Our annual collection of post-mortems rolls on with the two Wild Card losers, Orlando City and Real Salt Lake.
You can find the Western Conference non-Audi MLS Cup Playoffs teams HERE, and the Eastern Conference ones HERE.
In we go, examining the seasons of the two teams with the longest continuous postseason streaks in MLS. Seriously, I bet you didn’t know that one!
2025 in a nutshell
For the first two-thirds of the season, they looked like one of the half-dozen best teams in the league. Part of that was MartÃn Ojeda playing at a Best XI clip, part of it was Luis Muriel finally looking like a DP, part of it was Pedro Gallese turning back the clock, and part of it was Alex Freeman being such a devastating attacking presence that head coach Oscar Pareja actually adjusted the game model to get him more final-third touches than any defender in the league.
They made it to the Leagues Cup semifinals for a date with an Inter Miami team they’d owned. And they… fell apart. Then they kept falling apart, losing in the Third Place Match (and seeing a 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup berth go up in smoke) against the LA Galaxy.
Those losses very clearly crushed their spirit and depleted their emotional reserves. By the time they were eliminated on Wednesday night with a 3-1 loss at the Chicago Fire – that wasn’t as close as the scoreboard – they’d won just once in their past 11 across all competitions. They were cooked.
What comes next?
Six straight postseason berths is great, but the fans are eager for more. Part of that will be making big decisions on guys who are out of contract or have options, like César Araújo (Orlando hit a death spiral when he got hurt in August) and Eduard Atuesta in central midfield. Part of it might be batting away offers for Ojeda and Marco Pašalić, while potentially accepting an offer for Freeman – he could be off to Europe this winter.
Part of it, though, might be an assessment of Pareja. He’s been a very good-to-great coach in the regular season, with a Supporters’ Shield and a couple of US Open Cup titles (including one with the Lions) under his belt.
In the postseason, though? It’s grim: 6W-10L-6D, -13 goal differential (20 GF, 33 GA).
What to watch for this winter
If they’re serious about winning MLS Cup, they probably need to bite the bullet on the last year of Muriel’s contract and part ways with Gallese. Muriel disappeared for the past three months, while Gallese had maybe the worst run of his career down the stretch.
Getting younger and more consistent at those two spots, as well as at left wing, has to be the priority.
Player I’m excited for
I hope Araújo and Atuesta are back and healthy for the whole season. Orlando were at about 2 points per game when those two started together, which is a Shield-caliber pace.
That’s not an accident.
Notes
- It would be great if they started getting more out of their academy and MLS NEXT Pro pipeline. Maybe Freeman’s breakout season will have shown them there’s value to be found there.
- How many years does Robin Jansson have left? The 33-year-old's still one of the best center backs in the league, but it’d be smart to start succession planning now.
2025 in a nutshell
Through August of last season – before Andrés Gómez was sold to Ligue 1 and Chicho Arango was suspended – RSL averaged 0.11 xG per shot. Not great, but not bad.
After those guys were out of the lineup, that dropped to 0.10 per shot, which was in the bottom five in MLS.
This year, they finished dead last on 0.09 per shot.
All of this is to say they never replaced their two best attacking players from last year, despite spending reportedly around $10 million on attackers in the transfer market over the past three windows. That lack of quality meant they had to take more risks getting numbers forward; those risks compromised their defensive shape. That compromised defensive shape meant they were always scrambling.
Somehow, they made the Wild Card anyway. But it was a quick trip, losing 3-1 at the Portland Timbers.
What comes next?
The six attackers they spent on:
- Victor Olatunji, a center forward who was yanked in the 65th minute of the Wild Card game with RSL down 2-1 after he put forth what I’d call a substandard effort on a potential equalizer.
- Rwan Cruz, an on-loan DP center forward who came in and put together one of the worst sub appearances in MLS postseason history.
- Diogo Gonçalves, a DP winger/10 who’s been ok.
- Dominik Marczuk, a U22 winger who lost his starting spot to 18-year-old Zavier Gozo and was loaned out to FC Cincinnati.
- Lachlan Brook, a winger who lost his rotation spot and left this summer via a mutual contract termination.
- Ariath Piol, a U22 center forward who scored once in 24 appearances for the first team.
That’s four premium roster slots and nearly the entirety of their winnings from the Gómez sale. All on guys who haven’t moved the needle.
They have to assess their talent ID, acquisition and integration protocols. The front office has to sort itself out before it tries to sort the roster out.
What to watch for this winter
There is obviously overseas interest in both Gozo and Diego Luna (who had a good-not-great year), two of the few guys on this roster who delivered at or above expectations (shout out to goalkeeper Rafael Cabral as well). I think RSL fans would be pretty bummed if either was sold, but there’s obviously a number out there on each of them that you can’t walk away from.
There’s also likely to be a difficult conversation about head coach Pablo Mastroeni. As with Pareja, he’s raised the floor for this team, getting them to the postseason for five straight years. As with Pareja, it’s probably fair to wonder if he’s the guy who can get them to take the next step.
Notes
- Gonçalves was benched at one point, and there were whispers he was ready to head back to Europe. He’s an ok player, but if you can open up a DP slot by moving him, you probably have to do that.
- There’s a cadre of academy kids – wingers Aiden Hezarkhani and Owen Anderson, and attacking mid Omar Marquez – who showed well in MLS NEXT Pro and seem likely to get real chances with the first team next year.
