The 2011 Orlando City SC season, marked the club's first season in existence, and their first year in the third-tier USL Pro League. Previously, the club was known as the Austin Aztex FC before they were relocated to

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. They won a double, winning the Commissioner's Cup as the top team in the league's regular season, and winning the USL Pro Championship.

Match results

Friendlies

Orlando City's 2011 pre-season started with three games against

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

("MLS") clubs. It won its first match, a 1–0 result against

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Union compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the club began playing in 201 ...

at the Citrus Bowl, with then-trainee

Lewis Neal Lewis Ryan Neal (born 14 July 1981) is an English former professional footballer. Career Neal started his career at Stoke City, making his debut in the Football League Trophy on 6 December 2000 against Scarborough. He went on loan to Icelandic ...

scoring the team's first goal. It also played a 4-team classic at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, drawing

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). The franchise be ...

for its first match on February 24, a 0–1 loss. On February 26 they won again, this time against

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BMO ...

, a result of 1–0. This marked the club's second victory. Orlando City got the opportunity to play Swedish First Division side BK Häcken in a friendly at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on March 5. City played a hard-fought game, as the game ended in a 2–3 loss. After playing the MLS teams, Orlando City then played a series of games against Florida college teams. They played Division II runner-up

Rollins College Rollins College is a private college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several graduate programs. It is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution. History Rollins Colle ...

Tars on March 16 at the Cahall-Sandspur Field and Barker Family Stadium in Winter Park resulting in a 3–1 victory. They followed this game with a 5–1 victory over Division I

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

Knights at the UCF Track and Soccer Complex in Orlando. Orlando City played on March 22 against Division I Stetson University Hatters in DeLand, FL, and the final pre-season game was on March 26 against Division I

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

Bulls at the USF Soccer Stadium in Tampa. Orlando City scheduled mid-season friendlies with two clubs from the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

USL Pro

Following a season-opening road loss to

Richmond Kickers Richmond Kickers is an American professional soccer club based in Richmond, Virginia. The Kickers compete as a member of USL League One (USL-1). The club was established in 1993, and began play that same year as a United States Interregional S ...

, Orlando City went on an 11-match undefeated run, closing the first half with a record of 8–1–3. Goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo had a league-high eleven clean sheets. The Lions finished with a 15–3–6 record, winning the 2011 Commissioner's Cup and home-field advantage throughout the USL Pro Playoffs. * The

Puerto Rico Soccer League The Puerto Rico Soccer League or PRSL is an association football league in Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto ...

teams ( Sevilla FC Puerto Rico,

River Plate Puerto Rico A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

and

Puerto Rico United Puerto Rico United is a Puerto Rican association football team based in Aguada, Puerto Rico founded in 2007. The team has played professionally in the Puerto Rico Soccer League (PRSL) and briefly in the American USL Professional Division. The t ...

) withdrew from USL Pro competition on May 9, 2011. Games played before then counted toward standings, but games scheduled thereafter were rescheduled with other teams. This affected two games for Orlando City: a June 24 away date against River Plate (rescheduled to Antigua), and a June 29 home date against Sevilla (rescheduled to August 3 vs Charleston).

USL Pro Playoffs

2011 U.S. Open Cup

Orlando City did not give up a goal in its first 217 minutes of U.S. Open Cup competition in 2011, beating ASC New Stars of the USASA Houston Football Association in the first round, and

Charleston Battery The Charleston Battery are an American professional association football, soccer club based in Charleston, South Carolina, and member of the USL Championship. Founded in 1993, the Battery are one of the oldest continuously operating professiona ...

of USL Pro in the second round. After taking an early lead in its third round match against

, a rematch from the WDW Pro Soccer Classic, Dallas scored twice and looked to cruise to the fourth round.

Yordany Álvarez Yordany Álvarez Oropeza, also written as Yordanis Álvarez Oropesa, (born 24 May 1985) is a Cuban retired footballer. Club career Cuba Álvarez began his career in his native Cuba, playing with his hometown club FC Cienfuegos in the Campeon ...

stunned Dallas keeper

Kevin Hartman Kevin Eugene Hartman (born May 25, 1974) is an American former soccer player who played 17 seasons in Major League Soccer, being on the field for a record 37,260 minutes. Nicknamed ''El Gato'' (Spanish for "the cat") because of his agility, re ...

with a late equalizer in second half stoppage time, but a barrage of quick attempts on the restart led to a Milton Rodríguez game-winner right before the end of play to eliminate the Lions from the Open Cup.

Club

Roster

''Final roster as of August 4, 2011.''

Squad information

† = "Pro USL" means leagues with professional USL teams, meaning

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system b ...

and its predecessors (through 2009), USL Second Division (through 2010) and the USSF Division 2 Professional League (2010). * = Denotes players who were retained after the move of the Austin Aztex FC organization to form Orlando City S.C.

Loans

Michael Tetteh Michael Osakonor Tetteh (born 16 January 1989) is a former Ghanaian footballer. Playing career Youth and college Tetteh spent his youth career with Right to Dream Academy for six years and the Santa Barbara Soccer Club for three years befo ...

was loaned to Orlando City on June 29, 2011 on a 10-day contract and returned to Seattle by July 12. Matt Luzunaris was loaned to Orlando City before July 16, 2011 game against Rochester for an unspecified time period and with San Jose reserving the right to recall. Luzunaris scored goals in his first two games playing for City, against Rochester and English

team Bolton Luzunaris was recalled by San Jose on August 2. Following the season,

was loaned to

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 20 ...

, and

Maxwell Griffin Maxwell Griffin (born September 17, 1987 in Riverside, California) is a retired American soccer player. Career College and Amateur Griffin attended Littlerock High School and played college soccer at the UCLA from 2006 to 2009, where he racked ...

was loaned to

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

. Both loans lasted to the end of the

2011 Major League Soccer season Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''El ...

. Since they occurred at the MLS roster deadline, both players were eligible for the MLS playoffs. In addition, Lawrence Olum left on free transfer, as his contract ended, and was signed by

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and t ...

Players on trial

:''List according to roster provided for the 2011 Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic.''

Personnel

Coaching staff

{, class="wikitable" , - !Position !Staff , - , General Manager, , ''vacant'' , - , Head coach, , Adrian Heath , - , Assistant coach, ,

Ian Fuller Ian Fuller (born August 31, 1979) is a former American soccer player who currently serves as an assistant coach for Minnesota United FC. Career Youth and college Fuller grew up in Tualatin, Oregon, and attended Tualatin High School where he ...

, - , Goalkeepers Coach, , Marcos Machado , -

Management

Standings

American Division

References

External links

Orlando City S.C.
Official Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Orlando City S.C. Season 2011

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

American soccer clubs 2011 season 2011 USL Pro season 2011 in sports in Florida