Orlando City March Madness Bracketology: Championship Match

Well everyone, this is it. Of the 64 players we started with in our bracket, 62 have been eliminated, and our search for the most popular Orlando City player — as voted on by you — is nearing its end. It came down to a final four of Kaká, Nani, Dom Dwyer, and Cristian Higuita.

Kaká was matched up against Higuita and it was a decisive victory in favor of the Brazilian. The former captain took 79% of the vote here on the site, and 83% over on the Twitter poll. While it’s possible Higuita could have upset either Nani or Dom, it was always extremely unlikely that he was going to get past the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing.

The contest between Nani and Dwyer was much closer, however. After barely squeaking past Ruan in the Final Four (by five votes), Dom took three more votes than the Portuguese winger here on the site, but over on Twitter Nani won by 21, and made it into the final with a slim 18-vote cushion. That’s a surprisingly close battle considering Dwyer’s near upset the previous round.

Most people probably would have put Nani and Kaká in the final at the beginning of this whole thing. I know I certainly did. And they were the top two overall seeds in our bracket. With the final ready to commence, here is what the bracket looks like heading into the last match-up:

The final bracket and winner will be announced after all the voting is closed, with the polls available below. Please note that if you do not see the polls and are reading this site on your mobile device, that some services automatically strip out the polls, but — not to worry — you can still vote over on our Twitter or right here on your desktop computer or laptop.

Tournament Final