“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orlando City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Antoine Griezmann was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris Lema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Orlando City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orlando City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Position 9 on 34 points, with the season drifting toward the summer. It is the safest place in football and the hardest one to sell a season ticket from.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Marco Pašalić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
25 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Connor Aaronson left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Orlando City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orlando City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iván Angulo. 2‑0 against New England Revolution, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chris Lema is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I did not go to Seattle Sounders to sit and watch. I want to come back to Orlando City and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Orlando City pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Connor Aaronson, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Chris Lema
David Brekalo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.43, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iván Angulo. 1‑0 against CF Montreal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Joran Gerbet falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Martín Soto will call it something else in private.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Connor Aaronson on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Idan Toklomati and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The offer from Inter Miami CF for Iván Angulo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Braian Ojeda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
$200.0K was the most the club would pay and LA Galaxy were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Atuesta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Orlando City can tell you which week it ends in.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Orlando City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Orlando City asked and Toronto FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.0M on the table at Inter Miami CF. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orlando City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to LA Galaxy this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Nashville SC scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orlando City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Antoine Griezmann and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout31 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Connor Aaronson chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Orlando City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iván Angulo. 2‑0 against CF Montreal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Ryan Schewe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not go to Chapecoense to sit and watch. I want to come back to Orlando City and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
Squad17 May 2027
6 new faces, and Orlando City are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Connor Aaronson on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orlando City, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bryce Duke. 2‑1 against FC Cincinnati, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Connor Aaronson on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Antoine Griezmann and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dean Boltz is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Orlando City close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Robin Jansson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Braian Ojeda's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Connor Aaronson left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orlando City can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Antoine Griezmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Atuesta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Orlando City, and 1 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Atuesta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ryan Schewe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Orlando City have made the call to Huracán. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Austin FC will make the call about Luis Otávio this week. Orlando City have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Zakaria Taifi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orlando City can pretend not to have heard.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orlando City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orlando City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antoine Griezmann and Orlando City agree another 2 years.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
The deal with Sporting Kansas City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Orlando City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The offer from Houston Dynamo for Eduard Atuesta was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Orlando City have gone to San Diego Football Club with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Orlando City asked and Philadelphia Union said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and Philadelphia Union were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Robin Jansson has his answer from Orlando City; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Orlando City asked and Toronto FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer went to Chicago Fire this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Antoine Griezmann and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” David Brekalo has his answer from Orlando City; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Orlando City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eduard Atuesta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Orlando City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zakaria Taifi and Orlando City agree another 4 years.
Javier Otero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Orlando City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chapecoense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Antoine Griezmann was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Atuesta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orlando City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orlando City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Orlando City will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Orlando City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orlando City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Antoine Griezmann was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orlando City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tiago Souza trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orlando City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tiago Souza wants continental football; whether Orlando City can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Atuesta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Zakaria Taifi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Connor Aaronson to a room that had heard them before.
Position 2, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Orlando City know it.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑0 win over Philadelphia Union, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tiago Souza, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Connor Aaronson kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Orlando City can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Antoine Griezmann and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
14 combined actions and 7.34. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Orlando City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Connor Aaronson after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Antoine Griezmann was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 6.87 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joran Gerbet is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Connor Aaronson kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orlando City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Braian Ojeda
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orlando City can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Iván Angulo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Iván Angulo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Orlando City have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Iván Angulo has moved up it.
Nobody at Orlando City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Darmstadt 98 arrived with $22.2M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Martín Ojeda has gone, the accounts have $22.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Orlando City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Joran Gerbet was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Connor Aaronson chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. CF Montreal defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
1 for Eduard Atuesta, marked 7.76, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Conner Antley has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Orlando City have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Orlando City asked and Sporting Kansas City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.