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Orlando City vs. New York Red Bulls: Final Score 3-0 as Lions Played Off Their Own Pitch

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3 years ago

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Orlando City’s three-game winning streak in all competitions came to a crashing halt, as the team’s worst performance of the year resulted in a 3-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls at Exploria Stadium. The Lions (4-3-2, 14 points) were second best from the jump, had no sense of urgency or precision, lacked ideas, were careless with the ball, and were generally played off the pitch by New York (4-2-2, 14 points), which moved into second place in the Eastern Conference with the win. Luquinhas, Cristian Casseres, and Lewis Morgan scored the goals for New York.

Orlando has now lost three straight games to the Red Bulls and the loss drops the Lions to 5-9-2 in the all-time series. The Lions were so comprehensively outplayed that they attempted just three shots in 90+ minutes and failed to get a single one on frame.

“Obviously very disappointed with the result,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “When we compete, we are trying to get a result, but more than that, I thought our performance, where I’m fully responsible, was far from our normal one. I thought New York outplayed us today and I have to accept that they were much better than us.”

“This is the worst game for us and this is difficult to understand now,” captain Mauricio Pereyra said. “Sometimes everything that you plan is good and it’s perfect and you get the result and you get the good soccer. Today it wasn’t like that.”

Pareja’s lineup included Pedro Gallese in net behind a back line of Joao Moutinho, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Ruan. Cesar Araujo and Junior Urso played central midfield behind an attacking line of Facundo Torres, Mauricio Pereyra, and Alexandre Pato, with Ercan Kara up top.

Neither team got much going in the first 20 minutes. The Red Bulls came in looking to make it an ugly game and succeeded, committing fouls and being physical all over the pitch. Ruan got run over from behind and stepped on by Ashley Fletcher in the early going but got only a foul call and a warning. He later received another warning just before the first-half water break and finally got his yellow card just after the restart on what might have been his third bookable offense.

Orlando City moved too slowly and deliberately the entire first half and, as a result, the Lions spent most of the half penned in their own half. New York punished any off-line or poorly weighted ball by taking it the other way in transition.

That’s exactly how the Lions conceded the game’s first goal in the 26th minute. Several Orlando City players were caught up field and no one seemed particularly eager to get back defensively as the Red Bulls came forward. No one closed down Luquinhas at the top of the area and he slotted a well-placed ball just inside the left post to make it 1-0.

The chippy play continued as New York simply took fouls any time Orlando seemed to have even the slightest thing going offensively. That ended up in a double yellow card situation late in the first half, with Luquinhas and Morgan each getting booked on a play when Kara was knocked down to deny a counter opportunity.

Gallese made a huge save on Fletcher late in the half to keep it 1-0 at the break.

Orlando City held 62.8% of the first-half possession to New York’s 37.2% but most of that was kicking it around the back trying to figure out how to attack the Red Bulls’ 3-5-2 formation and press. The Lions were also the more accurate passing team (79.9%-65.8%), but New York had more shots (9-0), shots on target (3-0), and corners won (2-0) with the Lions seldom possessing the ball in the attacking half.

Pareja sent Benji Michel and Thomas Williams into the match at the break to change the shape. But a poor pass from Ruan in the attacking half allowed the Red Bulls a transition opportunity and the visitors doubled the lead just moments after the game resumed. New York broke toward goal with numbers and Casseres ended up in front of Gallese with the ball. El Pulpo made a great initial save but Casseres tapped in the rebound to make it 2-0 in the 48th minute.

Orlando looked to have a decent counter opportunity in the 54th minute, with the ball ending up at Michel’s feet in the box. Michel lost his balance and went down, shouting for a penalty but there was nothing in the challenge.

Araujo finally gave Orlando a shot attempt in the 60th minute, launching a shot well off target from outside the area.

Schlegel got his head to a Ruan cross in the 72nd minute on a recycled set piece but his shot was just wide and Carlos Coronel looked to have it covered.

The Red Bulls added a third after referee Alex Chilowicz went to video review and determined that Rodrigo Schlegel was guilty of a handball in the box. Schlegel went up for a 50/50 challenge but the ball cleared his head by inches. The attacking player in behind him appeared to head the ball into Schlegel’s arm and there’s little doubt nothing would have come of the play. But Chilowicz ruled in New York’s favor and Lewis Morgan scored from the spot for the final margin of victory.

Rookie Jack Lynn was given a cameo appearance late and made his MLS debut but the match was over and the Lions were cooked.

“It was a moment I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, so I was ecstatic to get on the field, but you know what’s important is getting the three points,” Lynn said after his debut. “So, it’s always a little bit of a gut punch when we don’t get that.”

New York finished with more shots (17-3), shots on target (6-0), and corners (4-1), while Orlando City held more possession (64.2%-35.8%) and passed more accurately (80.8%-62.8%). But the Lions did nothing with that possession, passing sloppily and lazily all game long and falling into the traps the Red Bulls wanted them to walk into.

“We knew already how New York plays and we prepared in the week some plan, and we couldn’t do it in a good way,” Pereyra said. “I think we we didn’t have many positive things today. We know that this is maybe the worst game that we played in the season. Even the other games that we lost, we created many chances and we played so good, and today is the exception because we didn’t play and we didn’t create any chances.”

“We were outplayed, really,” Pareja reiterated. “The first step that we need to recognize today is that we couldn’t put together the soccer that we normally play because with their intensity they destroyed any idea that we wanted. And basically with recovering the ball in the middle third they started just creating their sequences and tried to create their chances. We were not connected. It’s not that they had more energy but they had more ideas up front too, and I thought it was a fair result.”

The Lions remain at home for their next match when Charlotte FC visits Exploria Stadium for the first time ever.

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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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5 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

7 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

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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10 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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