8 - Home sweet home
2022 marks the eighth season in Major League Soccer for Orlando City, and for the eighth time, the Lions will open their campaign at home, welcoming CF Montréal to Exploria Stadium this Sunday, February 27 at 1 p.m. ET. Famously, Orlando has never lost a home opener, coming from behind to secure a result on four occasions.
4 - El Maestro’s greatest symphony
Mauricio Pereyra returned to Orlando on a one-year Designated Player contract, and with him comes a chance at making some history. Pereyra needs four assists to achieve the Club’s all-time record in all competitions, currently held by Nani at 26 helpers. Pereyra has averaged an assist about once every other game on a per-minute basis for his career, and he tied Nani’s 2019 for the Club’s single-season all competitions record last year with 11.
12 and 13 - Double debuts?
Orlando City made two major splashes in the same week last month, inking Uruguayan star Facundo Torres and Austrian goal maven Ercan Kara to Designated Player contracts. Torres and Kara are the 12th and 13th Designated Players in Orlando City history, respectively, and both could debut on Sunday against Montréal. Winter 2022 was the first window in which the Lions signed multiple Designated Players in four years.
1,000,000 - GAM, not glam
Montréal sports just one DP on its roster (former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Victor Wanyama), but the Canadians haven’t been afraid to use the league’s General Allocation Money mechanism to pick up players. This winter, CFM spent a cool $1 million of it to acquire Canadian international defender Alistair Johnston from Nashville SC. Johnston has already been capped 21 times by Canada and should be in line to make his Montréal debut in Orlando on Sunday.
