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Orlando City vs. Philadelphia Union: Player Grades and Man of the Match

How did your favorite Lions perform in Orlando City’s 4-3 home win against Philadelphia Union

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3 weeks ago

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Image of Justin Ellis dribbling the ball trying to beat a Philadelphia Union defender.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

It took all they, had but the Lions got it done after giving up a 3-1 lead, letting Philadelphia come back to tie it up at 3-3, before Martin Ojeda finally put the game away in the 90th minute in a 4-3 home win over the Union. The Orlando offense continues to be a threat, but the defense will need much more bite if the Lions want to have any chance to compete for a playoff spot this year.

Let’s take a look at how the Orlando City players performed individually in this match.

Starters

GK, Maxime Crepeau, 6.5 — The Canadian goalkeeper had another good night for the Lions, helping keep Orlando’s defensive lapses from costing the team points. The Lions gave too much space to Philadelphia’s attacking players in the second half, and failed to track runners into the box. Crepeau did a good job of dealing with what came at him, making four saves, but he was not really at fault for Philadelphia’s goals. He did a decent job on his distribution with 77.3% passing accuracy on 22 attempts, although you wouldn’t know it by completed long balls, as he failed to connect on any of his five attempts. But that had more to do with Philadelphia winning aerial duels than his accuracy. Overall, it was another good night for Crepeau, who made his best of his four saves in the 57th minute, denying a header by Olwethu Makhanya.

D, David Brekalo, 5.5 — Brekalo didn’t make any really glaring mistakes but he could have done better on Philadelphia’s first goal. He shadowed Nathan Harriel as he approached the endline to send in a cutback, but he could have done more to impede his progress into the box and cut off the pass. He was not quite as involved as his other defensive partners either, finishing with one tackle and five clearances. He committed no fouls and was fouled twice himself. His passing accuracy was good at 91.1% on 45 passes. He was subbed off in the 64th minute, so he was not involved with the other Union goals.

D, Robin Jansson, 6.5 — Jansson did Jansson things all night. He connected on one really well weighted long ball, out of his three long ball attempts, sending Griffin Dorsey in on goal. He had another beauty of a pass to Martin Ojeda in midfield that was clever, but neither pass produced any end product after connecting. He logged one interception, eight clearances, and two blocks. He was involved in the run of play, making the most passes on the team, with 88, and connected with 93.2% accuracy. He committed no fouls, nor was he fouled.

D, Iago, 6 — Iago was a stable presence and made no major gaffes. He was a competent companion to Jansson and wasn’t directly responsible for any of Philadelphia’s goals. All in all, it was a decent showing on a night where the team gave up three goals. He attempted 82 passes with 95.1% accuracy. He connected on one out of four long balls. Like Jansson, he tallied one interception, eight clearances, and two blocks. He didn’t commit or receive any fouls.

D, Griffin Dorsey, 7 — Griffin had a great night offensively. He scored Orlando’s second goal and made several threatening attacks down his side of the pitch. He passed at 91.7% accuracy on 24 attempts, including one key pass, and he made one long ball attempt that did not connect. He finished with two tackles, one interception, one clearance and a blocked shot. He did not commit, nor did he receive a foul. He was effective in defense overall, but he could have done better to close down Ben Bender on the third Union goal, which took a slight deflection off of him and ended up out of Crepeau’s reach.

MF, Ivan Angulo , 7 — Angulo was his usual, speedy, hard-working self. He was everywhere and broke free to spark Orlando attacks frequently. Of course, he helped out in defense as well, contributing two tackles, one interception and a clearance. He committed three fouls and suffered one. He made one key pass, took a shot he put on target (Yay!), but it was a weak effort straight at the goalkeeper. He also failed to get onto a floating pass in front of an empty net that Martin Ojeda set up for him to finish. Angulo made up for that by picking up a secondary assist on the Argentinian Ojeda’s game-winning goal. The Colombian passed with an 87.5% success rate on 32 tries.

MF, Eduard Atuesta, 6.5 — This was one of Atuesta’s better performances this season. It wasn’t spectacular, but he seemed a little more proactive and stable this time out. He did not make any offensive contributions, but he racked up two tackles, one interception, three clearances, and a blocked shot. He committed one foul, and he made 44 passes with 87.8% accuracy. He made five long-ball attempts and connected on one.

MF, Braian Ojeda, 6.5 — The Paraguayan Ojeda put in a good shift overall, although I think he was mostly at fault, along with Dorsey, for being too slow to close down Bender on the Union’s third goal. Otherwise, he did pretty well in helping out the offense, contributing a key pass, passing with 87.8% accuracy on 41 attempts, and connecting on his two long ball attempts. He committed one foul and was fouled twice. Defensively, he made four tackles, and chalked up three clearances.

