PawedCast Episode 344: Columbus Rewind, New York City FC Preview, and More

Orlando City finally scored a couple of goals but, unfortunately, the Lions fell behind 2-0 before scoring them. The lads in purple went to Columbus for their third consecutive match away from the friendly confines of Exploria Stadium to take on the Crew. After falling behind 2-0 at the break, again without putting any shots on frame, the Lions started hitting the target. City had a much better second half and mirrored the hosts by scoring once in normal time and once in stoppage time. Ercan Kara and Duncan McGuire were the goal scorers but we made a unanimous Man of the Match pick for someone else.

After breaking down that draw against the Crew, we were joined by Andrew Leigh, senior editor over at Hudson River Blue, a New York City FC-centric blog. Like us, HRB was in the SBNation network and now must make a go of it independently. Andrew told us what he expects to see Wednesday and what he’s seen all season so far from NYCFC.

Following our chat with Andrew, we looked back at an OCB loss to Crew 2 that we wish we hadn’t seen. It was an ugly 4-0 affair and the Young Lions never seemed really in the match.

Our mailbagbox asked us to rate an Orlando City lineup that our own Ryan Smith came up with, to explain why the Lions aren’t hitting the target, and to enlighten folks as to how we determine player grades. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC.

Finally, we previewed Orlando City vs. New York City FC on Wednesday, providing our score predictions and discussing the key match-ups.

Here’s how No. 344 went down:

0:15 – Our breakdown of a tale of two halves in Columbus.

17:22 – Andrew Leigh enlightens us on the changes in NYC.

34:14 – An extended OCB Minute, our mailbagbox, and a look ahead at the Pigeons and our predictions for Wednesday night.