Orlando City’s MLS Cup dream looms large: “We need to win it”

Any fan knows what the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs are about. It’s one game at a time. Day by day. Play the opponent in front of you.

Yes, Orlando City SC are focused on their Eastern Conference Semifinal against Atlanta United on Sunday (3:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). But in their 10th season in the league, they’re allowing themselves to dream.

What would it look like to make MLS Cup presented Audi on Dec. 7? What would it feel like to lift the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy?

“Sometimes I imagine it,” center back Rodrigo Schlegel told MLSsoccer.com in a recent conversation. “I visualize this moment a lot. I try not to think about it too much because there are two games before the final that are going to be very difficult.”

Schlegel isn’t alone. While Orlando City lifted the US Open Cup in 2022, the club has become characterized by near-misses, by being almost good enough.

They were runners-up for the Supporters’ Shield last season and are in their fifth consecutive playoffs, never advancing past the Conference Semifinals. They have played well, but fallen to LIGA MX powerhouse Tigres UANL in the last two Concacaf Champions Cups.

Now, they are three wins from winning MLS Cup.

“Believe me that I think about how things would be if it happened,” said head coach Oscar Pareja, who took the reins ahead of the 2020 season. “This club has been establishing a culture for the last five years. I think the step has been big, but we need so badly to win the league. I have been in the league as well for many years. We need to win it.”

There hasn’t been much time for dreaming this year. After many experts picked the Lions as one of the favorites to win the Eastern Conference, the team stumbled out of the gates. Orlando won just two of their first 10 matches and sat near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings as late as June 20.

But then the work the club was putting in started to pay off. They went into Leagues Cup on a five-match unbeaten run that included four wins, and after the tournament won six of their last nine games to secure a fourth-place finish. With several playoff shockers – most notably the Round One exits of Supporters’…