Any fan knows what the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs are about. It’s one game at a time. Day by day. Play the opponent in front of you.
Yes, Orlando City SC are focused on their Eastern Conference Semifinal against Atlanta United on Sunday (3:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). But in their 10th season in the league, they're allowing themselves to dream.
What would it look like to make MLS Cup presented Audi on Dec. 7? What would it feel like to lift the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy?
“Sometimes I imagine it,” center back Rodrigo Schlegel told MLSsoccer.com in a recent conversation. “I visualize this moment a lot. I try not to think about it too much because there are two games before the final that are going to be very difficult."
Schlegel isn't alone. While Orlando City lifted the US Open Cup in 2022, the club has become characterized by near-misses, by being almost good enough.
They were runners-up for the Supporters' Shield last season and are in their fifth consecutive playoffs, never advancing past the Conference Semifinals. They have played well, but fallen to LIGA MX powerhouse Tigres UANL in the last two Concacaf Champions Cups.
Now, they are three wins from winning MLS Cup.
“Believe me that I think about how things would be if it happened,” said head coach Oscar Pareja, who took the reins ahead of the 2020 season. “This club has been establishing a culture for the last five years. I think the step has been big, but we need so badly to win the league. I have been in the league as well for many years. We need to win it.”
From setbacks to success
There hasn’t been much time for dreaming this year. After many experts picked the Lions as one of the favorites to win the Eastern Conference, the team stumbled out of the gates. Orlando won just two of their first 10 matches and sat near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings as late as June 20.
But then the work the club was putting in started to pay off. They went into Leagues Cup on a five-match unbeaten run that included four wins, and after the tournament won six of their last nine games to secure a fourth-place finish. With several playoff shockers – most notably the Round One exits of Supporters' Shield winners Inter Miami and defending champions Columbus Crew – Orlando now stand as the highest remaining seed (No. 4) in the East.
The turnaround came because of work, according to Argentine midfielder Martín Ojeda, but also because of the coaching staff being candid with players and players communicating openly with each other about what was going wrong. Despite some uncomfortable moments, the team is now enjoying great chemistry and strong bonds on and off the field thanks to the frank conversations they had in May and June.
“It was a difficult process at the start because everyone gave their best at their spot. We’d train well, get to the weekend and the result didn’t come,” said Ojeda, whose mid-season transition to the No. 10 role was particularly decisive in the club's improved performances. “We didn’t score the amount of goals we should’ve. Honestly, the process helped the unity in the group.”
Meeting expectations
In addition to forcing the team to soul search and come up with answers, it also helped them realize the targets they drew up before the season might not be so far out of reach.
“We had really high expectations based on the season we had the previous year and the players we were returning. We had a rocky start to the season and kind of updated our goals a little bit,” said defender Kyle Smith. “We were focused on getting above the playoff line. Then, things started changing. Once we got some wins, we started stringing some wins together and now have an opportunity to make a run in the tournament.
“Our goal always has been, since the beginning of the year, to win MLS Cup. So that hasn’t changed. And we’ve put ourselves in a position where we definitely can try to accomplish that goal.”
Not only can Orlando accomplish it, but those same experts are coming back around to the idea that the Lions should be among the favorites.
Between the big predictions back in February and their current standing as the East’s last remaining top dog, the weight of expectations could be creeping back into the Orlando locker room.
Yet, as badly as Pareja wants to be lifting the trophy and as easily as the date of the final comes to mind, he knows there’s little point in allowing his project to be sped up beyond this weekend’s Southeastern showdown against Atlanta United.
“Playing with expectations? I don’t fall into it,” Pareja said. “My expectation is today, the present and the moment I’m living in.
"Life has shown me that I can’t change what happens, and also can’t change what happens on December 7. I hope that we’re there. But I can control what is happening in the training today.”
Up next: Atlanta
After a heart-rate-inducing Round One series against Charlotte FC that saw a pair of penalty shootouts – the first which Orlando lost and the second they won to reach the Conference Semifinals – Pareja doesn’t need to do too much reminding about just how quickly the playoff dream could end.
Nor do expectations hold any real weight once the whistle blows and the ball begins to roll. Once the bracket was set, plenty were looking forward to a possible Sunshine Clásico against Florida rivals Inter Miami. Some Orlando players even admitted they were expecting to once again square off with Lionel Messi & Co. in this stage of the playoffs.
“Honestly, it would’ve been great to have a Clásico in the semifinals,” Ojeda said. “It would’ve been a great game, with their stars and us in the form we’re in.”
But Atlanta United won their series and knocked out the Herons in an upset for the ages. Since it came shortly after Orlando’s win against Charlotte, it was a match the Lions watched closely.
“This is the beauty of Major League Soccer, the way our tournament is, that excitement it produces,” Pareja said. “You have to be on your toes every day. Seeing Miami out, Miami being our rival for sure. I’m not going to lie, we were not sad, but now we have another rival, Atlanta, here in the region.
"It just demonstrates this league is very competitive. Nobody has won anything yet. We have to live in the present, and the present is that Orlando is in this series. That’s it.”
