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Orlando City vs. Toronto FC: Final Score 4-0 as Lions Rough Up Reds

For the second straight year, the Lions dominated Toronto FC at home, winning 4-0.

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2 years ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City scored twice in each half and ran Toronto FC out of Exploria Stadium with a 4-0 win on Independence Day in front of an announced crowd of 17,604. Cesar Araujo, Duncan McGuire, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, and Ercan Kara did the damage on the scoreboard for Orlando (9-5-7, 34 points), and the Reds (3-9-10, 19 points) finished with 10 men after Federico Bernardeschi was shown his second yellow card just past the hour mark.

The win extended the Lions’ home unbeaten streak to seven games (4-0-3) and was Orlando City’s first on Independence Day in four tries (1-2-1). City improved to 7-8-3 in the all-time series against Toronto and the Lions are unbeaten in their last seven meetings with the Reds (5-0-2).

“I think it was one of our most responsible performances and the respect of the game that they showed today was very good. I’m very pleased with it,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “And even when the game turns into a game that it was much dominated, they were very, very respectful, and that’s why they scored goals.”

It was Pareja’s 150th MLS win as a head coach, making him the sixth to reach that mark.

Pareja’s lineup featured Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Kyle Smith. Araujo returned from suspension to partner with Wilder Cartagena in the central midfield behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres, with McGuire up top.

Orlando City controlled play throughout the first half and should have taken the lead just seven minutes in. A nice passing attack ended up with a cross that Toronto goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh got a hand on and knocked it out in front. Pereyra ran onto it and — for the second time in just a couple of games — the captain skied his shot over a gaping, empty net.

Two minutes later, Pereyra again missed the net, but this time from a more difficult position out near the left side of the box. He sent his shot toward the far post well wide.

Orlando opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Angulo had the ball on the left side and drew defenders toward him before sending Santos down the left channel. Santos curled in a perfect cross at the back post for Araujo to head home to make it 1-0. It was the Uruguayan midfielder’s first goal in MLS play.

“That first goal gave us a lot of confidence,” Pareja said.

Six minutes later, the Lions doubled the lead. Santos found himself on the left again and tried to send in another cross. This time, the pass attempt was deflected by the defense toward goal. As Ranjitsingh waited for the ball to come to him, McGuire flashed in front of him and flicked it inside the near post to make it 2-0 in the 22nd minute.

The Lions kept coming. Torres curled a back-post shot wide of the left upright just two minutes after McGuire’s goal. McGuire then took a fantastic through ball and smashed a shot off the left post in the 27th minute that bounced straight to Ranjitsingh.

The Lions switched off a bit after that miss. Just a minute after McGuire rattled the woodwork, Bernardeschi was given far too much space outside the area and he fired a shot off of the left post at the other end.

“It was quite hard to maintain the whole rhythm today,” said Pareja. “In that moment I noticed that we were getting caught a little bit in the energy, but we responded well, and the boys came back into the game.”

The hydration break seemed to wake the Lions back up. Pereyra unlocked the defense with a beautiful through ball in the 36th minute for Angulo’s diagonal run. Unfortunately, the speedy winger couldn’t handle the pass and it was knocked away.

That was it for the good looks, although Orlando had a few late set pieces. Santos got his head to a corner kick cross but a defender blocked it out for another corner.

Orlando City had the statistical advantage as well as the two-goal lead at the break, finishing the half with more possession (55.8%-44.2%), shots (6-2), shots on goal (2-0), corners (4-2), and passing accuracy (89.5%-85%).

Toronto interim manager Terry Dunfield made three changes at halftime to bring on fresher and younger legs, but it didn’t help. It took a few minutes after the restart for Orlando to settle in, but once the Lions got going, the game always seemed to have only one possible outcome.

Bernardeschi picked up an early yellow in the second half for a late challenge on Smith.

Angulo won a corner in the 53rd minute that Toronto cleared but Araujo fired on target on the recycle. It was on target but a comfortable save for Ranjitsingh. Two minutes later, Torres cut into the middle and sent a rocket on frame, but he left it too close to the middle and Ranjitsingh made a good reaction save.

With the heat and the quick turnaround, Pareja sent some fresh troops on in the 57th minute, sacrificing McGuire and Pereyra for Ramiro Enrique and Martin Ojeda.

Shortly after the subsitutions, Bernardeschi saw red. After a turnover, Cartagena had some words for the Italian and he knocked Wilder down. There was definitely some embellishment by the Peruvian to ensure the referee saw it. It worked. Bernardeschi was given his second yellow and sent off. Gallese was also booked in the aftermath.

Kara and Thorhallsson entered the fray moments later, replacing Angulo and Smith.

