Connect with us

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Atlanta United: Player Grades and Man of the Match

How did your favorite Lions perform in Orlando City’s 3-2 loss against Atlanta United?

Published

2 weeks ago

on

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Well, that was a pretty disappointing way to watch a 12-game unbeaten streak end. Orlando City was not cruising but definitely seemed to be in control. However, for the third time this season, the Lions had a player receive a red card that changed the complexion of the game, turning their 2-1 lead into a 3-2 loss on the road at Atlanta. We could debate for hours the merits of the red card, but it was an unnecessary escalation of what was a minor foul and those dropped points could turn out to be costly at the end of the season. Hopefully, the Lions use their frustration from this match as fuel, because they will have a short turnaround before hosting Chicago on Saturday night.

I have my purple pen out, and I am ready to issue some grades, so here we go. Let’s take a look at how Orlando City’s players rated individually in their Eastern Conference matchup.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 6 — There was little Gallese could have done on any of the goals, as the first one was from point blank range, the second caromed in off the post after curving away from him, and the third was also from close range, though perhaps El Pulpo could have been one step quicker off his line on that one. I think that would have been asking a lot though, and I do not fault him for holding his line considering that he had to position himself for a shot from his right from Saba Lobjanidze, who ended up making the extra pass. Gallese recorded two saves and made a valiant effort to try to help the Lions tie the game on a corner kick in the final seconds, but in the end, all he could do was apply a little pressure on a defender and then watch as the ball was booted down the field past him. The best save he made on the night ended up being erased from the stats due to an offside call, as he got down quickly to deny a shot from right in front of the goalmouth. The stats will look bad for Gallese, but they will not be representative of how he played, as I thought he was solid on the night.

D, David Brekalo, 6 —With every game he plays out at left back the Slovenian is creeping consistently further and further up field, and adding more to the Orlando City attack. He likely will not venture as far as his counterpart at right back Alex Freeman, but Brekalo is using his skills to progress the ball more often, as evidenced by his two successful take-ons and his average position on the field being nearly halfway between that of the center backs and Freeman, who is perhaps the most aggressive right back in MLS. Atlanta preferred attacking opposite of Brekalo, with only 33% of their attacks on his side as opposed to 38% down the opposite flank. Their opening goal did come on Brekalo’s side though, as he was a step slow to get out and close down Lobjanidze and was punished for it, as the cross into the middle was converted shortly thereafter. He also had a couple of careless turnovers in his half along the sideline. Orlando City’s left back completed 37 passes at an 84.1% rate and added two tackles and eight clearances for a solid, but not spectacular, game.

D, Robin Jansson, 6 — When a team gives up three goals, it is unlikely that any defender will stand out on the positive side, and while Jansson had some good moments, it was mostly a nondescript game for him. He added another highlight film bomb of a pass to his 2025 collection, but unfortunately, while it led to a shot it did not lead to a goal. The Beefy Swede’s biggest contributions were during the final minutes while Orlando City was under attack, as he ended up with a team high 10 clearances, but clearly those clearances were not quite effective enough because Atlanta was able to overturn their deficit and walk away with the three points. He was caught ball-watching instead of Jamal (Thiare)-watching on the game winner. Jansson’s passing was uncharacteristically poor, with only a 76.7% completion rate and only 33 completed passes, and he also added one tackle and one interception.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 5.5 — The Argentinean defender was unlucky to not concede a penalty in the first half — possibly the first time that sentence has ever been written in a player grades column. A ball ricocheted off Schlegel’s outstretched arm and would have been a clear penalty, but the ball bounced right to the feet of Atlanta’s Alexey Miranchuk, who made no mistake from close range, giving Atlanta a goal. A penalty would at least have given Gallese a chance for a save (or a miss by the penalty taker). He could have done much more on the third goal, as he failed to track Lobjanidze and then meekly tried to nick the ball with a toe rather than being more physical and getting shoulder to shoulder to prevent the final ball to Thiare. Other than that, Schlegel played a pretty quiet game in the middle of the defense, mostly playing conservative passes on his way to a team-leading 42 completions. He, like Jansson, had a poor completion rate (79.3%), and with no key passes or offensive contributions. Schlegel tie Jansson with 10 clearances and he also added a team leading three interceptions, though he did not make any tackles.

