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Orlando City vs. Austin FC: Player Grades and Man of the Match

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Orlando City went on the road to take on Austin FC for the first time and ultimately walked away with a point after a 2-2 draw. Goals from Ercan Kara and Ruan gave the Lions a lead in the first half, but they were reduced to nine men and had to hold on for a result.

Despite poor officiating and missed chances, Orlando showed plenty of resilience on the road in a packed Q2 Stadium. Let’s dive into how each Lion individually performed in the draw.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 6.5 — El Pulpo was able to get a tentacle to Sebastian Driussi’s penalty kick, but not enough to keep it from going in goal as he still hunts for his first penalty save of the season. His first save of the match came in the 25th minute as he snatched a header from Driussi out of the air. His other two saves in the match came from diving efforts as he denied Nick Lima from a tight angle and then made a huge stop by shifting direction to slap away a low effort from Alex Ring. There wasn’t much he could’ve done about the late equalizer as Moussa Djitte scored from the far post on a short corner kick that shouldn’t have been given. His distribution could have been a bit better as he was accurate on just 45% of his 22 passes and six of his 18 long balls, but the team wasn’t exactly trying to build out of the back while down two players and trying to hold on for a win. The Peruvian goalkeeper also did a great job managing the clock over the last 30 minutes of the match to help ensure Orlando didn’t leave Austin empty-handed.

D, Joao Moutinho, 6.5 — The left back ended up leading the Lions with six clearances as he shifted to a central position once Orlando was reduced to nine men. With Rodrigo Schlegel out of the game due to a second yellow card, Moutinho did well to fortify the defense and clear the danger. He likely would have come up with the clearance on Austin’s equalizer if not for the unfortunate deflection the ball took off of Kyle Smith’s head. Moutinho also had a tackle, an interception, and a blocked shot in the match. He could’ve been a bit more accurate as he completed a subpar 63% of his 30 passes and only two of his eight long balls found their mark. He did have a key pass though and was accurate on one of his two crosses during a night in which he wasn’t often able to surge forward and provide service.

D, Robin Jansson, 6 — It’s never easy trying to defend a lead while down two players, but Jansson was a leader for Orlando’s defense. The Beefy Swede had five clearances and blocked two shots in a solid defensive effort to help Orlando get a result. He understandably didn’t have much of an impact on offense, but four of his nine long balls were accurate and he completed 69% of his 29 passes. He picked up his seventh yellow card of the season, tied for the most in MLS, for Diego Fagundez walking into him and falling over. Another strong defensive effort like last night will be needed from him next Saturday against FC Dallas.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 5.5 — His night will be overshadowed by receiving two yellow cards for handballs in the span of a couple of minutes. Schlegel was booked for a handball just outside the penalty kick and then again on the ensuing free kick as part of Orlando’s wall. Referee Joe Dickerson sent him off in the 61st minute without going over to the monitor and the center back finished with four clearances and an interception. He was accurate on 89% of just 18 passes and his lone long ball found its target. Schlegel will miss Saturday’s game, giving him plenty of rest to come back stronger in league play in June.

D, Ruan, 6.5 — The right back scored his second goal of the season by pouncing on a loose ball in the box after a save from Brad Stuver. It was a nice first-time shot from the Brazilian to double Orlando’s lead in the first half. He had a chance to increase Orlando’s lead even further later in the first half on a breakaway but was offside due to a mistimed run and missed the shot regardless. It was a missed opportunity that will be looked at a little harsher considering how the game played out in the second half. Still, Ruan is showing plenty of life offensively in recent games and his speed works well with Facundo Torres to provide options during counter attacks. He didn’t have any crosses but was successful on one of his two long balls and completed 88% of his 16 passes. Defensively, he had a tackle and a clearance and was subbed out in stoppage time to kill off some of the clock and get fresher legs out there.

MF, Cesar Araujo, 4.5 — It was Araujo’s roughest performance of the season. Although he had 16 passes at a great 94% success rate, he had three unstable touches in the match and made costly mistakes. The biggest was his red card in the 69th minute as he needlessly kicked out at Ring, who milked the minimal contact as much as he could. It was a frustrating mistake from a player who’s been levelheaded in recent weeks. That wasn’t his only mistake in the match, as he whiffed on an attempt to send the ball up the field, giving Austin a counter-attacking opportunity in the first half. It wasn’t all terrible, as Araujo led the Lions with three tackles while also chipping in defensively with two interceptions and two clearances. However, his ejection while Orlando was already down a player may have been the difference between a draw and a win and he’ll miss Saturday’s game against Dallas.

