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!

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!

Welcome to Wednesday, Mane Landers. September has some really fun oddball “holidays.” Sept. 19 was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and yesterday was Hobbit Day, because canonically it is both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ birthdays. I’m going to stop there because otherwise this will be a Tolkien-based article. I am kind of upset I didn’t write Lion Links for the 19th and thus missed out on all the great pirate jokes. Arrrghh! (Okay, just the one).

Before we get to our stories of the day, let’s wish Orlando City midfielder Wilder Cartagena a happy 32nd birthday. Today is also a special day for us here at The Mane Land, as it is the completion of our 12th year of existence. Our blog started 12 years ago today in 2014 as a free WordPress site before moving to SBNation for a long time and then finally coming full circle and going independent.

Now, let’s get to the links.

Orlando City Prepares for Philly

You have to love MLS continuing to play matches when so many players are being called up to national teams, including several players in the upcoming match between Orlando City and the Philadelphia Union. Justin Ellis and Cavan Sullivan will both miss the match, though both will be in Orlando (see below). The Union have jumped to the No. 5 spot in the MLSsoccer.com power rankings while the Lions are sitting down in the 14th spot. You can expect to see some backups starting in this match for both clubs.

Orlando Pride Tumble After Portland Loss

The Orlando Pride might be sitting at 11th in the NWSL standings, but the club is ranked 12th in both the ESPN power rankings and the All for XI power rankings. It’s not surprising given the Pride gave Yolanda Thomas her first defeat as interim head coach in the embarrassing 4-1 loss to the Portland Thorns.

USMNT Visits Orlando on Saturday

We’re all aware that the USMNT will play in Inter.co Stadium this weekend before heading to four additional venues across the country. The first match in Orlando pits the USMNT against Peru. There will be plenty of current and former Orlando City players in the match. Current Lion Justin Ellis and former OCSC defender Alex Freeman will represent the U.S., with Orlando midfielder (and today’s birthday boy) Wilder Cartagena and former Lions Pedro Gallese and Yoshimar Yotun on Peru’s roster. It should be a fun one if you can afford the ticket.

USWNT’s Pipeline Tapped?

The USWNT has consistently been among the best teams in the world for a very long time. One of the reasons for this has been the program’s ability to reload with younger players. Now, there’s concern that the pipeline is running dry. It may be that the entire youth development system needs to be fixed. The NWSL has implemented a new player development rule that may help both the national team and the league.

Free Kicks

• U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team Head Coach Gonzalo Segares has called up 20 players for the training camp in Spain to prepare for the 2027 FIFA World Cup in Azerbaijan/Uzbekistan. One of those players is Orlando City midfielder/defender Colin Guske, who is currently on loan with Real Salt Lake.

• Matt Miazga has officially signed with New York City FC through the end of this season after reports first surfaced days ago. I know another team that could use a quality center back. Too bad Miazga is no longer available.

• The Mexican Senate is debating if and when to bring back promotion and relegation to Mexican soccer, which went away during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Good news, everyone! No Orlando City players were fined by the MLS Disciplinary Committee. However, Orlando City’s next opponent, the Philadelphia Union, got dinged for violating the league’s Mass Confrontation Policy along with Sporting Kansas City.

That will do it for today. Check back with us as we prepare you for the Orlando City and Orlando Pride matches this weekend. Vamos Orlando!