Orlando City
2024 Orlando City Season in Review: Dagur Dan Thórhallsson
The Icelandic fullback maintained his spot on the right of Orlando’s back line in 2024.
Orlando City signed Icelandic midfielder Dagur Dan Thórhallsson on Jan. 31, 2023. The then-23-year-old was signed to a two-year deal with two additional option years for 2025 and 2026, but on July 18, 2024, the club announced that they had re-signed him to a new contract, which runs through the 2026 season with a club option for 2027. Unlike last season, when he was used in multiple positions to open the season, the Icelandic international came into 2024 as a right back and he played there nearly exclusively throughout the season.
Let’s have a look back at Thórhallsson’s second season with Orlando City.
Statistical Breakdown
Thórhallson participated in all four of the competitions Orlando City played in during 2024, starting at right back in nearly every match and playing more than 3,300 total minutes. While his most frequent partner at left back, Rafael Santos, was known more for his crosses and long passes, Thórhallson could more often be found playing quick one-twos with the midfield and trying to cut the ball back into the middle off the dribble, giving the Orlando City two completely different types of looks from their normal starting pair of outside backs.
In MLS regular-season play, Thórhallson appeared in 31 matches, starting 29 and playing 2,412 minutes — the sixth most on the team. He scored two goals and added four assists. He took 23 shots, putting five on target, and he completed 83.5% of his passes with 25 key passes, eight successful crosses, and 13 completed long balls. On the defensive side, he recorded 47 tackles, 21 interceptions, 56 clearances, and six blocks. He committed 20 fouls, suffered 22 fouls, and received three yellow cards.
During the MLS playoffs, the Icelandic right back started all five matches, playing 381 minutes with no goals or assists. He took three shots, placing none on target, and he completed 84.6% of his passes with four key passes. Defensively, he recorded four tackles, four interceptions, and 15 clearances, including a season-high seven in the final game. He drew two fouls and committed two, and he was not booked.
Thórhallson played in three of Orlando City’s four Concacaf Champions Cup matches, starting all three times and playing 270 minutes. He did not take any shots, so he did not score any goals, but he did contribute one assist. He completed 86.1% of his passes, including two key passes. Defensively, he tallied two tackles, two interceptions, two clearances, and one block, and he committed two fouls, while suffering four. He was booked once, earning a yellow card.
During Leagues Cup play, Thórhallson started all three games, playing the full 270 minutes and scoring one goal with no assists. He took two shots, placing both on target, and completed 81.3% of his passes with two key passes. He added two tackles, seven clearances, and one block on defense, and he committed one foul and drew none. He did not receive any cards.
Best Game
Right backs do not often have games where they log multiple goal contributions, but on June 22, Thórhallsson did just that, assisting on two goals in Orlando City’s 4-2 victory over the Chicago Fire. He got going early in this game, playing a ball in the fourth minute that led Facundo Torres perfectly into his patented cutback into the middle. The resulting shot put Orlando City up 1-0.
Slightly more than 20 minutes later, Torres returned the favor, playing a leading ball to Thórhallsson that took him right into one of his patented moves, turning the corner on his defender inside the 18 and playing a searching ball into the middle of the box. In this case, there was a bit of a scuffle for the ball on his pass, but the ball popped out right in front of Iván Angulo, who tapped it home. Thórhallsson did not receive credit for the assist, but he made that play happen.
Thórhallsson’s actual second assist came on Orlando City’s fourth goal, as he took a ball that Duncan McGuire popped up in the air and brought it down to his feet near the right sideline. He then sliced through the middle of Chicago’s defense before finding Torres, who hit one of the shots of the season for his second goal of the game and the second Thórhallsson-Torres goal of the evening.
That goal capped off a three goal-creating actions match for the Icelandic defender, one of only four games like that by Orlando City players during the 2024 MLS regular season. Thórhallsson also contributed two tackles, two interceptions, and three clearances on the defensive side, one of the best all-around games by anyone on Orlando City all season.
2024 Final Grade
The Mane Land awarded Thórhallsson a composite rating of 6.5 out of 10 for the 2024 season, the same rating we gave him for the 2023 season. He looked comfortable in the right back role, and made some improvements on both sides of the ball, but there was not a leap forward from last season to this season. As a former midfielder, there is more offense in his game than many right backs, but even though he increased his goal contributions from five in 2023 to eight in 2024, he did so in more than double the minutes, decreasing his goal contributions per 90 minutes by 25%, while also creating the exact same number of shots per game for his teammates, 2.1, in 2024 as he did in 2023. He improved his defending and positioning on that side of the ball, but there was a slight dip in his offensive production, though with Thórhallsson, it’s never for lack of effort as his work rate is excellent.
2025 Outlook
I think 2025 may look a little different than 2024 for the Icelandic international, as there will be some serious competition for minutes at right back from young players Alex Freeman and Michael Halliday and the old reliable Kyle Smith, and of those three players and Thórhallsson, I think it is the man from where they filmed the scenes from north of The Wall in Game of Thrones who has the skillset most applicable to other areas of the field.
That is not to say that I think Thórhallsson needs to move to a new position, but Head Coach Óscar Pareja may consider that his ability to adapt to other positions could turn him into a younger and even more versatile version of Smith, and we could see Thórhallsson playing some as a left back, right back, defensive midfielder, or even winger. He is one of the few players on the roster who I believe has that adaptability, and Pareja has shown that he likes to use the beginning of a season to find his preferred lineup, before locking that in and keeping it static in the latter half.
I expect that when the season opens, Thórhallsson will be the starting right back, and he may well play there at the end of the season as well, but unlike in 2024, I expect that in 2025 we will see him playing minutes in many different positions.