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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Atlanta United FC (Round 2): Player Grades and Man of the Match

Published

7 years ago

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With all the people on both sides trying to play down talk of a rivalry, Hector Villalba just tried his best to make it one. After Villalba’s 87th-minute goal which beat Orlando City at home last week, revenge was on the agenda for tonight’s game.

For a lot of the match, it seemed as if Orlando was going to get that revenge, and that would put the rivalry talk to rest at least a bit (or potentially heat it up, one of the two). The two teams would have simply traded three points in a two-leg affair. Yet, when Villalba scored in the 92nd minute, it made every true Lion in the world feel at least a tingle of hatred for Atlanta — as if they needed a reason.

Although the game will be defined by two great goals, there was plenty action in between, so let’s take a look at the grades.

Starters

GK, Joe Bendik, 6.5 — The stats say five saves, but that doesn’t really tell the story of Bendik’s game. We didn’t really get to see any of the spectacular saves that are normally witnessed anytime he steps on the field, but he did play a part in the Lions’ goal by sending a near perfect long ball to Larin who laid it off for Kaká to strike home. He made a couple routine saves, a couple difficult ones, a mistake that could of tied it up in the 62nd minute — luckily it rolled out for a goal kick after it slipped under him — and just wasn’t able to do anything about the goal.

One of the more difficult saves came in the 74th minute when Greg Garza charged down the left off a quick free kick. Bendik came running out of his goal and blocked the shot confidently with his body. He will likely be criticized for getting beat near post by Villalba but it was a close range shot, so he should get a pass on that one. As for his passing, it wasn’t the best today as he averaged 54% compared to Brad Guzan’s 79% — it also factors in that Guzan had 16 less passes.

D, Donny Toia, 7 (MOTM) — Toia played very well on the defensive left side, getting the better of Julian Gressel, Anton Walkes, and, later on, Brandon Vázquez on almost every occasion they went toe to toe. This was shown by his team-leading eight tackles on the night. He didn’t get forward much in the game, although he had a shot blocked in the offensive box two minutes in, but that seemed to just be part of Kreis’ game plan and no fault of his, as the Lions were very comfortable to let Atlanta possess the ball. In the 12th minute, Toia had his first of many good defensive moments when he ran back after getting beat to block a cross in a dangerous position.

D, Jonathan Spector, 7 — I was going to give Spector MOTM and an 8, until the goal. Spector played great the whole game, but he had to do better on the last-minute goal. After Aja stepped, Spector didn’t realize that was his cue to mark Villalba who ended up putting it in the back of the net. Although he led both teams in clearances, with eight, what really set him apart in terms of his good play were two crucial moments in the game. The first came in the ninth minute when it looked like Villalba had beat him for pace and was in on goal, but then after a bad touch Spector recovered and made a fantastic tackle which would make Paulo Maldini proud. His second moment came in the 74th minute when he fouled Villalba running into space. This foul was crucial because if Villalba was able to play a through ball to the right then Atlanta’s pacey attack would have been off to the races.

D, Jose Aja, 6.5 — Aja didn’t do anything of too much importance, but overall he had a pretty solid game with four tackles and three clearances. In the 86th minute, he committed a foul right in front of the 18-yard box which could have been the equalizer. On the goal, there’s nothing he really could do because he had to step when Yamil Asad burst into that gap between the midfield and defense, but that left the passing lane open for Asad to hit Villalba. The midfield should have been tighter to both Almiron and Asad — two of Atlanta’s most dangerous players — on the play.

D, Scott Sutter, 7 — If for some reason, Toia was ineligible for MOTM, I’d give it to Sutter. He made an impact early in the game, getting forward and hitting the crossbar on a shot just outside the box. He also registered a team-leading five interceptions and four clearances which is not too shabby. He was caught sleeping at one point but it was at the half line and didn’t lead to anything. It seems like almost every player on the field could be blamed for Atlanta’s goal, and Sutter is certainly one of those, but if you look at where Asad picked up the ball you’ll realize that he was too far inside for Sutter to be responsible for picking him up.

