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Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew: Final Score 3-2 as Lions Go from Winners to Losers in a Few Ugly Minutes

Um…what was that exactly?

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Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

I’m sitting here typing, and don’t really know how to put into words what I saw over the final minutes in Orlando City’s 3-2 loss to the Columbus Crew at Mapfre Stadium. Leading 2-1 with just a few minutes to see out, the Lions (7-12-1, 22 points) saw referee Silviu Petrescu call the softest of penalties to allow Gyasi Zardes to level the game in the 88th minute, then the Crew (9-7-6, 33 points) rode that momentum to score on a surefire Goal-of-the-Week candidate by Wil Trapp in stoppage time to steal all three points.

Sacha Kljestan and Stefano Pinho saw their goals go to waste as Zardes completed his brace from the spot and Trapp found the winner.

Instead of jumping Chicago and Philadelphia into seventh place, just two points behind the Montreal Impact, the Lions have lost their 10th game in their last 11 league matches and it shouldn’t have happened. Take nothing away from Trapp’s unstoppable rocket from distance. It was maddeningly good. But the fragile Crew, who had struggled to score goals of late, were frustrated time and again until getting their late lifeline from Petrescu.

Not only was the penalty soft on the most minor of midair jostles between RJ Allen and Patrick Mullins, but then Petrescu relied entirely on the word of video assistant referee Jon Freemon to stick with his initial call rather than looking at it himself at such a crucial moment.

Anyway, let’s get to the recap because I need to drink several strong alcoholic beverages to wash the taste of this one away.

Facing a third game in eight days — and second on the road — James O’Connor chose to rotate some of his squad after Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup loss to the Philadelphia Union, replacing several starters and inserting Cristian Higuita back into the starting lineup upon his return from an adductor injury.

Orlando City wasted no time getting involved in the attack, and Yoshimar Yotún came within inches of putting the Lions ahead in just the second minute, smashing one off the right post.

The Crew put the first of what seemed like a hundred dangerous crosses into the box four minutes in, but it skipped too far in front of Zardes and went out of play. Columbus spent quite a bit of time in Orlando’s end in the first half, getting up the wings and spraying balls in from both flanks. This helped the hosts win 10 first-half corner kicks.

Orlando nearly caught a break in the 10th minute when Allen’s ball into the area arrived at the same time as Higuita and the Crew’s Jonathan Mensah and Zack Steffen. Everyone collided, but Steffen reacted first to collect the ball.

Six minutes later, the Lions grabbed the lead. Allen beat Milton Valenzuela and skipped a cross through the area that found Kljestan. The captain didn’t hit the wet ball cleanly, but he got it up and over Steffen to make it 1-0 on his fifth goal of the season.

In the 23rd, Columbus nearly equalized when Pedro Santos was left all alone on the left and a cross found him in the area. Chris Mueller sprinted back to help break up the play, but he also got a piece of Earl Edwards Jr., and the Lions’ goalkeeper rolled his ankle. After trying to play through it for about 10 minutes, Edwards was subbed out for Joe Bendik.

Orlando worked the ball well to the top of the box in the 38th minute but Kljestan passed up an opportunity for a shot and passed the ball to a defender, thinking he had a runner coming up from behind on his left, wasting the chance.

A minute later, the Crew finally got a shot on target when Zardes cut inside on his right foot and fired a weak shot that Bendik scooped up. Much of the final 15 minutes of the first half was spent in Orlando territory as the Crew pinged the ball around to each other, connecting around the perimeter, but they couldn’t break into good scoring positions, nor could they take advantage of numerous set pieces.

Columbus held 54% of the first-half possession and fired seven shots to Orlando’s three (1-1 on target). The Crew completed an impressive 88% of their passes compared to the Lions’ 78%, but the lads in purple still held the advantage at halftime.

It took just six minutes for the Crew to level after the restart. Left back Tony Rocha got roasted by Niko Hansen, who got to the end line and crossed for Zardes to slot home off of the left post. It was disappointing to see nobody marking Zardes, as he was the only attacker in a dangerous spot and it was one of the first mistakes we’ve seen from new center back Shane O’Neill, making just his second start.

