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Orlando City vs. D.C. United: Final Score 2-1 as Lions Remain Winless at Home

Set piece defending did the Lions in against the league leaders.

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6 years ago

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Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Orlando City couldn’t rally from a 2-0 hole and eventually saw its comeback attempt fall short in a 2-1 home loss to league-leading D.C. United. The Lions conceded twice on set pieces in the first half and simply couldn’t convert enough chances to come from behind in front of 22,481 fans at Orlando City Stadium.

D.C. United (3-0-1, 10 points) won on the road at Orlando (1-2-2, 5 points) for the first time since 2015, snapping the Lions’ 3-0-1 home streak against the Black and Red. Dom Dwyer pulled a goal back in the second half and City had plenty of good scoring chances to equalize but just couldn’t put a second past Bill Hamid.

The game hinged on two set pieces and each had its share of controversy, although the second was by far the more questionable and it left Head Coach James O’Connor livid in his post-game press conference. Normally someone who downplays questions about officiating, O’Connor was visibly upset about the second goal in particular and it was clear that several of the controversial calls from last year are still on the coach’s mind.

“Since I’ve been here we’ve had it in game after game — Columbus away last year, D.C. had an incident, New York at the start of this year,” he said pounding the table in his postgame press conference. “How many more times? The players go out and give an incredible second-half performance — absolutely incredible — and yet we come off and we lose the game again through no fault of our own. How many more times?

“So for me, when I look at it, it’s like yeah we’ve got VAR, but why bother? They don’t even look. And you look at it and the whole stadium can see. It’s mind boggling stuff.”

O’Connor made only two changes from the starting lineup that won at New York last Saturday, inserting Lamine Sané in for the injured Alex De John and Dwyer for rookie Santiago Patino.

Before some fans had found their seats, the visitors were up 1-0. Robin Jansson was called for a handball out near the sideline on a wicked hard cross attempt that caught his arm on the way in. You know Orlando’s history with handball calls, so you can guess what happened next. D.C. scored on the ensuing free kick as Ruan was overmatched trying to defend Steve Birnbaum, who headed in the Wayne Rooney cross from point-blank range in the sixth minute.

“When you look at the first set piece, we’ve fallen asleep on the set piece,” O’Connor said.

Orlando City should have equalized almost immediately. Dwyer’s cross found a wide-open Nani in the eighth minute but the Portuguese star sent his thunderous header over the bar from less than 10 yards out, squandering an excellent scoring opportunity.

Nani got another header chance in the 17th minute off a corner kick but he sent the attempt straight at goalkeeper Bill Hamid.

D.C. doubled the lead in the 30th minute after a challenge in the corner gave United a free kick. Dwyer had gone out to hound Rooney and swiped at the ball with his right foot. Despite not making contact, Rooney immediately appealed to referee Armando Villarreal and was awarded a free kick.

After the match, Villarreal answered the pool reporter’s written questions about the foul and stated that he viewed Dwyer’s action as an attempt to kick Rooney — not the ball — and awarded the free kick. Although contact isn’t strictly required for a foul to be given, Villarreal avoided the question of whether he saw any contact by petulantly replying “see above answer.”

Rooney himself said Dwyer didn’t make contact with him on the play that led to the goal but he agreed with the referee’s decision of intent.

“I seen him coming and I got out the way because if I didn’t it could’ve been a serious injury and again, as the referee said, it’s intent,” Rooney said. “I’m not stupid enough to stand in there and let him take my knee off. I got out the way. By the way he come into the tackle he’s forced me to lose control of the ball, which is a free kick.”

Rooney set the ball several yards from where the foul was committed — near the corner at the sideline — and actually started his run-up from where the foul occurred, giving himself a little more leverage and a better angle on his delivery, then sent his free kick sailing directly into the net at the back post while Frederic Brillant bowled over Brian Rowe. Rowe would likely not have reached that ball regardless, but you still aren’t allowed to smash into the goalkeeper. Villarreal appeared to discuss the play with the VAR, but the play did not get reviewed.

“I think when you look at the second set piece, it’s embarrassing, really at this stage. I’m at a stage now when players need to be protected because when you look at the foul on Brian Rowe is so obvious. It goes to VAR. Everybody can see it. And for some reason we don’t…what’s the point of having VAR? He didn’t even go and look at it. Yet everyone can see that it’s a foul.”

“It’s unbelievable to be honest,” Dwyer said about the foul call that led to the goal. “After all the hard work we put in tonight, it’s sad we have to look back and that’s one of the turning points. I thought maybe having VAR would help the referees but it seems to be doing the opposite.”