D, Alex Freeman, 6.5 — Should is probably too strong of a word, but Freeman could have scored his first goal in weeks on Wednesday night, as he was in front of his defender but just could not extend enough to get to a back-post cross from Martín Ojeda that would have put Orlando City up 3-1 in first half stoppage time. He was unlucky that the ball skipped off the turf and likely would have scored on a grass field. Freeman bombed forward as he usually does, but did not have his best touch on this night, as he was only able to complete 78.4% of his passes, including a few cheap giveaways when he was not under a lot of pressure. At the same time, he did put a lot of pressure on Atlanta’s defense with his movement and his runs, but the final product escaped him. On the defensive side, he was active, adding two tackles, two interceptions, and six clearances.

MF, Iván Angulo, 6 — Angulo had one of his prettiest plays of the season in this game, cutting inside from the left wing before playing a perfectly placed through ball for Ojeda, but the subsequent cross went untouched across the goal. The Colombian also added one shot on goal, but it did not really threaten Brad Guzan. Aside from those two plays it was a relatively quiet game for Angulo, who was better in the first half than the second. He completed 87.5% of his passes and added two tackles and one clearance before making way for Kyle Smith in the 73rd minute.

MF, César Araújo, 5 — The game completely changed after the Uruguayan’s red card, and while Atlanta might have come back even had he been on the field, the task was much easier for the hosts with one of Orlando City’s best defensive players gone and one fewer defender on the field. This was noticeable on the tying goal, where Joran Gerbet was trying to deputize for the missing midfielder and was too deep to close down Bartosz Slisz. It is a shame, because up until that point, Araújo had been playing at a Man-of-the-Match level, scoring the game’s opening goal on a beautiful shot in the opening minutes and playing a great ball over the top to Ojeda that could have gotten him an assist had Ojeda done better with his shot. Despite only playing 77 minutes, Araújo was second on the team with 41 completed passes, including two key passes, and he was the only player on the team to complete at least 90% of his passes, finishing at 91.1%. His thoughtless red card was just a killer though, and while Óscar Pareja said the club will address it with MLS, it is unlikely to change, and it will not help the Lions get back the point or points they could have had on the road.

MF, Joran Gerbet, 5.5 — Gerbet’s hustle play at the end of the game to prevent Atlanta from scoring an open net goal was admirable and emblematic of the effort he put in nearly all game long in the center of the field. I said nearly all game long because he was caught ball watching on Atlanta’s first goal, as he let up for one second and allowed Miranchuk to sneak past him, and the Russian scored a moment later. In fairness to Gerbet, the ball did deflect up and onto Schlegel’s outstretched arm, so he may have immediately thought the play was about to be whistled for a penalty and was not expecting the ball to bounced back off Schlegel and into a the area where it did. Gerbet was also the player nearest to the ball on Atlanta’s second goal, but with Orlando City down a player, he had sunk deeper into the 18 to help defend and I do not think it would be fair to call him out for not getting all the way out to a player shooting from around 22-23 yards away. He was simply not where he would have been with a full complement of Lions on the pitch. I don’t want to minimize his effort and play all the way down to a few specific plays though, Gerbet did have a solid game all around, completing 86.5% of his passes and adding one tackle and four clearances on defense.

MF, Marco Pašalić, 6 — After some plays early in the season when he showed off his right foot, the Croatian has become a nearly exclusively left-footed player as the season has progressed, and that was on display in this game when he ran onto a long ball from Ojeda and, despite having a wide-open opportunity to take a touch and attempt a right-footed shot, he cut back into the middle and hit a shot right at Guzan. In fairness, it was impressive dribbling to get that shot off, and a shot from the middle is better than a shot from the right, but the defender was overplaying him to allow him to go right and he still went left, even though he was inside the 18 and has a good right foot. Though he did not force Guzan into any difficult saves, Pašalić was dangerous in this game, earning an assist on his short layoff pass to Araújo and attacking the Atlanta defense throughout. He won two take-ons and completed 87.9% of his passes, including one key pass, and also added a team-leading four tackles, one interception, and one clearance on the defensive end.

