It started off badly. Then it got good and felt like a step forward. But it also, in the end, felt like one of the more massive – maybe even the most massive – missed opportunities in club history.
That was all a mixed bag, wasn’t it?
Let’s take a look:
When Orlando’s front office went out last winter and bought a DP No. 9 – Colombian veteran Luis Muriel – instead of a DP No. 10, that told me two things:
- Duncan McGuire was going to be sold.
- Martín Ojeda – clearly the best chance creator on the team – would spend the whole year as the No. 10.
Weirdly, neither thing happened. The hilarity of McGuire’s failed transfer to Blackburn was well chronicled throughout. The explanation for Ojeda being a super-sub for most of the first half of the year, and only entering the regular starting XI in late June… that’s still a mystery. Head coach Oscar Pareja has largely elided the issue, offering only vague half-explanations when pressed.
Whatever the reason, Ojeda's usage neatly broke the season into two halves. In the first half of the year, Orlando were a fringe Audi MLS Cup Playoffs team that couldn’t create chances and were down near the bottom of the league in most of the “hey, this is a good team” advanced metrics.
In the second half of the year, with Ojeda as the 10, Orlando went 13W-5L-5D across all competitions, including an appearance in their first-ever Eastern Conference Final. Which they hosted.
Basically, it was a gold-plated invitation to MLS Cup.
The upshot of moving Ojeda to the 10 is it allowed the team’s best player, Facu Torres, to just be an attacker. He didn’t have to worry about orchestrating or chance creation anymore – he could just ride the wave of the game, pick his spots and find winners. It’s basically who he was in 2022, when he led this team to the US Open Cup title.
So when this breakaway unfolded on Saturday night, I knew exactly where he’d be. Torres is not especially physically gifted, nor is he a 1v1 wizard. But he's brilliant at reading how attacking movements are going to unfold, and with an unselfish chance creator like Ojeda in behind like that, there was exactly one way the attacking movement would end.
I’d have bet my life he was going to bury this:
That was Orlando's one big chance. They had a few other decent looks throughout the game – one promising look fell to Muriel, who launched it into orbit – but this was it. Their two best players, on the break, about to take a 1-0 home lead.
Just on the other side of halftime, of course, the New York Red Bulls took that 1-0 lead. And held it. And then held it some more, right up to when the whistle finally blew.
In the words of Bruce Arena: "To win in the playoffs, you need your best players to be your best players."
I don’t know when Orlando will get a better chance than this to make MLS Cup. Gut-wrenching loss.
I think it stands to reason that most of this roster will come back because it should come back; this run over the second half of the season wasn’t fluky, and the vast majority of their contributors are on the right side of 30.
There’s also reason to expect some internal improvement, as Ojeda should get a full year at the 10, while Ramiro Enrique was largely very good after winning the No. 9 job over McGuire and Muriel. Plus, could David Brekalo claim a starting CB spot? It wouldn’t shock me.
The bottom line is Orlando aren’t going away. This team is built to stick around for a few more years in this form, or something close to it.
And that’s good. But it might be short of great.
- Facu Torres (RW): Even with the big miss vs. New York, he’s got nothing to hang his head about with 17g/6a across all competitions this year.
- Martín Ojeda (AM): Ojeda finished 95th percentile in assists and 93rd percentile in xA. And he plays the 10 in a way that fits perfectly with Torres’ inclination to slide inside as a central attacker.
- César Araújo (DM): His numbers don’t pop, but he basically never puts a foot wrong. A winning player in so many ways.
- Robin Jansson (CB): Still maybe my favorite center back in the league, even as he hits his mid-30s.
- Ramiro Enrique (FW): Got serious Taty Castellanos vibes once he won the starting job.
Orlando are locked in on Torres, Ojeda and Muriel as their three DPs, which gives them limited wiggle room (Muriel proved to be an asset as a super-sub, playing either as a second forward or an out-and-out 10 down the stretch, but that really is an albatross of a deal). If they generate flexibility, it’ll be via a sale. McGuire will have suitors again and it shouldn't shock anyone if someone comes calling for César Araújo or (gulp!) Torres.
As it stands, I haven’t seen a single report suggesting anything is in the offing for any of the above. And if that’s the case, the one big question on the roster heading into 2025 is goalkeeper Pedro Gallese.
Gallese is 34 and Orlando have a sizable contract option next year. He was a disaster during the first half of the season and was basically a league-average goalkeeper in the second. In the playoffs, he was very good.
I could see them running it back with Gallese one last time, or I could see them deciding this winter is the moment to move on.
But, honestly, unless someone comes in with a very big bag for Torres, that’s really it for major changes. I think the Lions we saw on Saturday are the Lions we will, by and large, see once again in 2025.
