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Orlando City vs. Philadelphia Union: Final Score 3-1 as Lions Sunk by Controversial Decision

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3 years ago

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A controversial play late in the first half spelled doom for Orlando City (10-7-8, 38 points) as it fell 3-1 to the Philadelphia Union (9-7-8, 35 points) this afternoon. What could’ve been a red card to Union forward Kacper Przybylko ended up as the Union’s first goal. Making matters worse, Przybylko scored a brace in the second half to end Orlando’s chances at a comeback.

Pedro Gallese was between the sticks and the Lions used a five-man back line in this one, with Antonio Carlos, Robin Jansson, and Rodrigo Schlegel as center backs and Ruan and Kyle Smith as the two wingbacks. Junior Urso, Mauricio Pereyra, and Joey DeZart started in the midfield, with Tesho Akindele starting up top alongside Benji Michel. Nani and Andres Perea missed this game after being sent off in the team’s 4-2 loss to Montreal and both Daryl Dike and Silvester van der Water began this game on the bench.

Philadelphia dominated the first half as Orlando City found it difficult to get anything going offensively. In the 11th minute, the Lions had a decent chance when Akindele lost the ball near the end line but won it back. He ended up getting it to Pereyra at the top of the box, who was able to get a shot off, but it was blocked.

The Union nearly opened the scoring in the 14th minute when Jamiro Monteiro found space at the top of the box, using some fancy footwork to lose Junior Urso. His shot was just out of reach of the oncoming Jansson, but Schlegel blocked the shot from distance with his head.

Five minutes later, the Lions were forced into an early substitution when DeZart went down injured and was replaced by Raul Aguilera. Right after the change, Alejandro Bedoya played Monteiro right in front of goal. Fortunately for Orlando City, Monteiro was unable to make good contact and the ball went harmlessly out of play.

The second opportunity for Orlando City came in the 25th minute when Ruan took a shot from close range. Union goalkeeper Andre Blake had the near post covered, but the ball was deflected by Jack Elliott, who had extended his foot. The deflection forced Blake to slap the ball away, his first real action of the game.

Following the save, the Union went back on the attack. In the 30th minute, Bedoya played Olivier Mbaizo through on the right. The Cameroonian sent a dangerous ball across the box, nearly finding Cory Burke in on goal. However, Burke’s half-hearted attempt allowed the Lions to send it toward the top of the box. Leon Flach was waiting to collect it though and shot toward the far post, the ball rolling just wide.

The Union finally broke through in the 37th minute, though it was controversial. A Philadelphia free kick was quickly won by Orlando City, which tried to break out with numbers. However, a poor touch allowed the Union to regain control. With multiple Lions upfield, Burke found Kai Wagner at the top of the box and the midfielder’s shot was deflected past Gallese for the first goal of the game.

Replays showed that during the free kick, Przybylko elbowed Schlegel in the face, which should have been a free kick to Orlando City and possibly a red card for violent conduct for the forward. The assistant referee waved his flag, but was ignored by the referee, who let play go on. It was thought that VAR would’ve seen the infringement and reviewed the play, but the check informed Alan Kelly that he didn’t need to review it on the monitor.

In addition to the foul, it appeared as though there were multiple players offside and standing in front of Gallese during the shot. However, the referee didn’t call any of them offside and allowed the goal to stand.

“What I can tell you is what I saw first was a foul,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the game. “I would consider it a red card. It was flagged by the linesman. He saw it first. Second, the play that he was allowed to have advantage for us, I respect this decision of the referee on that part. But then, what I thought was (a player) well in between the shooter and our keeper. He’s blocking his side and was being part of the play.” 

“We were going to go on a counter attack,” Akindele said about the play. “And unfortunately, we lost the ball and they converted. That’s what good teams are gonna do. They had a couple guys in front of Pedro that could have been called offside or not. They didn’t call it offside.”

Despite the unlucky break, the Lions were fortunate to only be down one at the half. Philadelphia led the first half in possession (60%-40%), shots (8-1), shots on goal (3-1), total passes (209-150), passing accuracy (85.2%-74.7%), corners (4-1), and crosses (15-1).

The Lions did lead some first half statistical categories, but they were all defensive. These included duels won (28-17), tackles won (9-6), and clearances (18-3).

Orlando City came out much better to start the second half, beginning the period on the front foot. In fact, it didn’t take long for the visitors to get the equalizer.

In the 57th minute, Pereyra sent a good ball across the box for Ruan. Concerned about the wingback’s speed, the Union defenders provided plenty of space for him. So, despite Ruan being one of the smallest players on the field, he was able to redirect the cross toward the far post with his head. The header got past Blake and bounced off the far post for the equalizing goal.