The Lions had the last decent scoring chance of the half when Nani stepped into a shot in first-half stoppage time, but he sent his bullet right at Hamid, and the teams went to the break with the visitors holding a 2-0 lead.

Orlando out-shot D.C. 7-2 in the first half (3-2 on target) and held more of the possession (55%-45%). The visitors were slightly more accurate passers (82%-81%) in the opening half.

The Lions came out more aggressive in the second half, pushing more numbers up the field and just accepting that the occasional counter was the price to pay for trying to claw back into the game. D.C. got the first good opportunity of the second half. Luciano Acosta blasted a shot from above the box that Rowe tipped over the bar in the 49th minute.

From that point on, the game was almost all one-way traffic the other direction. Two minutes after Acosta’s chance, Dwyer sent a ball past Hamid that rolled agonizingly close to the back post but missed just wide. Joao Moutinho — who had a fantastic game at left wingback for City — was too far away to get there before it bounced out for a goal kick. A minute later, Moutinho fizzed a wicked cross through the area that was only an inch or two out of Dwyer’s reach. Moutinho’s attacks continued in the 54th minute with a cross/shot that floated over Hamid and just missed the upper 90 on the right side of goal.

D.C. should have put the game away in the 57th minute off a turnover but Junior Moreno hit the right post on a shot from just inside the top of the box. The ball deflected harmlessly out for a goal kick.

Two minutes later, O’Connor sent Chris Mueller and Sebas Mendez into the game and withdrew Sacha Kljestan and Uri Rosell, and it gave the Lions a big lift. Four minutes after the switch, Mueller took a pass from Nani and drove to the end line to the right of goal, then sent an inch-perfect pass across the six-yard box for Dwyer to head past Hamid, making it 2-1 in the 63rd minute. It was the first goal conceded by D.C. United this season.

“It was fantastic,” Dwyer said of the buildup to the goal. “I think Nani was great all game. Chris brought a tremendous amount of energy when he came on the field. He’s grown every single game. It was a fantastic ball in from him and I’ve just got to put it away and it was pretty simple.”

Orlando pushed hard for the equalizer, with Ruan getting his cross knocked out for a corner just a minute after Dwyer’s goal. The cloud of purple smoke had not yet cleared when Dwyer got a chance in the 65th minute, but he missed the net and all he could do was grab his head in dismay.

From there it was just more near misses the rest of the way. Mueller sent a shot wide in the 75th minute, cutting in from the right. Hamid fought off a Dwyer long-range shot in the 83rd. Jansson shot just wide off a corner kick that somehow landed in the box at his feet. Mueller capped it off with a stoppage-time shot off the left post and a shot just wide in the 93rd minute.

Orlando players collapsed after the final whistle, having done all they could to fight back and take something from the game, but in the end they just weren’t clinical enough in front of goal and they didn’t defend those first-half set pieces well enough.

The Lions out-shot D.C. 16-4 (5-3 on target) and out-possessed the visitors (54%-46%), also holding the edge in passing accuracy (78%-77%). But United leave with three huge points and Orlando is still looking for a home win in 2019 (0-1-2).

“I thought we had a fantastic performance. It’s a shame that the referees keep making a difference,” Dwyer said. “We’re upbeat. The group sees a lot of positives from tonight. We played very well. I think we had a lot of chances and we concede off two set pieces. That’s just how it goes. We’ve got to defend them a little bit better but there’s a lot of positives to take tonight.”

Lost in the shuffle was rookie Benji Michel making his debut, coming on for Nani, who appeared to come off complaining about his leg. He didn’t make much impact though, managing only six touches in his 12+ minutes.

Orlando City will again go for its first home win of 2019 on Saturday night when the Colorado Rapids come to town.

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Opinion

Orlando City’s Start to the Season a Pleasant Surprise So Far

The Lions have started the new season well enough, but we shouldn’t get too carried away just yet.

Published

11 hours ago

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April 18, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

While Orlando City didn’t have a ton of roster turnover to deal with during the off-season, it was really anybody’s guess as to what sort of start the Lions would make to the 2025 Major League Soccer season. There was obviously the loss of all-time leading goal scorer Facundo Torres to deal with, then Wilder Cartagena was lost for the year in preseason, although the club did a great job in landing Eduard Atuesta to replace him. There were also questions about depth at left back, center back, and central midfield. It was anyone’s guess on how Marco Pasalic would adjust to life in MLS, and there were serious questions about whether the Lions had enough firepower up front with Duncan McGuire unavailable to start the season while he recovered from shoulder surgery.

While the club returned the vast majority of the guys who played key roles in helping reach the Eastern Conference final, on paper, the roster didn’t improve and arguably got weaker, so was it truly realistic to expect the team to go a step farther and make the final this year?

