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Orlando City vs. Colorado Rapids: Final Score 2-1 as Lions Come Back Again

After falling behind, Cristian Higuita and Yoshimar Yotún bring the Cardiac Cats back with second-half goals.

Published

7 years ago

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Carlos Romero, The Mane Land

The large traveling contingent of Orlando City fans were treated to another Cardiac Cats performance with the Lions coming back to win 2-1 over the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. The announced crowd of 15,702 saw the Rapids take a first-half lead on Dominique Badji’s goal, but Cristian Higuita’s rocket and Yoshimar Yotún’s penalty-kick goal turned the game around and the Lions held on after some nervy late moments.

Orlando City (5-2-1, 16 points) has won its fifth straight game for just the second time in its MLS existence — the league’s longest such streak this season. The Lions handed Colorado (2-3-2, 8 points) its first home loss and improved to 3-0-1 in the series, while winning consecutive road matches for the first time since September of 2015.

Jason Kreis made only one change from last weekend against San Jose, moving Justin Meram into the starting lineup for Stefano Pinho. On the bench, he swapped out former Rapids midfielder Dillon Powers for Richie Laryea.

The Lions started the match sluggishly, spending the first five minutes in their own end, as Colorado pressed high and Orlando failed to string accurate passes together. The Rapids worked for five corner kicks between the 16th and 25th minutes, and there were some nervy minutes as the Lions tried to clear the ball cleanly, but Colorado was unable to find the net with any of them, although Tommy Smith did head one off the post.

Enzo Martinez blasted one from 30 yards out that forced Joe Bendik to parry over the bar.

But the breakthrough started in Colorado’s own end. Badji made a run off the two center backs and Martinez found him over the top as both Lamine Sané and Amro Tarek raised their hands to appeal for offside. The flag stayed down and Bendik got himself caught in between, as he didn’t have enough time to come out but he tried to anyway. Meanwhile, Sané loafed back expecting the call that never came and Badji slotted the ball into the lower right corner. Badji’s score was the first for the Rapids in four meetings with Orlando City.

Whether the play was offside or not, referee José Carlos Rivero never went over to the monitor to review it.

The goal seemed to wake Orlando up, however. After Sané made a good 1-v-1 stop in his own penalty area on Joe Mason at the 32-minute mark, the Lions started to see more and more of the possession.

Chris Mueller started seeing more of the ball and his run forward in the 35th minute broke down when his give-and-go pass attempt to Dom Dwyer was just a tad off line. Two minutes later, Dwyer had a 2-v-1 but his cross for Justin Meram was blocked and Mueller subsequently won a corner. The Lions took it short and got no scoring chance out of their first set piece opportunity of the game. Sigh. #BanShortCorners

In the 39th minute, Meram took a pass at the top of the box and blasted a shot that Jack Price blocked. Yotún followed with a try from at least 35 yards out, but it was well off target. A minute later, Meram centered the ball for Sacha Kljestan, who missed the Lions’ best chance of the half, smashing the ball straight at goalkeeper Zac MacMath, when either side would have produced an equalizer.

Two minutes after that, Kljestan found Dwyer, but the ball wouldn’t settle for him as he tried to cut inside the defender on to his left foot. The ball deflected to Kljestan while bouncing and he couldn’t keep his half-volley attempt on frame. Orlando’s final opportunity of the half came in the 45th minute, when Mueller made a superb turn and crossed in for Dwyer. The ball cleared MacMath, but Dwyer was undercut by Deklan Wynne and he couldn’t get on top of the cross to head it on frame. No foul was given, but then no foul for handball was given on the other end when the ball inadvertently hit Sané’s hand.

The teams went to the break with Colorado leading. Each team had six shots (4-1 on target for the Rapids), Orlando held 56% possession.

Orlando City was the more aggressive and comfortable side through most of the second half. Will Johnson came forward and blasted a shot on goal four minutes after the restart but MacMath was able to save it off the bounce without spilling it. Two minutes later, Meram destroyed a ball that MacMath fought off the goal post to keep the snakebitten City winger off the score sheet.

But just one minute after that, the Lions equalized. Kljestan intercepted a clearance in space at the top of the area and dished off for Higuita, who blasted one into the upper right corner to knot the game at 1-1 in the 52nd minute. Higuita’s goal was Orlando’s first in Colorado since joining MLS, albeit in only two trips there.

Orlando nearly found a break to take the lead in the 55th minute when Mueller unlocked the defense with a pass for Dwyer, but it had just a bit too much mustard on it and Dom couldn’t run it down. Meram fired over the bar two minutes later, and Mueller’s ball for Dwyer was too high off the ground to be controlled in the 61st minute. By the time Dom settled it, the defense had made a sliding tackle to dispossess him as the striker was winding up for the shot.

From that point on, Colorado made a series of fouls in what had already been a physical game, with several Rapids booked. In the midst of that, Sané nearly gifted the Rapids a goal when he ignored an open Johnson and instead made an awful back pass intended for Bendik that was intercepted by Yannick Boli, forcing Joe to make a point-blank save.

In the 76th minute, it was one foul too many for Colorado as Dillon Serna clipped Yotún as Meram played him in with a back heel pass to set up a possible 2-v-1 with Dwyer. Before Yoshi could reach the ball, Serna clipped his leg and sent him to the turf for a penalty.

