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Orlando City vs. D.C. United: Final Score 5-3 as Lions Embarrassed at Home

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2 years ago

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D.C. United came in as one of the league’s most disappointing teams and was streaking the wrong way with no wins in six games, but that all changed in a 5-3 win over Orlando City at Exploria Stadium. United (5-9-2, 17 points) won for the first time since May 7, and got only its second road win of the season, while Orlando (7-7-4, 25 points) fell back below .500 at home (4-5-0) despite trying to stage a dramatic comeback from a 3-0 deficit.

Taxi Fountas scored a hat trick in the first 51 minutes of the game to put his team comfortably ahead and although the Lions rallied twice to get within a goal, continued mistakes in transition allowed D.C. to just keep scoring. Kimarni Smith and Nigel Robertha each scored their first goal of the season to offset the comeback attempt started by Facundo Torres, which also saw Ercan Kara and Alexandre Pato get on the scoresheet.

“Difficult result,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “Today in the first half we looked disconnected and I really gotta take that responsibility. Obviously we didn’t like that 25 minutes. I think this is the moment where I have to take responsibility. I think today they showed the spirit that they have as a group, just trying to bounce back and I have to review it well. I have to help them.”

Pareja’s lineup included Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Kyle Smith, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Ruan. Sebas Mendez joined Junior Urso in central midfield behind an attacking line of Jake Mulraney, Mauricio Pereyra, and Pato, with Kara up top.

The Lions played the first half like they thought the game started at 7:30 rather than 7 p.m., falling down two goals inside of the game’s first eight minutes. Fountas scored both goals easily, taking crosses in from D.C.’s right flank as United players abused Smith, beating him repeatedly.

Ruan sent in an early cross that a defender got a piece of, which unfortunately sent it to goalkeeper Rafael Romo and kept it away from Kara, who was crashing the net in the second minute. Shortly after that, D.C. seized control.

Drew Skundrich discarded Smith and fed a pass to Chris Durkin on the right side of the box. Durkin picked out Fountas, who was unattended and he picked, and hit, his spot, to make it 1-0 in the fifth minute.

Three minutes later, a simple ball over the top found Michael Estrada, who received only token resistance from Smith on his way into the box. He picked out Fountas, who shrugged off Schlegel and tapped home to make it 2-0.

The Lions didn’t exactly respond but they did get a shot off in the 11th minute, as Urso fired an effort that was blocked. Three minutes later, Smith got forward into space and had a go from distance but he scuffed his shot badly and it dribbled in meekly on goal.

The best chance came in the 21st minute when Urso got an open look in the box but Romo made a good save. The Lions put the ball in the net in the 24th minute off a set piece but it was waved off on an obvious foul on Kara, who made contact with the keeper, preventing him from making the easy catch.

Orlando had a couple more chances before halftime. Pato found space just outside the area twice but both times he tried to really smash the ball and got under it, sending it into the stands. Mulraney had a great opportunity in first-half stoppage time but the ball was bouncing and he couldn’t get on top of it, sending another chance into the seats.

The Lions dominated possession (73%-27%), but the early two goals dictated that, as United felt comfortable staying organized on defense and forcing Orlando to earn its way through, which didn’t happen often. Orlando also had more shots (8-4), shots on target (3-2), corners (5-2), and passing accuracy (89.5%-62.7%). Despite the statistical advantages, the scoreboard showed much different story.

Orlando fashioned a scoring chance right after the restart. Pereyra fed Kara into the area on the left and the big Austrian evaded the goalkeeper, but he couldn’t get his shot on frame from the tight angle.

Five minutes later, Fountas put the game away on a set piece. Schlegel fouled Durkin near the left corner of the box and Julian Gressel lined up over it, tapping it to his right at the whistle. Fountas smashed a shot though Orlando’s disorganized wall and inside Gallese’s near post to make it 3-1 in the 51st minute.