The goal had Orlando City thinking of getting out of Philadelphia with at least a point, but that hope didn’t last long. In the 61st minute, Monteiro attempted to dribble down the Orlando City end line. He lost the ball to Smith, but Bedoya immediately won it back for the Union, laying it off to Monteiro. The midfielder found Przybylko, who could’ve been sent off in the first half for striking Schlegel, right in front of goal and the striker slammed it past Gallese, giving Philadelphia a 2-1 advantage.

Orlando City’s best chance after its goal came in the 74th minute. Ruan played a nice ball into the box for Junior Urso, who redirected it on target with his head. However, Blake was up to the task again, making the diving save and keeping the Lions behind by one.

Two minutes later, Sergio Santos had his first of multiple good chances on goal. Sent through behind the Orlando City defense, Gallese did well to cut down his angle. Santos shot but Gallese was right there to make the easy save. Orlando City was fortunate that Santos decided to shoot as he had Przybylko in the middle with no defenders around.

A bad situation almost got worse in the 80th minute. Santos once again was sent behind the defense, though it was questionable whether he was onside. Gallese came out of his box to tackle the midfielder, missing the ball and taking the Brazilian out.  With no defenders around, the referee could’ve considered it denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity, which would’ve been a red card for the Lions’ goalkeeper. But it was decided that Santos was too far toward the touchline, giving him a yellow instead.

In the 88th minute, the Lions did end up getting a player sent off. For the third time late in the game, Santos was able to get behind the defense, this time beating Carlos into the box. The usually solid center back grabbed the midfielder and pulled him down. Kelly immediately pointed to the spot and issued Carlos a red card.

The sending off was Orlando City’s third in its last two games. While the team will get Nani and Perea back next week, it will now be missing a key defender in Carlos.

To put a dagger in a disappointing afternoon, Przybylko stepped up to the spot and converted the penalty. So instead of being sent off in the first half, the Polish striker netted a brace and led his team to a 3-1 win.

It appeared at halftime as though this would be a lopsided affair. Despite the two-goal difference, the Lions made up ground in the second half. Philadelphia ended the game leading in possession (51.5%-48.5%), shots (13-9), shots on goal (8-4), total passes (381-365), passing accuracy (80.3%-80%), corners (4-3), and crosses (18-10). Orlando City led in duels won (51-42) and clearances (21-10).

The once defensively strong Lions have now conceded 12 goals in their last four games. This was the team’s third straight loss, the longest losing streak under Pareja.

“I think overall, especially our reactions in the second half when we tied the game and then we had control of it, we felt good,” Pareja said of the performance. “We could have had more. We have to say what came and take our responsibilities as well to keep improving. Try to get the team out of this moment that is difficult, but we are united and we will keep pushing.”

The Lions will look to end their losing streak Saturday night when they face the first-place New England Revolution in Foxborough, MA.

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Orlando City

How Orlando City’s Offense Stacks Up Against What Atlanta Does Defensively

How Orlando City has performed against teams playing with three or four defenders, and how that may influence the playoff game against Atlanta United.

Published

11 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

The most famous quote about real estate is that “there are three things that matter in property: location, location, location.” Soccer coaches also like to think in threes, especially when it comes to points, but for a soccer coach, the three things that matter might be the rhyming triplet “formation, formation, formation,” as that is where they will have the biggest influence on every game that their team plays.

Throughout his tenure as head coach, Óscar Pareja has preferred to use a 4-2-3-1 as his formation (fbref.com’s lineup data shows that the Lions primarily played a 4-2-3-1 in 65% of their MLS matches this season, and 79% of their MLS matches during the last three seasons). The Lions have lined up in a 4-2-3-1 during each of their last 14 games, and my confidence level is strong to quite strong (can you believe Meet the Parents came out 24 years ago?) that they will do so once again on Sunday when they host Atlanta United.

Atlanta United also prefers to deploy a 4-2-3-1, but was less consistent than Orlando City this season during MLS play, as evidenced by the chart below that shows how Atlanta lined up this season:

The purpose of this image is a table to show how Atlanta United lined up in 2024 (mostly in a 4-2-3-1 but also in one of six other formations).

I am relying on the coders at Opta for their evaluation of the formation, as I do not watch a lot of Atlanta United matches (sounds terrible), but though Atlanta primarily played with four defenders in more than two-thirds of its matches, during the last two matches it played a 3-5-2, the only two matches all season in which interim coach Rob Valentino rolled out that formation. I suspect that the formation change was related partially to playing Inter Miami and trying to defend the Herons’ dynamic offense and partially due to an injury suffered by defender Brooks Lennon in the first game of that series. So, while Atlanta primarily played four in the back for most of the season, there is a good chance it will roll with what worked against Florida’s second-best MLS team when it plays Florida’s best MLS team this weekend.

