Orlando City

Orlando City’s Supersonic Defensive Lineup

How Orlando City’s back line groupings have performed against opponents at the top, middle, and bottom of the MLS standings.

Published

1 year ago

July 10, 2025

S. Andrew DeSalvo

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

My parents are in town visiting this week, and on Wednesday night our whole family went in the pool and played a spirited game of Marco…Pašalić. This has nothing to do with my article, but I highly recommend that all Orlando City fans make this switch from Polo to Pašalić when playing that game in the pool. Coincidentally, I wrote about Mr. Pašalić this week in our exclusive newsletter, UpRoar, that you can receive every Monday, 52 weeks a year, by clicking on this link and supporting The Mane Land. And now, on with the show.

Iconic rock band Oasis performed together for the first time in years last Friday evening, literally getting the band back together for a huge concert tour that will likely be one of the biggest tours in the world, if not the biggest, in 2025. Last week, I wrote about mirages, and this week I am bringing up an oasis. Clearly I have deserts on my mind. I have never been through the desert, not even while riding a horse with no name, but this article is brought to you by the letter D, as in deserts, desserts (which I like much more than deserts), and defense.

Writing about soccer defense is much more difficult than writing about soccer offense, because most of the sport’s defensive statistics center around individual defensive plays, and those plays do not tell us a whole lot about how well a team’s defense is performing.

For example, tackles won is clearly a defensive statistic, but does knowing how many tackles a team wins per game clearly indicate whether a defense is good or not? Here are two MLS teams and their tackles won per 90 minutes thus far this season:

Team A: 12.3 tackles won, first in MLS.
Team B: 7.76 tackles, won, 30th in MLS.

Team A is Philadelphia and Team B is Columbus, two of the league’s top performing teams in the standings, and yet they are at the opposite end of the rankings for tackles won. The top-ranked team in the Eastern Conference, Cincinnati, has the ninth-most tackles won per 90 minutes, The best team in the west, San Diego, ranks 20th. The correlation between tackles won per 90 minutes and points earned per 90 minutes is only 0.15, which means that there is not a strong relationship between the two variables.

Tackles won is a good metric for the evaluation of an individual defender but is not a useful metric to look at for the team as a whole, and if you look through commonly kept defensive statistics, I think they all can be looked at similarly. Blocked shots, clearances, fouls, interceptions (of note here, a certain Team O ranks dead last in the league in interceptions per 90 minutes), and tackles are all important and can tell somewhat of a story, but that story is mostly about that individual defender and not the game itself.

What tells the story about a defense is really quite simple: where does it allow shots from and do those shots go into the back of the net? We often caveat the use of expected goals (xG) on this site, but there is no caveat here this week, because xG is a good measure of the defense’s ability to prevent shots from good goal-scoring locations. Goals are the game’s most important metric, so of course they need to be included as well. As such, let’s take a look at Orlando City’s defensive groupings by expected goals allowed and real goals allowed, adding in a layer of whether the opponent was a team currently ranked in the top third, middle third, or bottom third of MLS teams in points earned per game.

For the tables below I have included every Orlando City back line combination (players ordered from left to right as they played on the field) that played at least 90 minutes together during MLS play. The total minutes for these seven groupings make up 85% of all minutes played for the Lions, and while there are 18 other groups that have played together, it did not seem necessary to include all of them.

Let’s start by looking at expected goals allowed (all data from Opta’s analysis on fbref.com) — the measure of the ability of a defense to limit shots allowed from dangerous locations.

This is a heatmap, so dark green (closer to zero) is good and dark red (higher numbers) is bad. As mentioned in my article last week, Orlando City has been pretty good against the league’s best teams and not as good against teams in the middle. Some of that is clearly on display here with how the defense allowed more shots and/or shots from more dangerous locations per 90 minutes against teams in the middle third of MLS than against the top teams. Allowing expected goals is an indicator of a defense’s performance, but allowing actual goals is just a little more important. Below is the table of actual goals allowed per 90 minutes, and right away you will see some darker red, but don’t miss out on the dark green in the upper left either.

