Orlando City
Orlando City vs. New England Revolution: Final Score 3-1 as Shorthanded Lions Bow Out of Playoffs
An early penalty awarded to New England set the tone, and when Orlando seemed to get back into the game, things got worse with another red card.
The New England Revolution had never won a game at Orlando City before. At some point you knew that would change, but unfortunately it happened in the postseason as the Revs beat the Lions 3-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals at Exploria Stadium. Orlando fell behind 2-0 and battled back into it, only to see Designated Player Mauricio Pereyra sent off for an awful challenge from behind, and the Revs tacked on a late insurance goal against the shorthanded Lions.
Carles Gil’s penalty put New England up early on a fairly soft call on Uri Rosell against Tajon Buchanan in the box and Gustavo Bou added another at the end of a transition that started with what looked like Nani getting fouled in the offensive end, but no call was made. Junior Urso pulled a goal back for Orlando, but Pereyra’s red card changed the game, although the biggest talking point will be a Nani penalty that Matt Turner saved. Another talking point might be that Adam Buksa didn’t get a second yellow for taking out Brian Rowe when Daryl Dike was booked for a similar offense earlier in the match.
Whatever your favorite talking point is, it’s all academic now.
“Obviously at this moment there is a lot of pain, and there is a lot of frustration that we have been carrying in the last 10 days, probably, with things that happened and we could not apparently flush them off,” Head Coach Oscar Pareja said. “I know how hard they worked for this objecitve and now we need to grow. Certainly this will help us, for sure.”
Without the suspended Pedro Gallese or Ruan, Pareja started Rowe in goal behind a back line of Kamal Miller, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Kyle Smith. Central midfielders Rosell and Urso played in the middle of the park, alongside attackers Pereyra and Chris Mueller, with Nani and Dike leading the attack.
The first half started out looking like extra time, with the teams playing cautiously and perhaps a bit nervously. Nani provided good service into the area three minutes in, but the cross was just a bit high for Dike to reach.
The Revolution earned a corner in the 11th minute with their first foray into the attacking third. New England played the set piece short and the Revs were called for a foul in their attacking box, turning it over.
Buchanan came down the right a few minutes later and changed the game. Rosell, backing up Miller, attempted a tackle and Buchanan anticipated contact, leaving his feet and going down easy. Referee Alex Chilowicz saw enough to award a penalty and Video Assistant Referee Chris Penso didn’t see a clear and obvious error. Gil stepped up and hit his penalty right down the middle, past Rowe, who guessed left, and New England led 1-0 in the 17th minute.
Orlando tried to pull it right back, winning a corner after the restart. Nani played the corner short to Pereyra, who crossed in. Jansson collected at the far side but hit his shot into the outside netting in the 19th minute. Mueller tried a long-range shot three minutes later but didn’t get much on it and hit it right at Turner for the easy save.
New England doubled its lead in the 26th minute. Nani got double teamed in the attacking third and went down under contact. Chilowicz allowed the play to continue and the Revs broke in transition. Adam Buksa hit a sliding shot off the right post, but Bou reacted to it first, scoring into the empty net to make it 2-0.
“We conceded a goal early, but I think we were OK in the game,” Nani said. “We were pressing up. We were creating our chances. But there was a decision when the ref didn’t give a foul on me and then they scored the second goal. I think there was the key of the game.”
“Obviously the two goals that New England scored early put us in a difficult situation,” Pareja said. “
The Lions found some life in the 33rd minute, pulling a goal back. Nani sent a gorgeous cross to Mueller at the back post. Mueller picked up the loose ball in traffic between Turner and defender Henry Kessler, sending it back to Urso, who fired home for his first MLS playoff goal, making it 2-1.
Dike nearly freed himself up in traffic in a similar way to Mueller two minutes later but couldn’t bring it in. Rosell picked it up at the top of the area and fired over the bar.
The last chance of the half came in the 38th, when Rowe got a hand on a Buksa shot to parry it over the bar. New England took its 2-1 lead into the locker room.
