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Orlando City vs. Toronto FC: Final Score 4-2 as Lions a No-Show on Decision Day

It was the nightmare scenario for Orlando City, which fell to ninth after a terrible performance in Toronto and unfavorable results elsewhere.

Published

7 months ago

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Image of Alex Freeman dribbling the ball up the flank against Toronto FC.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

A struggling Toronto FC offense scored twice in the first half, continued the blowout in the second half, and ruined Orlando City’s Decision Day in a 4-2 loss for the Lions at BMO Field in Toronto. Djordje Mihailovic scored in each half, with Jonathan Osorio and Deandre Kerr adding goals for the hosts.

It was a shocking performance by Orlando (14-9-11, 53 points), which conceded four times to the league’s second-worst offense as Toronto (6-14-14, 32 points) ran rampant to snap a long winless streak in MLS play. The Lions finish the season in the last postseason spot and will go on the road in what might be its final match of the year the way the team’s offense has been struggling down the stretch.

David Brekalo and Duncan McGuire scored for Orlando City in a losing effort.

“The disappointment is obvious because the performance was not good at all,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “It’s a tough night for sure, because there’s a bunch of things that we didn’t do good. And the way we conceded the goals, the way we managed, and also from me, obviously, responsibility on the movements and preparation. Unfortunately tonight it was not bouncing our way at all.”

Pareja’s lineup featured Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Adrian Marin, Rodrigo Schlegel, Brekalo, and Alex Freeman. Kyle Smith joined Eduard Atuesta in central midfield between wingers Ivan Angulo and Marco Pasalic, with Martin Ojeda and McGuire up top.

The game began poorly for the Lions, who gave away possession cheaply, leading to the opening goal. Orlando City then took some control and started creating chances, but as has been the case far too often, the Lions could not pay those chances off. Toronto blocked several shots, but Orlando’s attackers made that easy by taking big windups and not looking for the pass that would open the defense up completely. When the Lions weren’t getting their shots blocked, they were either missing wide or firing straight at Toronto goalkeeper Sean Johnson, who was only seriously tested twice in the first half.

The opening minutes were sloppy from both teams before the hosts opened the scoring with the game’s first chance. That chance came from an Orlando attack that broke down.

Atuesta got caught high up the field, turning it over and leading to the break. Toronto got numbers forward and worked the ball to Osorio outside the box. The Canadian international had plenty of time to pick out his spot in the corner and made it 1-0 in the seventh minute.

Orlando’s first shot came in the 10th minute as Smith took a big windup outside the box and saw Osorio block his shot.

Smith returned the favor three minutes later, blocking a shot by Kobe Franklin. Schlegel then quickly blocked Kerr’s shot and former Lion Richie Laryea missed the target just wide on the left to end the threat.

Pasalic missed the first of several shots in the game wide in the 17th minute, pulling a shot inches wide of the right post. Two minutes later, he sent one just inches wide of the right post on a second wide-open shot outside the box.

Moments later, Orlando had a penalty shout. McGuire was running onto a ball into the area when he had his arm pulled and went down. Although he perhaps embellished a little, there was a pull and McGuire had no reason not to get to the ball, but Fotis Bazakos let the contact go, and video assistant referee Sorin Stoica did not see anything wrong with the decision.

Angulo took a big, slow windup in the 20th minute from the top of the area, giving Sigur Rosted time to block the shot. Rosted then did the same on the rebound to Atuesta, who took perhaps even longer to get his shot away.

Orlando’s best chance of the first half came in the 27th minute. Ojeda got down the left and smashed a shot on frame that Johnson saved, spilling a big rebound out in front. Atuesta was slow in getting to the rebound and his shot with a gaping open net was blocked by a sliding Laryea. Orlando recycled and Pasalic shot from the right, with Johnson making the save. Atuesta saw Franklin block his shot moments later on the last chance in the sequence.

Angulo uncharacteristically tried a long-range shot in the 29th minute, getting good power on it from distance, but it was right at Johnson, who parried it away. Brekalo headed well wide on a set piece moments later.

