Orlando City and Oscar Pareja: Fit like a glove
Orlando City finally have a head coach, former FC Dallas manager, Oscar Pareja. And after an extended and strenuous search, they could not have found a better fitting candidate.
Sometimes, it just makes too much sense. Even when the rest of the world can see it, it can take time for those involved to clock onto the eventuality. But eventually, the logic is undeniable. For Orlando City SC, that was very much the case when they started their search for a new head coach this offseason.
After firing James O’Connor for missing out on the playoffs for five out of five years, Orlando City now turn to a more stable, secure future, one that prioritises consistency, reliability and repeatability, not lurching from wild investment to wild investment.
And so, in their search for dependability, they hired one of the steadiest coaches in MLS history, former FC Dallas head coach, Oscar Pareja.
Pareja led FC Dallas between 2014 and 2018. In those five years, he won a Supporters’ Shield, a U.S. Open Cup, missed out on another Supporters’ Shield on goal difference in a season that was screwed by the unbalanced schedule and tougher Western Conference, and managed a team to the second-highest number of points per season behind the New York Red Bulls.
During that time, he was also renowned for his development of young players. Weston McKennie, Reggie Cannon, Kellyn Acosta and Paxton Pomykal among many, many others have benefitted from the combination of Pareja’s coaching skill and willingness to thrust young players into the senior squad. This combination of steady success, MLS experience and youth development is what made Pareja the perfect fit.
In a statement announcing the appointment, Orlando City Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations, Luiz Muzzi, who worked with Pareja extensively in Texas and understands Pareja’s work better than most, extolled the fit between club and manager:
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"“Oscar is the perfect fit for the Orlando City organization, something I can say with confidence from our history of working together. He possesses the talent and passion to help our Club reach both its short-term goals on the field and long-term plans for the organization. Oscar checked all the boxes we were looking to fill and his vision is aligned with the plans that we have as a Club – to invest in and develop players at all levels of our pyramid to be both proud and successful when wearing the Orlando City crest.”"
Contrast the continued, consistent success of Pareja to the calamitous efforts of Orlando City. It is not as if Orlando have not tried to achieve success in MLS. They have ploughed plenty of money into the team, hired plenty of managers, now have an excellent stadium and sporting complex. And yet, they have been in the league for five years and still have not made the playoffs. They need somone who understands MLS, knows how to have success in the league and can be relied upon to provide it.
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Pareja at Orlando just makes too much sense. It was always going to happen. And now that it has, hopes can begin to rise in Florida.