Orlando City vs. Atlanta United: Player Grades and Man of the Match

Hoo boy. As far as games go, the one I just watched Orlando City SC play was…rough, to say the least. The Lions dropped their eighth straight game and did so by an ugly scoreline. It was not a good performance overall by the team, and the players rated individually as follows:

Starters

GK Joe Bendik, 5 — It was a rough night for every player on the field and sadly Bendik was no exception. Out of six Atlanta shots on target Joe managed two saves and while his defenders didn’t do him any favors on the first goal, and Barco was helped by a lucky bounce on the third, he’ll surely want the second and fourth goals back. On the first he almost certainly should have been quicker off his line, and on the fourth he was beaten through his legs at his near post.

D, Jonathan Spector, 4.5 — Perhaps he wasn’t helped by two small deflections on the first Atlanta goal, but the captain allowed Josef Martinez in behind him for the easiest goal of the Atlanta striker’s life. He was then caught out of position and subsequently failed to slow down or foul Miguel Almiron on the fourth Atlanta goal. Not his best game.

D, Lamine Sané, 5 — He had some good moments when bringing the ball out of defense, but the defender, although perhaps thrown off by a deflection off Amro Tarek, failed to clear the cross that eventually found Martinez. He was also slow coming out to challenge Miguel Almiron, which allowed the striker to get off the shot that eventually led to the third goal.

D, Amro Tarek, 6 — Tarek had a reasonably good game considering the eventual scoreline. He does lose points for failing to clear the cross on the first goal, and probably should have closed down Almiron faster for his second goal. Like Sané though, he did good work in the attack, often popping up alongside Mohamed El-Munir on the left flank, as well as narrowly heading wide and being denied on the goal line by Mikey Ambrose.

WB, Mohamed El-Munir, 6 — He was caught very much out of position on the pass that led to Almiron’s first goal, and then didn’t take the best line to track back and try to stop the goal. Aside from that though, he generally defended well and found himself up the field on numerous occasions, and had some joy in 1-v-1 situations, with five successful dribbles. Other than that though, he wan’t able to make his presence felt further.

MF, Will Johnson, 4.5 — Johnson was his usual hard-working self but failed to capitalize on Orlando’s best chance of the game, spooning a shot wide of the open net after Oriol Rosell forced a save from Brad Guzan. He made some good tackles, but an early yellow card saw him subbed off for Richie Laryea with Bobby Murphy trying to change the game.

MF, Oriol Rosell, 6 — Rosell looked fairly composed in midfield, passing the ball well, making a few good tackles, and winning all three of his aerial duels. However, he and Johnson found themselves unable to contain the dynamic trio of Ezequiel Barco, Hector Villalba, and Almiron. His shot from range forced Guzan to give up the rebound that Johnson was unable to put away, but too often Atlanta’s players had too much time on the ball in midfield.

WB, Scott Sutter, 5 — He might have done more to try to stop Martinez during the break for Atlanta’s second goal but it was a difficult scenario to get right. Sutter’s rating is rather a result of failing to make much an impact in the final third. As accurate as Sutter’s crossing normally is, it was a skill that was not on display often enough during the game. Especially considering he was deployed on the wing, his lack of contribution to the offensive effort was disappointing.

MF/F Sacha Kljestan, 5 — Deployed in the hole behind Chris Mueller and Dom Dwyer, Kljestan found it difficult to make his influence felt on the game. It was always going to be a difficult task given the opposition was of Atlanta’s caliber, but Kljestan’s passing lacked crispness and at times his legs seemed heavy. Granted, he and other members of the squad have played a lot of minutes recently, but it has to be better from a player who was one of the league’s best last year.

F, Chris Mueller, 6 (MotM) — Mueller was the best source of Orlando energy on the field. As fans have become accustomed to seeing, he ran all night long. While his passing wasn’t as sharp as it could have been, he made up for it by completing several dribbles, winning the corner and the resulting header that led to Tarek’s goal line chance. His stats don’t necessarily jump off the page but he certainly gave his all and gets the MotM nod for just how damn hard he worked.

F, Dom Dwyer, 4.5 — It’s never good when your best striker doesn’t take a single shot all night, and that was exactly the case with Dom. While it wasn’t all his fault, as the service wasn’t exactly pouring in from all directions, it’s still an ugly stat, and his passing wasn’t accurate enough to make up for it. He did what he could, but it was a night to forget for him.

Substitutes

MF, Richie Laryea, (63’), 4 — Brought on for Will Johnson with Orlando down three goals, Richie passed well enough and managed a shot, but didn’t do the best job of containing Mikey Ambrose before the ex-Orlando player fed Almiron to score his third goal. Ultimately he was unable to provide the necessary spark off the bench.

MF, Stefano Pinho, (68’) 4.5 — Pinho replaced Lamine Sané as Orlando looked to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at their opponents. Spoiler alert, it didn’t work, with Pinho only able to fire wide during stoppage time after Mueller did well to find him. The Brazilian worked hard enough, but wasn’t able to produce an end product.

D, RJ Allen, (68’) 4.5 – Allen replaced Scott Sutter, who is still working his way back to full fitness following a spell on the sidelines with injury. Allen didn’t make any horrific errors, but also didn’t do anything of particular note. A quiet night for him on a difficult night for the team.

Rough grades for a rough performance. Vote in the poll and let us know who you think was the best on a bad night.

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