Orlando had more first-half shots (6-5), while the Revs got more on target (3-2) and won more corners (3-1). The Lions held more possession (57.9%-42.1%) and were the more accurate passing team (86%-78%).
The Lions generated a chance out of the break in the 46th minute when the ball found its way to Nani on the left side. He tried to curl a shot to the back post but didn’t hit it right and it sailed well off target. Moments later, Rosell stole the ball in midfield and started the break, but Mueller’s cross into the area was between teammates and easily cut out. Nani then won a corner but the cross was a bit behind the attacking line and Carlos couldn’t do much with it.
Orlando kept coming. Mueller won a corner in the 57th minute and Nani sent a low pass that Pereyra fired on target, but it was deflected wide by the defense.
But just when it appeared Orlando was on the front foot, disaster struck in the 60th minute. Matt Polster brought the ball forward and Pereyra trailed, looking for a chance to nick it back as he often does. However, when the chance came and Polster showed him too much of the ball, the Uruguayan launched himself late and his studs caught Polster’s ankle instead of the ball. It was an obvious straight red and the Lions were suddenly down to 10 men with a half an hour to play.
“I know Mauro, and I know how much he will be hurt at this moment,” Pareja said after the match, not having yet spoken with his DP midfielder. “I know how he feels, but I back him up 100% all the time, knowing that [he] made a mistake.”
“Mauricio today got a red card. He has our support. I love this guy,” Urso said.
“We’re professionals and I think we have to learn and find a way and find our character and deal with all these things that are part of the game,” Pareja said of the red cards the last two games. “And certainly today was another moment where we we lost our head. I want to be responsible for all that. It’s something that cannot happen.”
The Lions continued to try to find the equalizer. Mueller tried to split two defenders in the box in the 64th minute. He was walled off and Chilowicz ignored his plea for a penalty.
The Revs didn’t attack much but looked for opportunities to kille the game, and Bou fired a long-range shot that Rowe could only fight off for a corner. New England took the corner short, passed it back to Bou and the whole sequence repeated, as the Orlando keeper couldn’t do much but parry the shots away.
After the second corner, Buksa tried to dispossess Rowe on a passing sequence at the back and clobbered the keeper. Despite showing Dike a yellow card earlier for a play with less contact, Chilowicz kept his card in his pocket. Buksa was already on a yellow and the referee opted not to even up the two teams’ manpower on the pitch with a curious decision.
Orlando finally got its chance to level it in the 73rd when Dike was run over from behind inside the area. Chilowicz didn’t hesitate to point to the spot and Nani stepped up to take it. After going right twice last week against Sean Johnson — scoring once and seeing the other stopped on a great save — the captain opted to go left, but with the same, slow, stutter-step run-up. Turner guessed correctly and Nani didn’t get his shot far enough into the corner. Turner made the save and that seemed like the final nail in the coffin, although that was yet to come.
“Sometimes you should do better and then you must accept it was not your best. And today I couldn’t take the penalty,” Nani said. “We didn’t know what’s gonna happen at the end but I feel sorry for my teammates because the dream finishes right there.”
“Nani made a mistake. He don’t score the penalty, [but] he’s our leader. We believe in him,” said Urso.
Nani is five for 10 in penalties, including making an important one last week and against LAFC in the MLS is Back Tournament.
“Nani has had the personality. He has had the responsibility,” Pareja said. “There are always two, three people who are in charge of taking the PK. In that moment, he did it and we gave [him] the responsibility. It’s something that now obviously we may think that it should have been different…but Nani had the confidence from everybody.”
The Lions went to a three-man back line, sending Benji Michel and Tesho Akindele on to try to chase the game and, like any high-risk strategy might, it ended up costing them. After Akindele got under a free header on a free kick that might have tied the match, the Revs put it away.
With more space at the back, Gil took the ball down the left side, waited for a run, and sprung Bou through the defense. The New England DP slotted a shot right through Rowe’s legs to make it 3-1 in the 86th minute.
Orlando fashioned a couple of set pieces but couldn’t do much with them and the clock ran out on the Lions’ 2020 season.