F, Ramiro Enrique, 6.5 (MotM)— Enrique is doing a little bit of a Facundo Torres impression, getting hot along with the weather, scoring his fourth goal in the last three weeks in this game. He never gave up on a long ball from Ojeda, and when Atlanta defender Derrick Williams could not control the ball, Enrique blew by him to take possession and smashed a low shot past Guzan to give Orlando City a 2-1 lead. Although he was almost invisible prior to his goal, Enrique delivered his customary effort, leading the team by winning five aerial balls and hustling all over the field. He completed 88.2% his passes and recorded one tackle and one clearance before he was sacrificed in a defense-for-offense substitution after the Araújo red card.

F, Martín Ojeda, 6.5 — The Argentinian Designated Player played a game of close, but no cigar during this game, coming teasingly close to scoring on multiple shots and close to adding an assist on one excellent cross that was inches away from being put away by Freeman. Ojeda collected a secondary assist on the game’s opening goal, playing the initial ball into Pašalić, who laid it off for Araújo that led to the Uruguayan’s wonderful shot. He also played the ball over the top that turned into Enrique’s goal, though he did not get credit for the assist as the ball went off an Atlanta defender before Enrique picked it up and took it to goal. Ojeda will probably rue the chances he had but did not finish, and so while he registered an assist, he could have had another goal contribution and possibly two. He completed 78.6% of his passes and added two clearances on defense. 

Substitutes

F, Luis Muriel, (73′), 5.5 — This game is in contention for the game in which the Colombian contributed the least to the Lions, but as the solitary attacking player when playing down a player, there was little that Muriel could do as he saw almost none of the ball during his time on the field. I think he was partially culpable for Atlanta’s second goal, as with Gerbet dropping deeper into the defense Muriel could have dropper deeper as well and might have disrupted that play, but at the same time, if he dropped deeper, then Orlando would have had nobody on the field to keep Atlanta’s defenders from playing all the way up into Orlando’s defensive third. Muriel completed three of his four pass attempts and drew a yellow card on Ajani Fortune with a slick move to get behind him, but he had little opportunity to contribute in any meaningful way.

MF, Kyle Smith, (74’), 5 — Smith came on in what has become his new role, a late sub for Angulo out on the left wing. He did not see much of the ball, getting only eight touches, and he completed one of his four pass attempts. He added three clearances on defense as well. His most memorable moment was committing the foul that produced the stoppage in play in which Araújo’s scuffle with Mateusz Klich occurred, changing the end of the game for the Orlando defense and, likely, the result of the match, although it was ultimately through no fault of Smith’s.

MF, Eduard Atuesta, (74’), 4.5 — Atuesta came on at the same time as Smith, and in what will become a theme with all of the substitutes, he too did not have a lot of the ball, only receiving nine touches and completing three of his five pass attempts. One of those incomplete passes was costly, as he tried to make a difficult pass with the outside of his foot to Dagur Dan Thórhallsson instead of continuing on with the ball, passing it across the field to a wide-open Smith, or simply smashing it down the field to relieve the pressure. That turnover became the backbreaking third goal for Atlanta. He also picked up a yellow card for a nasty late challenge on Edwin Mosquera. The ref played advantage and Atlanta nearly scored, although it would not have counted because Thiare was offside on the final ball in front. It was a disappointing substitute appearance following his Man-of-the-Match performance on Saturday.

MF, Dagur Dan Thórhallsson (80′), N/A — The Icelandic midfielder entered just after the red card, replacing Enrique to bring on fresh legs to try to see the game out while playing with 10 players. He barely had any of the ball, getting only three touches and completing one of two pass attempts and mostly just desperately defended during his shift.

