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Orlando City vs. Inter Miami: Player Grades and Man of the Match

Here’s how your favorite Lions performed in Orlando City’s 4-3 road win at Miami.

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1 month ago

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Image of Martin Ojeda playing the ball against Inter Miami.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Tropic Thunder was everything we hoped it would be and more on Saturday night, as Orlando City reminded the soccer world that Florida is purple with a 4-3 comeback victory in Nu Stadium, the house that Lionel Messi built but has yet to win in. The first 30 minutes were rough for the Lions, but the last 60 were as enjoyable as any stretch this season, and Orlando City picked up its third victory of the MLS season and its first on the road.

I have my purple pen out and 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 matchup with their downstate rival.

Starters

GK, Maxime Crépeau, 8 — Wow. Orlando City fans will revel in the glory of the second half, but the game would have been out of reach for the Lions if not for the Canadian’s heroics in the first half. Crépeau was officially credited with seven saves, but it felt like a dozen, especially in the opening minutes of the game when the Lions were under siege from Miami. At one point Crépeau made four saves on the same possession, looking more like an octopus than Pedro Gallese, as he seemed to have arms everywhere making saves. While he gave up three goals, it’s hard to fault him for them as one was a free header on a set piece, one was a point-blank redirect, and the other was perfectly placed by Messi. However, it is easy to give Crepeau the plaudits he deserves for keeping Miami to three, which allowed Orlando City to stay in the game and make the incredible comeback that it did. On any other day he almost certainly would have been the Man of the Match, but unfortunately for Crépeau, his teammate had a hat trick.

D, Adrián Marin, 6.5 — The Spaniard did not go forward often in this game, but he did midway through the second half and it led directly to Orlando City’s second goal. Marin juked his way up into the 18 and squared a pass to Martín Ojeda to cut the lead to 3-2 and earn himself his second assist for the season. Marin completed 73.3% of his passes, including the one key pass for his assist, and added one tackle, one block, and one clearance on the defensive side of the ball before coming off for David Brekalo in the game’s final minutes.

D, Robin Jansson, 6.5 — Jansson perhaps was inspired by fellow Inter&Co Stadium tenants the Orlando Storm, as after he was dispossessed while dribbling forward, he had to turn and and chase down Messi from behind and eventually tackled him like an American football player. Being that it was Messi in Miami, he was lucky he was not immediately suspended for the rest of the season and only received a yellow card. Perhaps the edge of playing with a yellow card sharpened his focus, because after that play Jansson was solid for the rest of the game. He led all players with nine defensive contributions, racking up three tackles, two interceptions, and four clearances, and he picked up a hockey assist with his header to Justin Ellis that led to Orlando City’s first goal. The Beefy Swede only completed 66.7% of his passes, but his assist was a big one, and he led the defense that clamped Miami down for the final 55 minutes.

D, Iago, 6 — The big man had a rough first half but was much better in the second, and showed once again how dangerous he is in the attack by winning the penalty kick that tied the game at 3-3. Just minutes before he played a great header back into the middle off of a free kick, though it turned out that he had been just inches offside when the ball was played. Iago seems completely settled now alongside Jansson, and though he still makes youthful mistakes, like the foul he committed right after Tyrese Spicer’s goal to give Messi a late free kick from a dangerous position, the positives outweighed the negatives for the Brazilian. He completed 73.3% of his passes, including a pass that started the sequence which gave Orlando City the lead, but more importantly, he finished with one interception, two blocked shots, three clearances, and four duels won.

D, Griffin Dorsey, 6 — Dorsey followed up his excellent U.S. Open Cup performance with another strong game on the right side. His heatmap was bright up the entire right side of the field, as he defended all the way down to his own goal line and then made several strong runs all the way up toward Miami’s goal line as well. Early in the game he made a great run up the right side but elected to keep the ball himself instead of finding an open Martin Ojeda at the top of the box, but after that play, he was unselfish for the rest of the game, looking for teammates on crosses or cutbacks. He completed 68% of his passes and also one nose-to-nose confrontation with Miami’s Telasco Segovia late in the game when both players stood almost directly at midfield and looked like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots ready to throw down after bumping each other for much of the second half. Dorsey turned in a strong defensive game, with two tackles, one interception, and a game-high five clearances, and though he turned the ball over a little more than desired (13 possessions lost) he played a solid game out on the right side of Orlando’s flexible modified 4-4-2.

MF, Iván Angulo, 6.5 — The Colombian was not at his best, or even his normal, self in the first half, but like so many of his teammates, he was much better in the second half. Angulo completed 92.7% of his passes, including a team-high three key passes, but he started off ice cold and it was his poor pass that led directly to Miami’s second goal. After that play, he started to play a lot better, especially defensively, where he led all players with four tackles and tied for the game lead with 10 loose ball recoveries. Angulo’s speed was devastating on those recoveries, as he beat Miami players to the ball time after time to help frustrate its attacks. The last recovery helped run out the clock for Orlando City, as he won the ball and dribbled it about 60 yards up the field, leaving almost no time on the clock for Miami to try to get the equalizer. Absent the opening 20-25 minutes, Angulo was solid in this one and deserves credit for tracking back again and again to help hold Messi off from creating much of anything during the second half.

