In the sultry tropical heat of central Florida, it can sometimes be hard for outsiders to detect when fall is moving in. But Oscar Pareja’s Orlando City sides can tell.
After a dire start to their season, particularly relative to the high expectations engendered by last year’s success, the Lions have climbed the table as rapidly as anyone in MLS. Saturday’s 3-0 victory over New England was Orlando’s sixth win in their last eight league matches, extending their ongoing home unbeaten streak to eight games across all competitions and raising them to fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
It’s shaping up as the latest stretch-run surge among several produced by Pareja’s teams over the years.
"I do feel that urgency to start heating up better for us to win games. It is a part of the season where you start feeling kind of the smell of autumn," the Colombian said in a recent one-on-one conversation with MLSsoccer.com. "And that is related to competition, with not much mistakes, and winning the games that you must win. So that is really what we feel now.
"I don't think that any coach or player waits for the autumn to perform better. I don't think that's the case for any team. Seriously, I have not seen it,” Pareja added. “In our league, the extension and the completion of the tournament allows you to bounce back and have a good period in this time of the year, and get into the playoffs stronger than other teams that have done so good during the year."
Slow start
The forgiving nature of the postseason format is a factor here, yet it’s not as if this was the plan. After a litany of underachievement across their first half-decade in MLS, Pareja shaped Orlando into perennial Audi MLS Cup Playoffs participants. They finished second in the Supporters’ Shield race last year and had reason to aim just as high in 2024; the coach signed a new, two-year contract over the winter.
Then a confluence of factors – individual underachievement, tactical and selection headaches, the lingering repercussions of Duncan McGuire’s aborted January transfer to Blackburn Rovers – piled up, triggering struggles sustained enough to prompt some fans to call for a coaching change. It certainly tested the human-management skills of a coach with a well-established reputation for cross-cultural fluency and individual development.
"People don't recognize what are the challenges that the teams had during those periods that we dropped and we were not producing," explained Pareja.
"It was very difficult in the first 10, 15, games just to complete a roster together the way we wanted: the national team, the Copa América, the Euro copa, a couple cases of injuries. Another one was the adaptation to two or three players that we were thinking that it will be right away, because they’re experienced, but it took time."
Striker selection
After a head-turning breakout rookie season in ‘23, McGuire seemed as good as gone. Heavy European interest in the young striker built up to a dramatic deadline-day transfer to Blackburn, only for a paperwork snafu to scupper the move to the English second-division side after the window had already closed, a crushing disappointment to absorb.
"We found the professionalism of these guys, trying to understand the situation for Duncan in that period; it was difficult for him," said Pareja. "I mean, he was already in England, and suddenly he's back here, and we had already signed a No. 9.
"He's a young footballer," he added of McGuire. "These things are heavy, and took that period with him to kind of brush that off, and I guess that cost us a little there."
As if the psychological weight of that situation wasn’t enough for player and club to manage, Orlando had already acquired McGuire’s replacement, splashing millions on Colombian veteran Luis Muriel. And more was expected from U22 Initiative signing Ramiro Enrique in his second season with OCSC, while 2022 SuperDraft selection Jack Lynn was proving himself as one of the top forward prospects in MLS NEXT Pro over the previous two seasons.
"All these things create a little bit of conflicts," said Pareja. "These things are very intangible for the people who [only] see the game. And now when you get deeper and see well, it has taken its toll.
"We have to be very honest with them: I think just lay it out, the competition mode on the training ground, and then the games," he added. "It's not ideal. Sometimes the players need consistency and the patience and let them do it, especially the No. 9s. But I have the good part of that competition amongst them is that they've tried every day to be better than their peer, the teammate. And that's not bad."
Finding solutions
Beyond that logjam along the front line, it wasn’t entirely clear how best to dovetail the skill sets of Facundo Torres, Iván Angulo and Martín Ojeda along the band of three in Pareja’s usual 4-2-3-1 formation. Further down the spine, could the central-midfield duo of César Araújo and Wilder Cartagena – “those two soldiers that I have in the middle,” in Pareja’s words – and center backs Robin Jansson and Rodrigo Schlegel be counted upon as the foundation for the Lions to reach for loftier goals? And where would veteran free-agent arrival Nico Lodeiro fit in?