MF, Andres Perea, 6 — Playing in the center of the field, Perea quietly led the Lions with four interceptions as he capitalized on the pressure created by teammates to then pick off passes. He wasn’t necessarily dynamic in the match, sending his only shot of the match off target despite a good look, but he was solid and played his part in the team’s efforts to hold on for a result. Along with those interceptions, Perea had three clearances, a tackle, and also blocked a shot. His passing could have been better, as he completed 70% of 23 passes, but that’s not horrific, and he was accurate on one of his two long balls. It was the 21-year-old’s third straight start as he continues to earn minutes in Orlando’s crowded midfield.

MF, Facundo Torres, 5.5 — Torres did well on Orlando’s second goal, sprinting down the left side of the pitch to whip in a cross that wasn’t cleared cleanly and fell to Mauricio Pereyra and then Ruan. The 22-year-old had other opportunities in the match to score, but instead laid the ball off for teammates to take the chance. It was unselfish of Torres, but he could have afforded to be a bit more ruthless, as he finished with no shots or key passes. The unsuccessful cross that led to a goal was his only one of the game and his lone long ball didn’t find its target. He completed 74% of his 19 passes and helped out defensively with two tackles and plenty of pressure before being subbed out in the 71st minute. Torres’ speed makes him an asset for Orlando’s offense, but he lacked a killer instinct that could have helped put the game away before the second half.

MF, Mauricio Pereyra, 6.5 — The captain’s only shot of the game was a strong effort that forced a tough save from Stuver, with Ruan putting away the ensuing rebound. The captain had a few miscues, including a great opportunity to send Kara in on goal in the first half, but was adept at delivering quick balls forward to find Lions in open space as he was accurate on five of his six long balls. Both of his crosses were unsuccessful though, and he completed 83% of his 23 passes. His night ended in the 71st minute as he exited the game along with Orlando’s other offensive players once the Lions were reduced to nine men. It will be a sore trip back to Orlando for Pereyra, who was fouled four times in the match as Austin broke up plays without being booked for it.

MF, Junior Urso, 6.5 — The Bear played out wide in this match and intercepted a bad pass from Stuver to then find Kara in front of goal for an easy assist. Urso led the Lions with five shots, putting three of them on target. He had a great chance to score in the final moments of the first half, putting a header on frame and then beating his defender to the ensuing rebound after Stuver’s save. But the shot missed the open net and soared into the Austin sky. He didn’t have any crosses and his only attempted long ball was inaccurate while he also completed 70% of his 23 passes. Urso supplied great defensive pressure throughout the match, made two tackles, and stopped Jon Gallagher in the box after Schlegel was beaten. Like Pereyra, he was fouled four times in the match and all were in Orlando’s own half.

F, Ercan Kara, 7 (MotM) — The Austrian was in the right place at the right time in front of goal after Stuver’s mistake allowed him to score in the second minute of the match. The goal was one of two shots he put on target, the other coming in the 43rd minute when he fired from distance and was stopped by a diving save from Stuver. Kara led the Lions with three key passes, creating great opportunities for Urso and Perea. He was physical throughout the match, winning two of his four aerial duels and battling to take the ball from Austin players in dangerous areas. He had 24 touches and completed all but one of his 10 passes for a 90% success rate. Kara is our Man of the Match for scoring and creating plenty of chances in a productive outing despite few crosses from the wings and being substituted in the 71st minute.

Substitutes

MF, Jake Mulraney (71’), 5.5 — The Irishman was brought on to give the Lions some fresh legs while down two players. He had a chance to shift the momentum back in Orlando’s favor as he dribbled his way through Austin’s defense, but his shot was a tough one to pull off and sent wide of goal. He didn’t see much of the ball after that, finishing with only three touches and no passes. Mulraney did have a clearance though, doing his part on the defensive end as Orlando desperately tried to hang on.

F, Tesho Akindele, (71’), 5.5 — Akindele’s role after coming on was to contest the team’s long balls and clearances heaved up the field in an effort to win the ball or at least stall Austin from pushing forward. The Canadian won two of his three aerial duels and had 11 touches while completing two of his four passes. While he did a decent job holding up play, he had an opportunity to find Ruan making an uncontested run down the field but either didn’t see him or just didn’t have a way to get him the ball as Austin players descended on him. All in all, it was a decent shift from Akindele.

D, Kyle Smith (71’), 6 — The defender came on to solidify Orlando’s defense, playing in the center of defense as Orlando gave up the wings to focus on filling open spaces in the box. The plan worked for the most part as Smith had four clearances. However, Austin’s goal came from a corner kick that should’ve been ruled a goal kick and Smith’s attempted clearance flicked the ball back to Djitte at the far post. It was unfortunate in many ways for Smith, who scored Orlando’s winner last weekend. The 30-year-old ended the game with no passes and six touches.

