Welcome to the final day before the MLS season kicks off! I don’t know about you, but the off-season and preseason flew by for me. I’m ready to throw on some purple and cheer this weekend, even if I won’t have the pleasure of being there in person. Before we dive into today’s links though, let’s all wish a happy birthday to Orlando Pride forward Amanda Allen!

Marco Pasalic Prepares for First MLS Season

Many eyes will be on Orlando City winger Marco Pasalic this season after the club signed him as its latest Designated Player. The 24-year-old spoke on how a strong work ethic was instilled in him at a young age from his parents while growing up in Germany. He also talked about his injury while with Borussia Dortmund and the difficulties he faced both physically and mentally to overcome it. He’s now in the City Beautiful after playing for Rijeka in Croatia and the dual-national shared some insight about his decision to become a Lion.

“I think getting the chance to see a new league, to make the next step in my career, for me, it’s a better step to come here than to stay in Croatia. That’s my opinion,” he said. “I like it here a lot so far. It’s an honor when a club really wants you, and I wanted to come here, also. My decision didn’t take long, either. Maybe one day before I said yes. Now, I want to bring this league to another level, to bring this club joy and play good games.”

MLS Storylines Ahead of 2025 Season

The 2025 MLS season is finally upon us and there are already plenty of storylines to keep an eye on after an interesting off-season. For Orlando, it’s a simple inquiry into if the club’s new players can truly replace the players who won’t be on the field for the Lions this year. Facundo Torres is gone and Wilder Cartagena is out for the season, and only time will tell if Pasalic and Eduard Atuesta can fill those voids.

There are many questions all over the league I’m looking forward to getting answers to as well. How quickly can Bruce Arena turn things around with the San Jose Earthquakes? Will Atlanta United’s attack live up to the hype? What will the Philadelphia Union look like without Jim Curtin at the helm? Can the Chicago Fire reach the playoffs under Gregg Berhalter? I have the feeling it’s going to be a really great season for the league.

USWNT Wins Against Colombia

In its first game of this year’s SheBelieves Cup, the United States Women’s National Team beat Colombia 2-0 in Houston. The first goal for the USWNT was wonderfully crafted and sparked by a nice ball over the top by Lily Yohannes to Yazmeen Ryan, who found Catarina Macario in front of the net. It’s great to see Macario scoring again for the U.S. after she missed out on the Olympics due to injury. Ally Sentnor scored her first international goal by doubling the USWNT’s lead with a great strike from distance that you can check out below.

Orlando Pride defender Emily Sams didn’t come off the bench, but the defense still did well to shut out Colombia. The USWNT’s next match will come on Sunday against an Australian team that got beaten 4-0 by Japan.

Keeping Up With the Americans Abroad

After a rough week that included many Americans getting eliminated from the UEFA Champions League, attention now turns to a weekend filled with soccer. Former Lion Daryl Dike and West Brom will host Oxford United on Saturday, with Josh Sargent, Brenden Aaronson, and Ethan Horvath as other Americans to watch in the EFL Championship. In the English Premier League, Antonee Robinson and Fulham will take on Chris Richards, Matt Turner, and Crystal Palace. The usual suspects like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Tyler Adams are also set to take the field. If looking for a game off the beaten path, Damion Downs could score his 10th goal of the season when Cologne faces Fortuna Dusseldorf on Sunday in Germany’s second division.

Luis Rubiales Guilty of Sexual Assault

Luis Rubiales was found guilty of sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso following the 2023 Women’s World Cup. As a result, he was ordered to pay more than $10,400 in fines and is prohibited from being within 200 meters of Hermoso and from communicating with her for a year. The prosecution had asked for a prison sentence of a year for sexual assault and a year-and-a-half for coercion, the latter of which he was acquitted of. FIFPRO issued a statement standing in solidarity with Hermoso and other victims of sexual assault, while also stating that the courts must send a stronger message in regards to the level of punishment.