The Lions responded well to the Columbus goal. Pinho fired a shot right at Steffen in the 52nd minute as he had trouble digging Higuita’s pass out of his feet in the penalty area. Two minutes later, Mueller crossed a ball in for a wide-open Pinho, who only needed to get a touch on it to send it home, but the Brazilian couldn’t quite get onto it.

Despite those missed chances, Pinho restored Orlando’s lead in the 58th minute on a fantastic buildup that started with Yotún’s brilliant ball that released Kljestan into the area. The captain — with regular captain Jonathan Spector still out — beat his man and slid the ball over for Pinho’s easy tap-in to make it 2-1 in the 58th minute.

O’Connor replaced Kljestan with Mohamed-El Munir in the 60th minute and then got Will Johnson on for Higuita, who was gassed and cramping up, to try to see the game out. El-Munir had an opportunity to give the Lions some insurance off a counter attack in the 62nd minute when he got into the box but Steffen made a phenomenal one-handed save to keep it a one-goal game.

From that point on, the traffic was all one way, as the Crew sent waves of attack into the Orlando end, while the Lions tried to hold on. It looked like Orlando City’s night when Bendik made a fantastic save to deny Mullins’ headed shot in the 76th minute.

Then, disaster struck in the 86th minute, when a routine ball in the area ended up giving Columbus life. Mullins and Allen went up for a ball and the Crew striker went down easily looking for a call. Petrescu obliged. After going to his earpiece, Petrescu didn’t go take a look for himself. He just pointed to the spot again.

If that was a penalty, both teams should have been shooting from the spot all night.

After the match, the pool reporter in Columbus asked for an explanation on why a penalty was given. Here is the response, as reported by Jordan Culver of the Orlando Sentinel:

“As the Columbus player was about to head the ball in the Orlando penalty area, the Orlando player charged him from behind. Therefore a penalty kick was called.”

I’m not a physicist, but if Allen “charged him from behind,” why did Mullins fall backward and land on his back, rather than falling forward onto his stomach? I just can’t even.

Bendik guessed correctly on Zardes’ effort, but it was well placed and had a lot of steam on it, giving the Lions’ keeper no chance. The game was tied at 2-2 in the 88th minute.

The Lions nearly got an opportunity after the restart to retake the lead, but couldn’t quite connect with Mueller in the box.

With just a few minutes to see out, the Lions packed in tightly and looked to hold onto their road point, but the Crew were now riding the wave of momentum and found the late winner on the kind of shot that only happens against Orlando City late in games. From about 30 yards out, Trapp tried his luck and fired a missile into the upper 90.

A last-gasp Orlando set piece was flicked right at Steffen and the game ended in about as much of a gut-punch fashion as we’ve seen in the team’s four-year MLS existence.

The Lions held only 43% of the possession, as they tried to absorb pressure for much of the second half, nursing the lead and looking to counter. Columbus out-shot Orlando City, 15-9 (6-5 on target) and connected on 87% of its passes, compared to Orlando’s 79%.

The Lions were just minutes from their first-ever win at Mapfre Stadium and took nothing away from the game.


The Lions return to action Thursday at home when New York City FC comes to Orlando in search of a three-game season sweep.

Opinion

The Case for Starting Luis Muriel Against Atlanta

Muriel’s game is tailor made to help Orlando get the result in what will likely be a tight contest.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

For the second season in a row, Orlando City finds itself hosting a match in the Eastern Conference semifinals. It was a scenario that was far less likely this year, with the Lions watching as all three seeds above them crashed out in the first round, leaving OCSC as the highest-seeded team still standing in the East. Last year’s semifinal match didn’t go so well, with 10-man Orlando falling to the eventual champion Columbus Crew in extra time. So, how do the Lions avoid that fate this year and advance to the Eastern Conference final for the first time?

