With eight games remaining, Orlando City enters the homestretch of its season with a critical Saturday matchup against the surging Philadelphia Union. Philly enters having won its last five games and now sits one spot above the Lions in the Eastern Conference standings. Ugh. Thankfully, the Union will be without rising star Cavan Sullivan (goal contributions in five straight games, I would like him to stop this immediately), but he is out for the same reason that David Brekalo, Wilder Cartagena, Justin Ellis, Marco Pašalić, and Tyrese Spicer will be out, as all were called up to their respective national teams for the FIFA international window.

With those five players out, Braian Ojeda still injured, and Griffin Dorsey and Antoine Griezmann’s injury status still to be determined (please get healthy soon, gentlemen), the Lions will likely need to rely on players from OCB in order to fill out their roster for Saturday’s game. Part of the reason they will have to do so is that there are currently two players on the senior roster (Nico Rodriguez and Yutaro Tsukada) and one on the supplemental roster (Colin Guske) out on loan.

The Pride actually one-up the Lions, as they have four players out on loan: Kat Asman, Seven Castain, Simone Jackson, and Anna Moorhouse. Among the seven total loaned-out Orlando players, four are young (Castain, Jackson, Guske, and Rodriguez are 23 or younger), two are mid-20s (Asman is 26 and Tsukada is 25), and Moorhouse is the oldest at 31, which is still a prime age for a goalkeeper.

Emma Hayes, the coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team, was recently quoted as saying “I don’t care where you play, but you need to be playing…going into a pro environment is a fabulous situation, but not if you are going to sit on the bench for two or three years.” Excluding Moorhouse, who is in a different situation than the other loaned out players, the six loanees (and really just five of them, since Rodriguez was loaned out before the season) combined for 1,241 minutes and 10 starts for the senior teams in Orlando, with a lot of those minutes coming in the beginning of the season and trailing off as the season went on and the pushes for the playoffs became real.

Those players have already played more than 3,000 minutes with their new clubs, with Castain and Jackson starting eight of their nine games with their new teams and Guske and Tsukada starting eight of their 12. Asman is a goalkeeper, so minutes are harder to come by, but she started three games, and Rodriguez, who is the only one who did not leave mid-season, started 18 of his 24 games before injuring his knee in late August. The table below shows the performance of all of the loanees thus far, using data from Sofascore:

Sofascore ratings are out of 10, with top players in a league generally scoring in the low to mid-sevens and truly elite players scoring closer to, or even above, eight. None of the loanees are dominating their new leagues, but all are playing decent minutes (most of the loans only happened in mid-summer, it is unknown if they happened after Ricardo Moreira or Caitlin Carducci had a midsummer night’s dream) and contributing to their teams.

The one exception to that, as noted earlier, is Moorhouse, the long-time starter for the Pride who was replaced a few weeks ago and then was loaned to Manchester City shortly thereafter. She has yet to play for Manchester City, and considering she was only loaned through January 2027, she may have been loaned out more to provide cover for the WSL team in case of injury as opposed to getting minutes now that Cosette Morché has taken over as the Pride’s starting goalkeeper.

As Hayes mentioned during her interview, playing real minutes in a game with consequences is key for development. On the MLS side, there is MLS NEXT Pro, where an increasing number of Orlando City players are playing thousands of minutes in preparation for a move to the senior team. Rodriguez’s loan to the Colombian league and Tsukada’s to the USL Championship are slightly different pathways but ones that could still bear fruit, though based on the results on the field, neither are dominating in their leagues.

Opta ranks Colombia’s Primera A as the 15^th best league in the world and the USA’s USL Championship as 121^st, whereas MLS is ranked 19^th, so that seems to show better for Rodriguez than Tsukada, as does the fact that Rodriguez was originally signed as an MLS U22 Initiative player, so there was always belief in his potential to develop. Guske is still playing in the same league as the Lions, so viewing his progression is easier, and with Real Salt Lake still fighting for playoff spot in the Western Conference, the young midfielder will play in some high-pressure games as the season winds down.

Back on the women’s side, if Moorhouse gets any minutes, they will be against some of the bets competition in the world, as Manchester City plays in Opta’s second-ranked domestic women’s league and is qualified for the Champions League as well. Her fellow goalkeeper Asman appears to be the backup again in Denver, but she played well in her three appearances against Portland, Chicago, and Gotham, and between Portland and Gotham, she faced two of the top five teams in the NWSL and allowed only one goal across those two games.

Jackson is playing in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan, the sixth-best domestic league in the world, and Castain is in the USL Super League, the 18^th-best league, so Jackson is facing the better competition and performing better, according to Sofascore’s tracking. The critical piece for both players was getting game minutes, which they are, and would likely not have gotten had they stayed in Orlando, especially without a developmental league like MLS NEXT Pro on the women’s side.

The upshot of all of the loans might not be that any of these seven players ever contribute meaningfully to the Orlando teams in the future, but the alternative was likely that they would play minimal minutes and live out what Hayes said was not recommended: being a pro but sitting on the bench for two or three years.

These loans gave all of the players an opportunity to play and the club a chance to see them under pressure. We will see the impact of those minutes in the off-season — when the loan reports come due, hopefully with interest.

Vamos Orlando!

