Orlando City SC v. New York City FC 2025 MLS Regular Season - Matchday 25 Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2025 | Kickoff: 7:40pm ET Location: Inter&Co Stadium | The Bronx, NY Television: MLS Season Pass Radio (English/Spanish): New York City FC App | Tune In App newyorkcityfc.com/radio
Looking ahead to our match against Orlando City SC, we've provided media assets for your convenience, including comprehensive game notes with relevant match information. Feel free to incorporate them into your coverage as needed.
HEAD COACH PASCAL JANSEN
GOALKEEPER MATT FREESE
NEW YORK CITY FC HEAD COACH PASCAL JANSEN
Reflections of the previous match… “One of my colleagues mentioned it was the game called "The Battle of the Boxes," and I totally agree. First half, we were okay. Second half, I think we were pretty decent. But the moments were decided in the box, obviously. There's one moment in the first half where we get several opportunities to prevent that moment, and on the level of detail, we don’t—which is unusual for us, because on the defensive side, we've been quite balanced throughout the season so far. So that made the difference. Even though we played a pretty decent away game, creating our moments and controlling the game like we like to do, we didn’t get what was necessary. That’s what we've been talking about today with the team, obviously—trying to learn from it again and make sure that we go again.”
On the roster rotation with two matches this week… “Well, today obviously is a very important day. It’s the first day the boys came in again after traveling back from the previous game. Everything looked very well today in training… So we have a few choices to make going into the next game. Of course, the focus is now on Orlando and making sure we have a good team on the pitch again to start off this game. It’s going to be an important game for both teams.”
NEW YORK CITY FC GOALKEEPER MATT FREESE
On his experience with the USMNT… “The experience was a huge honor, and to be given the nod to have that tournament was a massive honor. It's something I'm very grateful for. I think it shows a lot of trust that they had in me, going from zero caps to seven or eight caps over the course of one month. So that's something I'm very grateful for. It was a time for me to learn how CONCACAF tournaments at the international level can go. That’s what they said to me, and I certainly learned a lot. I felt like every game I was learning about the game management required in those types of games, the mentality you need, learning how to go with two days of rest, different cities, things like that. I learned a lot and I'm very grateful for the opportunity. As for moving forward, the staff said it was a big step for me this summer, but they also said that’s the minimum standard for me. I just need to continue along that path. I've set a new foundation for myself, and now I need to keep building on that foundation."
On what he learned with the USMNT that he can bring back to New York City FC… “I think there were a lot of tactical discussions. I was introduced to new tactical ideas—fluidity, creating different shapes, things like that. Positionally, as a goalkeeper, I learned to play a little differently. There are always little tidbits you pick up that you need to add to your game. But you can’t do a complete 180 and change the way you play. You need to incorporate it appropriately."
ONTO ORLANDO New York City FC plays Orlando City SC at the opponent’s home turf of Inter&Co Stadium, with this being the second and final meeting in this series for the remainder of the 2025 MLS Regular Season.
The first meeting between Orlando and New York City this year occurred early on in league play, serving as the Club’s season opener at Yankee Stadium in March.
New York City won that match 2-1, with second half goals from Forwards Alonso Martínez and Hannes Wolf.
That Matchday 3 meeting served as the tenth win against Orlando for New York City, where the Club leads their opponent in the overall series. Through 25 games played, New York City has the edge with a record of 10-7-8 (W-L-D).
Overall, New York City FC has scored 45 goals and conceded 30 against Orlando.
Both sides are expansion teams and kicked off play at the same time during the 2015 MLS Regular Season.
The team’s home record against Orlando stands at 8-2-2 through 12 games, with 29 goals scored and 13 conceded.
However, on the road, the record moves to 2-5-6 through 13 games played. New York City has scored 16 goals and allowed 17 when playing away.
New York City FC has scored 17 goals in the first half of matches against Orlando, and 28 in the second.
For the breakdown in 15-minute intervals, New York City has scored three goals in minutes 1-15, none in minutes 16-30, 10 in minutes 31-45, 11 in minutes 46-60, 10 in minutes 61-75, and 11 in minutes 76-90.
The leading goal-scorer in the series amongst current players only on either side is Midfielder Maxi Moralez, who has five goals through 14 games played. In addition to his five goals, Moralez has also registered six assists.
In total, Moralez has 11 goal contributions, which is the most of any New York City player in the series overall.
His five goals against Orlando ties for the most Moralez has scored against a single team in MLS play. The only other team he has scored five goals against was the New York Red Bulls
Lastly, Moralez is one goal off Forward David Villa’s lead (6G) in the series all time.
Other players that have scored against Orlando include Hannes Wolf (3G), Forward Mounsef Bakrar (2G), Alonso Martínez (1G), Forward Agustín Ojeda (1G), and Midfielders Keaton Parks (1G) and Andrés Perea (1G).