Yes, it is indeed the case that in 248 minutes against teams in the top 10 — in this case, Philadelphia, Miami, and Portland — Orlando City’s top defensive grouping of David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Alex Freeman held all three opponents scoreless while playing as a back four. I said it in that way because the Philadelphia game on April 5 was a tight one, with Kyle Smith coming on for the final 22 minutes and, in my eyes, joining the back four as a back five, and so I coded it that way.

Regardless, Philadelphia did not score in that match, so whether as a back four or back five the defense held the Union scoreless, and aside from the season opener, when Robin Jansson unexpectedly was injured during pregame warmups, the story all season long in games against the top teams has been a story about great defense. Orlando City shut out the three teams I mentioned in the prior paragraph, and while the Lions allowed two goals by Cincinnati, one of those was a free kick from 35 yards away that Pedro Gallese saves nearly every time, but unfortunately did not that time.

Excluding Evander’s free kick, the team gave up one goal in 360 minutes against top 10 opponents, and even that one goal was a product of a Lions defense that was pushed up the field trying to get an equalizer and got caught on a counterattack. The back line is not solely responsible for the defense, but it is a critical component, and perhaps it is that those players rise to the occasion against the best opponents or maybe it is something else. Whatever it is, I hope it is sustainable, because the schedule still has seven games remaining against top 10 teams, and it sure would be nice to keep those top teams to limited numbers of goals.

The trio of Brekalo, Jansson, and Schlegel primarily played with Freeman but also with Dagur Dan Thórhallsson and Kyle Smith at points, and those three together with any other right back have played 1,052 minutes and only allowed 1.03 goals per 90 minutes in MLS play (1.03 goals allowed per 90 minutes, which ranks second in MLS. Only Philadelphia at 1.00 is better). It should not be a surprise that the team’s three best defenders play extremely good defense together, and while we will not see them together against Montréal on Saturday due to Jansson being out with yellow card accumulation, they should be back together, likely with Freeman, for the game next Wednesday against New York City FC.

On the season, the Lions are allowing 1.33 goals per game, 12th in the league, but they have been extremely leaky in recent games, giving up 12 goals in the last six matches. Prior to that, they were averaging 1.07 goals allowed per game, and I think it is high time they get back to playing binary defense, only giving up zero or one in every game.

Computer scientists loved that reference.

Defensive statistics are not yet as advanced in soccer as offensive statistics are, so while I spent a lot of time with the available defensive data from sites like fbref.com, whoscored.com, and fotmob.com, what ultimately stood out to me the most was the simple measure of goals allowed by opponent (I know, I know, who would have thought?). I wanted to give the Orlando City defense some love with creative data, but instead what I think is that they just need to keep the band of Brekalo, Jansson, and Schlegel playing together, as they make pretty great music when Óscar Pareja puts them in the lineup.

In honor of Oasis, a seminal band for those of us born in the early 1980s, some (read: I) might say that if Pareja acquiesces, they will not often have to look back in anger, and at the end of the season there might be a champagne supernova waiting for the Lions by The (wonder) Wall.

Vamos Orlando!

Lion Links

Lion Links: 8/14/26

Tahir Reid-Brown traded to St. Louis City, Orlando City unveils new kit, Lions host FC Cincinnati Saturday night, and more.

Published

2 hours ago

August 14, 2026

Marcus Mitchell

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

Happy Friday, Mane Landers! It’s been a hectic week, but we’ve thankfully reached the tail end of it and there’s plenty of Orlando soccer awaiting us tomorrow. Beyond working and keeping every finger crossed for Orlando’s teams on Saturday, I plan on catching up on the new season of Ted Lasso. But for now, let’s get to the links!

Tahir Reid-Brown Traded to St. Louis City

Orlando City traded defender Tahir Reid-Brown to St. Louis City in exchange for $150,000 in 2027 General Allocation Money, with another $300,000 in GAM heading Orlando’s way if conditions are met. The 20-year-old climbed the ranks of Orlando’s academy over the years and was signed as the club’s 15th Homegrown Player in January of 2024. Bernardo Rhein’s rise to the first team limited Reid-Brown’s playing time, so hopefully he’ll be able to get more minutes and continue to improve in St. Louis.

