No wins and few goals: What's wrong with Orlando City?

When the 2024 MLS season began, many pundits selected Orlando City as an outside contender for the title. 

MLS analyst Matt Doyle, one of the most respected voices in the league, put Orlando as a Tier 2 “elite contender.” 

“These are the teams that have the pieces and the foundation to go out there and win something,” Doyle said. “If they do so, no one should be surprised by it…but if they’re outright bad? Yeah, that’d be shocking.”

One month of the season has elapsed, and Orlando looks much closer to being “outright bad” than it is to a trophy. The team is winless in its four MLS matches with a goal difference of -8. 

It’s been eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions Cup thanks to a 4-2 aggregate hammering by Tigres. It’s second to last in the Eastern Conference, saved from last place by dire, over-extended New England, and very little seems to be changing in the back room to stop the skid.

“Not good enough,” said Orlando defender Robin Jansson after his team fell 5-0 to Florida rivals Inter Miami. “We’re coming out there with no energy. I feel we don’t take control of the game like we normally try to do.

“It was not good enough on any part of the field, including myself, and I feel sorry for the fans that traveled here [to Miami.] They deserve better.”

What’s changed? What’s keeping this “elite contender” squad from reaching its potential?

1. Travel exhaustion

We’ve talked about the negative effect the CONCACAF Champions Cup has on MLS teams; Orlando bore the brunt of it in its short time in the competition. The team traveled nearly 1,500 miles to face Tigres in Nuevo Leon and went straight to Atlanta as soon as the game finished. No wonder Orlando looked tired as it lost to the 5 Stripes: it had been on the road all week.