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Orlando City vs. Toronto FC: Final Score 2-1 as Lions Allow Late Winner

The Lions fell yet again at BMO Field.

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7 years ago

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Deon Cooper, The Mane Land

Orlando City’s biggest headache team didn’t even need Jozy Altidore or Sebastian Giovinco. Two defensive lapses is all it took for Toronto FC to snap a two-game slide and hand the Lions one of their own, beating Orlando 2-1 at BMO Field.

Jay Chapman and Ryan Telfer sandwiched a Cristian Higuita goal, with Telfer’s coming just moments from what would have been a hard-fought draw on the road for the not-quite-Cardiac-Cats. Orlando City (6-4-1, 19 points) did fall behind and then equalize, according to the familiar script, but Jason Kreis will grind his teeth to dust at conceding with just three minutes left in normal time against Toronto (3-6-1, 10 points).

Orlando City is now just 1-7-1 in nine all-time meetings against Toronto FC.

Kreis didn’t have Dom Dwyer (lower body injury) in Canada with him, so he made the simplest switch by plugging Stefano Pinho into the top of the 4-2-3-1 formation. With Pinho moving into the starting lineup, his spot on the bench was taken by Tony Rocha, while Dillon Powers stepped into the 18 for the suspended Yoshimar Yotún.

Toronto came out on the front foot, controlling the first five minutes, while allowing Orlando very little possession. The Lions looked a little nervy early, with Higuita getting cute with the ball in his own penalty area and Joe Bendik eventually taking charge, clearing the danger in the second minute. A minute later, Telfer beat Chris Mueller and Will Johnson down the left side and sent in a cross that Jordan Hamilton should have scored on but he missed the ball and Lamine Sané deflected it out for a corner.

The Lions started to settle into the match about 10 minutes in with their first foray up the field. Justin Meram made a great individual move to get past Michael Bradley and crossed into the box, but the pass was a bit too tall for Pinho and just shy of Mueller, and Gregory Van der Wiel was able to thwart the attack. Sacha Kljestan nearly found Sané with a 15th-minute free kick, but the defense did just enough to keep the French-Senagalese center back from elevating to get a shot on target. Four minutes later, Meram got to the end line and crossed toward the top of the box, but no one for Orlando filled the space. Mohamed El-Munir’s cross was behind everyone a moment after that.

Toronto started getting back on the front foot around the 25-minute mark. Victor Vazquez sent a long ball forward that found Telfer but he didn’t get much on his shot and Bendik made the save on the only shot of the first half to hit the target.

After a Meram drive from distance missed badly in the 28th, the Reds got forward again. A scramble in the box was nearly cleared but lost again, and the ball back in found Telfer offside. Higuita fouled Telfer just outside the box in the 35th but Vazquez sent the free kick into the wall.

The Lions had an outstanding opportunity a minute later. Higuita stepped into a passing lane, took the ball from Bradley, and pushed forward with help in front of him and out on the wings in the forms of Pinho, Meram, and Mueller. But the Colombian grew impatient and opted not to try to find a teammate, instead squibbing a weak shot well wide to the left.

Telfer drew another free kick in the 38th. This time Vazquez tried to connect with a teammate, but the Lions were wise to the play.

The final minutes of the half saw the Lions calm things down a bit more and Mueller found Pinho as the two worked up the right side. Pinho sent it back to Mueller, who played the ball back in, but unfortunately the Brazilian was easily muscled off the ball. That was a factor throughout the opening half, as Pinho could not handle the physicality of Toronto’s defenders, failing to hold up play time and again for his teammates, and losing the ball too easily.

The whistle finally blew on a scoreless and somewhat uneventful first half. Toronto led in shots, 6-3 (1-0 on target), possession (52%), and passing accuracy (88%-87%) in a back-and-forth opening 45 minutes without much danger by either team.

Each team looked for the breakthrough early after the restart. Meram lost the ball when he got up the left and showed too much of it to Auro at the top of the penalty area in the 49th minute. Seconds later, Amro Tarek gambled and lost going after a ball and Hamilton got in behind, but the play was broken up by a back-tracking Higuita.

Good buildup from Higuita and Kljestan led to a chance for Mueller, whose shot skipped just wide. The rookie thought the ball was deflected for a corner but a goal kick was given. Three minutes later, a good pass sent Meram down the left again but he had no help in the attack, was eventually double-teamed, and lost the ball again.

After a couple near chances each way, Toronto broke through in the 63rd minute through Chapman. An unfortunate deflection from Uri Rosell bounced straight to Vazquez, who quickly slotted Tosaint Ricketts in behind Sané. Ricketts’ shot hit the far post but Orlando couldn’t track down the rebound, which found the foot of Chapman, who passed it into the empty net to make it 1-0.

Josué Colmán came on for Pinho just after the goal and immediately impacted the game, crossing to Kljestan, who headed right at Alex Bono in the 65th minute. Three minutes later it was Meram heading one on frame off a Mueller pass, forcing a good save by Bono.

Toronto appeared to double the lead off a corner in the 72nd minute. A second ball in found Ricketts behind the defense but the play was offside and the goal disallowed. There was no video review on the play. The ball came off Sané, but it was played off of him by a Toronto player, so the call looked correct. A minute later, Orlando City equalized.

El-Munir got deep into the penalty area after an outstanding individual effort. Mo was able to send the ball across the box, where it bounced off Mueller, who went down under heavy contact. Colmán picked up the loose ball and found Higuita, who smashed it into the net to make it 1-1 in the 73rd minute. It was Higuita’s second goal of the season, which is his career high in MLS.

Orlando failed to take advantage of two more decent chances as time wound down. In the 78th minute, Mueller worked himself free for a shot but it was deflected and bounced straight to Bono. In the 85th, an outlet pass found Meram, who tried to take the shot with his weaker left foot, but he slipped and the ball ended up going out for a corner off a defender.

Two minutes later, Toronto found the winner out of nowhere. El-Munir had Auro pinned down near the touch line but instead of using the two boundaries as help, he lunged in and Auro made a quick move to get to the end line and beat the Orlando left back. Auro’s cross to the other side found Telfer, with Johnson having drifted too far toward the middle. Telfer hit the cross in the air and it went through Bendik for his first Toronto goal and the ultimate game winner at the 87-minute mark.

The Lions got two half chances in stoppage time. Colmán’s cross for substitute Richie Laryea was just out of reach in the 91st minute and the Paraguayan’s look at goal in the 93rd minute wasn’t well struck and was an easy save for Bono.

Ultimately, Orlando City played well in spurts and mostly defended well but an unlucky deflection off Rosell’s toe and a poor decision by El-Munir late in a tie game cost Orlando what would have been a helpful road point.

Toronto finished with a 14-10 advantage in shots (5-5 on target), with Orlando grabbing 51% of the possession and out-passing the Reds, 85%-84% on 46 more attempts. There were some positives to take from the match, but it was clear that Dwyer’s absence completely changed the attack.

The Lions will try to stop the bleeding next Saturday night at home in the purple palace, hosting the Chicago Fire at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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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

16 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

18 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

21 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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