F, Duncan McGuire (90′ +6), N/A —McGuire came on in the dying minutes after Atlanta took the lead, but was unable to contribute anything other than hustling after a long ball, forcing Atlanta to dump it out of bounds, and committing one foul while going for a ball in the air.

That’s how I saw the individual performances in Orlando City’s frustrating 3-2 loss on the road against Atlanta. Let us know what you thought of the game in the comments below and don’t forget to vote for your Man of the Match.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Orlando City

The State of Orlando City at the Halfway Point of the MLS Season

An analysis of Orlando City’s offensive and defensive performances through the first half of the 2025 MLS season.

Published

6 hours ago

on

June 12, 2025

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

I attended my high school reunion this past weekend (let’s agree not to discuss how many years it has been since I graduated), and late in the evening on Saturday night a karaoke machine appeared. What to my wondering ears did I hear but a great many hits that came from yesteryear. One of those hits, naturally, was karaoke staple “Livin’ on a Prayer” from Bon Jovi, with the famous line of “ohhhhh, we’re halfway there” which every…single…person in attendance sang along with. We probably gave karaoke a bad name.

Orlando City did not have a game during this weekend, but after its last game — one we can also agree not to discuss — the Lions also are halfway there, with halfway there in this case being the halfway point of the MLS regular season. Being that we are at the halfway point, I thought it would be a good time to check in on their performance thus far, so let’s take a look at how the squad is doing in some key metrics.

We shall start on defense, because defense wins championships and because, as Linkin Park sings on one of my son’s favorite songs, when talking about a soccer lineup we usually work up from the bottom. Using Opta’s tracking from fbref.com, here is how Orlando City fared on defense during the first 17 games (MLS Avg. is the average of every team except Orlando City):

Metric OCSC MLS Avg.MLS BestOCSC Rank
Goals Allowed per 901.291.390.7511
Shots on Target Allowed per 904.124.302.4412
Shots on Target Allowed %32%35%24%10
Goals per Shots on Target Allowed29%32%21%13
Non-Penalty: G-xG Allowed (full season)-1.7-0.8-8.514
PSxG +/- per 90+0.12+0.05+0.398

The first four rows are pretty self-explanatory, with the team just outside the top third (MLS has 30 teams) in keeping the opponents from putting shots on target and into the net. Prior to the most recent game, the one I do not want to talk about, like Bruno, the team was ranked 10th, giving up 1.19 goals per 90 minutes, but the disastrous first 32 minutes against Chicago knocked OCSC down a spot. In fairness, Chicago has one of the league’s best offenses, but still. Yuck.

The bottom two rows in the table above are the fun advanced stat metrics, with Non-Penalty Goals – Expected Goals being the comparison of actual goals allowed thus far this season to expected goals allowed, and since the Lions’ value is negative, that means that they have given up fewer goals than they were expected to. The defense is performing better than the MLS average, but because several defenses are significantly overperforming against expected goals, the team is only ranked 14th.

Where the Lions are doing much better is in the goalkeeper-focused stat of Post Shot Expected Goals – Goals Allowed, which is the stat that takes into account not just the location of the shot but also how well the shot was struck. In this case, a positive value is good, as it means that the expected goals allowed is greater than the actual goals allowed, and Orlando City’s goalkeepers did well to put the team in the top 10 in this metric.

The last area to look at on the defensive side is the lineups that have been used the most on the back line thus far, and unlike in past seasons, there is a clear first-choice back line playing most of the minutes (1,530 total minutes have been played) through the first half of the season (players listed from left to right just as they play on the field):

Back LineMinsGoals Allowed per 90+/- per 90
Brekalo – Jansson – Schlegel – Freeman8161.10+0.77
Santos – Jansson – Schlegel – Freeman2341.15+0.88
Santos – Jansson – Brekalo – Freeman950.000
Smith – Jansson – Schlegel – Freeman921.960
Santos – Smith – Schlegel – Freeman902.00+2.00