MF, Sebas Mendez (91’), N/A — The defensive midfielder didn’t play long enough to earn a grade as his substitution mostly helped remove some of the time left in the match. He did complete his one pass though and had just the one touch. The Ecuadorian has not started since May 7 but that may change with Cesar Araujo suspended.

D, Michael Halliday (93’), N/A — Like Mendez, Halliday was brought on late in stoppage time. The 19-year-old didn’t have much of an opportunity to make an impact with just one touch in his first appearance of the 2022 MLS season.


That’s how I saw the individual performances in Orlando City’s controversial 2-2 draw against Austin FC. What do you think? Be sure to let us know in the comments and vote in the poll below for your Orlando City Man of the Match.

Polling Closed

PlayerVotes
Ercan Kara14
Pedro Gallese16
Junior Urso8
Ruan3
Joao Moutinho2
Other (Let us know who in the comments)3

Orlando City

Orlando City Showed Defensive Improvement Against D.C. United

The Lions looked much better defensively last game, but now they have to prove that they can build on that performance.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

As the 2025 Major League Soccer season has gotten underway, one of the bigger topics surrounding Orlando City has been the team’s struggles on the defensive side of the ball. Andrew DeSalvo called on the team to get its defensive game up to scratch last week, and with good reason. The Lions have conceded 11 goals in five games, a mark that is good for second-worst in the league and is only eclipsed by Toronto FC’s 12. Given how Oscar Pareja’s Orlando sides have typically been built on the backs of a strong defensive foundation, its been a startling departure, particularly when paired with an offense whose output would usually be enough to get results as long as the defense isn’t leaking like a sieve.

Fortunately, OCSC had a much-improved defensive showing in Saturday’s 4-1 victory over D.C. United. Despite a consolation goal in stoppage time preventing the Lions from keeping a first clean sheet of the season, it was the team’s first time holding an opponent under two goals in 2025. A low bar to clear maybe, but that’s where we are right now.

Including the goal, D.C. took 14 shots and put five on target, with eight shots coming from inside the box. Those eight shots resulted in one goal, one attempt missed, three shots blocked, and two shots saved. The Lions managed to block nearly half of the shots taken within their own box without Javier Otero needing to be called into action. He took care of another two, and the Lions got lucky with one wayward shot before their luck ran out on the goal. All things considered, that’s not bad, and Orlando’s five blocks on the night tied for second-most this season, with the high water mark of six set against the Philadelphia Union in the opening game. Blocks aren’t a tell-all defensive statistic. For example, OCSC only had one in the 4-2 win over Toronto FC — probably due to TFC only managing nine shots on the night. Still, it’s nice to see bodies getting in the way to disrupt potentially dangerous opportunities.

D.C. ended the night with 1.60 expected goals (xG), and while that stat isn’t perfect, it’s good to see that D.C. didn’t vastly underperform the statistic, which would mean they should have scored more and simply didn’t take good chances. Of the visitors’ 1.60 xG, 45% came from Lukas McNaughton’s goal, with another 29% coming from Dominique Badji’s 68th-minute attempt that Otero saved. The next highest attempts were 17% from a Derek Dodson attempt in stoppage time, which was blocked, and 16% from a Christian Benteke header in the 54th, which was saved by Otero. Essentially, Orlando mostly did a good job in preventing D.C. from getting off dangerous attempts, and the opposition’s only big chance of the night came on McNaughton’s goal.

This also all came with Orlando City having slightly less of the ball than D.C., with 48% possession to the opponent’s 52%. The imbalance isn’t huge, but it’s a good sign that Orlando was largely able to limit dangerous chances even while spending periods of time without the ball and while being peppered with a whopping 10 corner kicks.


It wasn’t a perfect performance, as evidenced by the late goal, but frankly I’d have been surprised to see a sudden leap in defensive play given the struggles of the first four games. The D.C. win showed a lot of good things though, and gave the Lions a performance that they can build off of. Next up is an LA Galaxy team that has struggled for goals with only four in five games, but LA has attackers like Christian Ramirez and Gabriel Pec that are capable of doing plenty of damage on the offensive end. It’ll be a good test of whether the defensive unit is on the right trajectory, and hopefully it’s one that the defense can pass with flying colors. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 3/28/25

Orlando Pride prepare for the San Diego Wave, NWSL weekend matches, USMNT roster predictions, and more.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

We made it to Friday! Celebrate however you see fit, whether that’s an indulgent breakfast or just your favorite cup of coffee. This week has flown by a bit for me and I’m looking forward to a weekend filled with soccer. I’ll be spending the next few days working, reading a new book or two, and working out the kinks of making a frozen coconut mojito. My blender hates me. Let’s get to today’s links!

