Everything you need to know for the Lions’ final regular-season match in “The Road Ahead” driven by Audi:<\/p>\n
\n Milestones<\/p>\n
– Pedro Gallese\u2019s next appearance will be his 200th in all competitions for Orlando City. Gallese is set to become the third player in club history to reach 200 appearances, following Robin Jansson and Kyle Smith.<\/p>\n
– Mart\u00edn Ojeda is one assist away from achieving the first 20\/20 season in club history. A goal contribution of any kind would give Ojeda 40 combined goals and assists for the season across all competitions.<\/p>\n
– Ojeda\u2019s next goal, his 21st of 2025, will set a new single-season record for Orlando City in all competitions, surpassing Facundo Torres\u2019 20-goal haul in 2024. Ojeda would also tie Cyle Larin\u2019s 17-goal 2015 for the most goals scored in an MLS regular season in club history.<\/p>\n
– Duncan McGuire\u2019s next goal will be his 30th for Orlando City in all competitions. McGuire is two goals away from tying Nani for fourth in club history at 31 goals.<\/p>\n
\n Stats & Storylines<\/p>\n
– Orlando City endured a heartbreaker last weekend, dropping their rescheduled match against the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 on a 90+7\u2019 winner from Thomas M\u00fcller. Despite missing 11 first team players due to injury or international duty and losing captain Robin Jansson to injury early in the first half, the Lions led the game for more than an hour before faltering late.<\/p>\n
– While home field advantage in Round One of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs is no longer possible for Orlando, it can still avoid the Wild Card Game and go straight into the best-of-three Round One with a win in Toronto on Decision Day. Should Orlando draw, the Lions would need Chicago (at New England) to lose or draw to stay in seventh. A City loss would require Chicago to lose and Columbus (vs. New York Red Bulls) to lose or draw to keep Orlando from the play-in matchup.<\/p>\n
– The good news \u2013 the Lions will be heavily reinforced with seven players returning from international duty, including regular starters Alex Freeman, Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107, and David Brekalo, plus super-sub Tyrese Spicer. Here\u2019s your (lengthy) international recap:<\/p>\n
Freeman started and played 90 minutes for the United States in Tuesday\u2019s 2-1 victory over Australia in Colorado. The ascending star also played a half hour off the bench in Friday\u2019s 1-1 draw with Ecuador in Austin, playing two different positions in Mauricio Pochettino\u2019s setup.
\nPa\u0161ali\u0107 played a starring role in Croatia\u2019s 3-0 World Cup qualifying win over Gibraltar on Sunday, assisting the opener and going 90 minutes in his first-ever start for his country. Pa\u0161ali\u0107 was Man of the Match on Opta\u2019s game-grading model for his performance. The Man with the Weapon also played 28 minutes off the bench in a 0-0 draw with Czechia.
\nBrekalo played the full 180 minutes and helped record two clean sheets as Slovenia drew 0-0 with both Kosovo and Switzerland in World Cup qualifying.
\nSpicer had an eventful weekend, scoring in both games for Trinidad & Tobago as the Soca Warriors beat Bermuda 3-0 and drew Cura\u00e7ao 1-1 in World Cup qualifying. The goals were the first two of Spicer\u2019s international career.
\nGustavo Caraballo and Javier Otero both went unused as Venezuela fell 1-0 to Argentina in its lone game of the window. The 17 year-old Caraballo was at his first camp for Venezuela, while Otero enjoyed his second call-up.