Ojeda had a good chance to add the third goal in the 69th minute, sending a hard shot on goal that Ranjitsingh was able to save. Two minutes later, Ojeda switched the play beautifully from right to left for Enrique, who cut inside to about the spot he scored from on Saturday, only this time he sent the shot inches wide. Thorhallsson then tried his luck from a tight angle in the 72nd minute but missed the target.

The third goal came in the 77th minute. Araujo looked up and saw Thorhallsson making a run. The delivery over the top by the Uruguayan was perfect. Ranjitsingh tried to get to the ball first but couldn’t. Thorhallsson rounded the goalkeeper outside the box and fired into an empty net to open his Orlando City account and ice the match.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Thorhallsson said about scoring his first MLS goal. “It’s a sequence that we do a lot and we train a lot, so it’s nice to get a goal from that. I saw Cesar get the ball. I just pointed, I think. And the ball came and I saw the keeper a little bit. I thought, ‘ Well, I’ll just go, if he hits me, he hits me.’ But then I went past him and I scored. Finally.”

Toronto got a rare shot attempt in the 82nd minute when Brandon Servania tried to chip Gallese from long range but his effort landed on the roof of the net.

Two minutes later, things got worse for Toronto. Araujo sent a hard pass to Ojeda at the top of the box. The Argentine had trouble finding the handle on it, so he back-heeled it past two defenders for Kara to run onto. The Austrian fired immediately, blasting it past Ranjitsingh to make it 4-0 in the 84th minute. It was Kara’s fifth goal of the season.

Ojeda came within inches of making it five in the 86th minute. He took a pass from Araujo and smashed a shot toward the bottom right corner. Ranjitsingh got a slight touch on it to knock it off the outside of the post. Ojeda also had the final chance in the 91st minute. He sent a free kick on frame from about 30 yards out but it was a comfortable save for Ranjitsingh.

Moments later, the match was over.

The domination was not only on the scoreboard but also on the stat sheet. Orlando City finished with the advantage in possession (59.6%-40.4%), shots (18-6), shots on target (9-0), corners (8-2), and passing accuracy (91%-84.8%).

The final score was, ironically, identical to this same fixture last year. Orlando City beat Toronto 4-0 at home last September.

“Scoring goals — that changed the whole picture,” Pareja said of the team’s turnaround in its home form. “It makes us all look better. It’s a consequence of the boys doing the right things and resisting or enduring the difficult moments that we had with games here at home, where they tied us in the last minute. The boys kept going. We’re doing the right things. We’re scoring goals. That makes a huge difference.”

“The work today is a reflection of all of the hard work that we’ve been doing,” Santos said through a club translator. “We’ve been working on all of this in training. It’s reflective of the work that Oscar is putting in.”

Orlando City heads out on the road for its next two matches, with the road trip starting at Real Salt Lake on Saturday. Game time is 9:30 p.m.

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Opinion

Orlando City Must Learn from May’s Mistakes

The Lions can learn some valuable lessons from the three losses they suffered in May.

Published

5 hours ago

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June 6, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Jeremy Reper

Orlando City hadn’t quite achieved juggernaut status as the Major League Soccer season turned from April to May, but a 12-match unbeaten run in the league is nothing to sniff at, despite there being a healthy number of draws interspersed with the victories. Things turned sour as May drew to a close though, as the Lions lost three of their final four matches of the month and entered a two-week break with a whimper rather than a roar.

Losing is never fun, but in this case those three defeats don’t need to be entirely negative experiences, and there are plenty of lessons to be learned from those three bitter losses that will hold Orlando in good stead if it can implement the proper solutions.

More Squad Rotation

One of the biggest factors in Orlando’s rough finish to May was a lack of squad rotation. Oscar Pareja has always been a coach that likes to find his first-choice XI and stick to it almost religiously. He doesn’t normally tweak his lineups or tactics according to whatever opponent is on the slate, and very much values consistency. In periods of fixture congestion, that tendency can be to Orlando’s detriment, and that was very much the case against both Nashville SC and the Chicago Fire.

After beating Inter Miami 3-0 in an emotional rivalry match on May 18, Pareja made just one change for a U.S. Open Cup match against Nashville SC three days later. Ramiro Enrique slotted in for Luis Muriel up top, but every single other starter from the Miami game also got the nod midweek. With Nashville deploying a heavily rotated lineup mostly filled with backups, the gamble was a simple one: hope that OCSC’s A-team can open up a big first-half lead against Nashville’s B-squad before bringing mass changes in the second half to get guys some rest. Hindsight is, of course, 20/20, but the strategy backfired badly as the Lions lost 3-2. Orlando started well with Marco Pasalic’s 17th-minute strike, but the team faded badly afterwards and gave up a couple of very uncharacteristic goals to lose the game. Lapses in concentration and tired defending cost OCSC the game, and that isn’t something we can normally say about this team.

