Connect with us

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Inter Miami, Leagues Cup: Final Score 3-1 as Controversial Calls Help Herons Come from Behind

At the risk of being unprofessional…man, that was some bullshit.

Published

9 months ago

on

Image of Robin Jansson playing against Inter Miami.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

An obvious penalty at one end not given and one given at the other end helped turn a 1-0 Orlando City lead into a 3-1 Inter Miami win at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale in the 2025 Leagues Cup semifinals. A second yellow to David Brekalo on the late penalty that was given Miami’s way put Orlando down to 10 men and allowed Lionel Messi to tie the match from the penalty spot late.

The extra man then helped the Herons find a go-ahead goal and an insurance marker in a game that will long be remembered more for the officiating than the performances of the Lions or Herons.

An obvious foul on Sergio Busquets in the box on Ivan Angulo on a 2-v-2 counter was ignored by referee Walter Lopez and incorrectly not overturned by video assistant referee Armando Villarreal in the 56th minute. Messi scored the winner and Telasco Segovia added a third in stoppage time in a bitter loss in the Tropic Thunder rivalry.

After an earlier botched breakaway by Angulo, Marco Pasalic scored Orlando’s lone goal late in the first half, and that looked for the longest time like it might hold up.

“I think that we weren’t able to defend as much in the second half as we should have,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “We should have had a bit more control in our sequences, in our positions, to perhaps hold longer possession. And then, of course, it became tougher (after going down a man and conceding a penalty).”

Pareja started his usual first-choice starting lineup for this season, with Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Alex Freeman. Cesar Araujo and Eduard Atuesta started in central midfield between wingers Ivan Angulo and Pasalic, with Martin Ojeda and Luis Muriel up top.

The opening moments were tentative and probing from both teams, with neither side willing to get stretched. It wasn’t until the fifth minute that either side got into the opposing team’s final third. Freeman sent in a good cross for Angulo, but it was just a bit too tall for the diminutive Colombian winger. Two minutes later, Ojeda’s cross in was partially blocked and spun out just inches too far in front of Muriel’s sliding effort.

Miami’s first good look came off of a bad giveaway by Angulo in his own defensive third. The Herons cycled the ball from the left side to Rodrigo De Paul on the right. The midfielder fired a blast just wide of the left post in the eighth minute.

The game opened up for a spell and Orlando fashioned a good opportunity in the ninth minute. Ojeda made a wonderful backheel flick to himself to maintain possession and beat his defender down the left. He fired from a tight angle but Oscar Ustari made a good save, helped by the shot coming in at the perfect height for him to get his hand to. A minute later, Muriel took a pass in the box but perhaps took one touch too many before shooting, getting it blocked behind for a corner.

Brekalo was booked in the 18th minute when his flailing arm appeared to catch De Paul high on the chest, but the Miami midfielder crumpled to the ground holding his face, and the defender was cautioned on a play that had serious ramifications later in the match. The Herons went down easily throughout the match, looking for calls, and although they didn’t often get them, that one ended up making a difference. Brekalo, however, should not have been so loose with the arm.

De Paul fired a dangerously swerving shot in the 22nd minute from range, but Gallese did well to stop it and keep the game scoreless.

Just one minute later, the Lions should have taken the lead. A fantastic ball from Ojeda sent Angulo blazing in behind the last defender. The winger had so much time in behind that he was able to set himself up for the shot. He beat Ustari, but sent his shot skipping just wide of the right post, wasting a golden opportunity in the 23rd minute.

Miami came closest in the 31st minute. Luis Suarez took the ball on the right side, cut in on his left to lose Brekalo, and smashed a curling shot that fizzed just wide of the left post.

Angulo had a better effort on goal in the 33rd minute, firing a shot on the left side that forced a diving save from Ustari. Four minutes later, Pasalic tried an ambitious volley off a cross-field pass by Ojeda, but the Croatian got well under his shot and sent it high into the seats.

Miami won a corner moments later but the Lions cleared and went on the break. Angulo was taken down cleanly in transition, but Ian Fray reached out and grabbed him to prevent him from quickly getting back on the ball. There was no yellow card for Fray or even a foul given.

Pasalic got a shot on target from outside the box in the 42nd minute, but he sent it straight into Ustari’s chest for an easy save.

Miami got a chance on the recycle of a corner kick a minute later, with a ball sent back into the box. Maxi Falcon got to the ball and took it from Messi, firing a weak shot at Gallese.