MF, Tiago, 5.5 — Tiago was involved throughout the match, but without much in the way of tangible output, at least not in the numbers. He put in a lot of hard work, but did not contribute much on offense, although Dorsey could never have scored Orlando’s second goal without the young Brazilian’s work to get the ball into a dangerous position in the box. Tiago helped out defensively with one tackle, two interceptions, and a clearance. He committed and received two fouls and passed at 58.3% on 12 passes. However he picked up an unnecessary yellow card for dissent, although he was understandably upset after heavy contact resulted in his shinguard going flying.

F, Martin Ojeda, 7.5 — Of course, it was a great night for Martin, although he also looked a bit off at times. He had some chances that you would expect him to make more of, but several times he either bobbled the ball, or took an inaccurate shot. But that’s all just relative to what you expect from Orlando’s number 10. His movement was spectacular, as he put himself in position for four (!) breakaways. Unfortunately, he fired two of those over the bar and failed to get a shot off on one after stumbling. His other breakaway forced a foul in the box on Andrew Rick, after which the Designated Player calmly scored on his penalty to open the scoring. Despite his missed chances, he also closed the scoring with a well-placed flicked header from Adrian Marin’s cross for the game winner. Additionally, Martin Ojeda contributed a key pass, three crosses, and one successful long ball on three tries. He attempted six shots, putting two on target. He was fouled twice and committed none. He contributed two tackles as well. Even when he’s a little off, the Argentine is still outstanding.

F, Justin Ellis, 8 (MotM) — Only a little more outstanding than Martin Ojeda on the evening, in my view, was Ellis. The Homegrown forward proved again that he can play at this level, and I think he’s been consistent enough to show he’s capable of making a serious impact for the Lions. Ellis has the combination of technical skill and composure, and a veteran-level vision for the key pass. He was able to dig himself out of difficult situations and executed several instrumental plays to spring the Lions’ attack, including three key passes. He began to fade a little bit toward the end of the match, but it hardly offsets his contributions. Ellis attempted one shot himself (off target), competed six dribbles, passed at 71% accuracy on 31 passes, and completed three out of five long-ball attempts. He wasn’t fouled, but he committed one himself.

Substitutes

D, Luis Otavio (64′), 6 — Otavio came on for Atuesta and needed some time to get up to speed, but he contributed some heads-up blocks and then did well to intercept a pass toward Orlando’s 18-yard box and spring Tyrese Spicer’s counterattack that earned Orlando’s third goal. He also had a nice ball to Spicer again to spring him down the left side in the 90th minute, which eventually led to Orlando’s winning goal. Defensively, Otavio finished with two tackles and one interception. He committed no fouls but was fouled once. He made 15 passes with 66.7% accuracy. He attempted two long balls that did not find their mark.

MF, Tyrese Spicer (64′), 7 — Spicer made a lot out of his time on the pitch, continuing his impact substitute role. He brought energy and grit to the offense. He powered his way through three defenders to break loose and send in the assist on Duncan McGuire’s goal. He was a threat going forward, as he has been all season. In addition to his assist, he sent in one cross and attempted one long ball that did not connect. He took one shot that was on target on a late header that he sent right at the keeper. He did not commit or suffer any fouls.

MF, Adrian Marin (64′), 5.5 — Marin made his mark on this one with his assist on the game-winning goal in the 90th minute. However, he also struggled to lock things down defensively at times. He only attempted 16 passes, achieving 68.8% accuracy. The Spaniard completed his lone cross, attempted four long balls (completing one), and did not commit or suffer any fouls.

F, Duncan McGuire (70′) 7 — McGuire put away Spicer’s feed expertly. He made it look easy, although he did have Philadelphia goalkeeper Andrew Rick to beat. It was his lone shot, and it was a good one, that put the Lions up 3-1 at the time. He also contributed a key pass. He had no other offensive or defensive stats and attempted only six passes, completing four (66.7%). He did not commit or receive any fouls. The big striker brought plenty of energy onto the pitch with him and helped track back and defend when needed.

F, Marco Pasalic (81′) N/A — The Croatian made his return from a thigh injury with a late cameo, but he wasn’t on the pitch long enough to give him a grade. However, his presence could be felt in his short time on the pitch. I think he did a good job helping to close out the match, and it was good to see him back out there.

That’s how I saw the individual performances in a much-needed Orlando win. It would have given me more confidence if it hadn’t been so difficult to beat the worst team in the Eastern Conference, but it is what it is. Let us know how you saw 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: 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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