I am interested to see what happens in the second half with regard to the back line, as I am not confident that by crunch time in October that it will still be the four on the top row of that chart who are the first choice back line. That said, this group is averaging only giving up 1.10 goals per 90 minutes and is +8 for the season, and the group that played the most in 2024 gave up 1.37 goals per 90 minutes and finished at only +2. Coming off a two-week break, we will see who gets the starts, and whether Rafael Santos can reclaim the left back position and/or if David Brekalo moves inside to center back. Robin Jansson and Alex Freeman are not going anywhere, but the other two spots may see some changes in the upcoming months.

On the whole, Orlando City’s defense has been solid but not spectacular in MLS play. The Lions have seven shutouts, but they also have seven games of giving up at least two goals and four games of at least three goals allowed. Some of the defensive lapses have been pretty rough, and an overall performance that puts them right on the cusp of the top third but squarely not in the top third feels right to me with how they have played this season.

And now from defense to offense, where there has been much more variation in the lineups and much better performance overall, though as I wrote a few weeks ago, I think the offense should be performing even better than it has. Looking at the same statistics as we did for the defense, plus a few more, we can see that the Orlando City offense is a top 10 offense in the most critical metric of all, goals scored, but not in some of the other metrics, which is a cause for concern:

Metric OCSC MLS Avg.MLS BestOCSC Rank
Goals Scored per 901.821.372.257
Shots on Target per 904.884.286.128
Shots on Target %32%35%44%25
Goals per Shots on Target34%32%48%5
Non-Penalty: G-xG (full season)+1.1-0.9+8.412
Big Chance Conversion28%37%55%28
Goals Scored by Designated Players208.1201

The Lions are still on pace to set a club record for goals scored in the MLS regular season, and had they scored one additional goal during the first 17 games, they would find themselves in the top three for goals scored per 90 minutes. Orlando City played a volume game in the first half of the season, ranking eighth in shots on target per 90 minutes, allowing the team to offset a lower-than-league-average performance in the percentage of shots that ended up on target. When the Lions put their shots on target, they converted them better than most, but the team struggled all season long with the final product, as evidenced by the poor performances in the percentage of shots that went on target and the conversion of what Opta deemed to be big chances.

Fellow Floridians Inter Miami converted its big chances at nearly double the rate of Orlando City, and if the Lions converted at that same rate, they would have scored 0.88, or basically one, more goal per game. It is an oversimplification to say this, but I will point it out anyway, the Lions lost two games by one goal and tied six games, and an extra goal in any of those games would have earned Orlando City more points, and with just three more points they would be sitting in second place in the conference. During the preseason, I predicted Orlando City would finish third in the Eastern Conference, so yes, I am a bit salty about all of the dropped points.

Coming back to the offensive metrics, Orlando City is outperforming its expected goals err…expectation…but not by so much that the Lions are among the top teams in the league. Where they are at the top is in the goal-scoring by their three Designated Players, and with the recent injury news about Duncan McGuire the DPs will need to continue that goal-scoring form to get results.

In looking at the attacking lineups, no group has even played the equivalent of three full games together through the first 17 games of the season. Injuries and untimely (read: bleeping stupid) red cards contributed to the large amount of different lineups, and by my count, the team has already rolled out 55 different attacking groups thus far this season. The five groups that played the most constitute only 56% of the total minutes, and no group seems to have established itself as the favorite to emerge as Óscar Pareja’s go-to group.

Attacking GroupMinsGoals Scored per 90+/- per 90
Muriel
Angulo – Ojeda – Pašalić
Araújo – Atuesta		230
1.96
+0.39
Muriel
Angulo – Ojeda – Pašalić
Araújo – Gerbet		2063.50+2.18
Muriel
Angulo – Ojeda – Pašalić
Gerbet – Thorhallsson		1740.000.00
Enrique
Angulo – Ojeda – Pašalić
Araújo – Atuesta		1302.77+0.69
Muriel
Angulo – Ojeda – Pašalić
Atuesta – Gerbet		1132.39-1.59

The group in the top row may have the inside track, but it was in the second half of the season in 2024 when Ramiro Enrique seized the starting role and Luis Muriel started to excel in a supersub role, so the door is open for any of these, or other, attacking groups to establish themselves as that go-to starting group. The MLS Secondary Transfer Window opens on July 24, and that could be a time to bring in another player to compete for offensive minutes as well.