Pasalic broke the deadlock just seconds into stoppage time. Falcon tried to clear a ball into the box but it hit Pasalic in the chest and stayed at the Croatian’s feet, so he smashed it under the bar to make it 1-0. There was a check to see if it hit his arm, but it came off his chest and shoulder area, and the goal stood. It was Pasalic’s 14th goal across all competitions this season and gave him a goal in each of his three matches against Inter Miami in 2025.

Pasalic had one final impatient shot from long range deep in stoppage time on a promising counterattack, but he sent it well off target on the last look at goal of the opening period.

At the break, the Lions held the advantage in possession (51.8%-48.3%), shots (8-5), shots on target (4-2), and passing accuracy (90.9%-88.6%). Both teams won three corners in the first half.

“I think we had a pretty good first half. We were able to control very well, and we came here to provide a proposal which actually compelled us to go look for goals,” Pareja said.

The second half offered few surprises, with Miami pushing numbers forward and Orlando looking to exploit those spaces left in the back. The Lions’ lack of precision and composure prevented numerous opportunities to get forward and test that back line in transition, but the chances were there to be taken. Orlando simply didn’t take them, and then seemingly did enough on a 2-v-2 to win a penalty, only for the ref to swallow the whistle and the video assistant referee to ignore video evidence of the contact on a play that Angulo could have regathered the ball in a shooting position.

Schlegel gave up a free kick in a dangerous spot near the left corner of the box four minutes into the second half, but the wall did its job, and Muriel blocked Messi’s free kick. Moments later, Schlegel did well to partially block a Suarez shot that popped up into the air for Gallese to catch. Suarez took a dive in the box moments later but was not booked for embellishment. That was an important decision, because Suarez was booked later for a high boot with 10 minutes remaining in normal time — eight minutes before Miami’s second goal.

Jansson made a vital clearance in the 55th minute on a good headed ball toward the back post that might have found a player in pink without the captain’s intercession.

Moments later, the Lions should have had a chance to double the lead from the spot. Orlando broke in transition with Angulo and Muriel on two Miami defenders. Angulo dribbled into the corner of the box and touched the ball quickly to his right. Busquets cut off his progress — a play extremely similar to the one at the start of the half that got Schlegel booked and another play that saw Araujo cautioned in the 69th minute — keeping the winger from regathering the ball and shooting or finding an outlet. Instead of a foul, Lopez waved play on, and the video check from Villarreal was apparently quick, because there was no real stoppage at all for it.

“I don’t want to come here and cry about all the things that happened. That’s the least of my wishes here, because the team of players that I coach does not deserve that,” Pareja said. “Ivan’s penalty was very clear.”

Miami had a golden chance to tie the game just moments after the no-call. Jordi Alba sent in a great cross for a charging Suarez, who somehow missed making contact with the ball in the air, allowing it to get through and skip out of play.

Araujo stepped in front of Messi to cut off his run in the 69th minute and was booked, handing Miami a dangerous free kick. Messi left his set piece shot high, sending it over the bar in the 71st minute.

Two minutes later, Freeman made a nice play to take the ball, going on a run up the right sideline. He was pulled down in transition but there was no card shown to Yannick Bright for the tactical foul.

Miami came the other way and sent a good ball into the box. Brekalo got beat on the far side by Tadeo Allende. Both players had a hold of the other’s shirts, and Allende lifted his feet off the ground. If pulled back, the feet would go forward. They stayed behind. But Lopez bought it and awarded the penalty, sending Brekalo off with a second yellow in the process. Based on what had happened earlier with Angulo and Busquets, it was a bitter decision for the Lions. Messi beat Gallese on the spot kick, despite the Peruvian guessing correctly, and the match was tied in the 77th minute with the Herons up a man.

“The yellow card to Brekalo was unbelievable,” Pareja said.

Orlando was still in position to get a draw in the game and go to penalties, and the Lions nearly got there.

However, Miami still had a numbers advantage and was going for the win. Allende sent a header over the bar in the 84th minute. Three minutes later, Alba got outside of Freeman and sent a shot off the outside of the left post.

Orlando was done in seconds later. Freeman got under a chipped pass into the box, but instead of nodding it back for Gallese or playing it safely out for a corner, the young fullback tried to clear the soft floater out of the area. Without any speed on the ball, he could get no power on it, turning it over just outside the area. Inter Miami regathered, broke forward quickly and Messi worked a give-and-go with Alba, getting in behind on the left, and beating Gallese to the open right side of the goal. The Herons led 2-1 with just about 61 seconds remaining in normal time, effectively ending the game.

