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

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6 years ago

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I’ll admit that I didn’t know what to expect from the lineup that Oscar Pareja sent out against Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. On the one hand, I knew he had to rotate the squad some, but it was a little surprising to see Tesho Akindele held out again and for Mauricio Pereyra not to be available off the bench if needed. The linchpin in the middle of the attack was Junior Urso and both of his wingers and his forward were young guys. The lineup didn’t seem like one that would go on to score three goals and narrowly miss on a couple other opportunities, but it got the job done.

Let’s look at the individual performances from an exciting 3-1 road win.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 7 — El Pulpo faced only four shots on target and he made a wicked save on the first of those, robbing Brooks Lennon blind in the eighth minute. He made a couple of comfortable saves and was sharp in reacting to a long-range Ezequiel Barco blast that may have been able to sneak in under the bar. There weren’t a ton of opportunities for him to flash, owing largely to his back line and defensive midfield, but when he did, he had it covered. There wasn’t much he could do about Lennon’s looping header late in normal time. However, there may have been an opportunity for him to do more to call off Joao Moutinho and avoid what could end up being a critical injury. Mendez nodded down a ball that Gallese easily could have reached and picked up, but Moutinho smashed an emphatic clearance and hurt himself on the play. It appeared Gallese was shouting at him but, whether he couldn’t get through to the Portuguese left back or Moutinho simply didn’t want to take chances, is unclear. Better communication there would have avoided what might turn out to be a costly injury for the Lions.

D, Joao Moutinho, 6.5 — It was another good night for Moutinho, although with the short turnaround he didn’t get forward nearly as much as we’re used to seeing. He defended well, finishing with three clearances. He passed well (85.4%) and went 4/5 on long balls. He won two aerials, including one on a Brad Guzan free kick that ended up going the other way for Chris Mueller’s goal. He also helped put out a fire early in the second half by helping stop Pity Martinez from getting in alone. Now we wait and hope his injury isn’t serious.

D, Robin Jansson, 6.5 — The beefy Swede bounced back after conceding in each of the last two matches. He wasn’t asked to do as much building out of the back and had more of a green light to knock the ball away in this one, but he still passed at an 85.7% rate and completed one of his two long-ball attempts. He made one tackle — a vital one in the 49th minute to deny a breakaway — and three clearances, and tried to tuck a flick inside the back post on his one shot but it skipped just wide.

D, Antonio Carlos, 6.5 — Carlos returned to the lineup after a match off and was steady, if unspectacular. He gave up a dangerous free kick late in the game and was reviewed for a potential penalty in stoppage time, but was otherwise solid. He had a co-team-high five clearances and two interceptions, with 80% passing and 2/2 long-ball accuracy. He got hung up a bit in traffic on an Orlando free kick, which kept him from being able to get his lone shot attempt on frame.

D, Kyle Smith, 6.5— Smith led the team in touches (65) and, despite conceding three free kicks — including two dangerous ones — did a fairly solid job slotting in for Ruan. He finished with one key pass, a dribble, three tackles, three interceptions and tied Carlos with five clearances. He might have gotten a higher grade if not for the 76.3% passing rate, long ball inaccuracy (2/7), and the trouble he had getting in crosses (and having his one cross attempt blocked by the first defender). He shifted to the left side, just inside Kamal Miller, late in the match when Orlando went to five in the back to see out the match.

MF, Uri Rosell, 6.5 — The Lions have been quietly getting a fantastic year from the Spaniard. Rosell ran his tail off and connected the lines as usual, doing the little things the team needs but which don’t typically get the glory. His 86.8% passing rate was best on the team and he connected on 3/6 long balls. He won two tackles with an interception and a clearance before making way in the second half for Sebas Mendez.

MF, Andres Perea, 6.5 — The Colombian teenager had a mixed night but it was a workmanlike effort that could have been a lot more glorious. He led Orlando in tackles won (4), and passed well (82.8%), hitting 1/2 on crosses and 1/2 on long balls, and creating two scoring chances. Perea absolutely should have scored in the 42nd minute, getting a free running header on the back side after a good job of Orlando disguising its corner kick strategy. Two runners cleared everyone out and all Perea had to do was hit the target, but instead it went wide.

MF, Chris Mueller, 8.5 (MotM) — The Money Badger was outstanding and even though he could have shared this honor with Urso, for me he just nips this award by a whisker. But rather than me spelling out everything about his accurate set piece delivery, smart decisions on passing and continuing runs, and his endless energy, let’s hear from someone else:

Plus, it was Mueller’s birthday, so that should break the tie anyway, right?