Then, after losing to Atlanta United 3-2 on May 28 due in no small part to Cesar Araujo’s red card, Pareja made two changes for a match against the Chicago Fire on May 31, with Muriel coming in for Enrique, and the other change being a forced one, as Eduard Atuesta replaced the suspended Araujo. Those starters looked noticeably gassed during the resulting 3-1 loss, and the fatigue manifested itself by players missing chances that would normally be converted or in sloppy, mistake-ridden defending.

May was a packed month with a whopping nine matches in 31 days, and most months won’t be that busy. August is set to be the busiest remaining period of the year with six games in 31 days, although that number could rise higher if the Lions make a run in Leagues Cup. The bottom line is that guys are going to need more rest as the season goes on. If the coaching staff doesn’t trust some of the guys currently available as backups, then they need to dip into the transfer market in one way or another and get some players that they do trust, because if the starting XI gets run ragged during busy periods it’s going to cost Orlando, plain and simple.

Cool Heads Usually Prevail

Orlando City has received three red cards on the season, which is tied for the second-most in the league. Unsurprisingly, the Lions are winless in games in which they’ve had a man sent off, with draws against the New York Red Bulls and CF Montreal and a loss to Atlanta United. The results against the Red Bulls and Atlanta were particularly difficult to swallow, as before going down to 10 men, Orlando had looked on track to get three points in each game.

Araujo’s red card against Atlanta was especially frustrating, as he allowed Mateusz Klich to get under his skin, grabbed him by the throat, and reduced his team to 10 men when OCSC was nursing a 2-1 lead on the road. It was completely unnecessary and was also the sort of thing that Orlando had looked to put in the rearview mirror after keeping its collective composure and not picking up any bookings in the 3-0 road win against Miami, while the Herons picked up four and looked noticeably rattled in the process.

It should go without saying, but the Lions can’t afford to get key players sent off. Six extra points could make a big difference in the standings at the end of the year, and that number could rise even higher if OCSC can’t put its disciplinary issues to rest once and for all.

Focus for the Full 90

There were moments in each of Orlando’s three May losses that the team committed bad defensive lapses or mistakes. Whether it was not playing to the whistle on Nashville’s third goal, Atuesta’s bad turnover against Atlanta, or the Lions collectively allowing Chicago to stroll through midfield to score a third goal, there were plenty of examples of bad breakdowns that were largely absent during the team’s unbeaten run. Can some of that be attributed to tired minds and tired legs? Maybe so — it’s a lot harder to play crisp and focused when the minutes have piled up. Regardless, its something that can’t continue to happen going forward. It’s possible that having more rotation in the squad will help that a lot, but it’s also on the players on the field to stay as mentally sharp as they can when they’re out on the pitch.

Clearly, a recurring theme here is that fresh legs and balanced squad rotation are top of my list of things I want to see change. I’m all for riding the hot hands, but tired legs make for tired minds, and tired minds make mistakes and are easier to rile up. Whether reinforcements come from the bench or an outside source, using more bodies will go a long way towards solving some of the issues that we saw in May’s three losses. All we can do now is wait and see what happens once the team returns from its break. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 6/6/25

Alex Freeman called up for Concacaf Gold Cup, Orlando Pride get ready for the Houston Dash, Orlando City B plays tonight, and more.

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9 hours ago

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June 6, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

Happy Friday! I’ll be spending this weekend celebrating my birthday by beating my friends at mini golf with no mercy but still hope to catch some soccer over the next few days. I’ve also been on a bit of a movie kick and plan on catching Wes Anderson’s new flick at some point soon. But for now, let’s dive into today’s links!

Alex Freeman Called Up For Gold Cup

Orlando City defender Alex Freeman was officially called up by the United States Men’s National Team for the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer. He’s the only Lion who will be at the tournament and is one of seven uncapped USMNT players on the roster. The 20-year-old could receive more playing time than expected, as right back Sergino Dest is not on the roster so that he can recover over the summer. Left back John Tolkin was added to replace Dest, so Freeman has a real shot at making a claim for the position this month. The U.S. will take on Turkey Saturday in the first of two friendlies before its first Gold Cup match against Trinidad & Tobago on June 15.

Orlando Pride Prepares to Host the Houston Dash

With the international break for women’s soccer over, the Orlando Pride return to action Saturday with a home game against the Houston Dash. It should be a great opportunity for the Pride to ease back into the swing of things against a Dash team that’s only scored 10 goals this season. Pride midfielder Ally Lemos spoke on the benefit of being able to rest heading into this match while maintaining a winning mindset from a 3-1 victory on May 23.