Free Kicks

• Orlando City and the Orlando Pride announced a partnership with Jameson Irish Whiskey. I’ve actually never tried Jameson, as I’m a bit more of a tropical cocktail kind of guy when it comes to libations.
• LAFC has a new Designated Player after signing Turkish winger Cengiz Under on loan from Fenerbahce through June 30, with an option to buy. He should add even more firepower to a potent LAFC attack that includes Olivier Giroud, Denis Bouanga, and Jeremy Ebobisse.
• This year’s MLS Competition Guidelines include an interesting addition where only a team’s captain should approach the referee. If crowded by multiple players, the ref is to signal that to the players and only the captain can be within four meters of the referee, with intruding players being shown a yellow card.
• Former Orlando City B forward Ates Diouf is joining Detroit City FC on loan from Lexington SC for the USL Championship season.
• Former Orlando Pride midfielder Meggie Dougherty Howard has signed with Calgary Wild FC of the Northern Super League.

• Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 in the Concacaf Champions Cup, thanks to a goal in stoppage time. Despite the loss, Vancouver’s away goal is valuable as the series heads to Canada for the second leg.

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

As a mathematician, I like to use real numbers to tell a story and try not to stray too far into the hypothetical or the imaginary with my analysis. That is, unless I am taking everyone back to their days in Algebra 2 and that time their teacher blew their minds by introducing the concept of imaginary numbers, which of course is a concept that, no matter how hard the teacher tries, will always be complex. That is a math joke, and I will not apologize for it.

I am not going to write about imaginary numbers in this article, but I am going to ask you to use your imagination a little bit with me in my final article before the season opener this weekend. During the last few months, Orlando City has not completely overhauled its roster, but there have been significant changes — to the point that there is not one lineup group that played during the 2024 season that could play again in 2025. Every lineup that Orlando City used — and there were 156 unique lineups that played together for at least one minute — has at least one player who is no longer with the club at the outset of the 2025 season.

The big losses were Facundo Torres, via his transfer to Brazilian club Palmeiras, and Wilder Cartagena, who is out with a season-ending injury, but the club also saw the departures of key reserve and sometimes starter Nico Lodeiro (2,095 minutes), backup midfielder Felipe (505 minutes), backup goalkeeper Mason Stajduhar (479 minutes), depth striker Jack Lynn (287 minutes), depth defender Michael Halliday (194 minutes), depth midfielder Jeorgio Kocevski (155 minutes), depth left back/winger Luca Petrasso (45 minutes), and depth defender Abdi Salim (26 minutes). In addition, Yutaro Tsukada (25 minutes) was injured in the preseason and may be out for a long time, if not the full season, and Duncan McGuire (1,875 minutes) does not yet have a return date from his injury.

All of a sudden the club is only returning 15 of the 26 players who played any minutes last season, and two of those players (Shak Mohammed and Alex Freeman) combined for only 64 total minutes. I covered some of this in an article a few weeks ago, but that article is already now out of date with the news of the last few weeks. Thanks a lot for making me look bad, Orlando City front office.

Now, back to what I mentioned about using your imagination. The club is still returning a lucky 13 players who played significant minutes in 2024, and of the group that started the games during the stretch run of the season they are bringing back nine of the usual starting 11. The two missing players are Cartagena and Torres, but now let’s use our imagination, squint really hard, and play a little make believe.

Orlando City acquired defensive midfielder Eduard Atuesta in early February, and let’s imagine he is an approximation of Cartagena while playing next to César Araújo. I do not think this is a major stretch, as Atuesta is an experienced player who has been successful in MLS with LAFC, and he looked good during the preseason Tropic Thunder friendly against Inter Messi. Sorry, Inter Miami. The club also replaced Designated Player Torres with newly signed Designated Player Marco Pasalić, and he is an approximation of Torres in the position he likes to play and the foot he likes to use. As to whether he can step in and score 20 goals as Torres did last year…this is why we are using our imagination.

Is it a coincidence that Orlando is also the home of the Figment ride at EPCOT, which is all about using your imagination? Was that an excuse to mention Figment to see if my wife actually reads my articles like she says she does, since she loves that ride? Let’s move on.