Despite all of those concerns, and despite a confidence-shaking 4-2 opening game loss to the Philadelphia Union, Orlando has largely made a good start to the campaign. The Lions have compiled a respectable 3-2-3 record and have 12 points to show for it, currently sitting in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, six points behind the first-place Columbus Crew.

Even in the two losses, it’s hard to make the argument that OCSC played truly bad games on the whole. Rather, the Lions were undone by moments of bad defending and losses of concentration that led to silly mistakes, particularly against the Union. The shaky defending has certainly been one of the bigger concerns, especially on an Oscar Pareja-coached team, but things have begun to look better after keeping two straight clean sheets.

Ironically, even though the offense seemed to be most people’s biggest concern before the season started, it’s been the part of the team that has consistently functioned at the highest level. Before the two 0-0 draws, Orlando had scored the most goals in the league, and despite being held scoreless twice in a row, they still have the third-most goals scored. Out of OCSC’s six games played with a first choice XI, the Lions have scored more than one goal four times. Even in the games when they haven’t been as prolific, or have largely been on the back foot, the Lions have still managed to carve out a healthy number of chances. While their finishing has let them down at times, they’ve still managed to get several good looks at goal in every game, and that’s half the battle.

All in all, it’s been a perfectly respectable start to the season, and the team honestly has performed higher than my (probably slightly pessimistic) expectations. While the start hasn’t been white hot, it’s been nice to not see the sort of slow start that so often has seemed to plague this club during Pareja’s tenure at the helm.

That being said, I think it’s important to place the beginning of the year in the proper context. It’s worth noting that of the teams that Orlando has played to this point, Philadelphia is the only one currently above the playoff line (although the New York Red Bulls occupy the last play-in spot). The Lions have beaten an LA Galaxy team that is the worst in the West; Toronto FC, which is second from the bottom in the East; and D.C. United, which is third from the bottom in the East. They drew the fifth-place Union on the road, and lost to NYCFC at the baseball stadium. But it has to be said that Orlando has faced a noticeable lack of top shelf opponents so far.

Essentially, Orlando has played three bad teams, two decent ones, and one that started very well but has cooled off in recent weeks (twice). Of course, OCSC can’t do anything about that, but it’s worth asking if the solid start to the season is due to the Lions legitimately being a good team, or if it’s more of a paper tiger situation where they just haven’t had to play many tough opponents yet.

There isn’t really any way of knowing for sure, and there won’t be any hints for awhile. With the way the standings currently look, Orlando won’t face a team above the playoff line until they go up against Charlotte FC on the road on May 14. I don’t bring all of this up to try to dampen the mood, but I just don’t think we have a truly accurate idea of this team’s level yet. Which is fair and totally fine, after all we’re only eight games into the season.

That doesn’t mean that we can’t give OCSC its due for a solid start to the year. It hasn’t been perfect by any means, but the team has done more good than bad, and the Lions’ current place in the standings reflects that. We should still keep things in perspective and resist the urge to dole out too much praise just yet, but we can be happy with what we’ve seen so far.

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 4/18/25

Orlando City set to play the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Lions reach Generation Adidas Cup semifinals, Angel City hires Alexander Straus, and more.

Published

14 hours ago

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April 18, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Happy Friday! I hope today finds you well as we gear up for another Saturday filled with soccer to enjoy. I don’t have many plans this Easter weekend beyond working, catching soccer when I can, and playing Baldur’s Gate 3 for the first time if I find some spare hours. Let’s dive right into today’s links from around the soccer world!

Orlando City Learns U.S. Open Cup Opponents

Orlando City’s 2025 U.S. Open Cup campaign will begin on the road against the Tampa Bay Rowdies on May 7 at 7:30 p.m. in what will be the latest edition of the I-4 Derby. It will be Orlando’s first game of this year’s tournament, while the Rowdies joined in the previous round and got past FC Naples in penalties. The Rowdies have lost four of their five games so far this season in the USL Championship and fired Robbie Neilson as head coach earlier this month. The Lions also notably would have hosting priority if they reach the round of 16, where they will play either Nashville SC or the Chattanooga Red Wolves.

Here’s the full schedule for the round of 32, which includes some interesting matchups across the country. The Tacoma Defiance are the only MLS NEXT Pro side left and will face the Portland Timbers, while the New York Red Bulls will have a long road trip to take on the Colorado Springs Switchbacks.