“I cannot say that such an extraordinary player as Messi was not doing things well, of course, not,” Pareja said. “But we also need to mention other things which happened. And I’m not here to mention all of these things, of course, because I think that we also must be brave enough and admit that perhaps we didn’t do things as well as we could. But you will be able to be the judges.”

With nothing to lose, Pareja sent on attackers Tyrese Spicer and Duncan McGuire — making his first appearance since shoulder surgery three months ago. However, they’d only been on the pitch for a few seconds when Miami regained possession and broke with numbers, resulting in an insurance goal for Segovia in the first added minute.

Though the game was all but over, Ojeda did have an opportunity with a free kick from about 25 yards away in the fourth extra minute. He sent his set piece delivery straight into the wall, perhaps trying to thread the shot through a hole between two players that never materialized. The rebound came back to him, and although he got his shot through the second time, it bounced wide of the right post.

The whistle blew moments later to end one of the most maddening second halves in Orlando City history.

In the end, the hosts finished with the advantage in possession (55.3%-44.7%), shots (14-11), shots on target (6-4), corners (4-3), and passing accuracy (89.3%-86.6%). They also led in game-changing decisions by those charged with applying the rules of the game accurately and consistently.

Although the Lions could have put themselves in a more secure position through Angulo’s first-half breakaway, Orlando’s tactics and performance were good enough on the night to get a result had every meaningful call down the stretch not gone the other way. Brekalo’s foul in the box was understandable. The one Busquets committed was an egregious officiating error by both the man on the field and the one in the booth.

After the match, Pareja did a masterful job of tap dancing around the controversial decisions to avoid a fine and to show respect to his opponents. His feelings, however, were plain to see in the postgame press conference.

“I want to just (leave) it to you guys (the media) to judge and evaluate that performance, those actions that were very precise that changed the game. And you guys know which actions,” he said. “The thing is, I cannot say what I have to say here, actually I cannot. I cannot say that, because there’s a lot of respect due to the match, to the game, and the actions that were assigned actually changed the direction of the game.”

The Lions will travel west for their final match of the competition on Sunday, playing the loser of tonight’s late matchup between the LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders for third place and a spot in the Concacaf Champions Cup.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Orlando City

Flashback Friday: June 3, 2023 vs. New York Red Bulls

Let’s rewind to an eventful match on the road up in New Jersey that took place just over three years ago.

Published

2 days ago

on

June 5, 2026

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

With Orlando City on break for the foreseeable future, it falls to me to keep bringing you fond memories from OCSC games of years gone by. We won’t be going quite as deep into the vault as we did last week, when we rewound to nine years ago and relived a wet and weird win over D.C. United. Today, we’ll go a little over three years into the past to June 3, 2023, when the Lions hit the road to take on the New York Red Bulls.

As Orlando prepared to face the Red Bulls after opening the season against them at home, things were going pretty well for the Lions. They were riding a four-game unbeaten streak that included some solid results on the road and sought to continue that trend up in Harrison, NJ.

To do that, then-coach Oscar Pareja sent out the team in his traditional 4-2-3-1. Pedro Gallese was in net, while Kyle Smith, Antonio Carlos, Robin Jansson, and Rafael Santos manned the back line. Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena sat in deep midfield as the double pivots, Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres were the attacking midfielders, and Ercan Kara was deployed as the tip of the proverbial spear.

By and large, the first half wasn’t the most engaging 45 minutes of soccer that Orlando City has ever graced us with. The first 15 minutes saw a lot of fouls and fairly sloppy play, with the game lacking any real rhythm but featuring plenty of stops, starts, and turnovers. That all changed in the 18th minute when Orlando broke the deadlock through an unlikely source. The Lions managed to break New York’s press, and Cartagena took advantage of an out-of-position John Tolkin to play Angulo behind the defense with a great ball. The Colombian carried the ball into the box, cut onto his left foot to avoid the sliding challenge of Dylan Nealis, and beat goalkeeper Carlos Coronel to score his third goal of the season.

The Red Bulls had a great opportunity to tie the game in the 30th minute after a bad Pereyra giveaway at midfield, but Luquinhas hit a tame shot at Gallese and failed to capitalize. Smith of all people had a crack at goal from inside the box just a few minutes before halftime, but he sent his effort wide of the post when he really should have hit the target. Tom Barlow then wasted another chance to put the game at 1-1 going into halftime but contrived to fire over the bar from the top of the area when all he had to do was hit the empty net.