MF, Luis Otávio, 4.5 — The young Brazilian showed some feistiness in trying to get physical with Messi throughout the first half, but César Araújo he was not as Messi got the better of Otávio with his dribbling and passing. This is not something to be ashamed of, considering Messi’s abilities, but it was not a big surprise that there was a switch at halftime and Eduard Atuesta came on to replace Otávio. While he was on the field, he completed 86.7% of his passes, but he was far more involved on the defensive side of the field, making three tackles and adding two clearances, though he also was dribbled past three times.

MF, Braian Ojeda, 7 — Orlando City’s Iron Man went another full 90 on Saturday night, continuing his streak of playing every minute of every MLS game. Defensive Ojeda was on his game, contributing three tackles, one interception, one block, and one clearance, and he tied Angulo for the most loose-ball recoveries with 10. The Paraguayan also led the team with 39 completed passes at a 95.1% completion rate, and he assisted on the game-winning goal, hitting a long pass on the ground that put Spicer in on goal and the Orlando fans in Nu Stadium into delirium. On the whole, it was one of Braian Ojeda’s best performances in an Orlando City jersey, which rhymed nicely with the performance from Martín Ojeda, who also had one of his best games as well.

MF, Tiago, 4.5 — The fact that Tiago had more tackles (2) than completed passes (1) says everything about the Brazilian’s contribution to this game. He only had 11 touches and five pass attempts and was involved more on defense than offense during his 45 minutes. Miami dominated the ball, so perhaps it was a bit unfair that Tiago was removed at halftime for Spicer, as there was little that he could have done offensively with so few touches and very little service. But given Spicer’s impact on the game, it’s difficult to argue with the decision, too.

F, Martín Ojeda, 9 (MotM) — It was a big day for both of Orlando City’s Ojedas, but in particular for the man they call Tincho, who scored a hat trick to dig Orlando City out of a 3-0 deficit. Messi played well, but his fellow Argentine No. 10 played better, with two rockets during open play and an unstoppable penalty kick goal as well. After a slow start, Offensive Ojeda now has seven goals on the season and joins Cyle Larin as the only two Orlando City players with multiple hat tricks. I am not going to say should, but Ojeda could have become the first Lion to ever score four goals in a game as he had a great chance after cutting the ball back past Maxi Falcón, but his shot just was not quite high enough and bounced off of Dayne St. Clair’s head. Ojeda was outstanding in this game and was the Man of the Match, completing 74.1% of his passes, including two key passes, scoring the three goals, and hustling to block one shot on defense.

F, Justin Ellis, 6.5 — Orlando City’s academy product had a goal contribution in his fourth consecutive game, as he assisted Martin Ojeda with his goal near the end of the first half. Ellis looked competent and comfortable with the starters and put in a solid shift during his 59 minutes. Orlando City did not have much of the ball, especially in the first half, but the Lions looked dangerous when Ellis was involved in the buildup. He completed 90% of his passes and put his one shot on target, but his big contribution was the assist to Ojeda before he came off for Duncan McGuire for the final third of the game.

Substitutes

MF, Eduard Atuesta, (46′), 6 — Saturday night was by far Atuesta’s best performance of the season, as his arrival in the midfield turned the game around for Orlando City. The Colombian only played 45 minutes but had the second-most defensive contributions, tallying three tackles, two interceptions, one block, and two clearances. Orlando struggled to hold the midfield in the first half but Atuesta and Braian Ojeda locked it down in the second half, changing the flow of the game. Atuesta completed 82.3% of his passes and probably should have had an assist after a deft touch set up Martín Ojeda for a shot, but Ojeda took an extra touch and was unable to put the shot away. Hopefully his health continues to improve and he can extend his minutes to even longer than 45 by next week, as the Lions could use more performances like that in their central midfield.

F, Tyrese Spicer, (46′), 6.5 — Spicer sealed the game with an incredible stoppage time winner, going five-hole to score Orlando City’s fourth goal. Orlando played much better after he entered the game as he contributed on offense and defense, completing six of his seven passes and defending well with two tackles, one block, and two loose-ball recoveries. The big moment was the final one though, as he timed his run perfectly onto Braian Ojeda’s through ball and took it directly to goal before putting the winner past St. Clair.

F, Duncan McGuire, (59′), 6 — Big Dunc made his first appearance after being injured for a few weeks and looked lively, though a little rusty. He put his one shot on target — an ambitious effort to sneak a shot in at the near post — and he looked fully healthy and raring to go during his 31 minutes. He completed six of his eight passes and picked up a secondary assist on the game-winning goal due to hustling to receive a pass from Iago and dropping it back to Braian Ojeda. With three games in a week starting next Saturday, it will be huge for the Lions to have him back on the field.

D, David Brekalo, (87′), N/A — The Slovenian came on for Marin with a few minutes remaining and completed two of his three passes and won his only aerial duel.

MF, Zakaria Taifi (90′), N/A — Taifi entered in stoppage time for Martín Ojeda and did not touch the ball, but he ran his tail off during his few minutes on the field.

That’s how I saw the individual performances in Orlando City’s amazing 4-3 win over Miami. 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.

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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.

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2 days ago

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June 5, 2026

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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!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 6/5/26

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

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2 days ago

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June 5, 2026

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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!

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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.

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3 days ago

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June 4, 2026

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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!

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