After advancing past Inter Miami midweek in the Concacaf Champions Cup, Nashville SC return to Geodis Park to take on Orlando City.
To get the latest on the Lions, we chatted with Ben Miller of The Mane Land.
An independent website covering Orlando City, the Orlando Pride, OCB, and all things soccer-related in The City Beautiful
Ben Wright (SixOneFive Soccer): Óscar Pareja lasted just three games for Orlando before getting sacked. What went wrong for him, why was the change made so early, and how do you think it impacts the 2026 season?
Ben Miller (The Mane Land): Plain and simple, the results went wrong. Before last week's victory over CF Montréal, the Lions had won one of their last 14 matches, and one of 11 to close out the 2025 season. That's bad however you slice it.
To be fair to Pareja, it's hard to look at this year's squad and say that it's better than last season's, at least on paper. The three big U-22 signings of Tiago, Iago, and Luis Otavio have all shown varying degrees of promise, but don't look like guys that are going to walk into the team and be immediate contributors. This is a team that says it has trophy aspirations, and isn't really in a position to wait for that development to happen: it needs results now.
Reading between the lines of General Manager Ricardo Moreira's comments in the wake of Pareja's departure, not only does the GM think the squad is good enough to compete right now, but there were also some philosophical differences between the two, with new interim coach Martin Perelman favoring a more attacking style and Pareja famously being a defensive-minded coach. The change was made so early because Moreira thinks the team can win, and feels that Perelman would give it a better chance to do so than Óscar.
As far as how it affects this season, I think if the team gets healthy, the U-22 guys grow up fast, and the team gels, then there's a path to this team continuing its playoff streak. If even one of those things doesn't happen, though, it could be a rough ride.
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