That proved to be the last action of the half, and it was surprising to see Orlando in the lead based on the stats. Orlando held slightly more possession (52.1%-47.9%) and passed marginally better (76.1%-74.9%) but those were the only categories in which it led. The Lions were outshot (7-2), had fewer shots on goal (2-1), and took no corner kicks while the Red Bulls had one.

Fortunately, the Lions got a break just a couple minutes into the second half. Kara ran onto a ball over the top and New York center back Andres Reyes pulled him back, picked up a deserved second yellow card, and hit the showers early in the 47th minute.

New York cleared the danger from the ensuing free kick, but referee Victor Rivas was advised to go to the monitor and check for a foul during the play. Further examination revealed that Sean Nealis took Jansson down from behind as the ball was in the air, and he rightfully pointed to the spot. Enter Torres, who stepped up and beat Coronel (who guessed the right way), to double Orlando’s advantage despite the Paraguayan trying to get in his head beforehand.

The good vibes were dented slightly when Araujo went down injured in the 57th minute, with Felipe coming on in his place. The Red Bulls kept up their traditional high pressing despite being down a man, and with the Lions continuing to be sloppy in possession, it was hard to blame them. The teams traded chances right after Araujo made his exit, and some close calls for New York spurred Pareja into further changes, with Duncan McGuire and Martin Ojeda entering the fray for Kara and Pereyra in the 62nd minute.

Angulo squeezed off a shot from an acute angle three minutes later and Coronel saved it well, with the game entering a bit of a lull after he did so as the teams traded fouls and McGuire was caught offside.

Things sprang back into life in the 72nd minute. Ojeda cleared his lines and managed to find Angulo in the process, who absolutely torched Frankie Amaya down the left wing. The Colombian carried the ball into the box, drew Tolkin to him, and crossed perfectly for the unmarked Torres, who fired low and hard past Coronel with conviction to put the game away for good.

Despite being down 3-0, the Red Bulls kept up the fight and Jansson was forced into a good block just four minutes after Facu bagged his brace. The Lions spurned a few more half chances as the game wound down, and there was a scary moment in the 82nd minute when Dylan Nealis fell into Gallese’s leg, but the goalkeeper was able to soldier on after getting some treatment, although he looked a little shaky.

That more or less did it for the notable moments of action, as Orlando saw out a healthy eight minutes of stoppage time to make it five games unbeaten. The Lions finished with more possession (51.2%-48.8%) and more shots on target (5-2), but New York was crisper with its passing (79.2%-78%), took more shots (14-7), and won more corners (8-2).

David Rohe was on hand for our Player Grades column in this one, and Angulo took Man of the Match honors with an 8 out of 10 for his one-goal, one-assist performance that also included three completed dribbles, two tackles, and an interception. Torres unsurprisingly also graded out high with a 7.5 out of 10, as did Cartagena, who received the same grade.

The Lions went on to grab one more victory before the undefeated streak ended at six up in Foxborough against the New England Revolution. Fortunately, they started picking up points again immediately afterward and had a largely strong summer and back half of the year that saw them finish second in both the Eastern Conference and Supporters’ Shield race. Hopefully, this year’s side can take some cues from the 2023 squad and start stacking points with more regularity once the season resumes in July. Vamos Orlando!

Continue Reading

Lion Links

Lion Links: 6/5/26

Maxime Crepeau named Canada’s starter, analyzing Germany before USMNT friendly, USWNT prepares for Brazil, and more.

Published

2 days ago

on

June 5, 2026

By

Image of Maxime Crepeau making a save against the New York Red Bulls.
Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Happy Friday, Mane Landers! It’s been a pretty hectic week for me, but I’m looking forward to a weekend filled with soccer and celebrating with some friends. It should be a nice next couple of days before the World Cup is here in full force next week. Before we dive into today’s links, let’s all wish a happy birthday to Orlando City B midfielder Dylan Judelson!

Canada Chooses Maxime Crepeau as Starting Goalkeeper

Orlando City goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau was named as the starter for Canada for the upcoming World Cup. The 32-year-old has been in a tight battle with Dayne St. Clair for the starting job for quite some time and he’s done well enough for Jesse Marsch to choose him for the role. This will be Crepeau’s first World Cup since he wasn’t able to take part in the 2022 competition due to a broken leg. Canada will play Ireland today in a friendly before hosting Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup on June 12.