Orlando limped along in search of answers for much of the spring. Muriel didn’t do much to justify his price tag. Torres struggled to match the productivity of 2023. Trusted goalkeeper Pedro Gallese’s form dropped precipitously, leaking a steady stream of soft goals. Then, when McGuire was named to the US men’s Olympic squad, what could have been a costly setback instead provided some clarity. Enrique seized the starting No. 9 role via goals in six straight midsummer matches, Ojeda crafted chemistry with Torres and Lodeiro became a useful option off the bench.
"Fortunately for us, Ramiro Enrique came, and he started doing what we're expecting him to do from last year. He's scoring goals, not just playing the game and pressing and being so active, but scoring goals," said Pareja.
"I decide just to give [Ojeda], not confidence – I decided to give him consistency and just let him play games [even when] he's not as good as expected, and just keep going with him. And Martín's production has been very good for us also."
Transfer interest
McGuire provided a boost when he returned from France, eventually signing a new contract that delivers the player a hefty pay raise and strengthens the club’s negotiating position when transfer interest from Europe picks up again in future windows. Pareja says OCSC won’t stand in his way – or Torres or any of his other top talents, for that matter – when the right deal comes along.
"If a team in Europe wants them, I think they should go," said Pareja, who has helped prepare the likes of Daryl Dike and Fabián Castillo for trans-Atlantic moves. "That makes our league stronger, and this experience for them just returns the player more mature, with more confidence, and our national team grows. So I hope the club wants to keep them as long as we can, because we want to win games, and they make us win games. But also we equate seriously any offer because we know that they want to go, too.
"They want to grow and they want to go to [other] leagues, have that experience. And for me, that's phenomenal for Major League Soccer. So my answer is that if he has an offer to go somewhere, and he wants to go and the club wants to go, I'm good with it. I'm good. We have other guys that are waiting there already."
Muriel: Ups & downs
Now Muriel appears to be the most glaring concern. The Colombian international is Orlando’s highest-paid player according to MLS Players Association documents and arrived on a reported $1 million transfer fee from Atalanta, which renders his 3g/4a in 1,377 league minutes relatively underwhelming, even with much of that time spent as a second striker or playmaker rather than a spearhead.
"It is really a challenge when these scenarios happen in the teams in Major League Soccer, especially with our salary cap that is very limited on many areas, and we depend a lot on these investments that we do," said Pareja of his countryman.
"It's clear, I cannot hide the fact that that we – not just him, but we, him and I, we have been underperforming this signing, and also in the production to the team. The only way to change it is working on the training ground, convincing him that this is a special league that is not Europe, but we have a league that is very demanding for that synergy that you have with your teammates."
Pareja believes that a livewire marksman who once lit up Italy’s Serie A and Europa League, earning 45 caps for Colombia along the way, still has plenty to give, and towards that end has laid out specific metrics for Muriel to achieve.
"He said to me that the league is a big surprise for him, the way it’s played and competed here, and it has been a challenge for him to adapt to it," said the coach. "In the first part of the season, he spent much time on thinking and figuring things out. Now it seems like he internalized the thing, and now we have a plan, and we're working better … the last few games I have seen a guy with better dynamics, and I'm still thinking that he's going to help us to get our objectives.
"Luis has absorbed, and he has pushed, and I see a guy who's trying to embrace it. We’ll see."
Crunch time
As impressive as their current 7W-2L-1D run may be, the Lions’ contender credentials are about to be tested. After a Wednesday tilt with Charlotte FC (8:15 pm ET | Apple TV - Free; FS1), Orlando visit defending MLS Cup champions Columbus this weekend, then travel to FC Dallas, host playoff-chasing Philadelphia and head to Shield holders FC Cincinnati in the coming weeks before hosting Atlanta on Decision Day.
Orlando went 11W-2L-2D from July onwards last season, were 6W-4L in their last 10 in 2022 and stacked up a 3W-1L-3D record in the final weeks of 2021 to clinch an Audi MLS Cup Playoffs spot on Decision Day. Can they push their way into the title conversation?
"We feel that we found our best version, or our best possible version," said Pareja.
