad led the league in goals scored, the Designated Players were scoring or contributing to nearly every goal, and with Duncan McGuire still to return to add even more firepower, it seemed like there might be the possibility of running out of purple smoke to shoot off in front of The Wall with how many goals Orlando City was scoring.

And then, with apologies to Prince, purple flames were doused by purple rain, and we found out what it sounds like when Lions fans cry. To understand why the offense went from 2.5 goals scored per game to being shut out in three straight matches for the first time since 2018 we need to first consider whether the start to the season was an aberration itself, and had our expectations misaligned for how this team would perform for the rest of the season. Let’s take a look at how the first six games of 2025 compared with the second half of the 2024 regular season (17 games):

Metric2024 Final 172025 First 6
Goals per Game2.52.5
Shots on Target per Game5.65.5
Shots on Target %40%35%
Goal Conversions per Shot on Target44%45%
Medium + Long Passes Completed per Game215208
Medium + Long Pass Completion %81%80%
Completed Crosses + Switches per Game21.421.0
Progressive Carries + Passes per Game64.657.3
Points Earned per Game2.061.67

For the most part it looks like the beginning of the 2025 season picked right up where the 2024 regular season ended (I intentionally excluded the 2024 playoffs from the data because playoff games tend to be played differently than regular-season games). There were some major changes in personnel from 2024 to 2025, but even with the changes in players, the style of play and the formation used by Orlando City remained the same, and most of the offensive stats are nearly exactly the same. Six games is a decent enough sample size to say that those stats from 2025 were not a fluke, and the offensive output that we saw in the second half of the 2024 season could be reasonably expected to continue at a similar pace.

But then it did not. Oh boy has it not. Looking at the same chart, but comparing the 2025 first six games to the 2025 most recent three matches gets an immediate “not hot” vote and is as ugly as a Bubba Sparxxx song.

Metric2025 First 62025 Last 3
Goals per Game2.50.0
Shots on Target per Game5.53.0
Shots on Target %35%31%
Goal Conversions per Shot on Target45%0%
Medium + Long Passes Completed per Game208171
Medium + Long Pass Completion %80%74%
Completed Crosses + Switches per Game21.012.6
Progressive Carries + Passes per Game57.342.0
Points Earned per Game1.671.0

The sharp-eyed observer will note that red cards are not noted anywhere above, and in those last three games Orlando City played nearly 50 minutes with only 10 players. In both of the games when a red card (the ultimate sum of two yellow cards by the same player) was given, Orlando City was ahead in expected goals at the moment the red card was issued, and while those do not count for anything officially, they indicate who was getting shots off from more dangerous locations. I thought Orlando City seemed more likely to score and take all three points in both games up until the dismissal of a player. Instead, of course, the Lions went down a player and immediately had to pivot to a more defensive posture, and with one fewer player on the field, they could not play (or at least maintain) the same style as they had been.

In addition to playing far more conservatively, in both games Orlando City substituted on a defender for a key attacking player within four minutes of the red card, removing Marco Pašalić in the game against New York and Luis Muriel in the game against Montréal. This was effectively a double negative, and not in the way that turns two negatives into a positive. It was more like f(x) = -2x, a function with a slope of -2 and…let me stop right there. It was bad, and hurt the offense to remove a key playmaker and goal scorer.

Another major issue is that the midfield engine of César Araújo and Eduard Atuesta have played a combined 11 minutes in the last three games, and all 11 of those minutes were played by Atuesta in the game against New York and after the red card. Araújo’s absence has definitely been felt, but as he is more of a deep-lying player and defensive destroyer, the team has been able to adequately replace him, but Atuesta’s offensive talents have been sorely missed. Atuesta may not have many goal contributions, but he is second on the team in shot-creating actions per 90 minutes (4.62) and first on the team in goal-creating actions per 90 minutes (1.20). That 1.20 is the highest in club history (fbref.com only has tracking back to 2018, so apologies to the legend Kaká) among players who played at least 500 minutes in a season, and it is nearly 50% higher than the player in second place in that stat, Mauricio Pereyra in 2020, when he averaged 0.82.

Might it be nice to be able to play a player who is creating a goal every 90 minutes? I think so. Joran Gerbet has played well, especially for a rookie, and specially especially (just go with it) for a rookie in the mentally and physically demanding role of a central midfielder. He has a ton of potential, but he is not yet as productive a player as Atuesta and when the Colombian playmaker returns the offense will get back a key cog that will help to create good shots, and in a game like soccer the difference between a goal and a miss is often a matter of inches, and a slightly better delivery on the pass can turn a shot into a shot on target and a shot on target into a goal.

Is it really as simple as just red cards and injuries, and that if Orlando City can keep its full complement of players on the field and get back some injured players, everything will go from not hot to hot again? Perhaps, but I think there is a style of play change that has also been causing some of the recent issues. I included rows on the charts above on the aggregation of completed crosses and switches (as in switches of the field) per game and medium and long passes completed per game, and from that chart you can see that the numbers are much lower in the last three games as compared to the beginning of this season and the final half of last season.