MF, Cristian Higuita, 6 — Another day, another yellow card for Cristian Higuita. It seems there’s two things he just can’t do: stay out of trouble and not turn over the ball. Today he was his usual self, racking up turnovers and tackles, the worst coming in the 64th minute, where Atlanta came rushing on the counter. Higuita picked up his yellow card in the 56th minute, after supposedly hitting a player in the face, in a scuffle after a light foul on Cyle Larin. He came off in the 76th for Richie Laryea and I’d say it was actually an improvement for the team. All negatives aside, you can’t neglect his five tackles, four interceptions, and 81% passing accuracy.

MF, Antonio Nocerino, 5.5 — Nocerino didn’t have a particularly good game last week and he didn’t redeem himself in Atlanta. The Italian picked up three fouls and was lucky not to get a yellow for persistent infringement. His passing accuracy was also a low 64%, but it wasn’t all bad. He had a great chance at the 29-minute mark to put Orlando ahead, but his header was just wide. On the late goal, he takes a small amount of the blame for not stepping and pressuring Almirón, who delivered the pass to Asad.

MF, Will Johnson, 6 — Johnson seemed to take a page out of Higuita’s playbook as he didn’t contribute much to the attack but made up for it with his defensive prowess. In the 29th minute, Johnson actually played a part in a good attacking move when he whipped in a beautiful cross which provided Nocerino’s header just wide. Just like the team as a whole, the Canadian will not be remembered for a good defensive performance but rather for his part in Atlanta’s goal. Johnson, like Nocerino, could and should have stepped up to Almirón.

MF, Kaká, 6 — It’s always hard to assess a goal scorer’s performance, but its especially hard when the goal scorer plays poorly for most of the match, which is exactly what Kaká did. Before his 40th-minute wonder goal that rattled the top right corner of Guzan’s net, and was Orlando’s only shot on target in the entire match, Kaká was virtually nonexistent. Every good buildup play came on the right side, and the Brazilian was also pretty ineffective defensively. In the second half, he was a little more involved, but I stress a little. Overall, his performance would have been defined by his great goal, if he didn’t play such a large role in the equalizer. This may sound harsh, but I blame Kaká the most because he didn’t put out any effort to tackle Miguel Almirón, while he was actually the closest to him. Sure he’s the most expensive player in MLS, but he still has to work hard for the team.

F, Dom Dwyer, 5.5 — It was a pretty disappointing debut for the English-American though it wasn’t really his fault. Dwyer made good runs, but the service just wasn’t there with the limited time that Orlando possessed the ball. One weakness that really showed was that the team could really use a number 10 to help out with the chance creation department, but I’m sure Jason Kreis and Niki Budalic already knew that. Dwyer did have two mini chances, but both were blocked by Michael Parkhurst.

F, Cyle Larin, 6.5 — Larin also suffered from the lack of chances but he did show that even when he’s not scoring he can influence the match. In the 40th minute, the Canadian wunderkind received a long ball from Bendik and played a good lay off to Kaká which of course ended in a goal to remember. Larin was off and on in terms of hold-up play but he came through when it counted. In the 49th minute, Larin took the ball down the line and sent a low cross to Dwyer which was cut out.

Substitutes

MF, Giles Barnes (62’), 6 — Barnes did what he had to defensively. In attack, he had a shot and a pass across goal, but both were just a bit off.

F, Carlos Rivas (73’), 6 — Rivas didn’t have to do much as he came in at striker at a time where the Lions were pinned back and defending. He got off two shots which were both blocked and forced a corner in the 89th minute. Also blocked a dangerous free kick with a header late.

MF, Richie Laryea (76’), 6.5 — Laryea impressed again in another short cameo. He showed good control on the ball and registered two tackles and an interception in about 20 minutes. Perhaps if he stayed tighter to the to center mids then Asad couldn’t have received the ball, but you can’t really blame him for that because there were a lot of other things that went wrong.

That’s what I thought. Drop a comment voicing your opinion whether or not you agree or disagree with me and vote for your Orlando City Man of the Match below.

Polling Closed

PlayerVotes
Joe Bendik7
Jonathan Spector11
Donny Toia36
Scott Sutter16
Kaká18
Other9

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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

13 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

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

15 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

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

18 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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