Orlando City at Vancouver Whitecaps: Player Grades and Man of the Match

The depleted Lions will take a 2-2 draw in Vancouver, but they’ll feel they could have taken all three points back home. Bobby Murphy didn’t have much to work with, but his lineup made do and Orlando City played the best they have under his short tenure. But how did the team grade out on their longest road trip of the season?

Starting XI

GK, Joe Bendik: 6.5 – Bendik can’t be faulted too much for Mezquida’s rebound goal, and he might have gotten to Kudo’s free header but it needed to have been a moment of brilliance. He managed two saves and, as always, the Lions would have been worse off without him.

DF, Kevin Alston: 4 – Alston lost his footing on the set piece and his man, Masato Kudo, was free for the header for Vancouver’s second goal. He was up and down all match, either giving the ball away or jump-starting attacks. It’s been a long week as Orlando’s best-available right back.

DF, Seb Hines: 6 – Seb didn’t have a huge impact on the match but that also means he didn’t hurt the team. It’s not a bad thing if you go unnoticed as a center back. He only misplaced two passes at a reasonable distance and he had a decent amount of blocks and interceptions.

DF, David Mateos: 6.5 – Mateos almost had the winner in the dying minutes, but David Ousted made a wonderful save on his glancing header. Mateos had a lot of last-ditch efforts to deny an attempt on goal and expectedly played well with the ball at his feet. He could have had more of an impact on Vancouver’s first goal, but the defense as a whole was in shambles on the play.

DF, Luke Boden: 4.5 – Boden was poor in the sequence leading to the Whitecaps’ first goal, allowing his man to get a shot off even as Boden gave a hard foul in the area. He didn’t give the ball away too much and he assisted Baptista’s goal, but he just couldn’t manage to connect on any of his crosses.

MF, Servando Carrasco: 6 – Without Cristian Higuita in the lineup, it looked like the defensive side of the midfield would be lacking. Carrasco made up for the lack of a destroyer with some key tackles and breaking up the ‘Caps attack. He also took care of the ball on offense with an 89% pass completion percentage and sent some threatening balls into the box.

MF, Darwin Ceren: 5 – Ceren wasn’t quite his usual self, only managing to win one tackle all night. He had an even better completion percentage than Carrasco (92%) but he had a careless giveaway in his own half that set up a threatening Whitecaps attack. He was invisible at times, which is a shame when he’s been so good at controlling the midfield.

MF, Hadji Barry: 7 – Hadji had a bright start to the match, testing the Whitecaps’ right flank and creating some dangerous chances. Whether he was splitting Vancouver defenders or rounding them with his pace, he caused a lot of problems in his first MLS start. If only he’d been able to keep it up during the second half, Orlando might have come away with more.

MF, Julio Baptista: 5 – Baptista had the opening goal and earned the penalty but absolutely botched the execution. It was a black mark on a decent night for the Brazilian, but missing that poorly on a chance to take the lead is hard to overcome.

MF, Kevin Molino: 7 – Kevin gave away a needless free kick that led to Vancouver’s second, but he sent in a beautiful ball to level the score. He was his usual threatening self, even on the left side of the midfield where he’s less comfortable.

FW, Cyle Larin: 7.5 (MOTM) – Larin soared over the Vancouver defense to score Orlando’s second and tie the match. The Canadian was battling two physical defenders every time the ball came near him and still managed to get off several good chances. Molino may have played the ball in, but it was Larin’s sheer effort to get up over the ‘Caps defense to level the score. He only had three attempts on goal due to the blanketing defense, but he would have had two goals if not for a fantastic Ousted save.

Substitutes

MF, Cristian Higuita (79’): 5 – Higuita was brought on to preserve the point, and he did his job. He didn’t do anything silly and didn’t give the ball away cheaply, which is about all you can ask from him that late in the game.

MF, Antonio Nocerino (84’): 5.5 – It’s tough to ask Nocerino to be the lone offensive spark off the bench, but he made some daring runs into the box and put the ball in dangerous areas in the small time he saw the field. He gave his all on the offensive end, but it just wasn’t enough.

That’s how I graded the Lions, what do you think? Vote for your Man of the Match in our poll below.

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