Those drops coincide with Rafael Santos playing only 59 minutes in the last three games, and with Alex Freeman not being able to get into the attack in the same way as he was in the season-opening games. There definitely is some overlap here with playing down a player and needing to keep defensive players back, but Santos’ offensive contributions (he is currently 20th in MLS in completed crosses + switches per 90 minutes), and even just the threat of him playing a long ball across the field to change the point of attack, have been missed by the Orlando City offense with him off the field. David Brekalo is an excellent defender, but his offensive contributions are more tied to his ability to win balls in the air, whereas Santos is among the league leaders in crosses and switches per 90 minutes, with Freeman one of his primary targets.

Brekalo playing left back certainly helped shore up a defense that had been leaking goals, and Santos was a major contributor to that with some poor defensive performances, but that tradeoff has removed a major threat to the Orlando City offense. Freeman’s reduction in offensive contributions has not helped, but I think the loss of Santos’ early crosses, long switches, and overlapping runs contributed more to the nearly 400-minute dry spell without a goal from open play. The Lions need him to find his form again, though he will not be able to do it against Atlanta, as he will be suspended.

Three games without a goal is unpleasant as a fan, but Orlando City battled in all three games and at least came away with a point. The defense is playing well, and despite many injuries, the Lions are still very much in the playoff hunt as the season approaches the one-third mark. There are legitimate reasons for the recent offensive swoon, and Araújo and Atuesta will likely be back shortly, and McGuire also may soon be able to start a game and offer a different offensive look. Ramiro Enrique heated up once spring turned to summer in 2024, and when all four of those players are back to full health, the team will once again have a deep roster full of players aggressively competing for minutes.

Óscar Pareja historically has used the first half of a season to find his preferred lineup for the stretch run of the season, and I believe this is another season when he will be playing the long game and seeing what he has at his disposal. The red cards and injuries provided short-term pain in terms of points dropped, but they will likely also provide long-term gain with the view into how the players play in different positions and combinations.

It is a long season, with two cup competitions still to start, in addition to 25 more regular-season games, and summer does not even start until June. I expect that a lot of the issues from the recent run of games will work themselves out with time. We just need to keep our cool and wait for the inevitable Orlando City late season hot streak.

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Orlando City vs. Atlanta United: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to earn all three points against Atlanta United at home?

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City returns to Inter&Co Stadium to host Atlanta United on Saturday after a 0-0 draw at Montreal over the weekend. Orlando City’s rivals from the north sit in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, but that doesn’t ensure a victory. The Lions are coming off three straight scoreless draws and need to get some goals and a win. What does Orlando City need to do to take all three points against Atlanta United?

Lock Down Latte Lath

I’m not entirely sure how to pronounce Emmanuel Latte Lath’s name. Is it Latte as in the coffee drink and Lath as in bath? I don’t want to get it wrong, but I suppose it doesn’t matter in print. Regardless, the Orlando City defense will need to keep him off the scoresheet.

With Rafael Santos serving a red card suspension and Rodrigo Schlegel returning from a red card suspension, I suspect we will see a back line of Alex Freeman on the right, Schlegel and Robin Jansson at center back, and David Brekalo on the left. That is Orlando City’s strongest back line so far in 2025. The only other defensive question is who will play in the defensive midfield?

Defensive Midfield Shuffle

Will we see the return of Cesar Araujo and Eduard Atuesta? Will Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Joran Gerbet get the start yet again? Who we see in the defensive midfield may determine the outcome of the match.

When healthy, Araujo and Atuesta are first choice, but if one or the other is still unable to start, then it will be up to Thorhallsson and Gerbet to deal with Miguel Almiron and Aleksei Miranchuk on the right side of Atlanta’s attack. If the pair can play like they did against the New York Red Bulls, then another clean sheet is possible. Of course, that isn’t the only assignment.

Find the Attack

It’s been three matches since the Lions conceded a goal. Sadly, it’s also been three matches since Orlando City has scored a goal. That has to change this week. Atlanta has given up 16 goals this season, which is second worst only to D.C. United with 19. There is opportunity here if the Lions can be more clinical around the net.

It will start with whichever players start in the defensive midfield (I told you they had another assignment). After that, it will be up to Orlando City’s playmakers. I feel that the Orlando City attack is better with Duncan McGuire on the pitch, but who do you take off? Ivan Angulo finally found some decent form the last couple of matches, but I still think you put him on the bench.

I’ve been calling for McGuire up top with Luis Muriel dropping deeper and Martin Ojeda and Marco Pasalic on either side. Put the best players on the pitch at the same time. With Brekalo locking down the left side of the defense, the need for Angulo’s speed is less urgent. I hope that Orlando City’s four best attacking players can break the scoring dam the Lions find themselves in.


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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