The Mane Land PawedCast

Overall, Orlando City — as a team — played a decent game in its 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Union on Saturday. But there were some individual mistakes that...yeah, they were pretty awful and not what we've come to expect out of the Lions in the Oscar Pareja era. Prior to our breakdown of the Lions' breakdowns, we discuss the Orlando City news that came out on match day, including two short-term c...

Orlando City sent out a whole bunch of press releases the day our last episode dropped, so we start this show by recapping that news and those notes. Nico Lodeiro and Michael Halliday are off to Houston, while Wilder Cartagena will watch the entire 2025 season from the sidelines as he has been placed on the Season-Ending Injury list. We break down what all of that means for the Lions. First-round...

Orlando City has had a busy week since our last show. As things ramp up to this weekend's season opener, the Lions released their new home kit just a few days ago. We discuss the "Perfect Storm" kit, what we like about it, and what could have been better. Overall, we both think the new shirt looks nice and as long as it doesn't suck, I'm pretty easy to please. OCB has a pair of new academy signing...

Orlando City finally started signing some players over the past few weeks since our last show — recently, anyway — and between that and a few preseason friendlies open to fans, we have some things to talk about. We discuss Thomas Williams' new contract and the signings of Marco Pasalic and Eduard Atuesta and what they mean for the team. We also break down what Atuesta's arrival means in terms of O...

It's been almost a month since we broke for the off-season and as of our recording this episode, Orlando City hadn't yet used the open Designated Player slot left behind by Facundo Torres. The Lions lost another forward with the sudden retirement of Jack Lynn. We discussed how that leaves Orlando City quite thin at the top of the attack. However, the Lions did add a winger, although it's not neces...

With Facundo Torres officially transferring to Palmeiras on Friday, we reconvened to discuss what it means for Orlando City this off-season and moving forward into 2025. The Lions are sitting pretty in terms of cash, but it remains to be seen how the club will approach having an open Designated Player slot, an open MLS U22 Initiative slot, plenty of General Allocation Money, and a good infusion of...

Our off-season podcast schedule is off to a slow start, as we didn't even take a week off, but if the news doesn't sleep, neither do we. This week's show opens with a discussion of the Facundo Torres transfer saga as of the time we recorded, which we fully expect to be ruined by the time this post drops (because that's just podcast life). Torres was off to Brazil, then Mexico, then back to Brazil,...

Orlando City's end-of-season roster update undercut out annual stays/goes segment, but that's OK. What it lacks in drama, it makes up for in us being able to say we were right more often. But we'll get to that. We open the show with an MLS NEXT scoreboard check and it turns out the Orlando City SC Development Academy is doing just fine. After that, we bid former OCSC captain Nani an extremely enjo...

Orlando City's 2024 season is over. It was a weird one, with the Lions underachieving until July before becoming one of the league's best teams. The dominos seemed to fall into place for a run to MLS Cup, with the top three seeds being eliminated and a defense that allowed almost nothing the last few games, but the only shot on target across two matches ultimately was one too many. It was a great...

Orlando City has finally reached a conference final. The Lions struggled offensively against Atlanta United's defensive setup, but they managed to score one goal without conceding, and that's good enough for a 1-0 win over their rivals to the north. It was easily Orlando's most meaningful win in the rivalry to date — not that there have been many — and should spice up the series a bit moving forwa...

[Note: My apologies for the audio, as Dave sounded great and I did not. Unbeknownst to me, everything was running through my external laptop microphone, so I come off a bit echoey. Longtime listeners may find that nostalgiac, taking them back to the first few seasons of the show, but to me it's no fun, and I apologize for the audio quality.] Orlando City comes out of the international break with t...

Orlando City is still struggling to score playoff goals, but at least the Lions remembered how to score playoff penalties — eventually. After outplaying Charlotte but falling behind late, the Lions made one critical play in stoppage time to draw a penalty, finished a rebound of that saved penalty, and then went HAM from the spot in the shootout. Helping the effort was goalkeeper Pedro Gallese, who...