Toronto doubled the lead just seconds after that header.

Jose Cifuentes blasted a shot from outside the box and Pasalic put out a hand to protect his face. The Croatian’s arm was the only thing protecting him from perhaps a broken nose on a scorching shot, but Bazakos awarded a free kick anyway, despite rules saying players can protect their head in that situation. Mihailovic paid off the ensuing set piece with an effort that just kept curling, which appeared to fool Gallese, who got a touch to it but couldn’t keep it out.

“Sometimes it’s unexplainable,” Pareja said of the two decisions that could have changed the complexion of the game. “Because the boys were pushing and these calls came in this circumstances also, just after having that many (scoring) options. But it’s the game. I think we need to be conscious about it. It’s not us using excuses.”

In the final moments of the half, Pasalic saw another shot saved and an additional attempt blocked, and Atuesta also had another effort blocked.

At the break, Orlando City held the advantage in possession (51.5%-48.5%), shots (16-7), shots on target (4-2), corners (2-1), and passing accuracy (85.6%-85%). It was Orlando’s lack of lethality, and one controversial call at each end that had the hosts up by two against Orlando’s powerless attack at the break.

“I feel like in the first half we were unlucky with our chances. A lot of them were blocked,” Freeman said. “But also, at the end of the day, it’s also being clinical in the defensive third. I feel like myself, I’ve got to take some accountability for the goals, but I feel like defensively, as a team, we want to be better.”

Mihailovic put the game out of reach just a few minutes into the second half. Orlando gave up another counterattack and Smith got beaten by Theo Corbeanu, who knocked the ball to Mihailovic on his left. The Toronto Designated Player used Brekalo as a screen and sent a shot toward goal Gallese should have stopped, but he got caught leaning the wrong way and it spun off his back leg and in to make it 3-0 to essentially kill the game.

Pasalic fired just over the net in the 52nd minute. A minute later, both Ojeda and McGuire tried bicycle kicks just about a second apart, with Ojeda’s blocked by Rosted and McGuire’s saved by Johnson. The Lions scored off the ensuing corner. Toronto cleared the initial ball out wide to Orlando’s attacking right side. Pasalic collected it and sent a good ball back into the mixer in front of goal. Brekalo timed his run well, stuck out his foot and knocked it in to spoil the shutout in the 54th minute.

Former Toronto winger Tyrese Spicer, who came on in the second half for the Lions, saw his shot blocked by Franklin moments after Brekalo’s goal as the Lions looked for a way back into the match. Johnson saved Ojeda’s shot in the 60th minute and Freeman and Ojeda then missed the net moments later.

Those were costly missed opportunities as Kerr’s goal came a minute later. Orlando City gained possession in its own end but Angulo gave the ball away. Two quick passes later, Gallese was pulling it out of his net. Mihailovic passed to Derrick Etienne Jr., who sent a centering pass in front for an easy finish by a wide-open Kerr, pushing the lead back to three goals at 4-1.

“When you concede four goals, we have to declare that it’s not a good night for us defensively,” Pareja said. “And we can talk about the changes in the lineup that we had to face, whether it’s injuries or the decisions, but that (lack of) consistency tonight probably made us pay, and it was difficult. On the counters we looked weak, and they took advantage of those spaces while we tried to equalize and tried to seek for the goals, and we were not in good spots.”

Things could have gotten worse for Orlando after the fourth goal, as Gallese stopped a shot by Osorio and Atuesta blocked Laryea’s effort.

Johnson stopped Ojeda again in the 68th minute as the Lions continued to get looks at goal but could not do much with them. It was the last shot by either side for almost 15 minutes, with Spicer’s effort in the 82nd blocked by Rosted.

Freeman got to the end line in the 84th and found second-half sub Dagur Dan Thorhallsson to the right of goal. The Icelandic midfielder stabbed a shot wide of the far post from point-blank range. Ojeda then missed the target. Johnson denied Spicer’s effort as time wound down and the game headed to stoppage time.

