2020 Orlando City SC season

On October 7, 2019, one day after the final game of the 2019 season, Orlando City parted ways with head coach James O'Connor.[1]

With the addition of Nashville and Inter Miami in 2020, MLS held an Expansion Draft on November 19, 2019. Orlando City had 13 players exposed. None were taken.[2]

On November 21, 2019, it was announced that a total of 14 players would not return either because their contract had expired, they had their contract option declined or, in the case of Danilo Acosta, they returned to their parent club after their loan expired. Orlando City had an option to buy Acosta at the end of the loan but declined. However, Ruan had his purchase option exercised following his loan in 2019.[3] Another notable departure was Cristian Higuita who had been the sole remaining member of the team's inaugural MLS roster in 2015 and departed as the club's leading appearance maker with 108 across all competitions.[4] Having initially had their options declined, Uri Rosell, Alex DeJohn and Mason Stajduhar all later renegotiated new contracts with Orlando.[5][6]

On December 4, 2019, Óscar Pareja was announced as Orlando City's new head coach. Pareja had previously worked with Orlando's VP of soccer operations Luiz Muzzi at FC Dallas.[7]

Having emphasized the importance Homegrown players the previous offseason,[8] Orlando signed the sixth and seventh Homegrown players in club history in December, signing David Loera following his junior year at NC State and Jordan Bender from USL affiliate Orlando City B.[9][10] The team also did a significant amount of recruiting in South America, bringing in Colombian midfielder Andrés Perea, Argentine defender Rodrigo Schlegel and Brazilian defender Antônio Carlos all on one-year loans from Atlético Nacional, Racing Club and Palmeiras respectively while Brazilian midfielder Júnior Urso joined permanently from Corinthians.[11][12][13][14] Peruvian international goalkeeper Pedro Gallese also joined on a free having last played for Alianza Lima, on loan from Veracruz.[15]

On January 17, 2020, Orlando officially opened the new Orlando City SC Training Ground at Osceola Heritage Park.[16]

Orlando's sixth MLS campaign began at home to Real Salt Lake on February 29, a repeat of the 2016 season opener. Just like 2016, the game once again finished level, this time goalless as debutant goalkeeper Pedro Gallese kept Orlando's first clean sheet in nine games stretching back to the previous season. The result meant Orlando remained unbeaten on matchday one since joining MLS. The game was also notable for the substitute appearance of on loan Andrés Perea who became the first person born in the 21st century to play for Orlando City SC.[17]

March 7 saw Orlando's first away game of 2020. It ended in a 2–1 defeat to Colorado Rapids as Drew Moor headed a 90th-minute winner from a corner after substitute Chris Mueller had scored the team's first goal of the season to tie up the game in the 82nd minute. It was the first time Orlando had lost to Colorado in the two teams' six meetings.[18]

On March 12 it was announced that the 2020 Major League Soccer season had been temporarily suspended for 30 days on the advice of public health authorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[19] With the situation developing, the suspension was extended until at least June 8.[20][21] On May 6, MLS allowed voluntary individual workouts on outdoor fields for the first time since the suspension. Every Orlando City player opted to train at the team's Kissimmee training facility.[22]

On June 10, MLS announced a return to play via a one-off 2020 MLS is Back Tournament. The competition will run from July 8 to August 11 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.[23]

Orlando City reported for the start of preseason at their new training facility on January 20 before a closed-door friendly against Stetson University five days later. The team traveled to Cancún, Mexico, for a nine-day training camp beginning January 27 that was supposed to feature games against Columbus Crew and third-tier Mexican team Inter Playa although Columbus later pulled out. The team returned to Orlando for further friendlies against Montreal Impact, Tampa Bay Rowdies, D.C. United, reigning Icelandic champions KR Reykjavík and San Antonio FC with both the Montreal and KR games open to the public at Exploria Stadium. The KR match was the first time since the 2016 game against Bahia that Orlando had hosted foreign opposition in preseason.[25]

Inter Playa v Orlando City

February 4	Inter Playa	0–2	Orlando City	Cancún, Mexico
9:00am		Report	Nani Dwyer	Stadium: Pure Mareazul Riviera Maya

Orlando City v Montreal Impact

February 8	Orlando City	1–0	Montreal Impact	Orlando, Florida
6:00pm	Nani  39'	Report		Stadium: Exploria Stadium

Orlando City v D.C. United

February 15	Orlando City	0–1	D.C. United	Tampa, Florida
		Report	Gamble  77'	Stadium: Corbett Soccer Stadium

Orlando City v KR Reykjavík

February 18	Orlando City	3–1	KR Reykjavík	Orlando, Florida
6:00pm	Nani  2', 42' Michel  8'	Report	Sævarsson  22'	Stadium: Exploria Stadium

All times in regular season on Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-04:00) except where otherwise noted.

