Orlando City

Orlando City
Basic data
Surname	Orlando City Soccer Club
Seat	Orlando , Florida , USA
founding	2010
owner	Flavio Augusto da Silva
president	Phil Rawlins
Website	orlandocitysc.com
First soccer team
Head coach	Óscar Pareja
Venue	Exploria Stadium
Places	25,500
league	Major League Soccer
2019	Eastern Conference: 11th place Overall table: 22nd place
home Away

The Orlando City Soccer Club , shortly Orlando City , is a franchise of professional football - League Major League Soccer (MLS) from Orlando , Florida .

The team was founded in 2010 and played from 2011 to the end of the 2014 season in the USL Professional Division , the third division in the US league system. In 2013 the move was accepted in the MLS and the team has been active in the league since the 2015 MLS season . Orlando is the 21st franchise that plays in the North American professional soccer league. The rights to the franchise are held by the Brazilian Flavio Augusto da Silva and Phil Rawlins , the owner of the former USL Pro team of the same name, with da Silva holding the majority.

history

Before the MLS

In October 2010 the Englishman Phil Rawlins, member of the board of directors of the English soccer club Stoke City , bought the USL rights from the owner group Orlando Pro Soccer. This enabled the Austin Aztex organization to move to Orlando. The Aztex were then dissolved. The new team was introduced on October 25, 2010.

Rawlins is president and majority shareholder of Orlando Sports Holdings, which holds the franchise rights to Orlando City. Also part of the group of owners is Brendan Flood, a board member at Burnley FC . Steve Donner has been appointed chief executive officer. The American was previously the owner of the Rochester Americans ( AHL ) and the Rochester Knighthawks ( NLL ). Aztex coach Adrian Heath also took over Orlando City.

The first game took place in early 2011 against the Philadelphia Union . In the test match, the team defeated the opponent from Major League Soccer 1-0. A little later, the team took part in the Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic. There she reached third place.

The first league game took place on April 2, 2011 against the Richmond Kickers. Orlando lost 2-0. The first victory was achieved on the second match day. The team scored 3-0 against New York FC . The first league goal in team history was achieved by Maxwell Griffin. After Orlando achieved first place in the regular season, the team was also able to prevail in the play-offs and thus secured the league victory in the first season.

In the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup 2011 the team from Florida reached the third round, but had to admit defeat to FC Dallas .

2012 Orlando City was able to reach first place in the regular season again, but had to admit defeat to the Wilmington Hammerheads in the quarter-finals of the play-offs. But they reached the final again in 2013 and won 7: 4 against the Charlotte Eagles .

In 2013 Orlando City could only reach 2nd place in the main round, but in the playoff final the team prevailed 7: 4 against the Charlotte Eagles and was thus able to win the USL Pro for the 2nd time after 2011.

The way to the MLS

On October 25, 2010, Phil Rawlins, owner of Orlando Sports Holdings, announced that they could envision a franchise in the MLS in the next three to five years. On February 28, 2011, there were initial talks with officials of the Major League Soccer. Important factors such as infrastructure and potential fan traffic in Orlando were discussed here. Half a year later, on November 20, 2011, there were further discussions about possible entry as the league's 20th franchise. This later went to New York City FC .

After further meetings and discussions with the league manager Don Garber and after commitments from the city of Orlando and Orange County to build a new stadium, the Orlando Sports Holdings received on November 19, 2013 the approval for the MLS franchise. On November 21, 2014 it was confirmed that Adrian Heath will continue to coach the team. He already trained Orlando City in the USL Pro .

The license for the USL Pro was transferred to a new team from Louisville, Kentucky. The Louisville City Football Club will remain affiliated with Orlando.

First season (2015)

On March 8, 2015, the team made their debut in Major League Soccer. Here it came to a clash with New York City FC, who are also new to the league. The game ended 1-1. The first goalscorer for Orlando City was the Brazilian Kaká . The game took place in the Orlando Citrus Bowl stadium and reached the second-highest audience with 62,510 spectators at a premiere game in the MLS.

After a 4-0 defeat against FC Dallas on July 7, 2016, Adrian Heath was dismissed as coach. Then Jason Kreis was hired as the new coach.

Coat of arms and colors

The logo was unveiled on December 16, 2010 during the morning news on local TV station WOFL. The coat of arms includes three roaring lions. This is to remind of the former soccer team Orlando Lions, which were active from 1985 to 1996. The nickname of the team "Lions" was chosen accordingly.

The colors of Orlando City are purple, red, and gold.

Stadion

• Fifth Third Bank Field at the Citrus Bowl ; Orlando (Florida) (2011-2013)
• ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex; Lake Buena Vista , Florida (2014)
• Camping World Stadium , Orlando (2015)
• Exploria Stadium , Orlando (since 2017)

From 2011 to 2013, the team played their home games in the 70,000-seat Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. In the 2013 season, an average of 8,197 spectators could be achieved, in the play-offs there were over 12,000 spectators.

The Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium will be renovated in the 2014 season. For this reason, the team will play their home games on a soccer field in the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The Sports Complex is located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista .

In April 2013, the City of Orlando purchased a piece of land for $ 8.2 million to enable the construction of a downtown stadium. A month later, however, a law failed in the House of Representatives in Florida, which was supposed to provide 30 million US dollars for the stadium construction. This was previously approved in the state Senate. Rawlins responded with an intention to seek alternative financing options. On August 8, 2013, the Orlando Downtown Soccer Stadium project was one step closer. On that day, Orange County and the City of Orlando agreed a financing plan to support various projects, including the construction of a possible MLS stadium. The remaining financing was decided in October 2013 through the introduction of a visitor's tax for tourists, part of which is to go into the stadium project. In May 2015, Orlando City announced that it would build the stadium without city grants. The Orlando City Stadium (today: Exploria Stadium) was inaugurated on February 24, 2017 .