In our world, where Atuesta and Pasalić are approximations of the players they replaced, what does that say about the probable starting lineup for Saturday’s season opener? I am assuming that it will be the nine returning players from the group who started the Eastern Conference final (Pedro Gallese, Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thórhallsson, César Araújo, Iván Angulo, Martín Ojeda, and Ramiro Enrique), plus Atuesta in the Cartagena spot and Pasalić in the Torres spot. Let’s look at how that group (with Cartagena and Torres) did last season when playing together:

Since Orlando City came into Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2015, only two teams have had a season-long goal difference per 90 minutes of better than +1.23: LAFC in 2019 and the Philadelphia Union in 2022. Unsurprisingly, both teams had the best regular-season record in MLS during those two respective seasons, so Orlando City’s most frequently used lineup definitely played at an elite level last year.

We have to use our imaginations to insert Atuesta and Pasalić into Cartagena’s and Torres’ spots and expect the same outputs as both of those outstanding players, but I do not believe it is unreasonable to think that the two new players could provide at least some of what the former players did. Atuesta has the MLS pedigree and Pasalić’s stock rose dramatically from the summer of 2023 to when he was acquired by Orlando City a few weeks ago, a time frame that included five appearances in 2024 for a Croatian national team that is currently ranked 13th in the FIFA men’s rankings. It is a lot to ask these two players to replace Cartagena and Torres, but I think it is possible.

I am aware it is also possible that I could win the lottery. I am on board with both of these things happening, posthaste.

We are just days away from the season opener and dealing with reality instead of our imaginations, but the lineup that Head Coach Óscar Pareja put together for the stretch run last year was highly successful during their minutes together, and it appears like there are two ready-made replacements for the two swaps that would need to happen. They could, of course, go with a different look or a different lineup, but based on Pareja’s history, he likes to find a lineup that performs and sticks with it, and with most of the stretch run players back and healthy and their two best new players bedded in and ramped up, I think that group will be the starting 11 on Saturday night.

I will be in the stands watching and cheering on the Lions, and if Orlando City goes with this lineup and it is as successful as I think it will be, I imagine you will hear me saying I told you so.

Vamos Orlando!

Orlando City opens the 2025 MLS regular season against the Philadelphia Union Saturday night at Inter&Co Stadium. This is an Orlando team that has shipped off more personnel than it has signed. That has me worried, but I’m open to be proven wrong, especially in this first match.

The Lions have the opportunity to start off on the front foot against an Eastern Conference opponent. What does Orlando City need to do to earn all three points at home against Philadelphia?

The Goal is More Goals

Orlando City might not have much — or any — depth at the striker position, but I still need the club to score goals. It is how you win matches after all. Martin Ojeda and Ramiro Enrique did that against Inter Miami, and I hope they keep that train running. Philadelphia’s Andre Blake will quite literally be standing in the way on Saturday night. Blake is good keeper with plenty of MLS and international experience.

I expect that Ojeda and Enrique will start, so having them score at least one goal between the two is essential. Without a prototypical striker, Orlando City will need to create a different type of scoring chance, and the Lions will need to finish any they get.

New Kids on the Block

Despite limited practice time with his new team, we saw some really good play from Eduard Atuesta against Inter Miami. With Wilder Cartagena out for the season, I’m going to need a lot more of what we saw from Atuesta all season, including this weekend against Philadelphia. He did well enough to be considered for Man of the Match last week. Please sir, may we have some more?

Meanwhile, Marco Pasalic had some good moments in the last match, but with the Designated Player tag I want even more from the left-footed winger. Perhaps he could also use his right foot? Regardless, he is the one being tasked with filling Torres’ role in Orlando City’s attack. I know it takes time for some players to adjust to MLS, but the Lions don’t have the luxury of that when it comes to Pasalic. Show us the goods, Marco.

Gimme Good Rafa

At times, Rafael Santos is an excellent left back. He can defend well, contribute in the attack, and read the game. That’s Good Rafa. Other times — like last weekend against Inter Miami — Bad Rafa shows up. Bad Rafa gets beat to the end line or into the box, he loses the player he should be marking, and gives up goal opportunities to the opposition.

Much like Torres, it can take some time for Santos to get into the rhythm of the season, but I don’t think Orlando City has the time for that to be the case against Philadelphia’s Tai Baribo or Daniel Gazdag. I need Santos to turn on the light switch, eat a good breakfast, and get his head on straight for the match this weekend.

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