Perea’s goal was scored in March 2023 when he was with the Philadelphia Union.
As for assists, aside from Moralez (6A), there are several other assisters, which include Martínez (2A), Ojeda (1A), Defender Tayvon Gray (2A), Forwards Julián Fernández (1A) and Malachi Jones (1A), and Defender Thiago Martins (1A).
Goalkeeper Matt Freese has played in six games against Orlando City in his career. Two of them were when he was playing for the Philadelphia Union.
He has recorded 540 minutes, 23 shots against, 16 saves, a GAA of 1.17, and conceded seven goals.
Additionally, Goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh has also played against Orlando.
He has one game played, 90 minutes, nine shots faced, five saves, and a GAA of 4.00.
The game was played when he was with Toronto FC in July 2023. TFC lost the game 4-0.
SUM IT UP New York City FC is currently in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, having gathered 31 points through 21 games played (GP) in the league.
The team’s points per game (PPG) average sits at 1.48, which is the 13th best in the league.
New York City’s overall record in MLS play currently stands at 9-8-4 (W-L-D).
The Club’s home record is 8-3-0, while their away record is 1-5-4.
New York City is one of only two Clubs in the league (with Los Angeles FC being the other) to have reached eight wins at home so far this season.
They are also the only team to not record a tie at home this season thus far.
New York City has scored 27 goals and conceded 24.
The Club's 24 goals conceded ties with LAFC for the third least in the entire league, with Austin FC (23 goals conceded) and Philadelphia Union (21 goals conceded) being the only two teams ahead in this statistic.
Subsequently, with a minimum of 750 minutes played, New York City is tied with Minnesota United FC and Nashville SC for the third least GAA in MLS with 1.14.
Austin FC is slightly ahead with 1.10, while Philadelphia leads the league with their 0.95 GAA.
Tayvon Gray made his first start for the Club since May, when the Club played away at Nashville.
Matt Freese returned to his starting role between the goal posts, also having last started when New York City travelled to Nashville in May.
Hannes Wolf continues to lead the team in scoring, with nine goals through 21 GP.
Maxi Moralez has registered the most assists, with five through 21 GP.
Also, Moralez is the oldest player in Club history to play in, start, and complete a full game at 38 yrs., 135 days when the team played Charlotte FC on July 12, 2025, on Matchday 24.
With a minimum of 23 saves made, Freese has the fourth best save percentage in the league, with 75.00%.
With the same minimum of 23 saves recorded, New York City has the second highest save percentage for a team in the league, with 77.01%. Only Austin FC has one higher, with 77.32%.
Several players have streaks for consecutively playing matches, with some carrying over from last season.
Wolf has played in 55 straight games (02/24/2024 - 07/12/2025).
Moralez has played in 32 straight games (07/17/2024 - 07/12/2025).
Midfielder Justin Haak has played in 25 straight games (09/28/2024 - 07/12/2025).
Julián Fernández has played in 23 straight games (10/06/2024 - 07/12/2025).
Agustín Ojeda has played in 21 straight games (02/22/2025 - 07/12/2025).
Similarly, two players have streaks for starting matches that date back to last season.
Moralez has started 26 straight games (09/21/2024 - 07/12/2025).
Haak has started 25 straight games (09/28/2024 - 07/12/2025).
With New York City celebrating their 10th anniversary in the league since their first in 2015, the team has faced many opponents, but nine specifically every year since that inaugural season.
Those teams are all in the Eastern Conference, and include CF Montréal, Chicago Fire FC, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Orlando City, Philadelphia Union, and Toronto FC.
Of those nine, the Club has played the most games against New England (27 GP), scored the most goals against Orlando (45 GF), conceded the most against Columbus (40 GA), conceded the least against Montréal (17 GA), won the most against Montréal and Chicago (12 wins each), and lost the least against Chicago (three losses).
New York City has scored at least 30 goals against each of the nine teams.
Several players on the current roster have scored against these nine teams, with Maxi Moralez (17G) and Alonso Martínez (15G) leading the charge.
Other players who have scored include Keaton Parks (8G), Hannes Wolf (7G), Mounsef Bakrar (6G), Julián Fernández (5G), Agustin Ojeda (3G), Andres Perea (3G), Forward Kevin O’Toole (2G), Tayvon Gray (1G), Justin Haak (1G), Malachi Jones (1G), and Defender Mitja Ilenič (1G).
As for assists, Moralez leads that as well with 49 against these teams.
Additionally, other players that have assisted are Wolf (9A), Parks (8A), Gray (7A), Martínez (4A), Fernández (3A), Thiago Martins (3A), Ojeda (3A), Haak (2A), Ilenič (2A), Jones (2A), O’Toole (2A), Bakrar (1A), Midfielder Aiden O’Neill (1A), Andrés Perea (1A).