Now, if you want to read more about Atlanta, then you can read our match preview, which will drop Sunday morning, but I want to look at how Orlando did against teams that play similar styles. Looking only at MLS games, the table below shows how Orlando City performed against different back line structures this season (the left side is how the Lions’ opponents lined up, the right side is how Orlando City performed against opponents in those formations):

Table embedded as an image showing Orlando City doing best in goal differential in 12 games against three-man back lines, second best against four-man back lines, and having played once against a five-man back line (a 1-1 draw).

Orlando City earned slightly more points per game — the stat that matters most — against teams that played four in the back, but the Lions had a better average goal differential when teams played three in the back. Atlanta will likely deploy one of those two formations. In both games against Orlando City this season, Sunday’s visitors went with a 4-2-3-1, but as mentioned earlier, they used three in the back in each of their last two matches, so it really could be either.

Soccer is not like baseball, where players primarily stay in the same spot throughout the game, so some of these stats have to be taken with a grain of salt, as players are not always rigidly in the same position throughout a match. A team may also primarily play with four in the back but switch to three when chasing a game, or five when trying to protect against a late goal.

That said, using the data around Orlando City’s opponents’ general formations, here are the attacking groups who played the most frequently against four defenders during the 24 MLS games where Opta coded the opponents as using a defensive group of four:

Table embedded as an image showing the most frequently used lineups against teams who deploy four defenders. The most frequently used attacking group has a plus eight goal differential for the season.

It is a little ominous that the main starting group, shown in row one, has played 666 MLS minutes against back lines of four this season, but do I like that green goal differential of +8 in those minutes, which is a strong +1.08 per 90 minutes. I like that goal differential more than I like all the things that Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin like on their song that is creatively named “I Like It.” Coincidentally, when people ask me what I think about that song, I say, “I like it.” I am very creative.

If we look at the lineups that Orlando City has used against back lines of three defenders then there are some pretty major differences in personnel groupings, but it must be noted that more than half of the games against teams playing three in the back came early in the season, when Ramiro Enrique was unavailable to play. Enrique, my presumed starter at striker, has played fewer than three games’ worth of minutes (265 total) against back lines of three this season, and only 28 minutes with the main starting group, which ranks 13th among all the attacking lineups for minutes played against three defenders. That group scored one goal in their 28 minutes together though, for a robust 3.21 goals-scored-per-90-minutes average.

While the team as a whole has been successful against three-man back lines, I do not expect any of the lineups shown in the table below to play more than a few minutes together this weekend, though the first row and the last row are strong groups and had a lot of success.

Table embedded as an image showing the most frequently used lineups against teams who deploy three defenders. The most frequently used attacking group has a plus three goal differential for the season.

I am sure that all week long the Orlando City coaching staff has been going back and forth on whether it is more likely that Atlanta reverts to its most commonly used four in the back, or if the Five Stripes try for three wins in a row with three in the back. I would prefer that Atlanta plays with zero defenders and goalkeeper Brad Guzan wears a blindfold, but I think that is unlikely to be the case.

Even though Atlanta defeated Orlando City both times while in a 4-2-3-1, based on available personnel and recent results, I believe that the team will come out in a 3-5-2 in Inter&Co Stadium in the conference semifinal. Good things come in threes, and Orlando City’s best offensive production this season has been against three defenders, so I am going to be hoping that this continues, and in the third game against Atlanta the Lions grab the three points. Three’s company!

Well, it is a playoff game, so there are no actual points at stake, but you know what I meant.

Vamos Orlando!

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Orlando City vs. Atlanta United: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to get a victory to advance to the Eastern Conference final?

Published

13 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City continues its playoff journey against Atlanta United Sunday at Inter&Co Stadium. The Lions are coming off an emotional penalty shootout win over Charlotte FC in their best-of-three, first-round series. Likewise, Atlanta United stunned everyone by taking out Inter Miami to advance in its own best-of-three matchup. Now, the rivals meet in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

What does Orlando City need to do to get past Atlanta United to advance to the Easter Conference final?

Beat Guzan

Brad Guzan made 16 saves over Atlanta’s three matches against Inter Miami, including seven in the 3-2 win on the road in Game 3. The 40-year-old former USMNT keeper is in excellent form and is a big reason why the Five Stripes are facing Orlando City. Converting chances against Guzan will be crucial to earning a result. There have been times this season when the Lions have struggled to convert their chances. Despite that, the team has done enough offensively to get to this point. Facundo Torres, Martin Ojeda, Duncan McGuire, Ramiro Enrique, and others have contributed and will need to do so this weekend.