Analyzing Germany Ahead of USMNT Clash

The United States Men’s National Team will take on Germany on Saturday in Chicago in its final friendly before the World Cup starts next week. This will be the 13th match between the two nations, with the most recent one being a 3-1 loss by the U.S. in October of 2023. Manuel Neuer is Germany’s starting goalkeeper, but he’s dealing with an injury and backup Oliver Baumann could play on Saturday in his place. Hopefully the U.S. can make his life difficult, but Germany has tough defenders in Jonathan Tah and Nico Schlotterbeck. Florian Wirtz, Kai Havertz, and Leroy Sane are dangerous attacking threats, while Nick Woltemade brings both height and solid ball movement at the top of the formation. It should be a great test for the USMNT before the games get serious.

USWNT Prepares for Brazil

The United States Women’s National Team is in action on Saturday as well, with the team set to play Brazil in Sao Paulo in the first of two friendlies. Plenty of attention will be on the reunited attacking trio of Sophia Wilson, Trinity Rodman, and Mallory Swanson that combined for 10 goals and five assists in the 2024 Summer Olympics. As for Brazil, the Orlando Pride are well represented, with Marta, Angelina, and Rafaelle all called up for these friendlies. There’s plenty of competing talent on Brazil’s roster, so it will be interesting to see who starts on Saturday. I’m most interested to see how the U.S. defense manages against Brazilian attackers like Ludmila, Dudinha, and Kerolin without having Naomi Girma on the back line.

Liverpool Hires Andoni Iraola as Next Manager

Liverpool didn’t waste much time finding a new manager after firing Arne Slot last week, hiring Andoni Iraola as his replacement. Iraola joins Liverpool after three years with Bournemouth that included securing Europa League qualification for the first time in club history this past season. He now joins a Liverpool team that qualified for the Champions League, but lost 12 league games after winning the league title in 2025. It will be interesting to see how Iraola does at one of England’s biggest clubs, particularly in regards to how his high-octane approach is applied.

Free Kicks

  • While the Pride haven’t provided an injury update on Barbra Banda according to reporter Jeff Kassouf, she did reportedly travel for Zambia’s friendlies against Kenya and Burkina Faso as the team prepares for next month’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

I checked in with the Orlando Pride: no official update on Barbra Banda after sustaining an injury over the weekend in #NWSL play. A spokesperson confirmed that Banda did travel to join Zambia for international duty. Hopefully more answers soon. No NWSL games until July 3.

— Jeff Kassouf (@jeffkassouf.bsky.social) 2026-06-04T19:11:37.433Z

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

Continue Reading

Orlando City

According to Math, Orlando Among Top Soccering Cities in North America In 2026

A ranking of every North American city by its soccer performances thus far in 2026.

Published

3 days ago

on

June 4, 2026

By

An aerial image of Inter&Co Stadium
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

The opening match of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup kicks off one week from today, when Mexico hosts South Africa at Estadio Azteca Mexico City Stadium (thanks FIFA, for your silly stadium-naming policy). Like most soccer fans, I am excited for wall-to-wall games starting next week, but I will definitely also be missing the men and women in purple as Orlando City and the Orlando Pride will not play again until early July (Pride) and late July (Orlando City).

MLS NEXT Pro channeled its inner Red Hot Chili Peppers and said they “can’t stop, they’re addicted to the shindig” and will continue to play a normal weekly schedule throughout the World Cup, so thankfully we will still have the Young Lions to root for during this break. But aside from that, it will be all international soccer for the upcoming weeks, and primarily in North America.

With that in mind, I took a deeper look at the beautiful game on our beautiful continent and evaluated which cities in North America are having the best soccer-related 2026 so far. There are no actual rankings for this, so I created my own, using the following components:

  • I awarded a half point to the city of every team in Liga MX, Liga MX Femenil, Major League Soccer (MLS), NWSL, and the Northern Super League (Canada’s top domestic women’s league). This covers the highest levels of club competition on the continent. I did not include the Canadian Premier League (men’s, ranked 159th among men’s leagues by Opta) or the Gainbridge Super League (women’s, ranked 35th among women’s leagues), because even though those are considered leagues at the highest level of competition in their countries, they do not compare to the five leagues I included. Also, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver all have teams in MLS.
  • I awarded a full point to every city that is hosting World Cup games. This is a little sticky because some stadiums and/or teams represent metropolitan areas as opposed to the actual zip/area code location for the team or stadium, but I did some rounding. I had to put my mathematics degree to good use.
  • I averaged the points earned per match per team in that city, and awarded that total number of points to the city. Orlando, for example, received 1.18 points in this category, as Orlando City is averaging 0.93 (this was disappointing to type) and the Pride are averaging 1.42.
  • I awarded a point to the city of each quarterfinalist in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup and U.S. Open Cup, and a subsequent point for each win by those teams.
  • I awarded a point to the city of each semifinalist in the 2026 Concacaf W Champions Cup (this tournament went straight to the semifinals after the group stage), and a subsequent point for each win by those teams, excluding the third-place game.

