Things were looking bright for the future of Orlando City as Head Coach James O’Connor, alongside new Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations Luiz Muzzi, took a team coming off a historically bad season and steadied the ship. While many expected Orlando City to be too early into a rebuild to challenge, it instead had a realistic shot at the playoffs and was in the hunt.
However, Orlando’s playoff hopes took another huge hit in Houston this past weekend as the Lions fell to the Houston Dynamo, 2–1. Leading at the break, Orlando went into the second half knowing that holding on for the win would see the team rise back up to eighth in the conference, two points shy of the playoff places after both the New England Revolution and the Chicago Fire drew earlier on Saturday.