2024 Orlando City Season in Review: Wilder Cartagena

Orlando City initially acquired midfielder Wilder Cartagena on loan through the 2022 MLS season. After a successful end of the year, the club exercised the option to extend the loan through the 2023 season. He became a key player in the starting lineup for the Lions that season, resulting in the club signing him to a permanent deal through the 2025 season on Dec. 14, 2024. The Peruvian midfielder built a powerhouse partnership with fellow midfielder César Araújo, forming what may have been the best central midfield duo in all of MLS during the 2024 season.

Let’s take a look back at Cartagena’s season with Orlando City.

Statistical Breakdown

Cartagena participated in all four of the competitions Orlando City played in during 2024, playing primarily in his normal central defensive midfielder role but also filling in as center back for around seven games worth of minutes (631). Despite playing in a brand new position for approximately 20% of his total minutes, Cartagena ended up leading the team in plus-minus for the season, finishing +22 across all competitions, meaning the Lions were much better with him on the pitch than they were when he wasn’t.

In MLS regular-season play, the Peruvian international appeared in 27 matches, starting 25 and playing 2,192 minutes. He only recorded one goal contribution on the season, an assist, though he took 24 shots, putting eight on target. He completed 89% of his passes with 16 key passes, one successful cross, and 25 completed long balls. On the defensive side, he recorded 76 tackles, 20 interceptions, 42 clearances, and nine blocks. He committed a team-leading 48 fouls, suffered 28 fouls, and received seven yellow cards and one red card, which he picked up after the conclusion of the game against Minnesota United. Coincidentally, his red card suspension and his one-game ban for yellow card accumulation each resulted in him missing a regular-season game against Atlanta United — both were Orlando losses.

During the MLS playoffs, Cartagena started all five matches, playing 431 minutes with no goals or assists. He took two shots, placing one on target, and he completed 87.2% of his passes with a single key pass. Defensively, he recorded nine tackles, four interceptions, 11 clearances, and one block. He drew eight fouls and committed nine, and he was booked twice, with both being yellow cards.

Cartagena played in all four Concacaf Champions Cup matches, starting every game and playing 315 minutes. He did not take any shots, so he did not score any goals, and he didn’t contribute any assists either. He completed 86.6% of his passes, including four key passes. Defensively, he tallied eight tackles, five interceptions, four clearances, and one block, and he committed three fouls, while suffering five. He was booked twice, earning two yellow cards.

During Leagues Cup play, Cartagena started all three games, playing the full 270 minutes with zero goal contributions. He took three shots, placing one on target, and completed 92.1% of his passes, but with zero key passes. He added three tackles, three interceptions, four clearances, and one block on defense, and he committed three fouls and drew one. Unlike in the other three competitions, in Leagues Cup play he did not receive any cards.

Best Game

While Cartagena only had one goal contribution for the season, the positions he played do not lend themselves to being able to use the commonly cited stats like goals and assists to evaluate which game was the finest. That said, I think the one game in which Cartagena had an assist was his finest performance, but the assist was only the cherry on top of an outstanding game all over the field by the Peruvian midfielder, as his performance helped lead the Lions to a dominant 5-0 victory over D.C. United on March 9.

Cartagena completed 77 of his 81 passes (95.1%), and while any game with that many completed passes and that high of a completion percentage would be excellent, it was the types of passes that he completed that really set this game ahead of all of his other performances. He completed 22 of those 77 passes into the attacking third of the field, meaning they were attacking balls forward towards goal that went from the middle or defensive third into the attacking third. If 22 sounds like a lot, well, that’s because it is. There were only seven instances during MLS play in 2024 of a player completing 22 or more passes into the attacking third in a single game.

If that was not enough, Cartagena also went 11 of 12 (91.7%) on long passes (passes of at least 30 yards) on the night, one of only 24 instances during MLS play in 2024 of a midfielder completing at least 11 long passes and being successful on more than 90% of his long pass attempts.

On top of both of those stats, Cartagena also got on the score sheet for the only time all season, playing a beautiful cross from the right flank onto the head of a charging Robin Jannson, who smashed in his header and gave the Lions a 2-0 lead.

Cartagena went the full 90 in this match, contributing not only offensively but also defensively, with three tackles, four recoveries, and one clearance, and his dominance in the center of the field helped the Lions keep a clean sheet.

2024 Final Grade

The Mane Land awarded Cartagena a composite rating of 7.5 out of 10 for the 2024 season, the same as the 7.5 we gave him last season. I mentioned earlier that the team was +22 while Cartagena was on the field, and that +22 equaled a +0.62 goals per 90-minute average over his total minutes played, meaning that when Cartagena played, the Lions were nearly two-thirds of a goal better than their opponents. On the flip side, when Cartagena was off the field, the Lions were -5 for the season, which equaled a -0.48 goals per 90-minute average. The net of those two per 90-minute averages is +1.10, meaning that Orlando City was more than one goal better than its opponents when Cartagena was on the field as compared to when he was off, showing just how valuable he was to the team during the 2024 season.

2025 Outlook

I expect 2025 to look very similar to 2024 for Cartagena, as both he and his midfield partner Araujo are set to return and are completely comfortable in Head Coach Óscar Pareja’s system. The Lions also parted ways with Felipe, Jeorgio Kocevski, and Heine Gikling Bruseth, meaning that Nico Lodeiro is the only player on the roster with significant experience in the role where Cartagena usually plays, and Lodeiro is more of a supersub than a starter at this point in his career and a much more offensive minded No. 8 option than a defensive, double-pivot type. Kyle Smith and Dagur Dan Thórhallsson both have the skillset to potentially get some minutes there, and Orlando City used its first-round draft pick in the MLS SuperDraft to select midfielder Joran Gerbet from Clemson, but it should be Cartagena’s job to lose during the 2025 season, and I expect to see him on the field for the vast majority of Orlando City’s minutes.

Previous Season in Review Articles (Date Posted)

• Alex Freeman (12/5/24)
• Michael Halliday (12/6/24)
• Yutaro Tsukada (12/7/24)
• Mason Stajduhar (12/8/24)
• Javier Otero (12/9/24)

• Jack Lynn (12/11/24)
• Shakur Mohammed (12/12/24)
• Luis Muriel (12/13/24)
• David Brekalo (12/14/24)
• Facundo Torres (12/14/24)
• Rodrigo Schlegel (12/15/24)
• Rafael Santos (12/16/24)
• Kyle Smith (12/17/24)
• Martín Ojeda (12/18/24)
• Dagur Dan Thorhallsson (12/19/24)
• Nico Lodeiro (12/20/24)
• Ramiro Enrique (12/21/24)