{"id":353123,"date":"2026-07-26T20:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T20:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/353123\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T20:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T20:17:16","slug":"scouts-cash-in-on-orlando-city-turnaround-in-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/353123\/","title":{"rendered":"Scouts cash in on Orlando City turnaround in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Orlando City SC scouting crew never looked better than when the Lions took the pitch in Nashville.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5e\">They\u2019re bringing top team contributors from Orlando City B. They\u2019re signing young talent who prove pitch-ready. All of a sudden, they\u2019ve defeated Nashville SC 1-0 and constructed back-to-back clean sheets in what looked like a lost season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5h\">Orlando won just four of their first 15 games.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5k\">It\u2019s always inadvisable to make much out of two games. But Orlando City players have come out of the World Cup break and held two top MLS squads scoreless. Nashville SC, the recent opposition, holds first in the MLS Eastern Conference. The previous clean sheet, the San Jose Earthquakes, were tied for first in the\u00a0 West but then technically slid to third.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5n\">As exciting as the 4-0 rout of San Jose was, defeating Nashville is much more significant. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nashvillesc.com\/news\/recap-nashville-sc-falls-1-0-at-orlando-city-sc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Tennessee team is unbeaten<\/a> in 21 of 25 matches across all competitions. The Lions handed them just their second loss in 17 MLS losses this season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5q\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandocitysc.com\/news\/match-report-orlando-city-sc-blanks-nashville-sc-1-0-at-inter-co-stadium\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lions forward Justin Ellis<\/a> was playing for the B team earlier this season. Now he\u2019s racking up goal contributions. Against Nashville, he posted the first assist for Tyrese Spicer\u2019s goal in the 72nd minute. It\u2019s his fifth assist of the season, second-most on the team. He has three assists in his two most recent matches.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5t\">Adrian Marin got the second assist. It\u2019s his fourth of the regular season and fifth across all competitions.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01kyg03f4z366bm8kfsk.jpg\" alt=\"Justin Ellis\" title=\"Justin Ellis\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"63\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Orlando City SC v Nashville SC | Alex Menendez\/GettyImages<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"67\">Spicer took the pitch in the second half. His game-winning score, the third MLS goal of the season, is the second-most on the team. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">It was Spicer\u2019s 60th MLS appearance and 20th for the Lions. But it doesn\u2019t seem that long ago that Lions supporters questioned what the front office was doing in acquiring him from Toronto FC.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">In 2025, he quickly set a newcomers\u2019 record by scoring one minute, 10 seconds into their match with Sporting Kansas City. In that 3-1 win for Orlando, <a href=\"https:\/\/otowns11.com\/orlando-city-sc-scouts-have-sharp-eyes-for-the-real-deals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spicer became the fastest player<\/a> to score in a debut for the team.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">In preserving a clean sheet against Nashville, Orlando\u2019s backline served as the strong and mostly silent stars of the show. That backline included Bernardo Rhein in his first MLS start. He started his First Team contract only days ago.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">The players must continue to execute to make something of this season. And everything they do proves the scouts right in banking on a miraculous turnaround in fortune for Orlando City SC.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow otowns11.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=otowns11.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando City SC scouting crew never looked better than when the Lions took the pitch in Nashville.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-353123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}