For starters, they can succeed on each of Dave Rohe’s three keys to victory! I’d like to make an addition though, and campaign for Oscar Pareja to start Luis Muriel instead of Ivan Angulo. To be clear, it’s not that I have an axe to grind against Angulo, as he’s largely ranged from solid to good when starting out on the left wing. For my money though, this match is tailor made for Muriel and giving him the start could help Orlando get through to the next round without needing to resort to extra time or penalties.

It’s not unreasonable to expect Sunday’s game to play out in a similar manner to Orlando’s 2-1 Decision Day loss to Atlanta, in which the visitors had 34% of the ball to OCSC’s 66%. True, part of that disparity was down to Atlanta’s 2-0 lead after 16 minutes, which allowed the visitors to sit back, bunker, and protect what they had. Even if the game had remained scoreless for longer though, Atlanta probably would likely have ceded possession anyway and looked to play defensively and hit on the counter. They rolled out a compact 4-2-3-1 in that game, but deployed a 3-5-2 in their last two games against Miami, and they might do so again after its effectiveness.

With Orlando likely to have the lion’s share (hehe) of the ball, and Atlanta sitting deep, there figures to be less room for Angulo to deploy his electric pace. OCSC will probably need to make things happen in the “half-court,” with an emphasis on moving the ball quickly, making clever runs, and finding those runs with creative and accurate passes.

Enter Luis Muriel. The Colombian Designated Player had a slow start to life with Orlando City but has come on strong in recent months, excelling in a super sub role and frequently making an impact in games off the bench. In 56 minutes against Charlotte in Game 3, he completed two dribbles, played one key pass and one through ball, and took three shots, with one on target, one off target, and one blocked. He doesn’t offer Angulo’s speed, but he has maybe the best vision and range of passing of anyone on the team, he’s an outstanding dribbler, and he’s a calm and capable finisher.

He hasn’t been asked to do a ton of traditional striker work during his resurgence, but Muriel has excelled at setting up teammates and creating chances, as evidenced by the litany of key passes littering his stat sheet. Those attributes could be hugely important in breaking Atlanta down, and with two key passes and two completed dribbles against them in just 22 minutes on Decision Day, he’s already proven he can be effective against the Five Stripes.

Another thing that could help the Lions in starting Muriel, is that it would almost certainly take Atlanta by surprise. Oscar Pareja isn’t exactly known for tweaking his lineup on a game-to-game basis, vastly preferring to find an XI that works and stick with it religiously. As long as everyone’s healthy, that lineup has featured Angulo starting with Muriel coming off the bench, and flipping the script would certainly be an unexpected variation that Atlanta might not be expecting. At this level, teams are good enough to adjust on short notice, but you also take every possible edge that you can find, and a lineup shift could be exactly that.


In short, as much as I like Angulo, I think Muriel should get the call in his place on Sunday. The veteran’s combination of vision, passing ability, and dribbling makes him uniquely suited to help unlock defenses, which will be crucial in a game where Orlando City is likely to dominate possession. I don’t think it’s likely to happen given Papi’s consistency with his lineups, but the unexpected move could give the Lions the edge they’re looking for. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 11/22/24

Emily Sams wins Defender of the Year, Orlando City’s turnaround, Barbra Banda nominated for African Woman Player of the Year, and more.

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

Happy Friday! Beyond working and catching some soccer here and there, I don’t have many plans for the weekend. I’m also hoping to find some time to trial some cranberry and brie bites I’m trying to perfect before Thanksgiving next week. For now though, let’s jump right into today’s links from around the soccer world!

Emily Sams Awarded NWSL Defender of the Year

The Orlando Pride’s Emily Sams was named 2024 NWSL Defender of the Year after a fantastic season. The Pride only conceded 20 goals in a record-breaking season, and Sams played in all 13 of the team’s shutouts. Sams was one of the most impactful players for the Pride this year and had 163 recoveries, 76 clearances, and 16 blocks. She’s the first Pride player to win the award and it’s great to see her receive some deserved recognition in her second year in Orlando.

