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Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Final Score 2-1 as Alan Gordon’s Strike Sinks Lions

The Lions may have been the better side for most of the game but wasted opportunities cost Orlando again.

Published

6 years ago

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Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Orlando City dominated the play but was beaten on the scoreboard, losing 2-1 to the Chicago Fire on a rainy night in front of 25,288 at Orlando City Stadium. Alan Gordon’s blast from distance in the 82nd minute gave Joe Bendik no chance to stop it and the Fire will leave Florida after a smash-and-grab job to keep all the points.

Cristian Higuita scored for the second consecutive game — this time pulling the Lions level after an early free kick goal by Aleksander Katai. Orlando City (6-5-1, 19 points) is now just 0-1-3 at home against the Fire (4-6-2, 14 points).

“I think the players know in their hearts that we were by far the better team,” said Orlando Head Coach Jason Kreis after the match. “And you won’t hear me say that very often but tonight I will tell you there was only one team that was pushing things and the other one was just trying to pick up the draw or catch something on the break.”

“At the end of the day, we left them hanging around and we got punished for it,” RJ Allen said. “We definitely need to learn from it and move forward.”

Due to players already missing with injuries or off on international duty, coupled with the unexpected absences of center back Lamine Sané (leg injury) and midfielder/right back Will Johnson (illness), Kreis was forced into a makeshift lineup. He started Allen at right back and slotted Tony Rocha next to Chris Schuler in central defense. Josué Colmán started up top in place of the injured Dom Dwyer, with Stefano Pinho returning to the bench. The squad was so thin that both backup goalkeepers made the 18.

Orlando City started the game more or less holding possession but taking shots from outside the penalty area. Unfortunately, the Lions couldn’t get any of them on target, shooting way wide or over the bar. That inability to threaten goalkeeper Patrick McLain allowed the Fire to get on the board first.

Chicago struck in the 13th minute off a set piece. Mohamed El-Munir was booked after contact with Diego Campos above the penalty area, setting the Fire up with a free kick in a dangerous spot. Katai stepped into the set piece and beat Bendik with a shot into the upper 90 on the left side. Bendik appeared to be caught mid-hop as he prepared, possibly thinking Bastian Schweinsteiger would take the kick after a Katai dummy. Bendik was so off-balance on the save attempt that he reached across his body with his trailing hand to try to stop the shot.

“Very disappointing. The first decision that awards them the free kick they score off of was ludicrous. Absolutely ludicrous. Never a foul,” Kreis said. “And so we shouldn’t be behind in that game.”

Orlando City responded well to the Fire’s early goal.

The Lions’ first good opportunity came in the 18th minute on the counterattack after a Fire free kick. The Lions broke and Chris Mueller ended up with the ball but he was forced onto his weaker left foot by the defense and he fired over the bar. Two minutes later, Colmán fired over the bar from the left side.

Orlando continued to push forward. Sacha Kljestan’s header went over the bar in the 25th minute off a great back-post ball by Allen. A minute later, Justin Meram was nearly sent in but McLain came off his line to smother the shot right off his foot.

But the Lions scored soon after that. Mueller took a pass from Colmán and sent Higuita in on the right side. The Colombian fired his third goal of the season into the net to tie things up at 1-1.

“For me it’s been important to score the goals [the last two games] but I would have liked a lot better to have scored and to win,” a dejected Higuita said through a translator after the match. “For me, I prefer the group objectives instead of my personal objectives.”

The rest of the first half was a probing affair, with both teams playing a bit more cautiously as the rain increased. The Fire nearly regained the lead on another dangerous set piece opportunity, but this time Schweinsteiger did take the kick after a Katai dummy run, and his low drive was just wide of the left post.

As time wound down in the first half, Colmán earned a free kick just wide of the penalty area. The delivery from Kljestan found Uri Rosell, who nodded it on frame, but McLain made a big reaction save to keep the game level.

Orlando City held 59% of the possession in the first period, out-shooting the Fire, 10-5, but the teams were even at 2-2 getting them on frame. The Lions passed at a 90% rate in the opening 45 minutes, compared to Chicago’s 84%.