It was only after going down three that the Lions started to make a game of it. Pato was sent down the right and had Kara breaking but he hit his cross too softly and Romo caught it. A minute later, Kara smacked a shot off the right post in the 55th minute.

Torres put the Lions on the board two minutes later. Taking a pass from Pereyra to his right, Torres moved to the middle and fired a shot that gave Romo no chance. Orlando had finally broken through in the 57th minute.

“I’m a player that likes to shoot from outside the box, especially when I’ve got a little space,” Torres said through a club translator. “When I got it outside the box, there was space, and I didn’t have any problem shooting.”

Gallese made a huge save on Estrada in the 60th minute to keep Orlando in the match.

Jansson then sent a perfect ball to Torres in the 64th minute down the right and the Uruguayan did well to take it down and send Ruan down the right, but the speedy Brazilian made a mess of his cross. However, the Lions pulled another goal back two minutes later.

Ruan was fouled near the corner flag by Brad Smith and Torres took the set piece. He fizzed a dangerous cross in that Kara met in midair and headed home to make it 3-2 in the 66th minute. It was Kara’s seventh goal of the season.

It seemed it was suddenly game on. Ruan won a corner when his cross attempt was cut out but the Lions could do nothing with it. Just after that, Pato and Benji Michel tried to work a passing sequence that didn’t come off and D.C. recovered, leading to the winning goal. Skundrich sent the ball to Smith, breaking behind the Orlando defense and he slotted it past Gallese to increase the advantage to 4-2.

Tesho Akindele came on for Ruan to add more attacking players to the mix and in the 78th minute, a ball in found Michel on the right. He headed the ball toward goal and it hit the outstretched arm of Brendan Hines-Ike. Referee Allen Chapman immediately pointed to the spot and then went over to look at the replay. After a short review, he came back and confirmed the penalty would be taken. Pato stepped up to the spot and hit it high to the left to pull Orlando to within 4-3 in the 80th minute.

The Lions had a golden opportunity to equalize in the 84th minute just after a corner kick. Jansson ended up picking up a loose ball near the top of the box and firing a shot that Romo blocked. The ball was just sitting in front of goal and Jansson ran toward the rebound but he couldn’t make contact with it and the chance evaporated. Seconds later, Akindele took a pass on the left side of the box. Romo came well off his line and blocked the shot to preserve D.C.’s lead.

Bad luck struck moments later when Pereyra pulled up after jumping up to catch a ball to take a throw-in quickly and he was subbed off for Jack Lynn. Pereyra will be evaluated Tuesday to determine the extent of the injury.

The Lions gave up a series of throw-ins in their own end as the seven minutes of stoppage time wound down and disaster struck on the last one. Cesar Araujo picked up a loose ball in the corner and tried to outlet to a teammate near the middle. Unfortunately, his pass went straight to Robertha, who sent the clinching goal past Gallese in the 96th minute.

Orlando ended up with a huge advantage in possession (72.9%-27.1%), corners (9-2), passing accuracy (88.1%-62.1%), and shots (19-9), and a slim advantage in shots on target (8-6). Nevertheless, a leaky transition defense proved costly. United entered the match with 18 goals scored in 16 games but exploded for five on this night in Orlando. That was plenty to offset the Lions’ biggest offensive output in a match this season — three goals.

“The second half was much better. We looked more like us,” Pareja said. “But the first two goals they took us in bad spots and that’s the price today.”

“It’s something that we need to fix,” Torres said of the team’s slow starts. “It’s frustrating, knowing that that’s been something that’s been hurting us right now. And we’re missing that consistency in our game. We’ve seen it. We need to continue tracking back defensively and make sure that we’re helping out.”

The Lions will try to bounce back this Saturday when Tropic Thunder rival Inter Miami visits Exploria 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.

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12 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 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

14 hours ago

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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: 11/21/24

Marta’s chance to shine in NWSL Championship, NWSL and MLS award winners announced, 2025 SheBelieves Cup details, and more.

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18 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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