Analyzing Orlando City’s Revitalization

It’s been a rollercoaster of a season for the Lions to say the least. There were serious concerns over whether or not the Lions would even make the playoffs back in June and now they find themselves as the highest remaining seed in the Eastern Conference this postseason. Facundo Torres’ excellent run of play is a major reason behind the club’s turnaround, but the buy-in from all of Orlando’s attackers has helped create a dynamic and unselfish offense. Although expectations are rising once more for the Lions, Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Luiz Muzzi spoke on how the team is focused on Sunday’s playoff match.

“There’s only one team that matters: Atlanta United,” Muzzi said. “The easiest way to lose a game is to look ahead. I’ll say we didn’t expect to be playing at home, but it’s welcomed. We’re focused on Atlanta, they’re playing great. They have a lot of confidence and momentum. It doesn’t matter they’re the No. 9 seed because they’re not playing like the No. 9 seed.”

Barbra Banda Up For African Woman Player of the Year

Orlando Pride forward Barbra Banda was one of 10 players nominated for this year’s African Woman Player of the Year award. The 24-year-old has done well for both club and country this year. She scored 13 goals in her first regular season with the Pride and has three goals so far in the playoffs. Banda also had a hat trick for Zambia in the Summer Olympics. She’s joined by fellow NWSL players Temwa Chawinga and Racheal Kundananji on the list of nominees. Bay FC striker Asisat Oshoala, who has won the award in five of the past six years, was not nominated for the first time in a decade. The nomination list will be trimmed to a three-player shortlist before the winner is announced on Dec. 16 in Morocco.

Croix Bethune Named NWSL Midfielder of the Year

Washington Spirit rookie Croix Bethune won NWSL Midfielder of the Year after recording 10 assists and five goals in 17 matches this season. A knee injury cut her season short in September, but she still tied Tobin Heath’s record for the most assists in a season. Bethune gave plenty of NWSL teams headaches this year and also won Rookie of the Year earlier this week. She’s the first player to ever receive NWSL Midfielder of the Year and she beat out the Pride’s Marta, the North Carolina Courage’s Ashley Sanchez, and Kansas City Current duo Lo’eau LaBonta and Vanessa DiBernardo.

Eastern Conference Clubs Making Moves

FC Cincinnati officially signed striker Kevin Denkey from Cercle Brugge on a deal that will last through 2028. The 23-year-old joins as a Designated Player on a reported $16.2 million transfer, which would be a league record. He won the Golden Boot in Belgium last year after scoring 27 goals and should give Cincinnati some considerable firepower next year.

Elsewhere in the league, CF Montreal declined the option on Josef Martinez’s contract, meaning the Venezuelan forward will be a free agent once again. The 31-year-old led Montreal with 11 goals this season and we’ll see where he winds up next. Charlotte FC did not trigger the purchase option on Pep Biel’s loan, opening up a Designated Player spot. Former Lion Junior Urso’s contract option was also declined by Charlotte. The Philadelphia Union signed defender Olivier Mbaizo to a contract extension that will keep him with the club through 2026, with options for 2027 and 2028 as well.

Free Kicks

  • In preparation for the 2026 World Cup, FIFA named 26 new options across the country as “base camps” for participating teams to train and rest. Orlando was included, with OCSC’s training grounds at Osceola Heritage Park pitched alongside the Lake Nona Wave Hotel.
  • ESPN‘s Jeff Kassouf dove into how the NWSL stacks up to the biggest sports leagues in the U.S. Saturday’s NWSL Championship between the Pride and Spirit should showcase just how entertaining the league is to plenty of viewers.
  • Pep Guardiola will stick around as Manchester City’s manager for a couple more years after signing a two-year contract extension with the club. His contract was set to expire at the end of this season.
  • Here’s a cool breakdown of the seven amateur teams that have qualified for the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup so far. None are from Florida, but there are some great logos to check out if you’re looking for a team to root for in the early rounds next year. Debutants Southern Indiana FC and the Virginia Dream are my personal favorites of the bunch.
  • The draw for the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations will take place today. Zambia is in the second pot, meaning it will be put in a group of four that will include one of Nigeria, South Africa, or Morocco. The tournament itself will be in July of next year.
  • Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City all clinched a spot in the Women’s Champions League quarterfinals with two games still left to play.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend. Go Orlando!

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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.

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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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