Orlando Pride Prepare for the San Diego Wave

The Orlando Pride will look to extend their 2025 win streak to three games — and their overall win streak to seven — on Saturday when they host the San Diego Wave at noon. Orlando has looked the part of a defending champion so far, leading the league with eight goals without conceding a single one in two games. The Pride will take on a revamped San Diego team that is unbeaten under Head Coach Jonas Eidevall. Pride Head Coach Seb Hines spoke about how Orlando will need to set the tone early on at home against the Wave and keep up the momentum.

NWSL Provides Entertaining Slate of Weekend Matches

While it’s far too early to think about the NWSL Shield race, it never hurts to check out how the Pride’s competitors are doing while enjoying some great soccer. Tonight features a pair of matches at the same time, with the Washington Spirit hosting Bay FC and the Houston Dash playing on the road against NJ/NY Gotham FC. Kansas City Current forward Temwa Chawinga will have a chance to tie her own record of scoring in eight straight games when her team plays the Utah Royals on Saturday. On Sunday, we’ll get to see if the Seattle Reign’s solid start continues against an unbeaten Angel City FC team searching for its first win of the season.

USMNT Roster Predictions for Concacaf Gold Cup

The pressure is on United States Men’s National Team Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino to turn things around after a rough showing in the final four of the Concacaf Nations League. This summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup will be an opportunity for the USMNT to impress in preparation for the 2026 World Cup, and Pro Soccer Wire dove into how the roster could look for the tournament. Injuries to Ricardo Pepi and Folarin Balogun complicate things up top, but we could see Brenden Aaronson or Alex Zendejas could return to the attack. The Gold Cup will likely also determine which goalkeeper between Matt Turner, Zack Steffen, and Patrick Schulte emerges as the true starter. Players like Sergino Dest, Malik Tillman, and Johnny Cardoso are other notable names to keep an eye out for leading into the tournament.

FA Cup Quarterfinals Kick Off This Weekend

Only eight teams remain in the FA Cup and the action returns with enticing quarterfinal matchups. Preston North End is the only team outside of the English Premier League still fighting, but Manchester City is the only traditional giant left in the field as well. City will face off against a Bournemouth side that beat it 2-1 back in November, while Preston will have to get past Aston Villa, which has only won two of its last eight games. Nottingham Forest forward Chris Wood’s injury adds an obstacle to overcome when the team travels to play Brighton and Hove Albion. Meanwhile, Crystal Palace gets star striker Jean-Philippe Mateta back from injury for its clash with Fulham.

Free Kicks


That’s all I have for you for today’s links. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend. Go Orlando!

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Orlando City

Orlando City’s Offense Looks Different With Marco Pašalić on the Right

How Orlando City’s offensive style changed from the end of 2024 to 2025 and how the Croatian contributes differently than Facundo Torres did.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

As I often like to do, I will start this article on Orlando City by writing about…baseball. America’s pastime — or at least it was for most of the 20th century — is celebrating opening day for the 2025 season this week, but that is not why I mention baseball. Rather, when I think about baseball I often think about baseball movies, and that brings me to one of the seminal sports films of all time, The Sandlot.

There are many great characters and moments in this movie, but a fan favorite was Michael “Squints” Palledorous. If you have not seen The Sandlot, you should, because that movie is fun and fun is good, but the reason I brought Squints up is because…wait for it…if you squint really hard when looking at Orlando City’s newest Designated Player, Marco Pašalić, then you can see Orlando City’s former Designated Player, and all-time leading scorer, Facundo Torres.

I say you have to squint really hard because aside from being similarly aged (Torres is 154 days older than Pašalić), left-foot-dominant players who play on the right side of the field, the styles of play for both players are quite different, as is how Orlando City has played in 2025 with Pašalić vs. toward the end of 2024 with Torres.

Let’s start with Orlando’s style of play in 2025 vs. the end of 2024, and we will look at the two individual players after that. I am choosing the final games of last season, because those are the most recent games played by the team, and as was frequently discussed in the run-up to this season, Orlando City brought back many of its key players from last season and has much of the same coaching staff as well. If you look at the statistics though, the team is playing differently this season as compared to 2024.