On the whole, Orlando City’s offense has been really good, bordering on great. No team is immune to bad games, but with 31 goals in 17 games, the team has been far more of a real lion than a paper lion on the offensive side of the ball. Long-time fans of Orlando City will remember several (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022) seasons when the team scored fewer than 45 goals during the full 34-game season, so to see nearly two goals per game this season has been a great sight.

Orlando City has a near-top 10 defense and an offense that is among the best in the league, and if the Lions had just kept their heads instead of receiving not one, not two, but three ridiculous red cards, they likely would be in a league table position that is more fitting for how well they played for most of those first-half games.

Soccer is always a game of inches and milliseconds, and the Lions can point to a whole series of almosts and what-ifs that would have/could have/should have led to different results. They did not happen though, which is why the team sits at only 1.59 points earned per match, 11th best in MLS and placing them in seventh in the Eastern Conference.

Historically, Orlando City plays better in the second half of the season than the first, and if this team can repeat that pattern and execute just a little bit better, it will once again be primed to make a deep run in the playoffs. During the past three seasons, the OCSC season ended in the first round (2022), conference semifinal (2023), and conference final (2024), and I think this team has the ability to continue that run of advancement and make it to MLS Cup.

And speaking of run, the highlight of that karaoke I mentioned earlier was not New Jersey natives Bon Jovi, but rather a classmate of mine absolutely crushing a performance of a song by a different New Jersey icon, the Boss, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run.”

Let’s hope that at the end of the season we are all singing along together as well, specifically to another classic rock anthem — Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”

Continue Reading

Lion Links

Lion Links: 6/12/25

Reliving the Orlando Pride’s win, Orlando City B loses on the road, Jhon Solis Wins MLS NEXT Pro Goal of the Matchweek, and more.

Published

11 hours ago

on

June 12, 2025

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City B / Mark Thor

How’s it going, Mane Landers? I’ve been enjoying a pretty good week so far and actually made pizza for the first time last night. It was burnt beyond belief in the end, but still edible, which is a huge win in my book. Let’s go ahead and dive right into today’s links!

Sights and Sounds From the Orlando Pride’s Victory

The Orlando Pride beat the Houston Dash 1-0 at home in dramatic fashion and the club has released a video highlighting the action. Substitute Cori Dyke scored the winning goal deep in stoppage time to give the Pride all three points and second place in the league standings. The video includes Dyke being tossed in the air afterwards in celebration, as well as a pretty good pep talk from Marta. Let’s hope the Pride can win a bit more comfortably when they travel across the country to face Bay FC on Friday night.

Orlando City B Falls to Carolina Core FC

The Young Lions are returning to Orlando empty handed after a 1-0 loss to Carolina Core FC in North Carolina. A goal by Carolina right before halftime proved to be the difference, as OCB struggled to get much going offensively and couldn’t conjure some of the late magic it’s shown in recent matches. Ultimately, it’s a disappointing result after impressive wins over both Chattanooga FC and Huntsville City FC earlier this month. The Young Lions have a bit of a break to reset before trying to get back on track at home against Toronto FC II on June 25.

Jhon Solis Wins Goal of the Matchweek

OCB midfielder Jhon Solis won MLS NEXT Pro Goal of the Matchweek for his strike in the club’s 3-2 road win over Huntsville on June 6. He curled a free kick towards goal with enough power behind it to beat the keeper and equalize things in the 84th minute. Solis also provided the assist from a corner kick on OCB’s first goal, so hopefully he can continue to make opponents pay in those instances this season.

