Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew: Player Grades and Man of the Match
How did your favorite Lions perform in Orlando City’s 3-1 victory against the Columbus Crew?
Orlando City will end the MLS regular season undefeated under the Friday night lights, as in their one and only Friday game, the Lions came from behind to defeat the Columbus Crew 3-1. The game started an hour late due to inclement weather and the Orlando City offense started an hour late due to reasons that they did not share, but once the game hit the final 30 minutes the Lions roared, scoring three goals in a 20-minute period and giving Columbus its first true home loss of the 2025 season.
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, 7 — El Pulpo probably should have added to his shutout tally during this game, because if not for a cross just barely grazing the hand of Marco Pašalić to give Columbus a penalty kick, he had the goal locked up, putting himself in the perfect position to collect all of the Crew’s non-penalty shots on target. With nearly two-thirds of the possession, Columbus threatened throughout, but Gallese was up to the task, starting in the second minute with a kick save and going all the way into the 10th minute of second-half stoppage time, when he saved a deflected volley, ending with six saves on the night. The Peruvian was quick to come off his line as well, playing an all-around solid game in net. He also completed 61.9% of his passes.
D, David Brekalo, 6.5 — The Crew attacked down their right side on 48% of their possessions, so Brekalo and left side partner Iván Angulo were frequently called on to step up defensively on Friday night. I thought the Slovenian was more good than great on the evening, as the Crew were able to play several threatening balls into the box after going down his side, but he also shut down several promising attacks and made some nice offensive runs up the left side, showing that Alex Freeman is not Orlando City’s only outside back who can contribute offensively. Brekalo was tied for second on the team with 29 completed passes, completing them at an 82.9% rate, and on the defensive side, he led the team with 10 clearances and contributed two tackles, two blocked shots, and one interception.
D, Robin Jansson, 6.5 — The captain was his usual solid self in the middle of the defense, but he did have one scary moment when he mis-hit a clearance and played a perfectly placed ball on the ground to Jacen Russell-Rowe, who is not a Lion, but thankfully Gallese was up to the task and that poor clearance did not come back to hurt Orlando City. Aside from that, the Beefy Swede delivered defensively, leading the team with three interceptions while logging three tackles, seven clearances, and one blocked shot. He was not as proficient as he usually is with his passes, completing only 81.8% of them, but because Orlando City had very little of the ball, that low completion rate only equated to six incomplete passes, and they did not hurt the team.
D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 6 — Jansson’s center back partner did not have any major misplays that created risk for the defense, but Schlegel did not make as many positive plays either, which is why I rated him a half point lower. He recorded two tackles and seven clearances, but most importantly, he had zero Schlegels, which contributed greatly to the Lions only allowing the one penalty kick goal. Offensively, he completed 90.3% of his passes, mostly short and medium passes, to change the point of attack. His overall collaboration with Jansson helped to keep Columbus from any goals from open play.
D, Alex Freeman, 6.5 — As regulation time was winding down, I was thinking that Friday night was going to be one of Freeman’s least impressive games of the season, but then the young right back showed why is so highly thought of, stepping up to intercept a pass, driving forward, and playing a perfectly weighted pass directly onto the left foot of a sprinting Martín Ojeda for the back-breaking third goal. That pass was so good that at first I thought it must have come from Eduard Atuesta, but no, it was the 20-year-old, and it was a beautiful assist. The rest of the game was only so-so for Freeman; Columbus attacked primarily down its right side but had good success down Freeman’s side, and there were several plays when he allowed Crew attackers to cut back inside and take dangerous shots, struggling to contain Max Arfsten. He did not have any tackles, but he contributed one interception and two clearances, and as usual, it was on offense where he made more of a mark, completing 84.4% of his passes with two key passes and one assist.
MF, Iván Angulo, 8.5 (MotM) — Columbus was done in by the Colombian, as Angulo was everywhere, leading the team in tackles with five while also getting the Lions back into the game, and then winning the game, with his two beautiful left-footed assists to Ramiro Enrique. This game was undoubtedly one of his best ever for the Lions, and it could have been even better, as he should have drawn a penalty as well, except that he forgot he was playing for Orlando City so he was never going to get that call. With how often Columbus attacked down the right side, Angulo was involved throughout his 89 minutes, and he delivered both offensively and defensively, helping Orlando City turn the game around after falling behind. He completed 84% of his passes, with both of his key passes becoming assists, and he also had two successful take-ons before coming off for Kyle Smith as Óscar Pareja put in some fresh legs to protect the lead.