Orlando City became offensively challenged just one match after finally scoring more than one goal in a postseason game, attempting very few shots, getting just one on target, avoiding going on the attack at all costs, and scoring after being as close to onside as possible without the flag actually coming up (and on another night, it might not have). The game finished without a goal, so the teams...

Orlando City bounced back from its Decision Day loss to Atlanta by opening the playoffs with a 2-0 home win over Charlotte FC. The Lions were dominant, creating almost every significant attacking move in the match, allowing the visitors very little, and owning the midfield. Facundo Torres and Martin Ojeda provided the goals, although Ramiro Enrique had his chances as well. We break down the win ov...

Orlando City looked a little off Saturday against Atlanta United in the final match of the regular season. The Lions had plenty of chances but it was the defensive lapses early that made the difference in a 2-1 home loss. Still, it appeared as if Duncan McGuire had provided another Cardiac Cats moment, only for the ugly spectre of video review to deliver the sucker punch that paved Atlanta's way i...

Orlando City and OCB were both off over the weekend during the men's international break. However, not all of the Lions were off. We briefly discuss Pedro Gallese and Peru getting the better of Facundo Torres' Uruguay on Friday. We also touched on Mauricio Pochettino's USMNT managerial debut. But the main point of discussion for the first segment was OCB. The Young Lions are headed north to the Wi...

Orlando City won its third straight game and its sixth in the last seven, doing its part to try to lock down home field for the best-of-three, first-round playoff series. However, since Nashville could not take points from New York City FC on Sunday, the Lions will have to try to clinch the fourth spot on Decision Day against rival Atlanta. Ramiro Enrique had a big night in southwest Ohio, as did...

Orlando City made it two straight wins by completing a season sweep of the Philadelphia Union Wednesday night. The Lions continue to get impressive performances from Luis Muriel, who completely changed the game after coming on at the break. Muriel is red hot and is putting his teammates in position to score rather than doing it himself. We broke down the win over the Union, looked back at our scor...

Orlando City bounced back from its loss in Columbus in a big way, dominating host FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium en route to the Lions' first-ever victory in that building. The men in purple built a 3-0 lead and weathered a late onslaught by Dallas in a 3-1 game that could have been a laugher if Duncan McGuire had been a big more lethal down the stretch. Still, Orlando played a great road game and go...

Orlando City's shutout streak and winning streak are over after a wild game in Columbus that was really hard to watch for a while but then it got better, although not better enough. The Lions managed to put three goals on the board against the league's best defense but could not string together a fourth straight shutout, conceding four of their own, and they were pretty much all preventable. We br...

The Lions started slowly on Wednesday night in the heat and humidity on short rest, but Orlando City got it together in the second half, scoring twice to beat Charlotte FC, 2-0. The goals were worth the wait, as both were nice team buildups capped by quality strikes. We broke down the few chances in the boring first half and discussed the changes that opened up the match after halftime. We looked...

The Lions showed no rust from the week off in dispatching the New England Revolution 3-0 at home on Saturday. Three different Lions found the back of the net, from the unlikely (Rafael Santos) to the likely (Facundo Torres) to those who hadn't done it in a while despite also being likely (Duncan McGuire). It was a complete team performance and one that the Lions can hopefully build upon as the com...

Without an Orlando City game over the weekend, this week's show opens with a discussion of Orlando City B's much-needed 4-1 road victory over Crown Legacy FC. The Young Lions have only a few matches left and are sitting in a good position, with favorable matchups in two of their three remaining games. We discuss the win, Alex Freeman's big night, and OCB's outlook on the postseason. This episode's...

A good way to bounce back from a 3-0 loss to one of the Western Conference's worst teams is by beating one of the Eastern Conference's worst teams by that same score. Orlando City ran back the goal differential beating it took in Kansas City by thumping Nashville by the same score from the first meeting between the teams in Tennessee. Nashville may not be a barometer on how well Orlando is playing...

Orlando City didn't get the memo that the Leagues Cup break was over. Aside from the first 10 minutes, the Lions played like they were on vacation. There was a lack of intensity, a lack of execution, and obviously a lack of results on the road in a 3-0 loss against a poor Sporting Kansas City side that was even down a man for a good chunk of the second half. We didn't have that much to say about t...