Outside of the club, Inter Miami and Nashville SC joined the league as expansion franchises, bringing the total number of MLS clubs to 26. Orlando will play Miami for the first time at home on July 10 with the away tie on August 20. Because Nashville were placed in the Western Conference the teams will only meet once in regular-season league play in 2020, in Orlando on September 12.

Keeping to a 34-game schedule, it meant that for the first time Orlando will not play every team in MLS. They are still scheduled to play every Eastern Conference opponent both home and away, and all but three Western Conference opponents once. The three teams Orlando will not face in regular-season league play in 2020 are Los Angeles FC, San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders.[27]

Results summary

Results

Eastern Conference table

Overall table

A one-off World Cup style tournament featuring all 26 MLS teams, the MLS is Back Tournament consists of six groups with each team playing three group matches. The top two teams (three in Group A) from each group along with the four best third-place teams will move on to the knockout stage, beginning with the Round of 16. The draw for the group stage took place on June 11 with Orlando City placed as the top seed A1 in Group A as the designated host. Inter Miami were predetermined as A2 prior to the draw taking place in order to make the first meeting between the two teams the tournament opener. New York City FC and Nashville SC were randomly drawn as the two other group stage opponents.[29][23]

Following a restructuring to the competition, Orlando City became one of 11 MLS teams subject to entry in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup instead of the fourth round because they did not finish as a top 12 US-based team in the previous MLS season. The draw for the third round was scheduled take place on April 10, 2020.[30][31]

As of match played March 7, 2020

No.	Pos.	Name	MLS		Open Cup		Total
			Apps	Starts	Apps	Starts	Apps	Starts
1	GK	Pedro Gallese	2	2	0	0	2	2
2	RB	Ruan	2	1	0	0	2	1
3	CB	Alex DeJohn	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	LB	João Moutinho	2	2	0	0	2	2
6	CB	Robin Jansson	2	2	0	0	2	2
8	MF	Sebas Méndez	2	2	0	0	2	2
9	FW	Chris Mueller	2	1	0	0	2	1
10	CAM	Mauricio Pereyra	2	1	0	0	2	1
11	MF	Júnior Urso	2	2	0	0	2	2
13	FW	Tesho Akindele	2	2	0	0	2	2
14	FW	Dom Dwyer	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	CB	Rodrigo Schlegel	1	1	0	0	1	1
17	FW	Nani	0	0	0	0	0	0
18	FW	Daryl Dike	0	0	0	0	0	0
19	FW	Benji Michel	2	2	0	0	2	2
20	MF	Uri Rosell	0	0	0	0	0	0
21	MF	Andrés Perea	2	1	0	0	2	1
23	GK	Brian Rowe	0	0	0	0	0	0
24	RB	Kyle Smith	1	1	0	0	1	1
25	CB	Antônio Carlos	2	2	0	0	2	2
27	CB	Kamal Miller	0	0	0	0	0	0
29	FW	Santiago Patiño	1	0	0	0	1	0
30	MF	David Loera	0	0	0	0	0	0
31	GK	Mason Stajduhar	0	0	0	0	0	0
33	MF	Jordan Bender	0	0	0	0	0	0
34	MF	Joey DeZart	0	0	0	0	0	0
77	MF	Robinho	1	0	0	0	1	0

As of matches played March 7, 2020

Rank	No.	Pos.	Name	MLS	Open Cup	Total
1	9	FW	Chris Mueller	1	0	1
Total				1	0	1

As of matches played March 7, 2020

Rank	No.	Pos.	Name	MLS	Open Cup	Total
1	1	GK	Pedro Gallese	1	0	1
Total				1	0	1

As of matches played March 7, 2020

No.	Pos.	Name	MLS		Open Cup		Total
4	LB	João Moutinho	1	0	0	0	1	0
10	CAM	Mauricio Pereyra	1	0	0	0	1	0
15	CB	Rodrigo Schlegel	1	0	0	0	1	0
Total			3	0	0	0	3	0

Draft picks are not automatically signed to the team roster. The 2020 MLS SuperDraft was held in January 2020. Orlando had six selections, making five before electing to pass in the fourth round.

2020 Orlando City MLS SuperDraft Picks
Round	Selection	Player	Position	College	Status
1	5	Daryl Dike	FW	University of Virginia	Signed[32]
2	31	Joey DeZart	MF	Wake Forest University	Signed[33]
	39	Jonathan Dean	DF	University of Central Florida	Not signed[34]
	44	Austin Aviza	GK	Providence College	Signed to OCB[35]
3	57	Nick O'Callaghan	DF	Florida International University	Signed to OCB[35]
4	83	PASS