MF, Junior Urso, 8.5 — The Bear was about as good as Mueller in this match, and in his postgame comments he said he wanted to show who Junior Urso is, and that he thought he played his best in this match. It’s hard to argue. Urso was snakebit on his shot attempts Wednesday but powered a header through Brad Guzan on the early corner for his first goal. He won the ball back with his tenacity, with two tackles, an interception, and one clearance defensively. He passed at an 81.3% rate and went 2/2 on long balls. But his best play of the night came shortly after Atlanta pulled within a goal. He pressured Martinez, stole the ball, and fed Nani for an easy finish to put the Five Stripes away. Fantastic night for the Bear.

MF, Benji Michel, 6.5 — I’ve used this score a lot in this piece but it’s my honest opinion. Early in the game, I honestly thought Michel looked a step slow in closing down or getting to loose balls, and a half a tick slow to react. But he turned that around nicely. He made a huge heads-up play to find Mueller for the easy tap-in on the second Orlando goal to earn his assist. He passed at an 83.3% rate and was 2/3 on long-ball accuracy. He didn’t register a shot attempt but he chipped in two tackles and a clearance on the defensive end.

F, Daryl Dike, 6 — The rookie didn’t score a goal for the first time when starting an MLS match but he was a factor. He kept the center backs occupied, won a couple of corner opportunities and fired two shots. Dike doesn’t officially get credit for a key pass but he is the one who slipped Michel in on the play that ended in Mueller’s goal and picked up the hockey assist. He only passed at a 72.7% rate and struggled with his touch a few times, but for playing his third match in eight days, he still looked good. He hustles and even chipped in a pair of clearances on the defensive end.

Substitutes

MF, Nani (62’), 7 — While the captain’s passing wasn’t great (66.7%), it was on only 12 attempts and he registered a key pass. He was whistled for three fouls but two of them were attempts to waste time with Atlanta in possession and one was complete crap — he had just been elbowed in the mouth by Cubo Torres before preventing the Atlanta forward from reaching a ball going out of play. That should have been an Orlando free kick. As we saw with Dike on Wednesday, nobody makes the Lions bleed their own blood (nobody!). Nani finished off Atlanta by getting into position for Urso’s assist late. It was Nani’s only shot attempt. He also added a tackle and a blocked shot.

MF, Sebas Mendez (62’), 6 — The big contribution from Mendez was to provide fresh legs for Rosell and continue his strong work in the midfield. He did that, with the Ecuadorian winning three tackles. He passed at an uncharacteristic 70% but that was on only 10 attempts and at a time in the game when the team had an “anywhere will do” mentality.

MF, Ruan (74’), 5 — I thought Ruan would be the player to finish off Atlanta, bringing on that speed late in the game with the hosts pushing forward, but the Brazilian Flash was quiet in his reserve role. None of his three pass attempts found its mark. His only defensive stat was a clearance and he attempted one shot, which was off target.

D, Kamal Miller (78’), N/A — The Canadian came on in relief of Moutinho after the injury. He got abused a bit by Jurgen Damm on Atlanta’s goal but managed only five touches. Despite being on for 22 minutes (10 of it stoppage time), it is difficult to assign a grade for the performance and I’m going to hide behind N/A on this one, as is my prerogative.

That’s the way I saw things in the Lions’ first win over Atlanta. Be sure to vote in the poll below for your pick for Man of the Match and if you have some disagreements, let me hear it in the comments section below.

Polling Closed

PlayerVotes
Pedro Gallese3
Uri Rosell10
Chris Mueller35
Junior Urso90
Nani0
Other2

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Orlando City

Why Three Could Be Greater Than Four In Orlando City’s Back Line

An analysis of MLS teams using three, four, and five-man back lines and whether it would benefit Orlando City to use a three-man grouping going forwards.

Published

48 minutes ago

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April 16, 2026

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Orlando City starting lineup vs New York Red Bulls
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City rolled out a three-man back line during last Sunday night’s game against Columbus, and while that formation alone is not responsible for the Lions leading for most of the game and getting their first point of the season on the road, it definitely played a role. During the Óscar Pareja era, Orlando City nearly always played with a four-man back line, but with a lot of roster turnover from last season and new leadership on the sideline, it could be time to give the three-man group a look, as the Lions try to climb out from the bottom of the standings and make the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season.

We will explore whether a three-man back line is worth pursuing below, but making the playoffs is definitely a five-star idea and highly recommended.

Soccer back lines, and formations in general, are fluid. Baseball is static before every play, so you can see exactly where every fielder (defender) was and evaluate offensive and defensive performances against shifts or alignments. American football is not exactly static, but it is closer to baseball than soccer, with most players being still as the play is initiated. Soccer is most similar to hockey, basketball, and lacrosse, where even though players are nominally playing set positions, those positions can constantly change throughout a play and throughout the entirety of the game.