Cartagena is Essential

Orlando City lost twice to Atlanta United during the regular season. What is interesting, and perhaps relevant, is that Wilder Cartagena was out for both of those matches. Cartagena was shown a straight red in the match against Minnesota United prior to the first match against Atlanta way back in March. He was shown a yellow card in the match against FC Cincinnati and then served a yellow card accumulation suspension for the final match of the season against Atlanta. Fortunately for Orlando City, Cartagena will be available for the match this weekend. I’ve mentioned before the importance of Cartagena to Orlando City’s success. When he and Cesar Araujo are on the field together, the defense is simply better. Cartagena is frankly one of the better defensive midfielders in MLS. Atlanta scored five goals in the series against Miami, and Orlando will need to keep the visitors from having that kind of offensive success.

Overcome the Past

That darn international break in the middle of the playoffs is something I don’t love. More precisely, I don’t like it because Orlando City often struggles after a break. It would have been nice if Orlando City could have ridden the momentum from the penalty kick victory into the Atlanta match, but that’s not to be. Now is the time for Orlando City to break some bad habits, including turning around its historical lack of success against Atlanta, and tendency to struggle in the first match after a break. Oscar Pareja needs to have the players in the right frame of mind, and the players need to execute the plan. A full house of supporters can also make a difference. Given it’s a Sunday afternoon match, there’s no reason not to pack the house.

That is what I will be looking for Sunday afternoon. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links: 11/21/24

Marta’s chance to shine in NWSL Championship, NWSL and MLS award winners announced, 2025 SheBelieves Cup details, and more.

Published

16 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride

How’s it going, Mane Landers? I’ve been spending most of this week plotting out some holiday shopping to make things a little less stressful for myself over the next few weeks. A big weekend filled with Orlando soccer awaits us, so make sure to get any errands or obligations out of the way sooner rather than later. Let’s dive into today’s links!

Spotlight Falls On Marta in NWSL Championship

There are plenty of storylines heading into Saturday’s NWSL Championship between the Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit, including Marta’s opportunity to put an exclamation point on what has been an excellent season for the Pride. Orlando has been enjoying the fruits of its labor this season after a rebuild over the past few years that’s included plenty of change in the City Beautiful. Marta has been a constant, however, enduring some difficult seasons since joining the Pride and adapting her game She’s scored in both of the Pride’s playoff games so far and has a chance to author a storybook ending on Saturday.

Ann-Katrin Berger Named NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year

NJ/NY Gotham FC goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger was named 2024 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year, beating out the Pride’s Anna Moorhouse and Utah Royals FC’s Mandy Haught for the honor. It was Berger’s first year in the NWSL and she’s the first European player to win the award. She only conceded 16 goals across her 22 matches for Gotham this season and was a key reason behind her team’s success. I’m not too surprised that Moorhouse did not win, considering how solid the Pride’s defense was as a whole, but this won’t take anything away from a record-breaking season for her.

Wilfried Nancy Named MLS Coach of the Year

Columbus Crew Head Coach Wilfried Nancy was voted 2024 MLS Coach of the Year after a historic season in which the Crew set club records in both points and goals. The Crew also won the Leagues Cup this summer and their 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup campaign included advancing past Tigres and Monterrey en route to the final. This is Nancy’s first time being named Coach of the Year and he has been a finalist for the award every year since 2021. The Frenchman received 40.02% of the vote, winning the award over Inter Miami’s Gerardo Martino and Colorado Rapids Head Coach Chris Armas.

2025 SheBelieves Cup Details Unveiled

The 10th annual SheBelieves Cup will take place next year and the tournament will return to its usual format where each of the four teams plays each other once. The United States Women’s National Team will host Japan, Colombia, and Australia in February in what should be an exciting tournament. The U.S. will take on Colombia on Feb. 20 in Houston before facing Australia in Arizona on Feb. 23 and finishing the tournament on Feb. 26 against Japan at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. These games will also be the first domestic games of 2025 for the USWNT as it prepares to qualify for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.

Eric Quill Named FC Dallas Head Coach

FC Dallas announced that Eric Quill will become the team’s next head coach. Quill joins Dallas after a great year with New Mexico United that included trips to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals and USL Championship Western Conference semifinals. It’s also a reunion of sorts for Quill, as he previously coached North Texas SC and was named USL League One Coach of the Year with the club in 2019. Dallas missed out on the playoffs this season, with Peter Luccin coaching the team on an interim basis after the firing of Nico Estevez in June.

Free Kicks

  • District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser challenged Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to a bet involving this weekend’s NWSL Championship, with embarrassing lightshows on the line.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!

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