Orlando City Reveals New Third Kit

Orlando City unveiled its new “Orlando Original” kit, which is the club’s first third kit since joining MLS. The design is a nice mix of elements from Orlando’s USL days and the city’s hosting of 1994 FIFA World Cup games, while paying tribute to the original Orlando Lions. I didn’t expect it to be quite as red as it is, but I like it, along with the soccer ball pattern that mirrors the match ball from that World Cup. The logo is a bit odd and the sponsor being on the lower back of the kit even odder, but I’m excited to see what it looks like when the Lions wear them on Saturday. Speaking of which…

Orlando City Hosts FC Cincinnati on Saturday

The Lions are back in action on Saturday with a home game against FC Cincinnati in one of the more enticing MLS matchups this weekend. Both teams have conceded goals like a sieve this season, setting up a potential shootout given the talented attacking players expected to take the field. Antoine Griezmann has improved the Lions since joining this summer and hopefully forwards like Marco Pasalic, Justin Ellis, and Daryl Dike can step up and give Orlando an edge against a Cincinnati offense that boasts Evander, Kevin Denkey, and Pavel Bucha.

MLS Transfer News Roundup

The Houston Dynamo are reportedly set to transfer Ezequiel Ponce to Elche in La Liga. Houston signed Ponce for a club-record transfer fee in 2024 and he led Houston with 10 goals last season. However, he has yet to score this season despite starting in 17 games. His departure should open the door even wider for former Lion Duncan McGuire to make an impact.

Elsewhere in the league, the New England Revolution bolstered their defense by adding Tylon Smith on loan from Queens Park Rangers, LAFC signed 23-year-old forward Armando Sieb from Bayern Munich, and midfielder Aziel Jackson is already back in MLS on loan with Minnesota United from Jagiellonia Bialystok. Rangers reportedly made a $10 million bid for Portland Timbers forward Kevin Kelsy, who has scored nine goals so far this season.

Free Kicks

Former Orlando Pride forward Simone Charley was signed by Brooklyn FC and then immediately transferred to the Chicago Stars.
The Pride dropped a spot to 11th in All For XI‘s NWSL power rankings following their 3-1 loss to Racing Louisville.
Nigeria will miss out on the 2027 Women’s World Cup after a 2-1 loss to South Africa.
Former Pride player Kaylyn Kyle announced that she is leaving Apple TV’s MLS coverage after spending the past four years as a host and analyst.
Belgian winger Jeremy Doku signed a new five-year contract with Manchester City.
The La Liga season kicks off this season, but Celta Vigo’s match against Osasuna has been postponed due to a fungus outbreak on its field.

That’s all I have for you this time. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Atletico de San Luis: Five Takeaways

Here’s what we learned from Orlando City’s draw with San Luis.

Published

20 hours ago

August 13, 2026

David Rohe

Image of Tiago celebrating a goal with Justin Ellis against Atlanta.

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Jeremy Reper.

Orlando City hosted Atletico San Luis in the third Leagues Cup match at Inter.co Stadium Wednesday night. The match ended in a 2-2 draw with the Lions winning the shootout 5-3. It was a match between a team that was already eliminated and one that was all but eliminated. Naturally, that meant multiple goals scored. Here are my five takeaways from the match.

Everyone Gets a Start

If you’ve been starting regularly for Orlando City, then you get a break because this starting lineup was full of youngsters, the recently returned, and the positionally displaced. Given that the Lions needed to win by at least four goals and get help from other results to advance in the tournament, resting the regular starters was probably the best decision interim head coach Martin Perelman has made since taking over. It’s no secret I’m not a fan of Leagues Cup — U.S. Open Cup for life — so I’m not heartbroken that the Lions get to focus on the regular season and the Open Cup.

Dike Strikes

It had been1,723 days (or about four years, eight months, and 20 days) since Daryl Dike last scored a goal for Orlando City. It’s also been that long since his last start for the Lions. That all changed when he started Wednesday’s match and then put in the first goal of the night. In the 31st minute of the match, Tiago’s header was spilled by the keeper right to the feet of Dike, who calmly put it in the back of the net. It’s the type of goal that a prototypical striker like Dike gets in position to make. It was his 20th goal as a Lion with many more hopefully to come.