That said, most players generally play in a specific position for much of the game, so we can look at some tracking data and make generalizations about the formations. Opta’s tracking analysts list a primary formation for each team in every game, and while it is not perfect, it is correct more often than not for the general formation used by that team in that game.

Opta’s tracking on fbref.com gives the following table for every formation used in MLS play so far this year, and I have added the associated points earned, goals scored, and goals allowed by each team while in that formation. Make sure you are taking the formation with somewhere between a grain of salt and the bottom third of the salt shaker, but this is the unedited data:

FormationGames UsedAvg. Points EarnedAvg. Goals ForAvg. Goals Allowed
4-2-3-1771.581.741.44
4-3-3481.351.671.65
4-4-2320.970.841.41
3-4-3301.471.571.83
3-5-271.431.571.57
5-4-141.251.250.75
4-1-4-131.331.671.33
3-4-1-231.672.001.67
3-5-1-113.004.003.00
4-4-1-110.000.003.00

I think it is probably easier to just bucket the different formations into simpler sets, using the number of defenders to segment the formations:

Back LineGames UsedAvg. Points EarnedAvg. Goals ForAvg. Goals Allowed
Three-man411.511.661.81
Four-man1611.381.531.50
Five-man41.251.250.75

Most teams in MLS, and also around the world, utilize four-player back lines. Coaches are pragmatists, and some combination between using a lineup that feels more secure (i.e. usually one with more defenders) and one that will not get ridiculed by players, pundits, fans, owners, and writers (the audacity of someone to analyze and comment on lineup choices, how dare they?) drives a hefty portion of the decision making for those making lineup decisions.

Orlando City used a three-man back line in the game against Columbus, though there were parts of the game when it looked much more like a five-man back line with Griffin Dorsey and Iván Angulo dropped all the way back on defense. The sofascore.com heatmaps for all five (Angulo, David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Iago, and Dorsey) are listed below in order from left to right, and you can see where all five have a good amount of touches in the defensive third. Angulo and Dorsey played far higher than the middle three, however, which is why the formation Opta assigned to Orlando City was a back three. Imperfect, but directionally it makes sense.

Heat maps of Orlando City's defensive players against Columbus.

With the players on the current roster, a back three may well be the right lineup to use until the next transfer window. There is a not a lot of blazing speed among Orlando City’s defensive group, but most of the defenders have decent size and are good in the air, so protecting the heart of the defense with Brekalo, Jansson, and Iago as the starters and Adrián Marín and Tahir Reid-Brown as backups gives the team some decent depth without sacrificing size. Alas, this comes one year too late for former Lion Thomas Williams, who probably would have been better suited to a back three than a back four.

In addition to having a good set of center back candidates, Angulo, Dorsey, Zakaria Taifi, and Marín are all good wingback options as well, and players who have the skills and pace to get up into the attack while also recovering back to help out the defensive line.

Orlando City’s current personnel fits the three-man back line well, and considering most teams in MLS are using four-man back lines, that decision also bodes well considering how three-man back lines have done this season when playing against four- or five-man back lines. Three-man back lines have been used against four- or five-man back lines 31 times thus far this season, and those teams are earning 1.58 points per match during those games. That amount of points per match would have been in the top half of MLS last season (13th), right above the actual 2025 Orlando City team, which finished on 1.56 points per match.

Orlando City hosts Houston this weekend, and the Dynamo have primarily used a four-man back line (featuring former Lion Antonio Carlos) thus far this season. On Saturday night we will see if the three-man back line was just for the Columbus game or if it is something that the Lions will trot out again in hopes of continuing the league-wide trend of teams finding success when playing three in the back against teams playing four in the back.

I do not really care whether it is three or four in the back, as long as that by the end of the game Orlando City has done better than Houston at putting more in the back…of the opposition’s net.

Vamos Orlando!

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Houston Dynamo: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to earn all three points against the Dynamo this weekend?

Published

3 hours ago

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April 16, 2026

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Image of Eduard Atuesta looking for a teammate to pass to.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City returns home to Inter&Co Stadium to take on the Houston Dynamo on Saturday. The Lions are coming off a 1-1 draw against the Columbus Crew on Sunday, and a 1-0 road win against FC Naples in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday in a busy week. Hopefully, Orlando City can keep the good time rolling with another positive result this weekend. What must the Lions do to earn all three points against Houston Saturday night?

The Midfield (Part 1)

Houston has a pretty good midfield with Hector Herrera, Mateusz Bogusz, and Lawrence Ennali. Ennali has two of the Dynamo’s 10 goals this season. Controlling these players and thus controlling possession in the middle of the pitch will make a difference in how the match plays out. Braian Ojeda and Eduard Atuesta are not midfield destroyers and that has hurt Orlando City this season. If at all possible, the Lions need to be more physical in the defensive midfield to limit Houston’s ability to build the attack.

