Orlando City’s 2026 schedule has been out for a little over two weeks now, and I’ve had ample time to look over it, analyze it, and zero in on some games that I’m really looking forward to next year. There are always the usual suspects in the mix like home rivalry matches against the likes of Atlanta and Miami, but I didn’t want to focus on those obvious ones, so they won’t be included here.

Saturday, Feb. 21 vs. New York Red Bulls

Orlando City’s streak of playing a home match to open the season will somehow reach 12 seasons in a row when the Lions kick off the 2026 season against the New York Red Bulls. It’ll be our first chance to see OCSC in a competitive game during the new season, and after an off-season that will likely contain a fair amount of turnover, I for one will be even more anxious than usual to get a look at what sort of product we’ll be seeing on the field. The Red Bulls will also look different, as they’ll have a new manager and a good amount of new players after missing the postseason for the first time since 2009. This is probably my most obvious choice of the bunch, but I think it’s hard to fault me for being excited about a new season!

TBD U.S. Open Cup Match

There’s only a 50% chance that this will be a home game, but personally I’m just glad to see Orlando City in the U.S. Open Cup again. There’s obviously some good history with the club in the competition, but aside from that, I just generally think that the tournament should get more love and a bigger platform than it currently does. While I’d have obviously been thrilled if OCSC had managed to win Leagues Cup in 2025 and come away with a trophy, I’d have much preferred the Lions to make a deep run in the Open Cup, considering the rich history of the competition as a whole, in addition to what it means to Orlando specifically. The fact that defending champion Nashville SC isn’t in the field is mind boggling to me, but I’m damn happy that the Lions are.

Saturday, Sept. 12 vs. Toronto FC

Now I can understand why you might be surprised by this one, as Toronto isn’t exactly considered one of Orlando City’s rivals. This year’s Decision Day match left a bad taste in my mouth though. Was it less about what Toronto did on the field, and more about OCSC basically neglecting to show up to the field to begin with? Maybe. Do I care? No. Do I want vengeance and the ability to erase a pitiful performance from my mind all in one fell swoop? Absolutely. I need the scales to be balanced and for my own personal demons from the final day of the season to be exorcised, and the fact that I’ll be able to be in the stands to have that chance is all the more appealing.

Saturday, Nov. 7 vs. New England Revolution

Decision Day is (usually) a fun affair regardless of whether the match is home or away. Wild swings in the standings from minute to minute, nerves, and hopefully reason to celebrate when it’s all over. There’s just something about having all that happen at home, though. I’ve been in The Wall for plenty of Decision Days at this point, and the energy is just a little different than a normal regular-season game. Similar to home openers, the air almost crackles with the excitement of possibility and anticipation of what things are going to look like when the dust settles. Of course, there’s always the possibility of things going wrong and the Lions ending up low in the playoff standings or out of the postseason altogether, but we’ll cross that bridge if/when we come to it.

What games are you especially looking forward to next season? Be sure to let us know down in the comments. Vamos Orlando!

As is always the case with this time of year, I’ve been thinking about what I’m thankful for, and when it comes to Orlando City and the Orlando Pride, there’s a nice list of things that have me feeling very grateful. So in the spirit of the holiday, let’s sit down and dig in.

Inter&Co Stadium

If we’re sticking to the Thanksgiving theme, then the purple palace is the dinner table where everything happens. There might be more elaborate soccer-specific stadiums that have been built since the stadium opened in 2017, but Inter&Co was the first to have the safe-standing supporters section, and it’s no coincidence that the trend very quickly caught on. Ownership has done well to bring in a variety of local food vendors, has made concerted efforts to upgrade the concourses with televisions, and the way the roof is constructed does a great job of keeping noise in, even when the stadium isn’t at full capacity. I’ve been to a few different MLS stadiums, but I still think that there’s no place like home.

Haley Carter

The Orlando Pride’s former vice president of soccer operations and sporting director will be sorely missed. There’s a saying that you don’t really know what you have until it’s gone, but that couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to Carter. She masterminded the acquisition of Barbra Banda that was vital to the Pride’s double-winning 2024 season. She also made other savvy additions that helped fill out a roster that’s been competitive for a couple seasons in a row now. It’s a damn shame that she won’t be with the club any longer, but considering the success that she had with the Pride, she’ll almost certainly be headed for big things.

