Orlando City vs Philadelphia Union
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m
Where: Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando, Fla
Radio: AM 810 Fox Sports Radio, (English), Mega 97.1 (Spanish)
Everything you need to know ahead of the Lions' home opener against the Philadelphia Union in "The Road Ahead" driven by Audi:
Milestones
- Oscar Pareja enters the 2025 season with 84 wins in all competitions as Orlando City head coach, needing 16 this season to reach 100 for his career. The Lions have won at least 18 games in all competitions in each of the past two seasons and 41 over the past two combined.
- César Araújo is 19 minutes away from eclipsing 10,000 minutes played for Orlando City. The Uruguayan has made 121 appearances for the club in all competitions, contributing five goals and nine assists along with his tenacious defense in central midfield. Araújo would be the fourth player on the roster to reach 10,000 minutes with the Lions, joining Robin Jansson, Pedro Gallese, and Rodrigo Schlegel.
- Gallese’s next win will be his 75th as Orlando City goalkeeper. Gallese is two clean sheets away from 50 in his Orlando career.
- Martín Ojeda and Iván Angulo each start the year with 23 assists in purple, tied for fifth in club history. They each need one assist to catch Chris Mueller for fourth, two to reach Facundo Torres in third, and three to tie Kaká in second.
- Angulo is two appearances away from 100 in his Orlando City career. Others with a strong chance to reach the century mark in appearances this season include Martín Ojeda (88), Dagur Dan Thórhallsson (80), Rafael Santos (77), and Ramiro Enrique (71).
Stats & Storylines
- Orlando City begins its 11th campaign in Major League Soccer looking to continue a recent trend – improving its playoff finish by one round each season. The Lions were a first round team in 2022, reached the conference semifinals in 2023, and made their conference final debut in 2024. MLS Cup beckons!
- The Lions have opened the season at home every single year of their MLS existence, and that will be no different in 2025 when Orlando welcomes Philadelphia to Inter&Co Stadium on Saturday night. Famously, Orlando City has never lost a home opener, winning three and drawing seven over its first ten years in the league. The Lions drew CF Montréal 0-0 on opening night last season.
- It was a busy offseason for Orlando City, with the club adding five new players to the roster in the primary transfer window.
- The group is headlined by a new Designated Player, Croatian winger Marco Pašalić. With five caps for the highly successful Croatian national team, the 24 year-old Pašalić is a rising star who will look to take the next step in Orlando. An inverted right winger who describes his left foot as his “weapon,” Pašalić was second in both goals and assists this season for Rijeka in the notoriously low-scoring Croatian top flight. The winger has also starred for Borussia Dortmund II, cameoing for the first team in the Bundesliga and the DFB-Supercup.
- The Lions also nabbed a younger winger with a similar profile in Colombian Nicolás Rodríguez, who signed on a U-22 Initiative deal. Rodríguez was a workhorse for Fortaleza in a breakout 2024 season, playing nearly 3,000 minutes in all competitions and contributing eight goals and six assists at just 20 years old.
- MLS veteran Eduard Atuesta headlines the Lions’ midfield additions. Atuesta starred for LAFC in his early 20s, helping the Black and Gold to a Supporters’ Shield in 2019. After a move to Palmeiras in Brazil, Atuesta returned to MLS with LAFC on loan last year, ranking in the 96th percentile of all midfielders in MLS and comparable leagues in progressive passes, the 97th percentile in successful take-ons, and the 95th percentile in shot creating actions.
- Also new in midfield are Homegrown Colin Guske, who started 24 games for Orlando City B in 2024 as a 17 year-old, and first round draft pick Joran Gerbet, the reigning ACC Midfielder of the Year and a first-team All-American at Clemson.
- Orlando saw eleven players exit the club this past offseason, headlined by all-time leading goalscorer Facundo Torres, who was sold to Brazilian powerhouse Palmeiras for a club-record fee. Torres scored 47 goals and added 25 assists across three seasons for the Lions, leading Orlando to a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title in 2022 with two goals and an assist in the final. “El Cuervo” scored 20 goals in all competitions in 2024, an Orlando City single-season record.
- Others moving on include Homegrown goalkeeper and all-time longest-tenured Lion Mason Stajduhar (Real Salt Lake); defenders Abdi Salim (without club), Mikey Halliday (Houston Dynamo), and Luca Petrasso (CF Montréal); midfielders Nicolás Lodeiro (mutual termination), Felipe (FC Cascavel), Heine Gikling Bruseth (San Diego FC), and Jeorgio Kocevski (without club); and forwards Jack Lynn (retirement) and Gastón González (Defensa y Justicia).
Series History
All-time vs. Philadelphia - 8-8-6, -6 GD (4-2-4, +1 GD home)
MLS only vs. Philadelphia - 7-7-6, -6 GD (3-2-4, 0 GD home)
2015 - D 0-0 (H), L 1-0 (A)
2016 - L 2-1 (A), D 2-2 (H), W 0-2 (A)
2017 - W 2-1 (H), L 6-1 (A)
2018 - W 0-2 (A), L 1-0 (A/USOC), D 2-2 (H)
2019 - L 1-3 (H), D 2-2 (A)
2020 - D 1-1 (N)
2021 - W 2-1 (H), L 3-1 (A)
2022 - W 2-1 (H/USOC), L 0-1 (H), L 5-1 (A)
2023 - W 1-2 (A), D 2-2 (H)
2024 - W 2-3 (A), W 2-1 (H)
Meet the opponent: Philadelphia Union
- Orlando City picked up its first-ever sweep of the Union last season, winning a 3-2 thriller in Chester in mid-May before easing to a 2-1 win at home in early October. Orlando is 3-0-1 against Philadelphia over the past two seasons and 5-3-2 against the Union under Oscar Pareja.
- Luis Muriel absolutely dominated the Union across two matches last year, offering a glimpse of his immense talent and potential. The Colombian had a hand in all five goals Orlando scored against Philadelphia in 2024, racking up two goals and three assists in the two games.
- Duncan McGuire was on the other end of two of those Luis Muriel assists, while Martín Ojeda has two goals and two assists in his career against the Union.
- For the first time since Orlando City entered MLS in 2015, Philadelphia will have a new face on the sidelines. The Union parted ways with longtime manager Jim Curtin this offseason, bringing in former St. Louis City boss Bradley Carnell as his replacement. Curtin managed over 400 games for Philadelphia, winning the 2020 Supporters’ Shield, the first and only trophy in club history.
- Carnell, a South African who played for over a decade in Germany and spent years as an assistant for the New York Red Bulls, took St. Louis to a stunning first-place finish in the Western Conference in their inaugural 2023 season. He was then fired midway through 2024 with the club sitting below the playoff line.
- There was not a ton of movement this offseason for the Union, who bring back most of the core from last season’s 10th-placed side. Notable names include four-time All-Star goalkeeper Andre Blake, DP attacking midfielder Dániel Gazdag (3 G/3 A in six matches vs. Orlando), and former MLS Defender of the Year Jakob Glesnes in central defense.
- Incomings include center back Ian Glavinovich (loan, Newell’s Old Boys) and midfielder Jovan Lukić (Spartak Subotica), while the outgoings are headlined by center back Jack Elliott (Chicago Fire) and central midfielder Jack McGlynn (Houston Dynamo).
