Last Friday we teased our thoughts for a March Madness-style bracket to determine which Orlando City players are the most popular among our readership. We read your comments, floated a potential bracket on Twitter, and have come up with one which we think best represents both eras of Orlando City soccer — USL and MLS. The idea was originally to select 32 players for this “tournament” but when it came time to start making cuts, things got pretty difficult, so we expanded it to 64 and we started the voting match-ups for the first round yesterday.

Today, we’ll start tallying your votes for the next 24 hours from the final 16 first-round match-ups on the right side of the bracket — the “South Region” and “Midest Region,” if you will. Side note: I realized late yesterday afternoon that I should have named these regions: Heath, Kreis, O’Connor, and Pareja. Alas, if I’d only thought of it sooner.

After the first round is complete, we’ll fill in the bracket with all the winners and get to our second-round match-ups. Yesterday was mostly filled with blowouts but I think our tournament’s second day will be much more competitive. There are intriguing USL-era-player match-ups (Jamie Watson vs. Ant Pulis and Rob Valentino vs. Yordany Alvarez), an exciting battle between Darwin Ceren and Julio Baptista, a fullback battle between Scott Sutter and Joao Moutinho, a clash of styles in Lewis Neal vs. Brian Rowe, and a Carlos Rivas vs. Giles Barnes match-up that I think will be a close one.

OK, here’s the bracket, which we’ll update after each round of voting. The polls are available below the bracket. Please note that if you do not see the polls and are reading this site on your mobile device, that some services automatically strip out the polls, but — not to worry — you can still vote on our Twitter feed or here on your desktop or laptop computer.

The 2020 Orlando City March Madness “Favorite Lion” Bracket

Here are the 16 first-round match-ups for you to vote on today:

“South Region” First Round

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 99% 1) Nani (127 votes)

0% 16) David Mateos (1 vote) 128 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 57% 8) Darwin Ceren (73 votes)

42% 9) Julio Baptista (55 votes) 128 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 87% 5) Mauricio Pereyra (108 votes)

12% 12) Erik Ustruck (16 votes) 124 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 92% 4) Robin Jansson (118 votes)

7% 13) Pedro Gallese (10 votes) 128 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 84% 3) Yoshimar Yotún (107 votes)

15% 14) Benji Michel (20 votes) 127 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 58% 6) Lamine Sané (75 votes)

41% 11) Rafael Ramos (53 votes) 128 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 64% 7) Jamie Watson (74 votes)

35% 10) Ant Pulis (40 votes) 114 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 75% 2) Dennis Chin (90 votes)

25% 15) Shane O’Neill (30 votes) 120 votes total Vote Now

“Midwest Region” First Round

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 92% 1) Dom Dwyer (119 votes)

7% 16) Sean St. Ledger (9 votes) 128 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 77% 8) Rob Valentino (86 votes)

22% 9) Yordany Alvarez (25 votes) 111 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 57% 5) Brek Shea (75 votes)

42% 12) Amro Tarek (56 votes) 131 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 57% 4) Scott Sutter (73 votes)

42% 13) Joao Moutinho (53 votes) 126 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 94% 3) Ruan (120 votes)

5% 14) Servando Carrasco (7 votes) 127 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 72% 6) Carlos Rivas (91 votes)

27% 11) Giles Barnes (34 votes) 125 votes total Vote Now

Poll Select your favorite Orlando City player between: This poll is closed. 47% 7) Lewis Neal (59 votes)

52% 10) Brian Rowe (66 votes) 125 votes total Vote Now