MF, César Araújo, 6.5 — The Uruguayan was a quiet contributor against the Crew, playing his role well as he sat in front of the defense and helped connect the defense to the offense. With both Brekalo and Freeman venturing forward, Araújo often looked like a third center back alongside Jansson and Schlegel, and while that prevented him from making any threatening runs on offense, he still led the team in completed passes with 33 on 35 attempts to finish with a 97.1% completion rate. He added one tackle, one clearance, and one blocked shot on defense, playing a solid two-way game.
MF, Eduard Atuesta, 6 — Friday night’s performance was not one of Atuesta’s best, but even when not at his best, he still brought more to the table than he took off. The Colombian completed 85.3% of his passes, and on a different day his two key passes to Luis Muriel and Marco Pašalić could have turned into goals. He also added two tackles defensively, but the Crew’s domination of the ball meant he played deeper and more defensively than usual, and on this night he was not able to kickstart any major counterattacks from that defensive position.
MF, Marco Pašalić, 6.5 — The newly minted MLS All-Star created several chances, but he was unable to convert any of his four shots and was unlucky that Ojeda did not do better after he set him up in a dangerous location right at the end of the first half. Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte made a great save on a Pašalić rocket from close range in the second half, and even though he did not contribute a goal or an assist, I thought he played well. While the Croatian is not the defender that his opposite winger Angulo is, he still did well to track back and engage, which unfortunately came back to bite him when a cross just barely tipped his hand in the box, not even changing the flight of the ball, but it was deemed enough to give Columbus the penalty kick that put the Crew on the board. He completed 85.7% of his passes with one key pass before coming off for Zakaria Taifi in the 84th minute.
F, Luis Muriel, 5.5 — I imagine that Muriel must feel like he is cursed, as game after game he comes so close but just cannot find the back of the net. On Friday night he burst onto a deflected ball and had only Schulte to beat, but the Columbus goalkeeper made a great save after Muriel just could not get his shot wide enough. The Designated Player did not let it get him down though, continuing to make darting runs and trying to unlock the defense with his passes, but the final product was lacking during his 64 minutes on the field. He completed 64.7% of his passes and contributed one tackle and one clearance, but while he gave a worthy effort, he was not successful, and coincidence or not, the offense did not really get going until he came off for Enrique.
F, Martín Ojeda, 8 — It says a lot about Angulo’s night that Ojeda, with two assists and one goal, was not my choice for man of the match. Ojeda was outstanding though, delivering secondary assists on both of Enrique’s goals, and his through ball that set up Angulo’s second assist was one of the best passes by any Lion this season. The Argentine then received a pass from Freeman that was almost as nice as the one he played to Angulo, and he salted the game away with a blast that beat Schulte to the near post. Ojeda now has 25 goal contributions this season, a club record, and that is with nine games still remaining in the season. He completed 76.7% of his passes, including the two assists, and also added two tackles, one interception, and one clearance.
Substitutes
F, Ramiro Enrique (67′), 8 — Enrique came on and delivered everything a coach could hope for when subbing in a striker in the second half, scoring two goals and completely changing the tenor of the game. The Argentine’s first goal came by getting himself to a dangerous location and using his aerial ability to win the cross and flick it toward the uncovered far post. Just minutes later, he made another perfectly timed run, tracking Angulo’s second straight left-footed cross and finishing it from three yards out. The 24-year-old striker’s pace and energy were contagious, and with respect to Muriel, who played hard and gave his all, the Lions would not have won this game without Enrique changing the game.
MF, Zakaria Taifi, (84′), N/A — Taifi appears to have jumped up on the depth chart, as Friday’s game marked two straight matches in which he was the first choice to come on for one of Orlando City’s wing midfielders to help see out a win. He seemed confident and poised, completing three of his four pass attempts and hustling throughout his minutes on the field.
D, Kyle Smith, (89’), N/A — The Accountant came on in the final minute of regulation, entering for Angulo but playing more of a left back in a five-man back line. He completed one of his three pass attempts and recorded one tackle and two clearances.
That’s how I saw the individual performances in Orlando City’s 3-1 win over the Columbus Crew. 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.
Orlando City
Orlando City Announces Signing of Iago on MLS U22 Initiative Deal
The Brazilian youth international joins the Lions through the 2028-2029 season.
Orlando City announced today the long-reported signing of Brazilian defender Iago Teodoro, colloquially known simply as Iago, from Brazilian top flight club CR Flamengo. The Lions signed Iago through the 2028-2029 season on an MLS U22 Initiative contract. Terms of the deal were not disclosed by the club, although unconfirmed online reports have stated the Lions will only get 50% of a sell-on in the transaction.
