Orlando City Behind the Numbers: At Sixes and Sevens

There is a phenomenon going on in this country right now, and it simply must stop. You might not be aware of this if you do not have young(er) children, but if you do, you know that two numbers come up over…and over…and over…again in conversations, to the great confusion and dismay of parents, teachers, coaches, and all other adult figures who are flummoxed by their frequent non-sensical usage.

Those numbers, of course, are six and seven, spoken in rapid succession almost like “sixsevvvven,” along with an accompanying hand motion like you are weighing something in each hand. Thank you, TikTok, for having such a good algorithm that more kids know that “six seven” is the “it” phrase of the day than who the sixth (John Quincy Adams, the rare person who is known by three names and is not an assassin) and seventh (Andrew Jackson) U.S. presidents were.

On the plus side, there may be a huge uptick in students who want to read or have their school perform Shakespeare’s Richard II, and pat yourself on the back six or seven times if you knew why without using six-letter google or seven-letter ChatGPT.

During the last two weekends I attended a birthday party for a 9-year-old and double-digit youth sports practices and games, and I am sure I heard “six seven” more than 100 times across all the different snatches of conversations happening around me. That may sound like an exaggeration, but if you have read any of my articles before, you know that I love numbers, so much so that I would give The Count a run for his money, and I promise you I am not overstating the frequency at which kids around the age of nine said “six seven” in my vicinity.

Much like when you hear a certain song and cannot get it out of your head, I cannot get that phrase out of mine, so I am going to write about Orlando City and the numbers six and seven and try to get myself all out of feeling at sixes and sevens about the use of — and this is true irony — six and seven.

Baseball and soccer are two sports that assign numbers to positions in the field, and in soccer the six is traditionally a defensive midfielder and the seven is an attacking wing player, usually on the right side. Orlando City has players who fit those definitions perfectly in both positions on this year’s team. César Araújo is one of the league’s best defensive midfielders, a player who every team hates but secretly wishes was on their team. Marco Pašalić is a right wing who has tremendous dribbling and ball-striking ability and loves to cut inside and create goal-scoring opportunities.

Both of those players are among the best ever to suit up for the Lions at the six and seven positions. Araújo has been the primary starter at the six for four of the club’s 11 seasons in MLS, and he has been among the best in the league at that position for the last three seasons. Orlando City earned at least 52 points in league play in all three of those seasons. Pašalić is in his debut season, so he does not yet have the sustained excellence, but if he puts together another few seasons like this one, he may challenge club legend Facundo Torres for the spot at the top of the seven leaderboard.

Speaking of Pašalić, he decided to wear 87 on his jersey, and as far as I know, he has not spoken publicly about why he chose that number, which means that he has not denied that he went with eight seven to troll all those kids who desperately want to have a legitimate reason to wear a jersey with six seven on it. Pašalić is not alone in having a number that is almost 67 though, several other Orlando City players also wear numbers that are nearly six seven:

• Iván Angulo (77): Angulo joined the Lions in 2022, when Alexandre Pato was on the team and wearing the No. 7 jersey, and so he went with No. 77, and even after Pato left, he elected to stay with the double sevens. At this point, I think he is unlikely to change, even if switching that first seven to a six may dramatically increase his popularity among the kids in the stands.
• Thomas Williams (68): Williams came up through the Orlando City Development Academy and has worn 68 since debuting with the team back in 2022. He is just a change from an eight to a seven away from being the player that kids would most want to hear being announced in the stadium (though the coaching staff is not quite yet on board with that same sentiment).
• Gustavo Caraballo (65): The Venezuelan also came up through the academy, and in some respects still is, as he was the MVP for the U-18 team in the 2025 Generation Adidas Cup (wearing the more traditional No. 10, however). As the youngest player on the senior roster (and in club history), Caraballo is likely the player most attuned to the six seven craze, but thankfully he went with six five, and if he stays with the club for a few more years, my guess is that he will ask to move to a more traditional soccer number, possibly the seven (with an invisible six in front?) now that Ramiro Enrique is no longer with the club.

Enrique’s departure, coupled with Wilder Cartagena (16) being on the Season Ending Injury List, means that the only way the Lions can put a six next to a seven on the field is when Robin Jansson (6) stands next to Angulo. I do not recommend that these two ever stand next to each other though, because as we all know, six is afraid of seven, because seven ate nine (Aurélien Collin ate Luis Muriel?).

Before we move off of Orlando City player numbers, we have to briefly cover former UCF Knight and Orlando City B player Nick Taylor, the last player on Orlando City or Orlando City B to wear 67. Taylor played for OCB in 2022, before packing up and heading to Asia, where he played in Cambodia for two seasons before moving to Thailand, where he now plays for PT Prachuap F.C. and still wears 67. A man ahead of his time.

Don’t worry, we only have about six or seven more paragraphs left. Just kidding. I believe I have run this into the ground. Six feet deep. Maybe seven.

Seriously though, Orlando City has three games remaining in the regular season, and considering the caliber of the Lions’ opponents, it will be a tremendous accomplishment if they can come away with six or seven points. If they do, they probably scored a decent amount of goals, and since they have scored 59 already during the regular season, they have a chance to end with…67 goals. After accomplishing such a feat, they likely would finish better than sixth or seventh place in the standings. The Lions have already clinched a playoff spot though, and while it would be nice to finish above sixth or seventh, they are in the postseason, and that is what matters the most.

Well, that, and ending the playoffs on a four-game winning streak, and if they are going to do that, then why not just extend that winning streak just a little bit, say to six or seven?