Orlando City vs. CF Montreal: Player Grades and Man of the Match

Orlando City was dominated north of the border as the Lions dropped a 4-1 result to CF Montreal. Three of the four goals came off of bad giveaways in the back during a poor showing in Canada. Even though the Lions scored a second-half goal, they were never a threat to claim any points in this one.

Here’s how I saw the individual performances in this tough loss.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 5.5 — Conceding four goals might seem like a poor showing from a goalkeeper, but Gallese kept the Lions in this game into the second half. The Peruvian made multiple big saves to keep the game scoreless and then within a goal during the first 45 minutes. Additionally, most of the goals weren’t his fault as bad giveaways put players in one-on-one with the goalkeeper. In the end, Gallese made six saves despite conceding four times.

D, Joao Moutinho, 5.5 (MotM) — Moutinho was very involved in this game, recording a team-high 79 touches. The left back completed 75% of his 56 passes and attempted two crosses, though neither was successful. However, he beat the Montreal defenders to get his head to a Mauricio Pereyra cross, making the game 2-1 in the 72nd minute. Defensively, Moutinho wasn’t as effective, recording one tackle and two interceptions in the game.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 5 — It was a tough task for the center backs in this game with Antonio Carlos out due to injury and Robin Jansson suspended. Schlegel was the veteran alongside his 17-year-old partner. The Argentine recorded three tackles, one interception, one clearance, and two blocked shots. On the attacking side, he completed 95.4% of his 43 passes and successfully completed four of his six long passes.

D, Thomas Williams, 4.5 — It was a tough game for the 17-year-old Homegrown product in his first senior team start. Williams ended the game with two tackles, one interception, and two clearances. However, he was mainly at fault for Montreal’s third goal in the 81st minute. First, Williams did well to shield Kei Kamara out of play, but gave up, thinking the ball was out. That allowed the hosts to recycle the play. Then he left Joaquin Torres with too much space, allowing the attacker to turn and put it past Gallese. Despite that poor sequence, Williams did complete 90.9% of his 44 passes and two of his four long balls.

D, Ruan, 4 — Ruan is either heavily involved in play or disappears. The right back was barely in this game, only recording 33 touches. In addition to one tackle and interception, he did have four clearances. Unfortunately, the Brazilian wasn’t very careful with the ball. He only completed 84.2% of his 19 passes, which included some poor giveaways in the back. This included an early giveaway that nearly resulted in the opening goal for Montreal.

MF, Sebas Mendez, 5 — While Mendez didn’t have a great game, he was far from the worst performer for the Lions. The defensive midfielder recorded 52 touches — tied for fourth on the team. He didn’t do anything offensively, but Mendez had two tackles to go with one interception, a clearance, and a blocked shot.

MF, Cesar Araujo, 5 — Araujo has been one of the best players for Orlando City this season, providing needed support to the center backs. However, he wasn’t very involved in this game. He had three more touches (55) than Mendez, but wasn’t that involved in the defense. He also only completed 84.1% of his 44 passes and had one incomplete long ball.

MF, Benji Michel, 3.5 — The only contribution Michel had in this game was giving up the first goal. The midfielder only touched the ball 15 times and none of them were threatening. He attempted six passes, but only completed three (50%). His main play came in the 21st minute, when he chested a Montreal corner kick facing his own goal. The ball went directly to Joel Waterman, who put it past Gallese for the opener. He was replaced by Jake Mulraney in the 57th minute, but it’s surprising Oscar Pareja let him go that long.

MF, Mauricio Pereyra, 5.5 — It wasn’t a great game by the Orlando City captain, but he did have a positive contribution. The Uruguayan had 46 touches and completed 83.8% of his 37 passes. However, he gave the Lions their lone key pass in the 72nd minute when his lovely cross met the head of Joao Moutinho for the team’s only goal. He contributed two tackles and a blocked shot, defensively.

MF, Facundo Torres, 4.5 — This was probably Torres’ worst game since joining Orlando City prior to this season. The Uruguayan international had 50 touches but only completed 69.7% of his 33 passes — the second-lowest pass completion percentage, behind Michel. The midfielder only attempted one unsuccessful cross and took one off-target shot. Torres is often depended upon to create chances for the Lions but he didn’t do that in this game.

F, Alexandre Pato, 4.5 — Similar to Torres and Michel, Pato was barely visible in this game. The forward only touched the ball 17 times and only attempted 10 passes. However, he did complete nine of those (90%). He was also dispossessed a team-high three times in this game.

Substitutes

MF, Jake Mulraney (57’), 5 — Mulraney came on for Michel in the 57th minute to provide some attacking punch but didn’t do much. He touched the ball 14 times but didn’t do much with it. The Irishman did complete eight of his 10 passses (80%) but none put the Lions into a dangerous position, though he did win the corner that led to Orlando’s only goal.

F, Ercan Kara (57’), 5 — In his 33 minutes on the field, Kara didn’t have the impact Pareja wanted. The Austrian striker came on for the ineffective Pato and wasn’t much better. He touched the ball 12 times and completed 80% of just five passes, but didn’t get off any shots. However, he did get involved on the defensive end with two clearances.

MF, Junior Urso (57’), 5 — Junior Urso came on for Mendez for the final 33 minutes. He had 12 touches in that time and completed 88.9% of his nine passes. Despite usually being a little more attacking, Urso helped out on the defensive end with one tackle and one interception.

MF, Andres Perea (76’), 3.5 — Perea came on for Pereyra in the 76th minute and only took eight minutes to make an impact — but it wasn’t the one that Orlando City was looking for. Just three minutes after Montreal made it 3-1, Perea mishandled an easy Williams pass, immediately giving it up to Zachary Brault-Guillard. A quick one-two with Torres set up a nice goal from a tough angle for Bault-Guillard, but Montreal wouldn’t have had the chance without the bad touch by Perea. The midfielder ended up with 12 touches and completed 87.5% of his eight passes, but that bad play was his primary contribution.

D, Kyle Smith (87’), N/A — Smith came on for Moutinho in the final minutes. He only had nine touches and completed 83.3% of his six passes. He also had a clearance but, already down 4-1, he wasn’t on the field enough to make a difference.

That’s how I saw the players’ performances in Orlando City’s 4-1 loss in Montreal. Let us know how you saw the game in the comments section and vote on your Man of the Match.

Polling Closed