El Capitan Cartagena

Wilder Cartagena was given the captain’s armband to start the match and he did his usual good job as a defensive midfielder, making things difficult for the opposition, stopping attacks before they could develop. When needed, his was in his own box blocking shots, or on the other end putting in service for the offense, such as the cross to Tiago that eventually resulted in Dike’s goal. He was also six inches from a banger of a goal in the first half, but the goalkeeper got a piece and it deflected off the outside of the left post.

Terrific Tiago

Tiago was everywhere on the left side of the attack for Orlando City. He was causing all kinds of problems for the San Luis defense. The Brazilian youngster made end line runs to put in crosses, provided passes into the box, and had the header that Dike put into the back of the net. He also provided the assist to Justin Ellis for the second goal of the match. He made a run down the left into the box, turned, found Ellis coming across from the right, and put the ball right on his head. It was an excellent match for the Brazilian.

Griezmann Needs to be Greedy

Antione Griezmann should not have been on the pitch. There was no good reason for him to make an appearance in this match other than he probably wanted to do so. Sadly, he had two opportunities to score after coming on but was decidedly too unselfish. I get that he is trying to raise the level of play for his teammates, but this is Orlando City not Atletico Madrid. The level of his teammates is not the same. The first instance he had a one on one with the keeper on the left and tried to square it to Ellis who had defenders around him rather than taking the shot himself. The second time was when Gustavo Caraballo forced the keeper to come almost all the way out to midfield to stop a breakaway. Griezmann followed up the challenge and had the opportunity to put in a long distance shot over the retreating keeper. Instead, he squared the ball to absolutely nobody, turning it over, which ended with the equalizer from San Luis. Hopefully, it’s a lesson learned for the veteran.

That is what I saw in Orlando City’s draw with Atletico de San Luis. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

Orlando City

Orlando City Drops 2026 Archive Collection Third Kit

Orlando City’s long-anticipated third kit is here.

Published

22 hours ago

August 13, 2026

Michael Citro

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

Orlando City has a third kit for the first time since joining Major League Soccer. The club unveiled its new “Orlando Original” third kit today as part of the final Adidas x MLS Archive
Collection release of the year. According to the club, the new kit, which is predominantly red, “celebrates the city’s rich soccer heritage by combining elements from the club’s history with inspiration from the 1994 World Cup, which brought the global game to Orlando.”

The Lions will wear these new kits for the first time on Saturday against FC Cincinnati.

“Soccer has been part of Orlando’s identity for decades, and this kit is a tribute to the moments
that helped build that legacy,” Orlando City Chief Marketing Officer Pedro Araujo said in a club press release . “From the city’s role as a host of the 1994 World Cup to the championship teams that laid the foundation for our club, the Archive Collection celebrates the people and milestones that shaped Orlando soccer and inspires the next generation of supporters to carry that tradition forward.”

While many fans have been waiting for a red kit that mirrored the club’s old red kit from the USL days, the shade is not quite the same as the 2011 USL Championship team’s kit, and a glaring difference is that instead of the club’s jersey sponsor across the front, the shirt features a wordmark that says “Lions” to pay tribute to the old Orlando Lions from the 1980s. The kit also uses design elements inspired by the 1994 World Cup match ball, reminding fans that the City Beautiful was a host city and placed a soccer ball on top of City Hall, and an Adidas World Cup ball pattern.

The original MLS logo is on the back of the neck and the crest features the tri-lion crest as another throwback to the original Orlando City kits. Jersey sponsor Orlando Health’s logo is placed on the lower back of the shirt.

The 2026 Archive Collection kit is available now at MLSStore.com and OCMobileShop.com, and will be available at The Den at Inter.co Stadium starting Friday. Fans can also purchase the kit at tonight’s launch party at the stadium, which starts at 7 p.m. and is free to the public. The club will screen Orlando City’s 2011 USL championship match, club legends will be on hand, and fans will have photo ops with the championship trophy. Society XXI members can enter as early as 6:30 p.m.

Here’s what the new kit looks like: