Orlando City finished their final preseason game on Saturday with fans reeling, especially with the right back play. Fans were dreading what opening weekend would look like but thankfully Ricardo Moreira saw enough and called in reinforcements: here comes Griffin Dorsey.
🟣 BREAKING: Orlando City has acquired wingback Griffin Dorsey from Houston Dynamo, per sources.
Trade worth $1m GAM + add ons.
Dorsey, 26, had been Houston’s starter for better part of five seasons. Entering last year of contract.
Becomes starter for Orlando at RB. pic.twitter.com/PPZJTFzLYn
— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) February 17, 2026
On February 18, the club made the move official:
A Griffin enters the Den 🦁
We have acquired defender Griffin Dorsey from Houston Dynamo FC in exchange for General Allocation Money. In addition, we have signed Dorsey to a new contract through the 2027-28 MLS season, with a club option for 2028-29 ✍️
📖 orlsoccer.co/welcomegriffin
— Orlando City SC (@orlandocitysc.com) February 18, 2026 at 3:15 PM
So what does this mean for Orlando City and what can fans expect from this last-minute addition? Let’s break down Dorsey a bit.
Background
Griffin Dorsey, born in March 1999, hails from Evergreen, Colorado, and began playing soccer at a young age. In 2015, he played with the U.S. Soccer Development Academy side Colorado Rush SC for two years before he made the jump to college.
Dorsey played two seasons in college with Indiana University. He made 44 appearances, scored 8 goals, and had 11 assists. He was a key player to help push the team to the NCAA Tournament in both years. During his time in school, he was showered with accolades like 2nd-Team Freshman All-American, 2nd-Team All-Big Ten, etc. During his college tenure, he also played with the Colorado Rapids U23 team to play more games between college seasons. After his two years in college, he was offered a Generation Adidas contract with MLS.
During that draft, he was taken 6th overall by Toronto FC and spent most of his first year with TFC II. He only played two games for Toronto before he was waived by the team, ending the first stop on his professional career early.
Shortly after he was waived, Dorsey signed with Houston Dynamo and made his debut with them a few weeks later. In his first season he scored his first professional goal and was named Dynamo Young Player of the Year in his first season. He was considered a stalwart on the Houston team during his time there.
Stats/Skillset
After going through his background, let’s cover some of his stats and his skill set.
Griffin Dorsey, by trade, started as a winger but when he made the jump to professional soccer he was pushed further back on the field. While with Houston Dynamo, he’s played primarily right back and right wingback, displaying his skills at not only defending but also getting forward. Here’s a highlight video that shows off a bit of what he can do.
He loves to not only bomb forward but play his opponent hard when he defends. He plays with a lot of hustle and a lot of grit, often getting into the opponent’s head and space. He looks to get forward often but he knows when he needs to get back to defend. There are moments where speedier wingers will get by him but he’s improved on keeping up with those types of wingers the last season or so.
Stats
I won’t be doing a full breakdown of Dorsey like I have on other players since he’s played in the league and there really isn’t time to break him down that much but I can provide some more general graphs and overview stats to show fans what his game is really about. Let’s start with two general charts.
The first chart is from Wyscout and shows a pretty even spread across a few areas of his game:
As you can see in the chart, his attacking stats are average or above average for a right back. The most elite stats are his crosses where he averages 3.85 crosses per 90. He has two other stats where he’s above average: “expected assists” and “Aerial Duels Won”. That helps the argument that he’s more of a Alex Freeman fit vs. what the team has on its roster. Let’s take a look at the second chart to get some more information.
This graph shows a bit more statistics that display what Dorsey really contributes to the team. A 69th percentile player impact is above average and pretty good versus players in his position. His interception rate is above average but the rest of his defensive stats don’t stack up so well. The threat he creates, progressive carries, and percentage of passes that are progressive are all well above average and borderline elite.
Player Comp vs. Alex Freeman
I think it’s important that we compare Dorsey’s play last year to what Alex Freeman put up, just to give fans an idea of what Dorsey can similarly bring but also what will be different. We’ll start with both their heat maps below, with Dorsey’s first then Alex’s below:
As you can see from the heat maps, Freeman tended to get more inside and not play as wide compared to what Dorsey would do. Dorsey loves to hug the touchline and when he gets the odd opportunity, he’ll put a shot on goal or create a chance. He also doesn’t tend to get in either box a ton on either side compared to Freeman.
Looking deeper into the stats, both fullbacks played over 2500 minutes and 30 matches in MLS last year. Freeman had 6 goals to Dorsey’s 2 goals with more shots on target, goals per game, and expected goals per 90. For assist stats, Dorsey had 4 assists versus Freeman’s 3 but both were fairly even on assists per game and expected assists. Dorsey had a few more big chances created and a better crossing percentage but Freeman had more long balls completed.
In terms of defense, Dorsey and Freeman were even on interceptions per 90, tackles per 90, dribbled past per 90, clearances, and blocks. The players were very similar in their defensive play, with some going slightly Dorsey’s way and some going Freeman’s way. Freeman was a smidge better in a good amount of those stats but not by much.
For possession statistics, Freeman cleared Dorsey, with much higher numbers across the board. However, Dorsey was close on aerial duels won and losing possession. What that tells us is that Dorsey isn’t so much a take on player as he is a player who’s going to try to get in space or bomb past you quickly.
Lastly, Dorsey had more discipline trouble last year than Freeman did, with the Colorado native picking up eight yellow cards on the season compared to Freeman’s four.
So What Does Griffen Dorsey Provide for Orlando City?
I feel like this answer is pretty easy to answer but he will come in and be the starter right away. Ever since Orlando City sold Alex Freeman, they have a big hole at right back. The first fix the club chose to go with was playing Ivan Angulo at right back to see if that was a way he could get on the field. Unfortunately, this past Saturday we saw that this was a disaster. Thankfully, the club pivoted quickly and grabbed Dorsey to help this team now.
The benefit of grabbing an MLS fullback is that he’s fit and ready to go since everyone has been getting ready for the MLS season. You don’t need to wait for visas and since Dorsey is American, he won’t take an international spot which is also a benefit. The question is how quickly can he come in and build chemistry with the current defensive line. The line had almost no chemistry when they played against Colorado on Saturday so it looks like he’ll be building it out with the team as they try to figure it out.
All in all, this is a solid move for Orlando City. Either Dorsey comes in and holds down that right back spot or he buys time for one of the young guys to get up to speed to take it over, and give Orlando a key piece off the bench. Either way, Orlando looks much better defensively for opening day!
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