Lions Advance to Generation Adidas Cup Semifinals

Orlando City’s U-18 team beat Real Salt Lake 1-0 in the Generation Adidas Cup to secure a spot in the semifinals. The Young Lions have won four of their five games of the tournament and will take on Santos Laguna in the semifinal on Saturday. The winner of that match will face whichever team becomes victorious in the other semifinal between Atlanta United and the Colorado Rapids.

The U-16 team’s run in the Premier bracket is also going strong after a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich, and Orlando will take on the New England Revolution in the semifinals on Saturday.

Angel City FC Hires Alexander Straus

Bayern Munich’s Alexander Straus was named Angel City FC’s next head coach and will officially join the club on June 1. The Norwegian coach has won back-to-back Bundesliga titles and has Bayern positioned well to make it three straight this season. He’ll join an Angel City team that’s unbeaten in its first four games of the season under interim head coach Sam Laity, who will stay on as an assistant coach once Straus joins.

Europa League Quarterfinals End In Dramatic Fashion

Old Trafford hosted one of the wildest games in Europa League history, with Manchester United and Lyon battling for a spot in the quarterfinals. United scored twice in the first half, then conceded twice in the second, sending the game to extra time. Lyon took the lead despite being a man down and then the teams traded penalty kicks as the madness continued. Casemiro orchestrated Manchester’s victory in the end, assisting on two late goals within a minute of each other to beat Lyon 5-4 and advance. This United fan pretty much sums up just how much of a rollercoaster this match was.

There was also drama in Italy, as Lazio came back in the second leg to force extra time against Bodo/Glimt. The match went to penalties and Bodo/Glimt goalkeeper Nikitka Haikin denied former New York City FC player Taty Castellanos from the spot to book his team’s place in the semifinals. Although Tottenham was without Son Heung-Min, it got the job done in a 1-0 road win against Eintracht Frankfurt, while Athletic Club beat Rangers 2-0 in Spain to advance as well. In the semifinals, Tottenham will face Bodo/Glimt and Manchester United will take on Athletic Club.

Free Kicks

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

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Orlando City

Orlando City at CF Montreal: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to earn all three points on the road against Montreal?

Published

1 day ago

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April 17, 2025

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City heads to the Great White North to take on CF Montreal. The Canadian squad sits in last place in not just the Eastern Conference but also the entire MLS, with only two points from a pair of draws. To say it’s not been a good start to the season is an understatement. Of course, it’s exactly that type of situation that makes it feel like a trap. What does Orlando City need to do to take all three points against CF Montreal?

Designated Goal Scorers

What do you do if you haven’t scored a goal in the last two matches? You play a team that has given up 13 goals in eight matches with a -9 goal differential. Montreal doesn’t have the worst defense in the league — I’m looking at you, D.C. United — but it’s not far off. That presents an opportunity for Orlando City to get back on track when it comes to scoring goals.

Through the first six matches of the season, Orlando City was leading the league in scoring with 15 goals. Over the last two matches, the spigot has dried up. The Lions must seize on this opportunity to create and finish their chances. Much like earlier in the season, I want to see Luis Muriel, Martin Ojeda, and Marco Pasalic lead the way. If anyone can get the first goal, then I’m hopeful the dam will break and the scoring drought will be over.

Keep it Clean

There is some good news of late when it comes to the Orlando City defense. The club has two clean sheets over the last two matches, and that is without Cesar Araujo. There is also some bad news, given Rodrigo Schlegel will be serving his red card suspension this match. That means David Brekalo will move back to center back with Robin Jansson, and Oscar Pareja will have to employ either Rafael Santos or Kyle Smith at left back. Santos has been less than good so far this season.

Montreal has scored a paltry four goals so far in 2025, but two of them have come from striker Prince Owusu. The defense will also need to deal with Caden Clark facilitating in the midfield. I get that this isn’t a prolific attack. Montreal has not looked very good this season and is looking for both its first win and its first points of any sort at home. That means the hosts may be desperate for a result, and desperate is often dangerous. How well the defense does — in particular, how well Santos does if he plays — may determine if Montreal is able to break out of its slump. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

Give the Midfield Time

Before the last match, I was a little worried about the midfield. Having both Araujo and Eduard Atuesta out at the same time seemed to be a concern. Now, after seeing how well Joran Gerbet and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson worked together against the New York Red Bulls, I’m way less worried. If Araujo and Atuesta need a little more time to get fully healthy, then let them. The Franco/Icelandic combo seems to be a potent one.

Of course, if the normal starters are ready, then by all means bring them back, but maybe not until the 60th minute. Perhaps Pareja could even mix and match. One never knows how yellow card suspensions or minor injuries will affect player availability. This is a good match for Gerbet and Thorhallsson to work their magic.

That is what I will be looking for Saturday night. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

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