Fans and rivals

Fan groups

Orlando City has two major fan clubs. The Ruckus is the oldest and emerged from the Orlando Soccer Supporters Club in 2009. The Iron Lion Firm developed from the Ruckus and has existed since 2014. On January 26th, 2015 it was announced that both fan groups are teaming up at home games as the Wall.

organization

owner

Phil Rawlins was initially President and majority shareholder of Orlando Sports Holdings. Rawlins was a former co-owner of the English football club Stoke City and founded Austin Aztex in 2007 . Also on the board of this group is Brendan Flood, board member of the English club Burnley FC .

The Brazilian businessman Flavio Augusto da Silva has also been on the board since February 2013. Flavio Augusto da Silva is now the main owner. He currently runs the franchise with Phil Rawlins.

Partnerships

Since June 9, 2014, there has been a partnership with the Portuguese soccer team Benfica Lisbon . As part of this partnership, Orlando has the option of loaning players from Benfica. Another international partner is Stoke City .

As part of the MLS-USL partnership, Orlando City has a partner team in the United Soccer League with Louisville City FC . Orlando can also loan out players here so that they can gain game practice. Louisville licensed the USL from Orlando City in 2014.

Youth and development

When the team was still part of the USL Pro, they took over the Central Florida Kraze football franchise, which played in the USL PDL . The team was later renamed Orlando City U-23. In 2011, the Florida Soccer Alliance Youth Soccer Club was taken over and renamed Orlando City Youth Soccer Club. The individual youth teams that belong to this youth football club play in the leagues of the USL Super Y-League.

Orlando City B (USL)

The United Soccer League franchise was founded in the summer of 2015 and is part of the Orlando City organization. The team acts as a USL MLS partner.

The home games are played in the Titan Soccer Complex, which is located on the grounds of Eastern Florida State College in Melbourne, Florida . The coach is former Welsh football player Anthony Pulis .

Players and staff

Current squad

Status: February 21, 2020

No. position Surname 1 TW Pedro Gallese 2 FROM Ruan 3 FROM Alex DeJohn 4th FROM João Moutinho 6th FROM Robin Jansson 8th MF Sebas Méndez 9 MF Chris Mueller 10 MF Mauricio Pereyra 11 MF Júnior Urso 13 ST Tesho Akindele 14th ST Dom Dwyer 15th FROM Rodrigo Schlegel 17th ST Nani 18th ST Daryl Dike

No. position Surname 19th ST Benji Michel 20th MF Oriol Rosell 21st MF Andrés Perea 23 TW Brian Rowe 24 FROM Kyle Smith 25th FROM Antonio Carlos 27 FROM Kamal Miller 29 ST Santiago Patiño 30th MF David Loera 31 TW Mason Stajduhar 33 MF Jordan Bender 34 MF Joey DeZart 77 ST Robinho

Previous players

→ Main article : List of Orlando City players

Coaching staff

As of January 20, 2020

• Óscar Pareja - coach
• Josema Bazán - assistant coach
• Fabian Bazán - assistant coach
• César Baena - goalkeeping coach

statistics

season	step	league	Regular season	Play-offs	Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup	CONCACAF Champions League
2011	3	USL Professional Division	1st place (American)	winner	3rd round	not qualified
2012	3	USL Professional Division	1st place	Semifinals	3rd round	not qualified
2013	3	USL Professional Division	2nd place	winner	Quarter finals	not qualified
2014	3	USL Professional Division	1st place	Quarter finals	4th round	not qualified
2015	1	Major League Soccer	7th place (east)	not qualified	Quarter finals	not qualified
2016	1	Major League Soccer	8th place (east)	not qualified	Round of 16	not qualified
2017	1	Major League Soccer	10th place (east)	not qualified	4th round	not qualified
2018	1	Major League Soccer	11th place (east)	not qualified	Quarter finals	not qualified
2019	1	Major League Soccer	11th place (east)	not qualified	Semifinals	not qualified

1. ↑ The competition starts in autumn of the previous year.

Visitor average

Regular season / play-offs

• 2015: 558,407 / not qualified
• 2016: 502,478 / not qualified

Web links

• Official website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER AWARDS EXPANSION TEAM TO ORLANDO . In: orlandocitysoccer.com . Orlando City Soccer Club. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ Simon Borg: Investors targeting MLS club for Orlando . MLSsoccer.com. October 25, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
4. ↑ MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER AWARDS EXPANSION TEAM TO ORLANDO . In: orlandocitysoccer.com . Orlando City Soccer Club. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
5. ^ ^{A b} Orlando City SC 1, New York City FC 1 - MLS Match Recap . Major League Soccer. March 8, 2015. Accessed March 9, 2015.
6. ↑ wftv.com, Dyer opens up about land purchase for new MLS stadium, April 17, 2013, http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/dyer-opens-about-land-purchase-new-mls stage / nXPb3 /
7. ↑ Orlando City determined to join MLS despite legislation impasse in Florida House , mlssoccer.com. May 6, 2013. 
8. ↑ Orlando Sentinel, 'We are going MLS!' Pro soccer stadium is coming to Orlando, October 22, 2013, archived copy ( Memento from October 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ BENFICA AND ORLANDO CITY SC ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC COOPERATION AGREEMENT . In: orlandocitysoccer.com . Orlando City Soccer Club. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
10. ↑ Orlando City SC roster. Retrieved March 23, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Orlando City SC Coaching Staff. Accessed November 13, 2018 . 
12. ↑ box | Simple online collaboration: online file storage, FTP replacement, team workspaces .