Orlando City vs. New York City FC: Five Takeaways

Orlando City continued its busy month of May with a home matchup against New York City FC at Exploria Stadium. The Lions got off to about as good a start as they could have hoped for, but things wouldn’t stay that way and the good guys ultimately had to settle for just a point after a 1-1 draw with the Pigeons. What follows are my five big takeaways from a frustrating night for Orlando.

Lions Start Quickly

Given Orlando City’s struggles at home this year, the atmosphere could have gotten anxious very quickly if the Lions had started sluggishly. Fortunately, that proved to not be the case at all. Just seven minutes into the game, Robin Jansson played an excellent ball over the top, and from that Facundo Torres and Gaston Gonzalez had some great interplay which resulted in Gonzalez sending a first-time cross into the box. Ercan Kara got in between two markers and scored his third goal in the last four games. It helped to settle any potential nerves and was an excellent reminder of what the team is capable of offensively when things are clicking. Unfortunately, the good times that the Lions had early wouldn’t last, but we’ll always have that opening half-hour.

Pedro Plays His Part

Pedro Gallese was his usual excellent self on the night. He made several excellent saves in the second half to preserve the Lions’ lead, and it was beginning to feel like one of those games where his contribution would be key in sealing all three points for the good guys. There was a point-blank save in the 48th minute and he then upped himself with 15 minutes left to lay out and deny a wicked shot from distance. When the goal eventually came there wasn’t much of anything that he could do about it, and without his earlier contributions, Orlando’s goal would have been breached much sooner than it was.

Can’t Kill the Game Off

Fast start aside, OCSC probably should have put the game away in the first 30 minutes or so. The Lions had all of the possession and got the ball into some excellent areas, but couldn’t manage to get the ball past Luis Barraza a second time. That period of pressure didn’t last forever and NYCFC grew back into the game around the half-hour mark. From that point onward, things were more even, but Orlando still had some excellent chances in the second half that it failed to capitalize on. Antonio Carlos stabbed one on goal from a corner kick that was saved, Gonzalez made a fantastic run but ignored the teammates that were up with him, and Wilder Cartagena could only fire straight at Barraza from an excellent position. That profligacy would come back to hurt the Lions.

Lions Lose Plot Late

As the game wore on and Orlando failed to take advantage of the chances it had in front of goal, it felt increasingly like NYCFC might be able to steal a late point on the road. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. In the final minute of regulation, Talles Magno drove a low ball across the box which was met by a sliding Gabriel Segal to score his first MLS goal. It was one that had absolutely been coming, and the Lions had no one to blame but themselves. Jansson had been mostly great for the whole game, but he did an extremely poor job of tracking Segal’s run, and by the time he tried to recover it was already too late. OCSC did have a couple decent chances in stoppage time but it wasn’t to be and the Lions had to settle for a draw.

Orlando Remains Consistently Inconsistent

At the end of the day, the most consistent thing about the Lions…was how inconsistent they are. The home team was excellent for the early part of the first half and really should have made the pressure pay more than it did. Given the scale of Orlando’s dominance early on, anything other than a win looked almost unthinkable, and that made how badly the team faded from the 30th minute to around the 70th that much worse. While OCSC was never going to control the entirety of the game, the state of things by the 80th minute made the eventual equalizer entirely unsurprising. Unfortunately, it was a game that was a fairly summary of Orlando’s season so far, as it included some of the very best the team is capable of, as well as some of the very worst.

Those were the biggest things that stood out to me from this match. You can’t afford to drop points at home from winning positions, especially against teams that are in as bad of form as NYCFC was coming into this one. It was a frustrating performance and a frustrating result, but the only way out is through. Time to look forward to a rivalry match on the road against Inter Miami at the weekend.

What were your thoughts from this one? Be sure to have your say down in the comments.