After I awarded all those points, I rested for a minute, and then I summed up all the points for each city to see which cities are having the best 2026 so far (there are 47 North American cities/metro areas with at least one team in the leagues I included).

As this is an Orlando-focused publication, let’s take a look at the City Beautiful and how we fared. There are two professional teams in Orlando that count, so a half point for Orlando City plus a half point for the Pride accounted for one total point. With how well OCB has been playing (fourth in the Eastern Conference and winners of three of its last four games), I wish I could have included MLS NEXT Pro teams in the points system, but including that league did not make sense.

OCB would have helped with the average points metric as well, as it is averaging 1.83 points per match, the best in Orlando. Restricting it down to Orlando City and the Pride, however, added the 1.18 points that I referenced in the bullets earlier.

The Lions are in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, which earned them one point for being a quarterfinalist and another point for winning that quarterfinal match, so they picked up two points from the U.S. Open Cup.

Orlando was not selected to be a host city for any World Cup games, Orlando City did not qualify for this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup, and the Pride nearly qualified for the semifinals of the Concacaf W Champions Cup but fell just short (ugh, because they really should have advanced), so Orlando did not pick up any points from any of those three categories.

With the points that Orlando accumulated it has tallied a total of 4.18 points so far in 2026. Let’s take a look at where 4.18 puts Orlando in the city rankings:

Chart showing all North American cities in the study and its score, organized alphabetically.

The cities in the chart above are sorted alphabetically, for ease of finding any cities you are interested in picking out, but the chart below shows the same data but sorted from most to fewest points earned:

Chart showing all North American cities in the study and its score, organized by score, showing Orlando in 13th.

In looking at this chart, you will find Orlando just outside the top 10, sitting in the lucky number 13 spot. Unsurprisingly, most of the teams at the top are among the largest cities on the continent and were also selected to be World Cup host cities. Among cities not selected as host cities, and therefore cities that did not receive a one-point bump in my rubric, Orlando ranked fifth, trailing Toluca (Mexico), Nashville, Washington D.C., and Denver.

If the Pride had played a little better in the Concacaf W Champions Cup, and had Barbra Banda not gotten injured and missed the entire group stage last summer, Orlando likely would have qualified for at least the semifinals in that cup and finished in the top six, or perhaps even higher, of these rankings.

It should come as no surprise to soccer fans that Mexican cities dominate the top of this ranking system, as Mexico City boasts a continent-high six teams (men’s and women’s heavyweights Club América, Cruz Azul, and Pumas), Monterrey houses four (men’s and women’s for Tigres and Monterrey), and Toluca, which only has men’s and women’s teams called Toluca but is the reigning Concacaf men’s champion after defeating Tigres on May 30.

With Miami to the south and Atlanta to the north, it was always unlikely that Orlando was going to be selected as a host city, but based on performance alone, our city is among the top soccer cities on the continent this year. And this is even with Orlando City having a down year during league play in 2026 and the Pride only recently putting together some decent results.

Last year, through 15 games Orlando City was nearly one full point better, averaging 1.80 points per game compared to this year’s 0.93, and the 2025 Pride were two-thirds of a point better than this year’s team through their first 12 games, averaging 2.08 points per game last year compared to 1.42 in 2026.

That was then and this is now, and neither season ended the way Orlando City or the Pride wanted in 2025, so hopefully the slower starts portend something better for this year’s teams. There is still a U.S. Open Cup, Leagues Cup, and MLS playoff spot for Orlando City to play for when its season resumes, and the Pride can solidify, or preferably, improve their playoff spot as well.

As we get closer to the end of 2026 I will update this chart to see where Orlando finishes in the full-year rankings, but for now we once again have unimpeachable evidence that shows that Orlando is the soccer capital of the southeast. We have all known this for years and years, but it is important to remind the people of Atlanta and Miami about it from time to time.

This was that time.

Vamos Orlando!

Continue Reading

Trending