Orlando City
2024 Orlando City Season in Review: Martín Ojeda
The Argentine midfielder found his way into Oscar Pareja’s starting lineup in his second season with the Lions.
Orlando City signed Martin Ojeda to a three-year deal with two additional option years on Jan. 9, 2023. In each of the past two seasons he has been one of the team’s three Designated Players — along with Facundo Torres and Ercan Kara in 2023, and with Torres and Luis Muriel in 2024. The Argentinean midfielder is a player with a strong motor and a high work rate, and after mostly settling in to a bench role in his first season in Orlando, he found his way into the starting lineup for Oscar Pareja’s Lions in 2024.
Let’s take a look back at Ojeda’s second season with Orlando City.
Statistical Breakdown
Ojeda participated in all four of the competitions Orlando City played in during 2024, and started at least two matches in each competition, scoring in every one. During the beginning of the season, he bounced around at a few different attacking positions, but as the season went along, he served as the No. 10 for the Orlando City offense.
In MLS regular-season play, Ojeda appeared in all 34 matches — one of only three Lions to do so, along with Iván Angulo and Nico Lodeiro — starting 23 games and playing a total of 1,914 minutes. He scored four goals and added a team-leading 12 assists. He took 61 shots, putting 22 on target, and he completed 84.5% of his passes with 58 key passes, 61 successful crosses, and 31 completed long balls. On the defensive side, he recorded 18 tackles, eight interceptions, six clearances, and one block. He committed 12 fouls, suffered 21 fouls, and received two yellow cards.
During the MLS playoffs, the Designated Player started all five matches, playing 391 minutes and scoring one goal with no assists. He took six shots, placing two on target, and he completed 78.8% of his passes with a team-leading 11 key passes. Defensively, he recorded one tackle and two clearances. He drew one foul and committed three, and he was not booked.
Ojeda played in all four of Orlando City’s Concacaf Champions Cup matches, starting two and coming in off the bench in the other two games, playing a total of 178 minutes. He scored one goal and added one assist, taking six shots and placing all three on target. He completed 75.6% of his passes, including a team-leading eight key passes. Defensively, he tallied one tackle, two interceptions, and two blocks, and he did not commit any fouls, though he did suffer two. He was not booked.
During Leagues Cup play, the Argentine started all three games, playing a total of 233 minutes and scoring one goal with no assists. He took three shots, placing all three on target, and completed 83.5% of his passes with — stop me if you have heard this before — a team-leading eight key passes. He chipped in with two tackles and two interceptions on defense, and he committed two fouls and drew one. He did not receive any cards.
Best Game
Despite being one of the team’s leaders in goal contributions, there was only one game all season when Ojeda had more than one goal contribution in the same game, and that was his two-assist night against FC Dallas in a 3-1 victory. Ojeda had a secondary assist on Orlando City’s first goal of the game, playing a perfectly timed and weighted ball out to Rafael Santos on the left wing, and Santos then delivered a well-placed cross to Ramiro Enrique for a headed goal.
Early in the second half, the Lions earned a corner, and Ojeda this time dropped his own cross right into the perfect location, allowing Rodrigo Schlegel to power a header home and give the team a 2-0 lead.
Ojeda finished with a 100% passing success rate on the night, going 32 for 32 with three key passes, and he also added one interception and three recoveries on defense in 64 minutes of work, leaving the game with the Lions winning 3-0.
2024 Final Grade
The Mane Land awarded Ojeda a composite rating of 7 out of 10 for the 2024 season, an increase on the 6.5 we gave him last season. His statistical performance was pretty similar this year as compared to last season during MLS play, with 16 goal contributions in each regular season, but Ojeda had four goal contributions during the other competitions in 2024 as compared to zero in 2023, and he also played a much more critical role in the offense this season as opposed to last season.
2025 Outlook
Ojeda increased his overall goal contributions by four in 2024, though he did it in nearly 600 additional minutes played as compared to 2023, which means his goal contributions per 90 minutes actually slightly decreased from 0.68 to 0.66. A goal contribution in two out of every three games is solid, but not spectacular, and with the possible departure of Facundo Torres for the 2025 season, I expect that there will be pressure on Ojeda to directly deliver more offense in order for Orlando City to extend his Designated Player contract beyond next season.
I believe that Ojeda will make a leap in 2025, as he really settled into his role as the hub of the offense around the midpoint of the season, and that coincided with the best run of form the team had all year. For Orlando City to surpass its performance from this season, Ojeda will need to outperform his last two seasons, and I am excited to see what he adds to his game for 2025.