Getting Ready for the Concacaf Gold Cup

The Concacaf Gold Cup kicks off this weekend and plenty of pressure is on the U.S. after a pair of losses in the friendlies leading into this tournament. The team is without many of its usual starters, and Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino will have to figure things out in a group against Saudi Arabia, Haiti, and Trinidad & Tobago. As for other things to watch out for in this Gold Cup, I’m interested to see how Canada fares in its group and if Miguel Herrera’s Costa Rican team can make some noise against Mexico. Panama’s group could end up as the most enticing though, as it features fellow dark horse Jamaica and a pair of underdogs in Guadeloupe and Guatemala.

Free Kicks

That’s all I have for you this time around. Make sure to stay hydrated out there as we get closer and closer to the unbearable part of summer here in Florida. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!

Continue Reading

Lion Links

Lion Links: 6/11/25

Orlando City B plays tonight, the Orlando Pride want to enter the break strong, USMNT pounded by Switzerland, and more.

Published

1 day ago

on

June 11, 2025

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City B / Mark Thor

Welcome to Wednesday, Mane Landers. Hopefully, you decided to put your mental and emotional health first last night and skipped watching the USMNT match. I, unfortunately, did not. I’m going to take Ted Lasso’s advice to be a goldfish and move on. I think a great way to do that is to share today’s links with you, but not before we wish Orlando Pride forward Grace Chanda a happy birthday.

Pride Looking to Enter the Break on a High Note

The Orlando Pride are sitting in second place in the NWSL standings. The club is also sitting second in the SI.com power rankings and the goal.com power rankings. For some reason, All For XI has the team at number three in their power rankings, but nobody is perfect. Now, the Pride are looking to head into the NWSL break on a high note in their upcoming two road games. Next up is Bay FC on Friday night.

OCB Visits Carolina Core Tonight

Orlando City B is in action tonight against Carolina Core FC at Truist Point Stadium in North Carolina. The Young Lions look to continue their recent success following two late winners against Chattanooga and Huntsville City. The midweek matchup should mean that Manuel Goldberg will have everyone available for the match, except those who played for the U-18 USMNT in the 2025 UEFA Friendship Cup. We will have match coverage for you both here and on BlueSky.

USMNT Crumbles vs. Swiss

If you turned off the USMNT versus Switzerland match at halftime (or before), I don’t blame you. The Swiss scored four goals in a devastating first half for the USMNT. I’m not saying it happened because Orlando City’s Alex Freeman did not get the start, but I’m not, not saying it either. Things got nominally better in the second half, considering the U.S. did not give up any more goals, but the 4-0 final score was still very, very bad. It was not what fans were hoping to see in the send-off match heading into the Concacaf Gold Cup.

Club World Cup Struggles

I’m not certain if you know that the FIFA Club World Cup starts this weekend, including matches in Orlando at Inter&Co Stadium and Camping World Stadium in the coming weeks. What I do know is that across the various venues the response can best be described as…meh.

Fans are getting offers of literal free tickets to the Sounders-Botafogo game and TM has reduced prices by about 20% since yesterday.

— Jeremiah Oshan (@jeremiah.sounderatheart.com) 2025-06-10T21:50:13.404Z

If you weren’t interested in going because the price was too high, you might want to check again. There are several former MLS players in the competition, including former Orlando City attacker Facundo Torres with Palmerias, though he won’t be playing in Orlando. There are several good matchups, including Manchester City versus Juventus at Camping World Stadium.

Free Kicks

  • Orlando City B players Justin Ellis, Colin Guske, and Jackson Platts were members of the U-18 United States Men’s National Team that won the 2025 UEFA Friendship Cup in Nyon, Switzerland on Tuesday. The U.S. and Portugal drew 1-1 in the final before heading to penalties, where the Yanks won 3-2. Unfortunately, Guske had his attempt from the spot saved in the shootout, but his teammates bailed him out.

That will do it for today. Check back as we get you ready for the Orlando City and Orlando Pride matches this weekend. Vamos Orlando!

Continue Reading

Trending