Orlando finally got a second goal for the first time since Sept. 20 in the second added minute. Freeman did well to thread a ball through the back line for McGuire, who powered his shot inside the right post to make it 4-2.

McGuire’s goal was the last decent chance for either side.

The Lions finished with the advantage in possession (56.4%-43.6%), shots (31-12), shots on target (10-6), corners (8-2), and passing accuracy (86.9%-81.8%). To look at the stat sheet, one would assume Orlando was the team that won by multiple goals, but a lack of clinical finishing on one end and extremely good finishing at the other was the difference on Decision Day.

“We will recover from this moment and we will be ready for that one game on Wednesday,” Pareja said, referencing the wild card match at Chicago in the midweek. “I don’t know any other way than just get back to work trying to train and prepare for our next one game, and trying to find solutions, and trying to keep our minds in a good state as well.”

“Obviously we wanted to clinch it without doing the play-in,” Freeman said. “But, I guess that’s just how it’s going to be, so I guess we’ve got to go into Wednesday and be able to go 100% and win the play-in, and eventually play Philly in the playoffs.”

That’s it for the regular season. The Lions will visit Chicago Wednesday for the wild card game after a disappointing end to what began as a promising 2025 season.

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Lion Links: 5/8/26

Orlando City prepares for CF Montreal, Pride host North Carolina tonight, Johnny Cardoso injured, and more.

Published

3 hours ago

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May 8, 2026

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Image of goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Happy Friday, Mane Landers! We have some exciting games ahead of us over the next few days, with three straight days of Orlando soccer to enjoy. It all starts with the Orlando Pride’s game tonight, with Orlando City playing Saturday afternoon, and Orlando City B wrapping things up on Sunday. Make sure to plan your weekend accordingly! Let’s get to the links.

Orlando City Gets Ready for Road Match

The Lions are on the road this weekend for a game in Canada against CF Montreal on Saturday. Orlando is coming off of a dramatic 4-3 win over rival Inter Miami, with Martin Ojeda scoring a hat trick. Ojeda has had Montreal’s number in recent years, scoring at least once against the Canadian club each year for the past three years. Orlando hasn’t lost to Montreal since 2023, but it also hasn’t won on the road against Montreal since 2021. Saturday’s match will also be a reunion of sorts for goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, who joined Montreal’s academy at age 15 and played there for nine years. He was excellent in Orlando’s win in Miami, so hopefully he can keep it up in his home country.

Orlando Pride Host North Carolina Courage Tonight

The Orlando Pride are back in action tonight with a home game against the North Carolina Courage. Both teams are coming off of losses last week, with the Pride falling 4-2 to the Washington Spirit. Tonight’s match will pit the league’s top two scorers against each other, with Barbra Banda scoring seven so far while Ashley Sanchez has scored five. The Pride will play three consecutive road games after tonight, putting an emphasis on a strong showing at home. It’s also Survivor Night at the stadium, so make sure to bring any immunity idols if you’ll be in attendance. The Pride could use any advantage they can get.

Johnny Cardoso Injured Ahead of World Cup

Atletico Madrid announced that American midfielder Johnny Cardoso was diagnosed with an ankle sprain he sustained in training, casting doubt on his availability for the World Cup next month. He’ll now work on rehabilitation before the club provides a timetable for his return. The 24-year-old started in the United States Men’s National Team’s game against Belgium in March, but he had to exit that camp due to injury as well. Hopefully he has a smooth and successful recovery from this.

English Clubs Reach European Finals

Aston Villa beat Nottingham Forest 4-0 in the Europa League, overcoming a loss in the first leg to secure a spot in the final. John McGinn scored twice to help his team reach its first major European final since 1982. Villa will play in the final on May 20 against SC Freiburg, which also bounced back from a loss in the first leg by beating Braga 3-1 in Germany. A red card to Mario Dorgeles in the sixth minute reduced Braga to 10 men early on and Lukas Kubler bagged a brace for Freiburg.