Yotún took the spot kick himself and sent MacMath the wrong way, but it’s doubtful the Rapids’ keeper could have stopped it if he guessed correctly, as the Peruvian blasted it confidently into the inside netting just inside the right post. The 77th-minute strike pushed Orlando into the lead for the first time.

Yotún’s goal served as a wake-up for Colorado, as the Rapids started threading in passes, finding heads with crosses, and just generally being extremely dangerous for the remainder of the match. Serna ripped a laser shot wide in the 80th minute and a minute later Bendik had to get off his line quickly to beat Boli to a ball over the top.

Mueller could have put the game out of reach in the 82nd, as Meram slipped him down the right side of the penalty area. The rookie’s first touch took him a bit wider and then he fired wide of the near post on what could have been the insurance marker.

The Rapids got the ball in behind in the 87th minute but it was knocked wide for a goal kick, then Serna sent another rocket over the bar on a Tarek turnover in the 88th. In the 92nd minute, Serna thought he’d tied the game when he slipped through the defense but Mohamed El-Munir came out of nowhere to make a sliding block of the shot with Bendik well beaten.

Two more glancing headers went wide in the 93rd and 96th minutes, and the whistle finally blew on Orlando City’s fifth consecutive victory.

The late flurry allowed the Rapids to out-shoot the Lions, 16-12 (and 6-5 on target). Orlando held 56% of the possession and completed 82% of its passes compared to Colorado’s 79%. The concerning thing would be the 11-1 advantage the Rapids enjoyed on corner kicks.

Still, it’s a road win in a difficult environment, and not a game previous Orlando City teams would have likely won. With tougher opponents on the horizon, any away win is a good one, and Orlando will need to continue to work on dead ball situations and fix a few things the Rapids were able to do before more talented teams start doing those things.

The Lions return to action next Sunday at home against Real Salt Lake at 5 p.m. ET.

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Orlando City

Orlando City Striker Duncan McGuire Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

It’s the other shoulder this time, but Big Dunc is on the shelf for awhile again after undergoing surgery.

Published

1 day ago

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June 6, 2025

By

Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Orlando City announced today that Duncan McGuire has undergone arthroscopic surgery to repair the labrum in his left shoulder. The surgery was performed by Orlando City Chief Medical Officer Dr. Craig Mintzer of the Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute performed the surgery. Mintzer previously repaired the labrum and rotator cuff in McGuire’s right shoulder back in December for an injury he sustained in Orlando City’s playoff match against Charlotte FC Nov. 9 when he was pulled down by Djibril Diani.

The club’s press release said the 24-year-old striker’s return to play is expected “later this year.” The recovery given for his right shoulder surgery in late 2024 was listed as four to five months, but McGuire was able to come back and play much earlier than expected, appearing for the first time in 2025 in Orlando’s March 15 against the New York Red Bulls — at least a month before the earliest initial projection — however, this time there was no mention of damage to the rotator cuff.

Regardless, the Lions will be without the big target striker for a considerable amount of time.

McGuire had appeared in 12 matches during the regular season in 2025, starting three and scoring one goal and adding an assist. His goal came recently, serving as the game winner in Orlando’s 1-0 home victory over the Portland Timbers on May 24. He was recently listed as questionable on the club’s availability report ahead of the team’s most recent match against the Chicago Fire.

Orlando City drafted McGuire in the first round (No. 6 overall) in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft. After a breakout rookie campaign, in which the Omaha, NE native scored 14 goals, he was courted by several teams in Europe, signing with Blackburn Rovers, only to see the transfer rejected by the English Football League due to an administrative error by the EFL Championship club. After returning to Orlando, McGuire signed a new deal on Aug. 22 to remain a Lion. The new contract runs through 2027 with a club option for 2028. McGuire scored 10 goals and added three assists in 2024. For his Orlando City career, McGuire has appeared in 88 games (46 starts) across all competitions, scoring a total of 28 goals to go along with seven assists.

What It Means for Orlando City

McGuire appeared to be just finding his form, so this injury is unfortunate. The club didn’t put a timeline on McGuire’s recovery this time, but shaving a little off his 2024 recovery estimate, it’s likely that he’ll be out until at least some time in September.

Oscar Pareja has been favoring a 4-4-2 with Luis Muriel and Martin Ojeda up top in recent weeks, with Ramiro Enrique — who is also finding his form — typically spelling one of them when needed. Not having McGuire will affect Pareja’s late-game substitution pattern when Orlando is trailing, as he likes to put Enrique and McGuire both on the field when chasing the game. It also takes the team’s best target striker option out of the lineup when dealing with back lines with lots of height.

McGuire brings size and strength and an ability to occupy center backs that others on the roster can’t replicate. There are times when Enrique’s game is better suited to the opponent, but without McGuire there will be no ability to pivot. With Jack Lynn’s off-season retirement, that leaves the striker pickings mighty slim on the Orlando City bench. That might change Ricardo Moreira’s approach to the MLS Secondary Transfer Window.

Losing a scorer of McGuire’s caliber is always difficult, but this season it could be the difference between finishing high in the table and simply getting into the postseason in a strong Eastern Conference field.

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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

2 days ago

on

June 6, 2025

By

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.

Published

2 days ago

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June 6, 2025

By

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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