“Iago is a talented young defender with experience at one of the best youth and professional clubs in the world,” Orlando City General Manager and Sporting Director Ricardo Moreira said in a club press release. “He has shown a strong competitive mentality (and) leadership qualities beyond his years that took him to lead Brazil’s U-20 squad as a captain in the latest FIFA U-20 World Cup. Iago also has an ability to contribute on both sides of the ball. We believe his profile fits well within our long‑term vision, and we’re excited to bring him here (to) Orlando.”
The 20-year-old Brazilian youth international from Volta Redonda, Brazil came up through Flamengo’s academy, debuting for the club’s U-20 team in July 2022 and making his first-team debut in January of 2024. Iago has accumulated a combined 68 appearances and has logged more than 5,000 minutes across Flamengo’s senior and U-20 teams across all competitions. He’s scored 14 goals for his club, helping Flamengo win the 2021 U-17 Brazilian Championship, the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 U-20 Intercontinental Cups, the 2022 and 2024 Brazilian Cups, the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 Campeao Carioca, and the 2025 Serie A title.
On the international stage, Iago has 13 caps with Brazil’s U-20 team, scoring three goals and captaining the team in the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
If you like buying kits with unique numbers, Iago will wear No. 57 on his jersey.
What It Means for Orlando City
The Lions have filled all three MLS U22 Initiative slots and will likely have to press the young center back into service quickly with Robin Jansson out with an injury and the club short of experienced depth in the interior back line. Iago is young, has good size, and is athletic. He fits the club’s profile and is the type of player who could yield a big profit in a future sale, even if Orlando City gets only half the fee.
The defender will have a little bit of preseason to learn Oscar Pareja’s system and get to know his teammates, but getting this signing across the finish line earlier would have obviously been more optimal. Iago seems to have a better nose for the net than just about any previous Orlando City center back in the MLS era, but only time will tell if those skills will translate to Major League Soccer.
The back line depth is still sketchy and lacks experience with Jansson out. David Brekalo has to be a locked-in starter at this point, with Iago his probable partner to start the season. Nolan Miller, Wilder Cartagena, and Adrian Marin would serve as the depth until the captain returns, with the Lions perhaps employing a three-man back line and wingbacks at times. The Lions will need Iago and Miller to grow up in a hurry, or things could get dicey quickly if Brekalo picks up a knock or a suspension early in the season.
Orlando City
Orlando City’s Roster Short On Tenure, Long On Ambition
The 2026 roster is not yet finalized, but for the first time in years it will primarily be made up of players who only recently joined the club.
If you are like me and are a fan of both soccer and basketball, you likely have been overwhelmed during the last few days by transfer news in global soccer and trades in the NBA as teams shape their rosters for the stretch runs of their seasons (most soccer leagues around the world, the NBA) or the season about to start (MLS, a handful of other spring-to-fall leagues). The news around Orlando City has mostly been limited to rumors about possible defensive reinforcements in recent weeks, and while our Ben Miller became an overnight expert in Polish soccer X (the service that was formerly, and more successfully, known as Twitter), it turned out to be for naught, as the attempted acquisition of Dušan Stojinović fell through due to a failed medical.
The rumors persist about the coming acquisition of Brazilian central defender Iago (Shakespeare lovers surely agree that if he signs it is a good thing there is no longer a Rod(e)rigo on the roster), but as of this writing, the only official recent acquisition came when the Lions signed 2026 MLS SuperDraft draft pick Nolan Miller on Wednesday.
MLS roster construction is complicated, and if you are struggling with sleep I recommend you read through the rules and regulations from the league’s website (that link takes you to the 2025 rules, as they have yet to update them for 2026, which is good news because that means some new sleep-inducing material will be published soon). To simplify, however, teams generally have 20 players on their senior roster and then a supplemental roster of up to 11 players who are also available for selection on game days.
With more than two weeks until the season opener, the roster remains in flux, but we can assume that by the season opener the club will probably have signed a few more players in order to make use of most of those available roster spots. Unless they go out and bring a former OCSC player back to Orlando, the Lions will be acquiring a player who will be new to the club, and that, plus all of the turnover from the 2025 team, made me wonder about the average tenure of this year’s team, in comparison to other Orlando City clubs from the past.