In the Europa Conference League, Crystal Palace won 2-1 against Shakhtar Donetsk to advance to the final on May 27 against Rayo Vallecano. As a result of this week’s semifinals across the continent, English clubs are in contention to win the Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League.

Free Kicks

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

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Orlando City

Justin Ellis Off to Hot Start in 2026 on Multiple Levels

Homegrown forward Justin Ellis is off to a strong early start to the season for both Orlando City and OCB.

Published

21 hours ago

on

May 7, 2026

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Image of Justin Ellis after he scored a goal against Chicago Fire II.
Image courtesy of Orlando City B / Justin Glatt

May is a big month for graduations, as students of all ages are wrapping up their school years and preparing to move up to the next level. Some graduations are bigger deals than others, but it is a big deal for every student that they accomplished everything required of them during the school year and should be celebrated thusly. Dr. Seuss’s book Oh The Places You’ll Go is commonly gifted to graduates in honor of their accomplishments, as the famous author writes about soaring to great heights and overcoming obstacles while on the journey of life.

That book is great and one I highly recommend that everyone, not just graduating students, read every year. I do not know if Orlando City’s Justin Ellis has read that book recently, but he is certainly going places with how he has played in 2026. Ellis started the year primarily playing with Orlando City B (OCB), but his last six games in all competitions have all been with Orlando City. In those games he started five of them, playing a total of 443 minutes, and he scored two goals while adding three assists. For the season Ellis now has one goal and two assists in MLS play, one goal and one assist in U.S. Open Cup play, and three goals and two assists in MLS NEXT Pro play for a total of five goals and five assists in all competitions. He is the leading scorer among all three Orlando teams, as you can see in the chart below.

I was a mathematics major, but you do not have to be one to notice that the chart below will only list eight goal contributions for Ellis, rather than the 10 I just mentioned. The chart below comes from Opta’s tracking on the American Soccer Analysis website, and they only track data from games in league play (a cool feature of theirs is that they track stoppage time minutes, so the per 90-minutes-values are far more accurate than on other websites). Even so, Ellis still leads all three teams in total goal contributions and also goal contributions per 90 minutes played.

All three leagues are at different parts of their season, but the per-90-minutes data normalizes it for all players. In the chart you will see two numbers in each category, the raw number for that category, and then the per-90-minutes number inside of the parentheses. The overall rank is as compared to every player who has at least three goal contributions (there are 218 as of Wednesday) across MLS, MLS NEXT Pro, and the NWSL.

PlayerGoalsAssists*Goal ContributionsOverall Rank
Justin Ellis4 (0.52)4 (0.52)8 (1.04)T-12 (17)
Barbra Banda7 (0.92)0 (0.00)7 (0.92)T-19 (26)
Martín Ojeda7 (0.58)0 (0.00)7 (0.58)T-19 (120)
Harvey Sarajian4 (0.57)2 (0.28)6 (0.85)T-41 (32)
Gustavo Caraballo3 (0.41)2 (0.28)5 (0.69)74 (72)
  • * This dataset only includes primary assists, though MLS counts both primary and secondary assists in the league’s official tracking. None of the players in the chart have accumulated any secondary assists thus far, though Banda and Ojeda certainly should have accumulated at least one assist somehow by now with how well they have set their teammates up. Sigh.

If we take a look at the two individual per-90-minutes categories of goals per 90 minutes and assists per 90 minutes, a player who contributes equally in all facets of the offense would be one who has pretty similar numbers in each, as that would make them just as proficient in setting up their teammates as they are in scoring goals. Most players tend towards being goal scorers or distributors, but very few players are adept at being both. In his short professional career Ellis is one of the rare players who scores and assists at nearly even quantities, as he has scored 14 goals and assisted on 11 while playing for Orlando City and OCB.