The Lions out-shot New England (11-9) but the Revs got more on goal (6-3). Orlando had more corners (6-5), held more possession (61.2%-38.8%) and, passed more accurately (86%-77%).
“I’m very proud of this group. I’m very proud of the players,” Pareja said of his 2020 team. “Today people have seen us, the people recognize this group, the people know that they are good competitors and we’re proud of that.”
“I’m very proud of the team, of my teammates,” Nani said. “We talked a couple minutes ago. We had a team who’ve been working so hard, who’ve been improving so much, and everyone could see it on the field. In one season you can see so much difference on each player. And I’m so, so happy for what this team gave me. They made me believe we could win this league. They made me believe I could win a league again. Even at my age.”
Orlando City’s season is over. It doesn’t feel good right now, but it was a great season and any of us would have taken this if offered at the start of the year.
Orlando City
Orlando City Is Streaking Into The Postseason…Sort Of
The longest active playoff streak in MLS belongs to Orlando City; the least stressful path there most certainly does not.
Thanks to a big win over the weekend, Orlando City has qualified for the 2026 playoffs, marking the seventh consecutive season that the club will play in the MLS postseason. Of course, that big weekend win did not come from the Lions; rather, it was a win by Nashville, a team that is excellent at both offense and defense (wow, what a concept), that guaranteed Orlando City a spot in the playoffs. In the end, it does not matter how it happened, just that it happened, and so we can once again break out The Whispers’ “And the Beat Goes On,” as we will no longer need to whisper — careless, in the wind, to horses, or otherwise, about the chances of all three Orlando teams missing the playoffs.
While the Pride and Orlando City B are both already into their off-seasons, Orlando City is guaranteed to have at least two more games, with the regular-season finale on Decision Day Saturday and then at least one playoff game after that, depending on how the final seedings shake out. The Lions could finish as high as seventh or as low as ninth, and they do not control their own destiny for their seeding.
If Cincinnati loses, Columbus draws or loses, and Orlando City wins, the Lions jump to seventh and would play Inter Miami or New England in a three-game series. In any other scenario Orlando City will be in the play-in game, and could host or play on the road against Cincinnati or Columbus in a single-elimination game.
We will know the Eastern Conference playoff bracket and schedule in the early evening on Saturday and where Orlando City will be when it starts its playoff journey for the seventh consecutive season. That streak is the longest active streak in MLS, as the Lions have qualified for the playoffs in every season since 2020, or, as our The Mane Land PawedCast hosts Michael Citro and Dave Rohe noted on this week’s episode, in every season when Óscar Pareja began the season as the head coach.
*Three Western Conference playoff spots are still up for grabs, so the teams with asterisks could all add one to their tally or drop to/remain at zero depending on the results on Decision Day
The seven-year streak for the Lions not only leads MLS, but is one of the best across all of the major men’s sports in the U.S. Only eight of the 153 other teams in the five leagues listed below have a playoff streak at least as long as Orlando City’s, though while the Lions lead MLS, they do not hold the belt in the state of Florida, as the Tampa Bay Lightning are one season away from making the playoffs in 10 consecutive seasons.
| League | Teams in League | Streaks ≥ OCSC | Longest Active Streak |
|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | 30 | 1 | 14 (Dodgers) |
| MLS | 30 | 0 | 7 (Orlando City) |
| NBA | 30 | 2 | 12 (Celtics) |
| NFL | 32 | 1 | 7 (Bills) |
| NHL | 32 | 4 | 9 (Avalanche & Lightning) |
| 154 | 8 | 14 (Dodgers) |
The last time the Lions did not make the playoffs was back in 2019, the year that both Nani and Robin Jansson arrived in Orlando. That team finished 11th in the Eastern Conference, though it had a goal differential of -8, which was only half as bad as the 2026 team’s current goal differential of -16. Back then, we thought allowing 1.53 goals per game seemed like a lot. If the 2026 team could have managed to allow only that same amount per game, the current goal differential would be +11, which would be in the top quarter of the league. Ah, wishful thinking.