The 2026 roster is not finalized yet, but in honor of the hopefully soon-to-be-announced acquisition, we can channel Othello’s Iago and manipulate the data a little bit to fill out the 2026 Orlando City roster like so:
- Goalkeeper: Maxime Crépeau, Javier Otero.
- Defender: David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Adrián Marín, Nolan Miller, Tahir Reid-Brown, Zakaria Taifi.
- Central Midfielder: Eduard Atuesta, Wilder Cartagena, Joran Gerbet, Colin Guske, Braian Ojeda, Luis Otávio.
- Attacker: Iván Angulo, Gustavo Caraballo, Justin Ellis, Duncan McGuire, Martín Ojeda, Marco Pašalić, Harvey Sarajian, Tyrese Spicer, Tiago, Yutaro Tsukada.
- Roster Spots That Will Be Filled: Designated Player (attacker), Defender (likely Iago), Defender (outside back), Additional Player, Additional Player.
I held the line at 29 players, though I will not be surprised if the club maxes out the full 30. It is also possible that some of the young players like Caraballo, Ellis, Guske, Miller, Otávio, Reid-Brown, Sarajian, and even Tsukada play very few or even zero minutes this year at the senior level. It is always exciting to think about the potential of young players, especially those who came up through the academy or were signed via the MLS U22 Initiative, but Óscar Pareja plays every game to win, and over the years he has shown a preference for going with veterans as opposed to young players.
Pareja is not completely opposed to youth, however, and with a roster this full of young players he may not have a choice but to give a serious chunk of minutes to players in their teens or early 20s this season. According to fbref.com, last season’s team had a weighted average age of 27.4 years old during MLS play (10th oldest among all teams), but unless the next few acquisitions are veterans in the twilights of their careers (I am looking at you, Antoine Griezmann), that average age is likely going to drop in 2026.
If we take that theoretical roster that I outlined earlier, and instead of using their actual ages use the number of years that each player has been with the club (assigning a value of one for all of the players who have never played for the senior team), we get the distribution below:
- Goalkeeper: Maxime Crépeau (1), Javier Otero (3).
- Defender: David Brekalo (3), Robin Jansson (8, most in the MLS era), Adrián Marín (2), Nolan Miller (1), Tahir Reid-Brown (1), Zakaria Taifi (2).
- Central Midfielder: Eduard Atuesta (2), Wilder Cartagena (4), Joran Gerbet (2), Colin Guske (2), Braian “Defensive” Ojeda (1), Luis Otávio (1).
- Attacker: Iván Angulo (5), Gustavo Caraballo (2), Justin Ellis (2), Duncan McGuire (4), Martín “Offensive” Ojeda (4), Marco Pašalić (2), Harvey Sarajian (1), Tyrese Spicer (2), Tiago (1), Yutaro Tsukada (2).
- Roster Spots That Will Be Filled: Designated Player (attacker) (1), Defender (likely Iago) (1), Defender (outside back) (1), Additional Player (1), Additional Player (1).
Before anyone yells at me, Cartagena and Tsukada both have actually been with the club for one more season than I represented above, but I am counting soccer-playing seasons, and they both missed all of 2025 due to injury. The math is not as elegant as it was to Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, but the chart below, which shows the counts by player tenure for every season going back to the team’s inaugural MLS season, will either look beautiful or hideous to you, depending on your artistic perspective. I think it looks fantastic.
The first few years are clear outliers, with every player being new to the club in 2015 (some players had been with the club in the USL era, but my definition of tenure was playing in a game for Orlando City’s MLS team) and no players being able to get to a “longer” tenure until at least 2019. That said, the 2026 team looks like it will be heavily populated by players in their first two seasons with Orlando City (the purple and gold bars in the chart), with that combined number likely being the most since the 2020 team.
Until the roster is finalized and the games begin my 2026 forecast is just that — an estimate of who will play in at least one game for the Lions this season. Just because the team will most likely be full of newer players, it does not mean that they cannot be successful. Inter Miami won the league title last season with 19 players in their first two seasons with the club and only four who had been there for more than three seasons.
The sports world writ large is moving to shorter contracts, with teams changing a lot from year to year, and after two years of relative stability, it looks like this Orlando City season will follow the same pattern and we will see the debuts of more players than in recent years — and also see more appearances by recent acquisitions (i.e. last season or this season) than in a long time.
Hopefully, some more new acquisitions will be announced soon, helping fill out the roster and answer some of the depth chart questions that we frequently talk about in our internal The Mane Land Slack channel (if you are reading this article, you are clearly incredibly intelligent and a passionate fan, so why not come join us and add your opinion to the mix?).