The Wilf Family

Since taking ownership of OCSC and the Pride in the summer of 2021, the Wilfs have shown a willingness to open the wallet and invest in both teams. For the Lions, there have been the acquisitions of Facundo Torres, Martin Ojeda, and Marco Pasalic, while the Pride have seen the arrivals of Banda and Jacquie Ovalle for big transfer fees. There’s also the aforementioned investments to the stadium, as well as the continued commitment to improving the training facilities for all three of the club’s teams. The Lions and Pride are both at points where the rosters need to be revamped a bit, so the readiness to spend is a trend that will need to continue, but based on what we’ve seen in past seasons, it’s reasonable to assume it will.

Playoff Streaks

Orlando City owns the longest active postseason streak in Major League Soccer, as the Lions have made the playoffs in six straight years. The Pride have made the NWSL playoffs in back-to-back years and have made the semifinals two years in a row. In the case of the Lions, it would be great if they could consistently make deep playoff runs and come away with some silverware, but it would be foolish to not be grateful for the streak of postseason appearances. D.C. United and Toronto FC have six-year and five-year playoff droughts, respectfully, so it’s important to remember that things could be worse. That doesn’t mean we should be content and complacent, but once you get your foot in the postseason door, anything can happen, which we saw with the New York Red Bulls last year. Long may the postseason streaks continue!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend filled with good food, time with family and friends, and a little rest and relaxation thrown in. We’ll be back cheering on Orlando’s soccer teams before we know it, and hopefully we have lots to be thankful for in the 2026 season!

Far sooner than any of us would have liked, the 2025 campaigns for Orlando City and the Orlando Pride have come to an end. As with the end of any season, that means that players need to be kept or moved on, contracts might need to be restructured, new deals handed out, and transfer targets need to be identified, pursued, and (hopefully) landed. Those are all ordinary tasks on the checklist that both teams have undergone many times.

What isn’t ordinary is the backdrop against which those things will be happening. Each team has unique circumstances surrounding it that make this off-season a vitally important one if the two sides want to maintain the level of competitiveness that we’ve come to expect in recent years.

Let’s begin with Orlando City. First, there’s the obvious point that a 2025 season which showed promise at times ultimately can’t be considered a successful one. No silverware was won from any of the three competitions the Lions were in, no Concacaf Champions Cup berth to be had, and a team that arguably should have been in the MLS Cup final last year found itself bounced from the postseason in the play-in game after having let a spot in the top seven slip through its fingers.

There are many reasons we can point to as why those things happened, whether it be roster construction, tactics, team selection, the short end of the scheduling/travel stick, or individual player performance. Ultimately, whether its due to underperformance, the expiration of contracts, or an inability to agree on a new contract, several key players from Orlando City’s 2025 team are already out the door, and a couple more may still follow. Starting goalkeeper Pedro Gallese will need to be replaced, as will starting defensive midfielder Cesar Araujo. Wilder Cartagena being re-signed potentially mitigates the Araujo hole, but there’s no telling how the Peruvian will look coming off a torn Achilles tendon, and more needs to be done to address the position with Joran Gerbet likely to be out for much of next season as well.

Moving to the back line, while Robin Jansson is in negotiations over a new contract, more help is needed at center back and fullback. The big Swede isn’t getting any younger, and the Lions need to improve the strength of that area anyway. David Brekalo can’t play both center back and left back, and while I love Rodrigo Schlegel, someone faster and more positionally disciplined is probably needed next to Jansson, assuming he returns.

Looking to the cadre of attackers and we see that while Luis Muriel and Ivan Angulo are still with the team due to the former being under contract, and the latter having his option picked up, they probably shouldn’t be on this roster next year. I love each of my Colombian brethren for different reasons; when Muriel is on form, his passing vision and dribbling is lethal, while Angulo’s speed and work rate makes him a great defensive winger.

But Muriel faded badly after a hot start, as he had just three league goals and three assists after the month of May, after having six goals and two helpers from the beginning of the season to the end of May. Then there’s Angulo, who didn’t score in the league and had just one goal in all competitions despite playing in 42 total games. He did have seven assists in MLS play, as well as one in the U.S. Open Cup and another in Leagues Cup, but considering how many times he had chances on the break and failed to convert, those numbers just aren’t good enough.

If new homes are found for those two, then you can add a striker and a winger to the winter shopping list, and don’t forget that Ramiro Enrique already needed to be replaced after his departure in August. Tyrese Spicer looked pretty good in the limited minutes he had after arriving in the summer via trade, but the Lions could and should look to bring in competition at the left wing spot. There have also been rumblings of Marco Pasalic attracting interest from Europe, and if the price is right, then the Lions will need to start looking for a new right winger as well.