Instead, as Orlando City fans are well aware, this year’s team has allowed 78 goals in 33 regular-season games (2.37 per game) and will almost certainly go into the playoffs having allowed the most goals of any playoff team in league history. This chart below includes every team since the Lions joined MLS, and there is a clear and unsurprising trend as it relates to allowing goals and earning points:
For the math nerds (my hand is firmly raised), the correlation is -0.69. Math majors would say that means goals allowed per match explains roughly half (r² ≈ 0.48) of the variation in points per match. Normal people would say teams that concede more goals tend to earn fewer points. Especially when they concede goals LATE IN THE GAME, WHEN THEY ARE WINNING, TURNING WINS INTO DRAWS!
I am sorry for the all caps, but that was cathartic. I do not feel even slightly better about the recently dropped points to Toronto, New York City FC, and Chicago, but at least I yelled angrily at my computer screen about it.
The 2026 Lions are a clear outlier on the chart above, as despite a brutal start to the season (seven losses in the first 10 games) and a profligate defense (third-worst goals-against average in league history and second-worst since they joined the league), they still have out-performed 41% of teams since 2015 in points earned per match. That is mostly because this year’s offense is in the 89th percentile in goals scored per match (1.88) since 2015 and with one goal scored will tie last year’s Lions for the most goals scored in club history, and with two or more scored will set a new club record.
If they can score six (stay with me, both Cincinnati and LAFC scored six on the Lions this season, so this is not completely unreasonable) on Saturday, they will get to an even 2.00 goals scored per game, something that has happened only 30 times in league history.
Whether the Lions win, lose, draw, get shut out, or score six (please, let them score six, if only to see Antoine Griezmann break out some kind of improvised six-shooter goal celebration), the playoff streak will extend through this season and be active when the 2027 sprint season starts in February. Finishing in the play-in game two years in a row would be disappointing, not to mention stressful, but championship runs can only happen after a team earns an invitation to the dance.
Where, hopefully for the Lions, the playoff beat will go on, everlasting.
Vamos Orlando!
Orlando City
Orlando City vs. New England Revolution: Three Keys to Victory
What do the Lions need to do to earn all three points at home against New England?
Decision Day is almost here, and even though Orlando City is already in the playoffs, where the club finishes is still up for grabs. The Lions are currently sitting in ninth place but could climb back out of the play-in match with a win over New England and some help from the teams above them. With that in mind, what must the Lions do to get a victory over New England on Saturday?
Oodles of Offense
Orlando City has scored 62 goals this season, thanks to a good cadre of attackers, including Martin Ojeda, Antoine Griezmann, Justin Ellis, Marco Pasalic, and even Ivan Angulo. When the offense is in sync there are few defenses that can stop the Lions. That is especially true at Inter.co Stadium.
Scoring multiple goals won’t be easy against New England, as the Revs have only allowed 46 goals so far this season. A big reason for that is USMNT goalkeeper Matt Turner is minding the net for New England. Orlando City’s attack needs to be clinical in finishing to get the ball past Turner. The Lions will need to score multiple goals, given Orlando City’s defensive woes. Speaking of…
Seal Off Gil
If you’re not familiar with New England’s Carles Gil, welcome to Major League Soccer. He has been a royal pain in Orlando City’s collective rear for years. Keeping him from scoring a goal or providing an assist is always a challenge. So far this season, Gil has scored 13 goals and provided 13 assists in 33 matches. Granted, those are not Griezmann-level per-match numbers but they are still good.
The problem with stopping Gil is that it will fall to Orlando City’s broken back line to do it. The Lions have allowed 78 goals so far this season. It’s historically bad and will likely get worse on Saturday. Orlando City will almost certainly start Zakaria Taifi, David Brekalo, Wilder Cartagena (Iago is suspended), and Vinicius Nogueira. You may have noticed that those players on the back line have not exactly been a brick wall. If they can at least slow down Gil, there will be a better chance at victory.
