Orlando City: Scoring Goals but Still Lacking Results

Orlando City scored 39 goals through its first 25 games this season, which, entering last night, was good for eighth in the league and sixth in the Eastern Conference. However, with only five wins on the season, those goals haven’t translated into enough points and Orlando City is sitting below the red line. What can we take from the stat line?

Orlando City’s 39 goals came on 303 shots, and 103 shots on goal. Those 303 shots are only good enough for 17th in the league, and the 103 shots on goal are just 18th in the league. Those ranks are quite a bit lower than the goals scored ranking of eighth. Orlando City is scoring on 12.8% of its shots, and 37.8% of its shots on goal. That means Orlando City is taking advantage of scoring opportunities, but isn’t getting enough of those opportunities to help out the win column.

Of course, offense hasn’t been Orlando City’s problem this season. Despite outstanding goalkeeping from Joe Bendik, Orlando has conceded 43 goals. That’s a goal differential of -4. That’s bad enough for 15th in the league and seventh in the Eastern Conference, which is exactly where Orlando City is currently sitting. Last season, only one team made the playoffs with a negative goal differential. That team was D.C. United, and the Black & Red had a -2 goal differential, but they also won 15 games. Indeed, last season no team made the playoffs without winning at least 14 games. With only nine games left in the season, 14 wins might be out of the question. Fortunately, as The Mane Land’s Sean Rollins has written before, it might be the year that Orlando City can make the playoffs without getting to 14 wins.

There’s nothing new at this point in the season. The offense has scored goals, but at times seems to have trouble getting bodies into the box. The defense has been less than effective for the most part, and should be the main focus of Head Coach Jason Kreis for the remainder of the season. Keeper Joe Bendik has been one of the best in the league all year, and possibly the brightest part on the defensive side of the field. Regardless, these last games will have Orlando City fans biting their fingernails each match, just like last season.

Vamos Orlando!