Two-Week Break Comes at a Good Time for Orlando City

We’re now six games into Orlando City’s 2023 season. The Lions have a record of 2-2-2 in Major League Soccer play, and also recorded a pair of draws against Tigres UANL in the Concacaf Champions League. OCSC has looked…okay through the first eight games of the year, but with six goals scored across those eight games, it hasn’t exactly been a flying start.

Granted, there are several valid explanations for the disjointed start to proceedings. Participation in the CCL meant that the Lions engaged in heavy squad rotation through the first five games of the season, and played the sixth game on short rest, albeit at home. Injuries to Antonio Carlos and Ercan Kara further complicated things, and then you also have two new starters acclimating at fullback, and several new faces being incorporated into the team on the offensive end.

The upshot of all this is that Orlando has swung from looking frighteningly toothless on the offensive end and frail defensively, to going toe to toe with Tigres across 180 minutes. It’s been extremely hard to get a read on this team, but there’s a prevailing sense that it hasn’t been performing as well as it could be. Frankly, that’s almost certainly fair. On paper, a team with Kara, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres, and Mauricio Pereyra in the lineup — although more like on the roster since the three have barely seen the pitch together — should be scoring more than it has, and the team’s two losses at home have been particularly frustrating to watch in terms of offensive play.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been encouraging signs, with the Lions scoring two excellent goals against the Philadelphia Union and creating some great chances against Nashville SC, especially the one that Ramiro Enrique could only fire right at Joe Willis. For the most part in the two home losses though, the Lions looked shorn of ideas once they got the ball into the final third and it hasn’t been fun to watch.

That’s why Orlando City not playing another game until April 15 might be exactly what the team needs. For one, it usually takes time for the amount of new pieces OCSC has to gel and become a cohesive unit, and Kara and Carlos missing time both during preseason and the regular season has cut into that time. With any luck, the 14-day break will not only allow everyone to get back to full fitness, but also enable the Lions to put in the time on the training ground to build the chemistry and familiarity needed to be successful in the final third.

With Kara and Carlos fully healthy, Orlando will finally be able to deploy a fully first choice starting XI for the first time this year. That in itself won’t automatically fix the issues that the Lions have encountered this year, but it certainly won’t hurt them either.