I’ve broken this out into three sections: the first five games of the 2025 regular season, the five 2024 playoff games, and the final five 2024 regular-season games. Playoff games are played differently than regular-season games, so I did not want to just compare the most recent five games of 2024 to the first five of 2025. This data is sourced from fbref.com, tracked by coders from Opta (all data is on a per-game basis):

Category2025 Reg. Season
(First 5 Games)
2024 Playoffs
(5 games)
2024 Reg. Season
(Last 5 Games)
Possession46%56%52%
Passes Attempted473538536
Touches in Attacking Third142195183
Shots16.012.413.4
Expected Goals2.01.31.9
Attacks Down Right Side37%31%28%

We will get back to the attacks down the right side more specifically when we look at Pašalić and Torres, but look at the major differences in all of these numbers. This year’s team, at least through the first few games, is playing a different style of soccer than the 2024 team played at the end of the season. They are possessing the ball less throughout the game but also in particular while in the attacking third of the field. This comes from rapid counterattacks and excellent transition offense as well as a more direct approach to creating shots.

We can see this more direct approach by looking at the reduction in touches per game in the attacking third of the field juxtaposed against an increase of more than 20% in shots per game, meaning that the ratio of touches per shot in the attacking third has decreased dramatically from last year to this year. During the final five regular-season games, the Lions were averaging 13.7 touches per shot, and thus far in 2025 that number is 8.9.

In this context, a touch is counted not as every individual dribble or pass but rather as a count of each person who possesses the ball in the attacking third of the field. So, a pass from player A to player B, who then takes four dribbles and passes to player C is three touches, even though player B dribbled the ball four times.

The upshot of the reduction of touches per shot is that Orlando City is getting to its shots in a reduced number of possessors of the ball, meaning that there has been lower risk of a bad exchange since there have been fewer exchanges. This year’s team is generating shots from more dangerous locations (using expected goals) as well, and the Lions’ 13 goals scored in the first five games leads the league at this point of the season.

Looking at the final row in that table, there is also a big difference in the location of where the Lions are emanating their attacks from. The team is more frequently launching attacks down the right side, and that is where the comparison of Torres and Pašalić starts to come into play. It must also be noted that the primary right back in 2024 was Dagur Dan Thórhallsson, whereas in 2025 it has been future USMNT starter Alex Freeman (I crossed it out, but I do believe that Freeman is a serious candidate to play on the national team), and it is likely not coincidental that there have been more attacks down the right side with the direct playing style of the Pašalić-Freeman combination.

Torres also always made a point to play all across the attacking zone, often switching sides with Iván Angulo, whereas that has not been the case this season with Pašalić. I pulled the heatmaps (thank you very much, whoscored.com) for Pašalić and Torres from the same five-game periods from the table above, and you can see that in Torres’s heatmaps the blue shading goes all over the field, whereas for Pašalić he stays mostly to the right side (Orlando City is attacking from left to right on all of the heatmaps below).

These heatmaps and the following stats show some stark differences between the Croatian Designated Player and the Uruguayan former Designated Player in terms of how they play/played for Orlando City (all data is on a per-game basis):


Category
Pašalić:
2025 Regular Season
Torres:
Playoffs
Torres:
Last 5 games of
2024 Regular Season
Touches37.861.050.8
Take-Ons4.82.81.2
Passes Attempted23.252.043.4
Shots3.02.41.6
Shot-Creating Actions3.23.82.4
Progressive Passes Received5.69.88.0

Across nearly every metric there are big differences between the players, but in particular the ones that stand out to me are how much of the offense flowed through Torres last season and how the Lions looked for him to initiate as compared to how Pašalić appears to get his offense in the flow of play — at least through the first five games of this season. Pašalić also attacks more off the dribble than Torres did, as shown by his much higher rate of take-ons per game, and he is able to get shots off at a higher rate as well.

That leads me to the last comparison, which is not shown in the table above, but is the most critical category for any offensive player — goals scored. Orlando City has not yet played 15% of its 2025 MLS regular-season games, but Pašalić has scored four goals and assisted on another. With so many games still to play, we can extrapolate the numbers to see a pace of 27 goals scored and seven assists, but we can also consider that defenses will adjust over a long season and it is unlikely that the pace will remain the same for the next seven months.

Torres, sadly, is not on pace to score any more goals for the Lions, but he did score 37 MLS regular-season goals during his three seasons, including two seasons of 14 goals each, and he added 20 assists as well. His numbers are real, not theoretical or extrapolated, and while it is incredibly exciting to think about Orlando City’s offense and what it could be and what Pašalić could achieve, we are still only five games into the new season, so let’s keep our excitement from boiling over for at least another week.

Pašalić still has a way to go to show that he can consistently create goals the way that Torres did, but if you squint real hard, you can see that the potential is there for him to do so or perhaps even surpass his predecessor out on the right wing. He is playing with a different offensive style but going after the same result.

We will see.

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