Somewhere along the way, Schuler broke his arm in the first half. However, he came out of the locker room with a sleeve on and played through it.

The Lions looked better after the break, playing much of the second period in the attacking half. The hosts produced many scoring opportunities but couldn’t seem to break through and penalty shouts from both Higuita and Mueller going down in the box went unheeded by referee Nima Saghafi, although the latter went to video review.

Orlando forced two outstanding saves from McLain in the early minutes of the second half. El-Munir cut in on his right foot and smashed one that forced a diving save in the 49th minute.

Two minutes later, Meram curled one that was headed just inside the far post but McLain got over just in time to keep it out.

In the 55th, a terrific give-and-go play between Kljestan and Colmán sent Sacha in on McLain, but he tried to chip the keeper on the half volley and hit it too hard, sending it over the net. A minute later, Colmán fired over the bar after another good exchange above the box.

Mueller went down after contact in the box in the 60th minute and after about a minute of review, Saghafi determined no foul had occurred. He initially not only didn’t see a foul, but also ran into the box to stare down Mueller in a bizarre moment. There was no yellow for simulation so it’s unclear why he made that run toward the Orlando rookie.

Chicago got a bit more of the game for the next 10 minutes, with Daniel Johnson forcing a Bendik save in the 68th minute and Katai firing over the bar in the 71st.

The Lions then got back on the front foot. Meram volleyed a low drive off a corner kick cross but it hit a defender and deflected out for a corner. Kljestan then nearly got in all alone on a gorgeous ball over the top from Allen, but he couldn’t quite control the wet ball and it skipped away in the 73rd minute. In the 79th, a buildup ended up in front of Higuita, but the Colombian, who seemed to tire late in the game, couldn’t dig it out of his feet to take a shot.

Three minutes later, disaster struck.

Second-half sub Gordon, who came on at the break for Nemanja Nikolic, got the ball in space about 30 yards out and sent a rocket into the upper 90 to Bendik’s left. It was an unstoppable shot and very much against the run of play but that didn’t matter, as it allowed Chicago to win the game. It was the perfect storm, with a wounded and nearly immobile Schuler and the inexperienced Rocha defending, neither stepped up to close down Gordon and he made the Lions pay.

Needing a goal, and with some players tiring, Kreis sent on PC and Richie Laryea for Colmán and Higuita.

Meram nearly got through on goal in the 87th minute but there was too much traffic and he couldn’t get a clean shot away.

Two minutes later came one of the bigger talking points of the match as Kljestan tangled with Mo Adams at the top of the penalty area. It appeared that Sacha dragged Adams down but then the Fire midfielder brought his boot down on Kljestan’s face. Saghafi immediately showed a red card to Adams and after a few moments he booked Kljestan.

Kreis was incensed that no penalty was given, after the initial action resulted in a dead ball and the foul on Adams that earned the red took place in the area. He cited a conversation with the technical committee about a year ago on red card calls.

“Maybe I misremembered but I think it was specifically told to me that any red card that happens during a dead ball situation — where that red card violation is, that’s where the foul is awarded. So in my point of view, if there’s an ejectionable offense that happens in the penalty box, it’s a penalty.

“The explanation was that because Sacha fouled him first and received a yellow card, that was it. The player at that point can do whatever he wants to Sacha, pick up a red card, and then they get the ball back. Seems odd to me.”

Orlando got only one good look at goal in the five minutes of stoppage time, with Schuler playing up and getting a shot but it was blocked by the defense.

The whistle finally blew on Orlando’s third consecutive 2-1 defeat.

The Lions held 60% of the possession, passed at a 90% rate, and out-shot Chicago, 20-10 (5-4 on target) but had nothing to show for the match.

“I certainly can’t remember a night where I felt like we were more dominant with this club and maybe with any club,” said Kreis. “So you walk out of this night thinking how cruel this game can be, how cruel this job can be, and trying to grasp at the positives, for sure.”

“Soccer is about goals,” Higuita said. “We have to be more efficient.”

The Lions will find it difficult to stop the bleeding, as the next match is on the road at New York City FC next Saturday night in the baseball stadium.

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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

14 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

16 hours ago

on

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

20 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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