\nColin Guske and Orlando City B\u2019s Justin Ellis both featured for the United States U-19s in a 4-0 win over Northern Ireland and a 2-2 draw with Belgium.<\/p>\n
– Orlando City is 3-2-0 on Decision Day under Oscar Pareja, enjoying a couple of dramatic victories along the way. The Lions clinched postseason berths with wins on the final day in both 2021 (at Montr\u00e9al) and 2022 (vs. Columbus) in games against direct competition for the final slots. The Lions have won both of their away Decision Day matches under Pareja, both in Canada \u2013 the aforementioned Montr\u00e9al game in 2021 and at Toronto in 2023.<\/p>\n
\n Series History<\/p>\n
All-time vs. Toronto – 10-9-3, 0 GD (4-4-3, -5 GD away)<\/p>\n
MLS only vs. Toronto – Same<\/p>\n
2015 – L 0-2 (H), L 4-1 (A), L 5-0 (A)<\/p>\n
2016 – W 3-2 (H), L 1-2 (H), D 0-0 (A)<\/p>\n
2017 – L 2-1 (A), L 1-3 (H)<\/p>\n
2018 – L 2-1 (A), W 2-1 (H)<\/p>\n
2019 – L 0-2 (H), D 1-1 (A)<\/p>\n
2021 – W 1-0 (H), W 2-3 (A*), D 1-1 (A)<\/p>\n
2022 – W 0-1 (A), W 4-0 (H)<\/p>\n
2023 – W 4-0 (H), W 0-2 (A)<\/p>\n
2024 – L 1-2 (H), W 1-2 (A)<\/p>\n
*closed door game played at Inter&Co Stadium due to COVID-19 pandemic<\/p>\n
\n Meet the opponent: Toronto FC<\/p>\n
– After starting 1-7-1 in its first nine games against Toronto FC, Orlando City has at long last taken its first lead in the all-time series against the Reds, pulling in front with a 4-2 win at Inter&Co Stadium all the way back on March 1. Alex Freeman scored in his first-ever start for the Lions, while C\u00e9sar Ara\u00fajo, Mart\u00edn Ojeda, and Dagur Dan Th\u00f3rhallsson also found their way onto the scoresheet.<\/p>\n
– Orlando City is 8-1-1 with a +15 goal differential against Toronto under Oscar Pareja, including an unbeaten 3-0-1 mark at BMO Field. The Lions have won three in a row in Toronto, including a 2-1 win last season that featured a strike from Ojeda and a game-winning own goal just before halftime. Orlando City has not lost at BMO Field since 2018.<\/p>\n
– Duncan McGuire has enjoyed facing Toronto, scoring four times against the Reds in four career appearances, including a stunning play on Decision Day 2023 at BMO Field in which McGuire knocked the ball over the retiring Michael Bradley\u2019s head before smashing a shot into the far corner. Other Lions with good numbers against the Reds include Ojeda (2g\/1a), Ara\u00fajo (2g\/2a), Th\u00f3rhallsson (2g), and Kyle Smith (1g\/3a).<\/p>\n
– It\u2019s been another difficult season for Toronto FC. The Reds will miss the MLS Cup Playoffs for the fifth consecutive season and have not won a match since July 16. However, a massive summer overhaul and ensuing youth movement has provided hope, with new DP Djordje Mihailovic (2g\/3a in 9 games) helping Toronto to eight draws in their past nine matches. Since mid-August, Toronto has taken points off Inter Miami, Columbus (twice), Chicago, and Supporters\u2019 Shield-winning Philadelphia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything you need to know for the Lions’ final regular-season match in “The Road Ahead” driven by Audi:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7699,7698,7705,4790,7701,4791,7703,7704,7706,4795,7700,4792,4787,115,139,4786,141,140,7707,7697,7708,7702],"class_list":["post-7216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-alexander-freeman","tag-cesar-araujo","tag-colin-guske","tag-dagur-thorhallsson","tag-david-brekalo","tag-duncan-mcguire","tag-gustavo-caraballo","tag-javier-otero","tag-justin-ellis","tag-kyle-smith","tag-marco-pasalic","tag-martin-ojeda","tag-matchday","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-pedro-gallese","tag-the-road-ahead","tag-torvsorl-10-18-2025","tag-tyrese-spicer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7216","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=7216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}