More on Herrera: In his first stint with the Dynamo he was a Designated Player and considered one of the best midfielders in the league. He helped lead Houston to a U.S. Open Cup title in 2024. Despite having only played limited minutes this season, he already has two assists and will present problems in the midfield.

The Midfield (Part Deux)

Traffic flows both ways on a soccer pitch, and while Orlando City hasn’t been good about taking on and stopping attacks in the defensive midfield, the players have also struggled to break through the opposition’s lines. This has been in large part due to very poor passing, and I’m not certain how to fix “stop passing the ball to the opponent,” but that is what the team will need to do.

Having Robin Jansson as the safety outlet for the others on the back line, and by extension the midfield, helps, as does his ability to send accurate long balls down the field. It would also be good if the rest of the players could connect on their passes. Not only will it allow Orlando City to move the ball down the pitch and connect the defense to the attack, but it will limit the amount of time Houston is on the ball. Passing shouldn’t be a key I write about, but here we are.

Finish Them

Orlando City struck first against the Columbus Crew and then wasted every other chance — that is, while there were chances still being created. It was like a switch was turned off. “Hey, we got a goal. Let’s go back to how we were playing when we weren’t scoring goals,” is how I think it went. That cannot happen against Houston — or any team for that matter. I’m not even talking about how sometimes a team will get more defensive with a lead, or the other team makes adjustments. There was some sort of mentality switch, and it needs to be fixed.

If Orlando City is able to score first, then someone needs to get a second goal. The Lions have only scored two goals in a match twice this season. The first was against Inter Miami, and we know what happened in that one. The other time was against CF Montreal — Orlando City’s only win so far. Houston isn’t as good as Miami but is probably better than Montreal. My point is the Lions most likely need multiple goals to win this match, and it starts with finishing.

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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Lion Links

Lion Links: 4/16/26

Orlando City wins against FC Naples, U.S. Open Cup results, USWNT takeaways following loss, and more.

Published

6 hours ago

on

April 16, 2026

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

This Thursday might feel a little more like a Friday thanks to Orlando City winning a game last night. Sure, it was more like the Lions failed to complete an implosion, but we’ll take what we can get at this point. Another MLS match is on the horizon this weekend, so if you crafted any lucky charms, make sure to keep them out for a few more days. Let’s get to the links!

Orlando City Wins U.S. Open Cup Match

It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but Orlando City went on the road and beat FC Naples 1-0 in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to advance to the round of 16. The Lions opted for a fairly young roster to start and managed to take the lead in the first half. The defense started to fall apart as the match wore on, but it managed to hold on by a matter of inches against the USL League One side for its first clean sheet of the year. Orlando is the last Floridian team standing in the tournament and its next match will be on the road against the New England Revolution on either April 28 or 29.

MLS Mostly Avoids Cupsets in Round of 32

There weren’t too many shocking results in the round of 32 of this year’s U.S. Open Cup, with the MLS clubs taking care of business for the most part. Charlotte FC crushed the Charlotte Independence 6-0, the Columbus Crew shut out the Richmond Kickers in a 3-0 win, and the New York Red Bulls beat the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 3-1. St. Louis City and the Houston Dynamo also cruised to comfortable wins. D.C. United was defeated though, losing the penalty shootout to One Knoxville SC after a thrilling game. Last year’s tournament didn’t include any teams from outside MLS in the quarterfinals. The Colorado Springs Switchbacks and Louisville City also managed to take down their MLS opponents earlier this week, so we’ll see if they can keep making noise later this month.

Takeaways From USWNT Loss to Japan

The United States Women’s National Team lost 1-0 to Japan in the second of three friendlies between the two this month, snapping its 10-game win streak. Head Coach Emma Hayes went with a young roster, with 20-year-old midfielder Claire Hutton becoming the team’s youngest captain since 2001. The team’s inexperience showed at times, particularly when it came to struggling to produce chances despite plenty of possession, but these were valuable minutes against one of the top teams in the world. We’ll see how the team responds on Friday when the two play again in Denver.

UEFA Champions League Semifinals Set

Only four teams remain in the UEFA Champions League after an exciting series of quarterfinals. Bayern Munich advanced after beating Real Madrid 4-3 in a rollercoaster of a match that included five goals in the first half. Arda Guler had a brace within the first 30 minutes, but Bayern kept things close and then scored two late goals after Eduardo Camavinga was shown a red card in the 86th minute. The match between Arsenal and Sporting was a quieter affair, with Arsenal advancing on aggregate after a scoreless draw.

The semifinals don’t feature any teams from the same country and should be a fun round of matches. Atletico Madrid will square off against Arsenal, while Bayern will play against Paris Saint-Germain.

Free Kicks

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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