1. Back with a bang! After falling in their season opener, 4-2, Orlando City SC rebounded with aplomb, reversing the scoreline against Toronto FC.
2. César Araújo: set-piece wizard. Just past the half-hour mark, after Marco Pašalić was fouled just outside the box to earn a free kick, the midfielder stepped up and scored an absolute banger past Toronto goalkeeper Sean Johnson. The ball was so perfectly placed, it kissed off the inside of the post and ended up on the other side of goal. It's just his sixth goal with the Lions since joining the club in 2022.
3. It didn't take long for the second goal to come, just two minutes in fact, and it came from two unlikely sources linking up. Kyle Smith, who was playing as a center back on the night, played an inch-perfect long ball over the top of the defense to a sprinting Alex Freeman. The 20-year-old fullback got in behind, stayed composed and finished past Johnson to put the Lions up by two.
4. It was a massive moment for Freeman, getting his first start for the club and his first goal. Since signing a Homegrown contract back in 2022, Alex has been putting in lots of work growing his game with Orlando City B and putting up record numbers in 2024. He's bided his time and earned this moment for the Lions. Oh, and he was named Star of the Match by the fans. All in all, a perfect breakout game for the young Lion.
5. The second half started just as well for Orlando, with Araújo this time playing distributor on the third goal of the night. After getting space in the middle of the pitch, the midfielder threaded a perfect through ball in between the lines to find a sprinting Martín Ojeda in on goal. Taking his time as he got into the box, he rounded Johnson to finish with his right foot and increase the lead for the Lions. During his celebration, he revealed a shirt underneath his jersey with a picture of his grandmother, who recently passed on. "Forever in our hearts," read the shirt, making that goal for Ojeda and his family all the more meaningful.
6. With Freeman coming in and starting at right back, it supplanted Dagur Dan Thorhallsson from his starting spot and saw him come off the bench in the 80th minute. It didn't take him long to make his impact on the game as, just a minute later, he was finding the back of the net. Some nifty interplay between Ramiro Enrique and Luis Muriel saw the DP get some space at the top of the box. Thorhallsson made a run in, Muriel found him and the Icelandic defender made no doubt with his left-footed finish.
7. On to milestones to wrap things up. Tonight marked the 100th appearance for Iván Angulo in purple. After joining the club in 2022 on loan, he has been a part of some of the biggest moments for the team since, including a U.S. Open Cup his first year. In those 100 games, he's scored 11 goals and added 23 assists, which is good for sixth all-time in the team's history.
8. At just 16 years and 184 days old, Gustavo Caraballo became the youngest player to appear in an MLS match for Orlando City, bypassing Alejandro Granados, who was 17 years and 11 days old. It's a massive moment for not only the young OCB forward, but for the Orlando City Academy as a whole. The growth over the past few years under Oscar Pareja's, Luis Muzzi's and Ricardo Moreira's leadership has started to produce some top-tier talent (Freeman being one of them).
9. The Lions will now head on the road for the first time this year, heading to the Empire State to take on New York City FC. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, March 8.
