Orlando City vs. Portland Timbers: Five Takeaways

During a week that saw the official opening of Orlando’s newest theme park, it was fitting that the Lions had a roller coaster-like run of results, going from the high of the win over Miami to the low of the loss to Nashville in the U.S. Open Cup, and then ending high with Saturday night’s 1-0 win over the Portland Timbers. The win made it 12 straight MLS games without a loss, tying the club’s all-time record and sending the fans home happy. Here are my five takeaways from Saturday night’s match.

Iron Lion Defense Stayed Firm

Despite a tense and emotional rivalry game last Sunday and a midweek U.S. Open Cup match on Wednesday, Óscar Pareja chose not to rotate the defensive group, starting the usual back line of David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel and Alex Freeman, with Pedro Gallese in goal. You would not have known that this group had also played nearly every minute during those two matches by how they played Saturday night, as they kept Portland from mounting nearly any serious attacks throughout the game. Despite completing nearly 200 more passes than Orlando City, the Timbers only managed seven shots, rarely troubling Gallese throughout the match, thanks to the back line’s cohesive play and excellent partnership. When he was called upon, Gallese was quick off his line to gather the ball, and he also had several key punches on crosses, and it was a strong overall performance by the defensive group to earn the clean sheet.

Atuesta Was an Ace in the Hole

Joran Gerbet was outstanding during his run of games while Eduard Atuesta was out, but it was a boon to have a fresh Atuesta on the field for this match after being out for several weeks. The Colombian playmaker went the full 90 minutes, leading the team in completed passes with 47 and playing the keyest of key passes late in the first half, a seeing-eye pass that split five Portland defenders and rolled right into a perfect position for Duncan McGuire to slam home his first goal of the MLS season. It was a great pass when I saw it live in the stadium, and watching it again, and again, and again on replay now, it is reminiscent of a perfect back-door pass in basketball that leads to a dunk. But in this case, it led to a Dunc, and what turned out to be the winning goal. Atuesta’s calmness on the ball and ability to think one play ahead kept the ball moving for the Lions throughout the night, and it was great to see him back healthy and pulling the strings for the Orlando City offense.

Muriel Off by A Millisecond and a Millimeter

Luis Muriel was perhaps the game’s most active player during his 67 minutes on the field, but he just had one of those nights when the final product was always off ever so slightly. He would build up a head of steam and be thundering toward the goal, but then wait just a bit too long before releasing the ball, and the attack would fizzle out. Opta’s tracking had Muriel as going 1/5 on attempted take-ons, and I think most, if not all, of those four times when he did not beat his defender he almost did, but he just got the ball twisted in his feet or just failed to get around the defender. Close, but no cigar. The same was true with his passing attempts — they were either a little too early or a little too late, as the Colombian only completed 16 passes on the night at a low 61.5% completion rate, and many of his passes were oh so close to turning into something special…except they were just slightly off. The effort was there, and you could see how much Muriel wanted it in this game, but in the end he was unable to deliver a goal contribution.

Don’t Forget About the Blue M&M

That would be former Creighton Blue Jay McGuire, who received his third start of the season and bagged his first MLS goal of 2025. The three Designated Player M&Ms (Marco Pašalić, Martín Ojeda and Muriel) could not really get untracked in this game, but as he has done throughout his Orlando City career, McGuire showed off his finishing touch, scoring a goal without ever even looking at his target and relying on his positional awareness and power to place the ball into the net. Big Dunc did get knocked down and required medical attention in the second half, but he was able to return and seemed to be fine, and if he starts to get going, then Orlando City’s opponents are going to find themselves having M&M nightmares before and after playing the Lions.

The Dribbling Was Dreadful

I mentioned earlier that Muriel was only 1/5 in his attempted take-ons, but he was far from the only Orlando City player who struggled with the ball at their feet on Saturday. Opta’s tracking on fotmob.com had Orlando City going 7/24, their second-worst performance of the season. Pašalić, who is usually a wizard with the ball at his feet, was 2/6, Freeman was 1/4, and Iván Angulo was 1/3. Despite the aforementioned huge disparity in passes completed, Orlando City had far more opportunities to score than Portland, but the Lions gave away many with poor dribbling. Perhaps it was tired legs, or perhaps it was Portland’s defense, but either way the Lions were dispossessed on 70% of their attempts to beat their defenders. Thankfully, those losses of the ball did not turn into dangerous counterattacks, and ideally a team with as many skillful dribblers as this Orlando City team has will not have another performance this poor for a while.

Those are my takeaways from Orlando City’s 12th straight MLS game without a loss and third straight win in MLS play. That win did not fully wash away the pain from being eliminated in the U.S. Open Cup by Nashville, but it definitely helped, and it will put the team in a good frame of mind when the Lions travel to face their southern rivals Atlanta United on plastic grass on Wednesday.

Let us know your thoughts about the Portland match in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!