Looking at his 2026 performance alone, Ellis is in the top 17 among all players in both total goal contributions and goal contributions per 90 minutes during league play, with a perfectly even four goals and four assists and 0.52 per 90 minutes for each. That puts him right on the f(x) = x line (real ones know), and he, St. Louis 2’s Palmer Ault, and San Diego’s Anders Dreyer are the only players with at least eight goal contributions (Ault has eight and Dreyer has 10) to have the same number of assists as goals thus far this season.

The scatterplot below shows all 218 players with at least three goal contributions and their associated goals and assists per 90 minutes, and you can see that Ellis is one of only a few players to be strongly positive on both measures.

Scatterplot showing Justin Ellis in the upper right quadrant, meaning high in goals per 90 minutes and in assists per 90 minutes.

Ellis’ excellent stats are combined between the two leagues, but based on how well he has played for Orlando City recently it is quite possible that (oh) the places that he will go in 2026 will no longer include any OCB games, unless it is to watch from the stands. After last year’s great year — what a season, in fact! — Ellis is rolling along on the Alex Freeman track.

The senior Lions’ next three games are against teams that are all right next to them at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings (Montreal, Philadelphia, and Atlanta), meaning that all three games are winnable, especially considering that two of the three will be at home. Results have been better recently, especially after the injection of Ellis into the lineup, and thanks to his contributions I am feeling better about the team’s chances of putting together a good run of form in the upcoming weeks.

Will they succeed? Yes! They will indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

Vamos Orlando!

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. CF Montreal: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to earn all three points against CF Montreal on Saturday?

Published

23 hours ago

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May 7, 2026

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Image of Martin Ojeda and Ivan Angulo celebrating a goal against Montreal.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City is on the road once again and this time in another country. The Lions are heading to the great white north to take on CF Montreal on Saturday. The Lions are coming off a monumental 4-3 comeback victory over rival Inter Miami. Hopefully, Orlando City can keep scoring goals in bunches to get a fourth win on the season. What must the Lions do to earn all three points against Montreal on Saturday afternoon?

Hot Streak Ojeda

Last season, Martin Ojeda had a stretch of good form that forced the national pundits to talk about him as a potential MLS MVP. Many players go on runs of good and bad form — especially attacking players — where nearly every shot finds the back of the net. It’s hard to follow up a hat trick with another, but a brace from Orlando City’s Designated Player would not be unwelcome. I don’t even care that he doesn’t have any assists so far this season as long as he continues to score the goals. Given how leaky the Orlando City defense has been — despite Maxime Crepeau’s efforts — scoring multiple goals is probably necessary to earn three points in this match.

Consistent Kids

Everyone wants teams to “play the kids”, and Orlando City fans have gotten their wish. The amount of younger players in each match is a bit overboard thanks to off-season missteps and injuries. That being said, the kids are generally improving. Most of them even had a decent match against Inter Miami, but can they do it again?

It’s likely we see Iago start next to Robin Jansson. He and the captain will have to deal with Montreal’s leading scorer, Prince Owusu. The striker has six goals and four assists this season, including a goal against the Lions when the two teams met on March 14. As for Justin Ellis, he’s best when he starts, and despite Duncan McGuire’s return, I think Martin Perelman should probably keep riding the hot foot.

Mental Monsters and Road Warriors

The match after a big win over a rival is often difficult. When said match is one of the greatest comebacks in MLS history, it’s more difficult. Being able to recover from the mental and emotional toll in addition to the physical toll such an effort requires is not easy. The Lions must “be a goldfish” and focus on the next match.

If that wasn’t enough, this is Orlando City’s fourth match in a row on the road in all competitions. All of that travel takes a toll, especially when traveling to a different country. Time and climate changes mess with the body and mind. Not sleeping in your own bed messes with your body. The schedule is different than when playing at home. How well the Lions are able to deal with the rivalry match hangover and the long stretch of travel may decide the match.

That is what I will be looking for Saturday afternoon. The Lions return to Inter&Co Stadium on Wednesday, meaning they will be on short rest after traveling. However, that is a discussion for next week. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

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