Looming over all of those decisions is the fact that Orlando City’s front office looks different now than it has in quite a long time. Luiz Muzzi departed the club in October after coming on board nearly seven years ago, and while he was no longer running the soccer operations side of things after a promotion to a senior advisor to ownership role back in April, the void of his knowledge and experience is always going to take some adjusting to. This will be Ricardo Moreira’s first off-season as the Lions’ general manager and sporting director, and he’s got a tricky task ahead of him. The Eastern Conference is an absolute meat grinder, and a talented one at that, and if this roster isn’t upgraded, then the team is in real danger of breaking its streak of six straight postseason appearances. Make no mistake, Moreira’s first off-season as the lead decision maker is not going to be easy, and it’s one that OCSC can’t afford to get wrong.

That brings us to the Orlando Pride. It would have been difficult to match the heights of 2024’s double-winning season, but finishing with 25 fewer points than the previous campaign won’t have left anyone satisfied when the regular season came to a close. Yes, missing Barba Banda during the back half of the year is a huge factor that can’t be discounted, but the Pride’s offense had looked disjointed and out of sorts before she went down. Even so, the regular season inconsistencies would have been forgiven if the team had managed to make the NWSL Championship, even more so had the Pride managed to win the whole damn thing.

That wasn’t to be though, and its hard to argue with the 1-0 home loss to Gotham FC that ultimately ended Orlando’s championship defense. Seb Hines’ team created more chances and more dangerous chances than Gotham did, totaling 10 shots (one on target) and 1.43 expected goals compared to five shots (one on target) and .13 xG for the visitors. But Orlando’s finishing (or lack thereof), and shaky goalkeeping was what ultimately doomed the team, and those have been recurring issues throughout this year.

Pricey summer acquisition Jacquie Ovalle was guilty of missing the team’s two best chances of the game, and with one goal and two assists in 10 league games since joining the Pride, this wasn’t the first time we’ve said those words. Then there’s Anna Moorhouse, who for awhile now has vacillated between being a brick wall in goal and making the sort of errors that a goalkeeper on a championship-caliber team simply shouldn’t make. When she’s at her best, she’s brilliant, but too often you get the very best and very worst of her in the space of one game. Her positioning and execution on Jaedyn Shaw’s game-winning goal flat out wasn’t good enough, and it was even more glaring when contrasted against Ann-Katrin Berger’s 100th-minute, game-saving stop on Oihane’s header.

The Ovalle signing was a good one in theory, and she may yet catch fire for the Pride once she has a full off-season under her belt. But the decision to transfer Adriana to Al Qadsiah FC (for an admittedly club record fee) without signing a proven replacement put too much attacking responsibility on a 39-year-old Marta, especially once Banda was no longer available. The combination of Ovalle, Marta, and a healthy Banda could end up being a great one, but the Mexican’s arrival came too late. Marta will also turn 40 in February, and like it or not, planning needs to start for life after the undisputed GOAT hangs up her boots.

The heart of midfield could also use some strengthening. Simply put, the Pride’s roster also has plenty of areas that need to be addressed if the team is going to remain competitive, much less get back to the top of the NWSL’s mountaintop.

The added difficulty for the women’s side comes in the form of Haley Carter stepping down from her positions as vice president of soccer operations and sporting director earlier this week. Carter pulled off the Banda and Ovalle signings, helped build the team that won the double last year, and kept the team’s core together while also working admirably well with Pride Head Coach Seb Hines. She is not going to be an easy person to replace, and whoever does step into her role is going to have to get some important decisions right in a smaller window of time than would be normal.

Just like with the men’s team, those decisions need to be nailed. The NWSL is growing and changing, with more money flowing into the league and teams able to field improved squads as a result. If the Pride don’t make the right moves to remain competitive in the present while also planning for the future, then they could quickly find themselves sitting in the wrong half of the table.

Every off-season is important and comes with big decisions that need to be made, and this one on the surface is no different for Orlando’s two senior teams. But the states of each roster, combined with key front office departures and leagues that seem to be getting stronger by the month mean that the off-seasons for Orlando City and the Orlando Pride are of critical importance. If you get them wrong then it could take several seasons to fully recover from. But if you get them right, then both teams could get back to seriously competing for trophies for more than just the short term. Here’s hoping for the latter.

Vamos Orlando!