All those new acquisitions would come in as brand new Lions, bringing down that average tenure, but in the end what really matters is not whether a player has been with the club for three years but whether in a game they can help bring the club three points. The crowds at Inter&Co Stadium will be ready to roar for any Lions who can deliver, and I am looking forward to the next announcement from Ricardo Moreira on who will be taking their talents to Church Street and taking Orlando City back to the playoffs.
The club’s lofty goals remain the same, even if many of the players scoring the goals may be playing for the team for the first time.
Vamos Orlando!
Opinion
Likes and Dislikes From the Fourth Week of Orlando City Preseason
Let’s talk through some of the good and bad from the fourth week of Orlando’s preseason preparations.
The fourth week of Orlando City’s preseason preparations is (almost) in the books. The Lions will be kicking off the 2026 MLS season against the New York Red Bulls in a little over two weeks’ time, which seems impossibly near at hand. Let’s take a look at some of the good and some of the bad from the week that was.
Likes
Nolan Miller Earns a Contract
OCSC announced on Wednesday that it signed 2026 MLS SuperDraft selection Nolan Miller to a deal through the 2026 season with several additional option years tacked on. The center back was the ninth overall pick in the draft, and it’s good to see another high selection earning a contract after Harvey Sarajian was the first from the current draft class to do so back in January. Part of the motivation behind the move may be due to Orlando’s center back situation that we’ll touch on later, but either way, the youngster has his foot in the door and will have a chance to get on the field, contribute, and potentially extend his stay in the City Beautiful.
Iago Reportedly on Track
It’s been a trying week for Orlando City fans (more on that below), but another piece of news to be happy about came on Wednesday, when Oscar Pareja noted during his media availability that the team is continuing to work towards finalizing the signing of center back Iago from Flamengo.
This is one that’s been rumored for awhile, and devoted social media users may have even seen specific numbers thrown around, like a transfer fee of $1.5 million and Flamengo retaining a sell-on clause of 50%. Whether those are accurate or not, only time will tell, but for now it’s good to hear that talks are ongoing. While it would be nice for the process to go a little quicker, signing players from Brazilian teams seems to be a bit tricky at times, so it isn’t necessarily surprising that this deal is taking its sweet time. Hopefully negotiations wrap up quickly and Iago can join the Lions sooner rather than later though, because as we’re about to discuss, the team is almost certainly going to need him.
Dislikes
Robin Jansson’s Injury
Robin Jansson had surgery to repair a Jones fracture in his right foot. While no specific recovery timeline was announced and it’s difficult to estimate one since we don’t know when exactly the surgery happened, this is not great news so close to the start of the season. David Brekalo is currently the only experienced center back available to take the field, and we’re 15 days away from the first game of the season. A lot can change in that amount of time, but it’s a nervy place to be regardless. I also don’t love the fact that the injury is a Jones fracture. The fifth metatarsal, where the break occurred, is an area of the body that’s notorious for not getting great blood flow when compared to other bones, and Jones fractures have a reputation of being tricky injuries to heal. The captain is in good hands with the club’s staff and the good folks at Orlando Health, but I would caution restraint when it comes to expecting him to make a speedy return to the field.
A Signing Falls Through
The news of Jansson’s injury might have been slightly easier to bear if not for this piece of news that Tom Bogert broke on Monday.
The wording that the deal fell apart after a failed medical implies that all of the particulars were sorted between the clubs and the player, and that it was the very last hurdle that proved its undoing. That’s brutal enough on the face of things, as it deprived Orlando of a starting-caliber center back who is only 25 and would presumably have time to grow and improve at the club for a number of years. When Jansson’s injury is taken into account, it hurts even worse. As I said earlier, a lot can happen in two weeks, but due to unfortunate and uncontrollable circumstances the Lions’ center back corps is looking positively threadbare at the time of this writing.
While it’s very easy to get lost in the negatives, this week wasn’t all bad. Losing one potential center back and then a nailed-on starter and club captain in the space of two days hurts, there’s no getting around it. But on the bright side, a young player will get a chance to prove himself, an MLS U22 Initiative signing will reportedly be on the way sooner or later, and there’s still some time for additional reinforcements to arrive before the season opener arrives. Keep your heads up, take things one day at a time, and pray for good things from the soccer gods. Vamos Orlando!
Orlando City Announces Signing of Iago on MLS U22 Initiative Deal
Orlando City’s Roster Short On Tenure, Long On Ambition
Likes and Dislikes From the Fourth Week of Orlando City Preseason
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