Home Field Advantage
Orlando City has a chance at winning this match because it is taking place at home. The Lions have been much better in Orlando than on the road. I know that’s generally true for most clubs, but for Orlando City it’s not even close, given the Lions have a home record of 9-4-3 and an away record of 3-10-4. It’s the final regular-season match, and if the supporters show up and show out, the noise can be a big advantage for Orlando City. If the players can jump out to a quick start and the supporters keep the momentum going, the Lions have a chance to get all three points. If not, the play-in match looms. I’d much rather that Orlando City skips all of that.
That is what I will be looking for on Saturday afternoon. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!
Lion Links
Lion Links: 11/5/26
Lions called up for international duty, USMNT roster announcement, UEFA Champions League roundup, and more.
Happy Thursday, beautiful readers. Decision Day is almost upon us, but we can’t go getting too far ahead of ourselves just yet. There’s plenty of soccer news taking place in the here and now, and that news is what we need to talk about this morning. Let’s have a gander at today’s links.
Lions Set for International Duty
Three Orlando City players have been called up (so far) to represent their nations in the upcoming November international window. Justin Ellis will join the United States Men’s National Team as it faces Haiti across two legs in a Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal.
Maxime Crepeau is back in the fold for Canada for its Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal matches against Guatemala.
Finally, David Brekalo will join Slovenia for a pair of matches against North Macedonia and Switzerland.
Congratulations to all three players, and good luck!
Mauricio Pochettino Names November Squad
In addition to Justin Ellis, Mauricio Pochettino has named the full 25-player roster that will take on Haiti in the Concacaf Nations League. Former Lion Alex Freeman is unsurprisingly included, and the roster also sees the return of big guns like Weston McKennie, Christian Pulisic, Chris Richards, Tyler Adams, and Folarin Balogun. Philadelphia Union youngster Cavan Sullivan is in too, while defender Reed Baker-Whiting and midfielder Santiago Castaneda will have chances to earn their first caps with the USMNT. The first leg of the quarterfinals will take place on Nov. 14 at Inter Miami’s Nu Stadium, with the second leg set for Nov. 17 at FC Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium.
UEFA Champions League Recap
Matchday four of the UEFA Champions League is in the books, and we were treated to a wild Wednesday of games. The most eye-popping result of the day belonged to Cesc Fabregas’ transcendent Como side, which went on the road and thrashed Lens 9-1 to settle nicely into fourth in the table. Fenerbahce scored in the 73rd and 79th minutes to come back and secure a 3-2 win over Liverpool at home, while Real Madrid got a 92nd-minute winner from Federico Valverde to break the hearts of AEK Athens fans in the Greek capitol. The other big result of the day was Porto putting a 4-1 beatdown on Napoli at Estadio Do Dragao, and with Napoli eighth in Serie A and 27th in the UCL table, Massimiliano Allegri’s days at the club could be numbered.
Transfer Rumor Roundup
Every season is transfer season, so let’s take a look at some of the most interesting rumors floating around at the minute. We start with Juventus, which is reportedly contemplating moves for Benjamin Sesko and Folarin Balogun in the January window, as the Italian side is said to be on the hunt for a physical striker. Real Madrid is reportedly close to signing former Manchester United youth player JJ Gabriel, who asked to leave the Red Devils in September. Sunderland is said to be interested in signing Almeria midfielder Stefan Dzodic, although the club would likely face competition from Atletico Madrid and several other English clubs. Finally, Napoli reportedly intends to submit a bid for Barcelona midfielder Gavi during the January window, as he has had difficulty securing regular playing time for Hansi Flick this season.
Free Kicks
- Orlando City celebrated Wilder Cartagena after the midfielder made his 100th appearance for the team.
- Martin Ojeda has been honored with a special card in EAFC 27.
- Check out this teaser for a biopic about Marta.
- A mind-melting 51 red cards were shown in a South American youth game. Rodrigo Schlegel is smiling somewhere.
That’s all I’ve got for you today. Vamos Orlando!
Orlando City Is Streaking Into The Postseason…Sort Of
Orlando City vs. New England Revolution: Three Keys to Victory
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