The Lions fell behind in the first half, but struck back immediately against the Columbus Crew on Saturday. However, neither side could dent the twine in the back of the net afterwards, despite each club getting some quality looks at goal. Marco Pasalic's goal broke a dry spell for him and secured a point for Orlando City, allowing the lads in purple to stay above the dreaded play-in wild card game — at least for the moment.
We look back at the key moments, players, and plays of a home game with some squandered chances to claim all three points. We also check our score predictions, and make our selections for Man of the Match.
This week's mailbagbox asked us about Orlando City's back four, the Eastern time zone, beers, hikes, and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.
OCB needed to win on Decision Day to get into the playoffs given other results around MLS NEXT Pro. However, the Young Lions played poorly, got throttled, and instead allowed visiting FC Cincinnati 2 to get into the postseason. OCB's streak of playoff appearances was snapped at two, and the Young Lions are done for 2025 after a rough second half of the season.
Finally, Orlando City will be missing a plethora of key players against a Vancouver Whitecaps side looking to finish atop the Western Conference. The Whitecaps will mostly be intact during this international window, while the Lions will be thin. That said, you've got to play who is in front of you, and that deep run in Leagues Cup ended up preventing Orlando City from playing Vancouver outside the international window with a more full-strength squad. We give you the series history against the Whitecaps, compare the two teams, provide our key matchups for Saturday night, and make our score predictions.
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Here’s how No. 507 went down:
0:15 – Orlando City wasted too many good transition chances and it was costly against Columbus — as was a bad-looking injury to Joran Gerbet.
21:30 – The mailbagbox pleads with us to help convince a listener's spouse of something.
36:05 - OCB went gently into that goodnight on Decision Day, and the senior Lions (or what's left of them) will brace themselves for one of the best Vancouver teams in years.
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