The USMNT may be at Inter.co Stadium on Saturday, but Orlando City is headed to the City of Brotherly Love to take on the Philadelphia Union in a big Eastern Conference match. The Lions are fighting to stay in the playoff picture down the stretch, and a good result this weekend is crucial. It won’t be easy, as there are plenty of players out due to international duty and injury. What must the Lions do to earn all three points against the Philadelphia Union?

Battle of the Backups (Part 1)

Both Orlando City and the Philadelphia Union will be missing players due to international call-ups. For the Lions, the team will be without Justin Ellis, Wilder Cartagena, David Brekalo, Marco Pasalic, and Tyrese Spicer. Whichever players replace them will need to do as well or better. Fortunately, only two of those players are regular starters. I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt the depth, but it could be worse. 

Iago will likely start next to Robin Jansson at center back. In the past, that would worry me — and it still does to an extent — but he played better in his last outing. He will almost certainly get a yellow card in this match, so don’t be surprised when that happens, but I’m hoping he’ll give us at least as good of a performance as his last start. 

Battle of the Backups (Part 2)

On the other side, the Union are missing a few key players in Cavan Sullivan and Andre Blake. Even though he is only 16 years old, Sullivan has come on strong of late, scoring seven goals and providing 12 assists. I hope he does some of that against Peru this weekend, but I’m glad he won’t be able to do so against Orlando City. Blake is a very experienced MLS goalkeeper. His backup, Andrew Rick, gave up four goals to the Lions the last time the clubs played, so let’s hope that continues.

Philadelphia is also missing defenders Neil Pierre and Frankie Westfield. This may be the most vulnerable the Union have been on defense since the World Cup break. The Lions need to take advantage of that — more on that below. The match is in Philadelphia, and the Union will want revenge for the 4-3 loss earlier this season, so we’ll have to see which set of backups are best able to step up.

Update the Attack

Unfortunately, with Antoine Griezmann still recovering and Ellis with the USMNT, the attack will need to replace their effective partnership. I’m not certain that is entirely possible, but there are several options. Martin Ojeda is rounding back into form and Ivan Angulo has three goals in the last three matches. I don’t think anyone had that on their 2026 Bingo card. These two can be a one-two combo for the Lions in the final third. 

Tyrese Spicer is a great super sub, but he’s not always great when he gets the start. Daryl Dike is the other side of that coin. Because of how Martin Perelman has been running the offense, Dike hasn’t gotten many starts, which is unfortunate because I think he’s better when he starts rather than comes off the bench. With the player availability being what it is, I expect he will start against Philadelphia, providing a big problem for the Union to deal with when Ojeda and Angulo are also circling the box.

That is what I will be looking for on Saturday night. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

How’s it going, Mane Landers? It’s been a whirlwind of a week for me, but I’m excited for a weekend filled with soccer at both the club and international levels. My fingers will stay crossed until then in hopes that we can see some wins. Until then though, let’s dive into today’s links!

Orlando City Prepares for Philadelphia Union

The Lions are back in action on Saturday with a road game against the Philadelphia Union. The Union have been on an absolute tear of late, winning their past five games and scoring 19 goals during that stretch. Both teams will be without key players away on international duty, so it will be interesting to see how they line up for this Eastern Conference showdown. Interim head coach Martin Perelman spoke on the team’s preparations heading into the match.

Angelina Called Up By Brazil

Orlando Pride midfielder Angelina was called up for Brazil’s pair of friendlies against Argentina next month. These will be Brazil’s first matches since playing the U.S. twice in June. Angelina, Marta, and Rafaelle were all called up for those previous friendlies, but Angelina is the only Pride player headed to Brazil this time around. While the Pride have endured a rough season, hopefully Angelina can impress at the international level as Brazil prepares to host the World Cup next summer.

Parker Amoo-Mensah Heads to Camp

Orlando City B defender Parker Amoo-Mensah was one of 20 players called up for the United States U-19 Men’s National Team training camp in Spain. The 18-year-old made his professional debut this year and signed with OCB in June on a contract through 2028. This will be the first U-19 camp under Head Coach Rob Valentino, who was previously an Orlando City player in the USL days and an assistant coach with OCB.

Getting Ready for the USMNT Friendlies

The United States Men’s National Team will start its series of friendlies in Orlando with a home game against Peru. It will be the first match since the World Cup, and there’s plenty of intrigue over who Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino will choose to start from a roster that includes plenty of new faces, including Orlando City forward Justin Ellis. He’s part of a group of forwards who have nothing but opportunity in front of them to make an impression at the top of the lineup. After matches against Peru and Chile, the U.S. will have a not-so-friendly friendly against Mexico before closing things out against Canada.

Free Kicks

• Orlando City’s Maxime Crepeau and Harvey Sarajian got to show off their bartending skills for patrons at Gnarly Barley last night.

• LAFC forward Son Heung-Min won MLS Goal of the Matchday for his goal in LAFC’s 2-2 draw against the San Jose Earthquakes.
• Federico Higuain was fired as the head coach of Columbus Crew 2 after an incident where he grabbed a female referee and made a sexist comment to her.
• The USMNT’s winter training camp that normally takes place in January and features many MLS players will reportedly take place in December instead.

• Christian Eriksen agreed to terminate his contract with Wolfsburg four months after collapsing on the field for Denmark.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!