Anna Moorhouse Called Up For 2025 Euros

Orlando Pride goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse was named to England’s final roster for the 2025 UEFA European Women’s Championship. She’s one of three goalkeepers on the squad following Mary Earp’s surprise retirement from international soccer, and she will likely compete with fellow uncapped player Khiara Keating for the backup position behind Hannah Hampton. Moorhouse has started in every game for the Pride this season and was an NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year finalist for her record-breaking season last year. England’s Euro run will begin July 5 against France before other group matches against the Netherlands and Wales.

Orlando City B Takes On Huntsville City FC

The Young Lions are riding high after a 2-1 win over Chattanooga FC and will take that momentum into tonight’s road match against Huntsville City FC. Midfielder Noah Levis scored his first career goal in that home win, with Justin Hylton providing the assist in his OCB debut. Orlando’s offense has been hot and cold this season but has a variety of attacking talent that can create chances in different ways. The Young Lions have only won once on the road, but a win tonight would lift them to third in the Eastern Conference.

Free Kicks

  • FIFA Club World Cup action is coming to the City Beautiful this month and Orlando City legend Kaká spoke on how it’s nice for Orlando to host games.
  • San Diego Wave Head Coach Jonas Eidevall was named NWSL Coach of the Month. The Wave were undefeated in May, winning three of their four matches to climb to second in the league standings.
  • The NWSL will allow intraleague loans for all teams, with the players needing to consent to the move in order for it to happen. Denver and Boston’s expansion teams will have access to potentially over $1 million in Allocation Money starting on July 1 to build their rosters before the 2026 season.
  • Atletico Madrid is reportedly close to signing American midfielder Johnny Cardoso from Real Betis.
  • South Korea, Uzbekistan, and Jordan all qualified for the 2026 World Cup, while China was eliminated from contention. Australia beat Japan 1-0 and will qualify so long as it doesn’t lose heavily to Saudi Arabia on June 10.
  • Spain beat France 5-4 in a wild game to reach the UEFA Nations League final against Portugal on Sunday. Lamine Yamal continues to take the world by storm, but a late rally by France nearly completed a comeback.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 6/5/25

MLS All-Star voting update, Kerry Abello shines with USWNT, Sergio Zapata earns recognition, and more.

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1 day ago

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June 5, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Jeremy Reper

How’s it going, Mane Landers? I hope this week has been treating you well as we enjoy some international soccer and prepare for the return of NWSL action this weekend. Before we jump right into today’s links, let’s all wish a happy birthday to Orlando City B midfielder Dylan Judelson!

Pair of Lions Lead MLS All-Star Voting

Voting for this year’s MLS All-Star Game remains underway and an update was provided on which players are leading at each position. Orlando City defender Alex Freeman leads all right backs as he enjoys a breakout season. I was aware of the buzz he’s been getting this year, but it’s still surprising to see a Lion as an All-Star frontrunner. What’s even more surprising is that Pedro Gallese leads the voting for goalkeepers. The Peruvian made a rough gaffe last week, but has otherwise had a stellar season with Orlando that’s included seven clean sheets. Voting will close on June 11, so make sure to get those votes in before then.

Kerry Abello Impresses With USMNT

Orlando Pride defender Kerry Abello made her first appearance for the United States Women’s National Team Tuesday, playing every minute of the 4-0 win over Jamaica. The versatility she’s shown with the Pride translated well in Head Coach Emma Hayes’ system, as she was able to hold things down defensively and contribute to the attack as well. Abello could end up bringing solid depth to the USWNT as Hayes figures out the team’s future core of players. Enjoy this video from the USWNT that provides a look behind the scenes of Abello’s international debut.

Sergio Zapata Named Player of the Month

Sergio Zapata scored a whopping 11 goals for Orlando City’s U-19 team over the course of just four matches in May, winning the honor of MLS NEXT Player of the Month. He had three hat tricks last month, including one against Hoosier Premier at MLS NEXT Fest. Zapata committed to Cornell, so hopefully we’ll get to see him tear it up in the Ivy League over the next couple of years.

Zack Steffen Sustains Knee Injury

Goalkeeper Zack Steffen injured his knee at the United States Men’s National Team’s training camp and will reportedly miss this summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup. It’s rough news for the 30-year-old, as he was expected to compete with Matt Turner for the starting job with the USMNT. He’s been having a great season with the Colorado Rapids and returned to the club for further evaluation on the injury.

Free Kicks

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

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