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Orlando City vs. New England Revolution: Final Score 3-1 as Orlando City Falls Again in Foxborough

The shorthanded Lions were never really in this one and lacked sharpness throughout.

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1 year ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

Someday Orlando City will win at New England and it will be glorious, but that will have to wait. The shorthanded Lions were dominated and rarely threatened former Orlando City backup goalkeeper Earl Edwards Jr. in a 3-1 loss at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. The Lions (7-5-5, 26 points) fell to 0-6-2 in away games against the Revs (9-3-6, 33 points) as Emmanuel Boateng, Gustavo Bou, and Carles Gil did the damage. Duncan McGuire pulled one back late for Orlando.

“Obviously frustrated not getting the result,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “But the analysis of the game is clear. In the second half when we reacted, the goals were plays isolated where we could have defended better and that’s probably the frustration that we carry right now. But we had the chances to score. We had the chances to equalize the game.”

Pareja was missing several regulars due to international duty and suspension, so Mason Stajduhar started in net behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Michael Halliday. Cesar Araujo’s central midfield partner was Felipe, behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Martin Ojeda, with Ercan Kara up top.

The opening half was a sloppy, rain-soaked affair and Orlando City never seemed to settle into the match. Orlando only managed to hang onto the ball for 33% of the time and passed dreadfully, completing less than 70% of attempted passes.

Araujo was booked just three minutes in when Gil felt a hand on his shoulder and went to ground easily. Referee Fotis Bazakos bought it and showed the Uruguayan an early yellow. Gil sent the free kick wide, although Stajduhar had his post covered.

Pereyra drew a free kick on a foul from behind by Noel Buck and the Lions were going to try something different with the set piece but Bazakos blew his whistle after Pereyra had tapped the ball to his left. That ruined the surprise and Ojeda instead sent a shot just wide of Earl Edwards Jr.’s post.

Stajduhar made the only save of the first half in the 21st minute when Bou fired from the top of the box and it appeared to take a slight deflection, which took some of the pace off the attempt.

A minute later, Halliday was booked for an even softer foul on Emmanuel Boateng, putting two defenders on notice in the game’s first half hour.

Bou fired over the bar in the 23rd minute and Buck missed just wide of the right post in the 28th as the Revolution did most of the possessing and attacking in the opening period. Whether it was the rain, the artificial turf, a lack of sharpness, or a combination of those things, the Lions struggled to find each other with passes or to bring those passes under control.

Bobby Wood put the ball in the net in the 32nd minute but the flag came up immediately as Brandon Bye was offside in the buildup.

The most dangerous Orlando City chance should have come in the 34th minute when Pereyra slipped the ball in for Ojeda but his touch was poor, he lost control, and it dribbled out for a goal kick. Two minutes later, Santos found space on the left but sent his cross right at Edwards. Seconds later, Angulo cut left to right and fired a shot into the stands.

An overhit corner kick cross and a doubly overhit cross by Halliday later pretty much summed up the first half and the teams went into the break scoreless.

The Revs dominated the stat sheet, leading at the break in possession (66.8%-33.2%), shots (6-3), shots on target (1-0), corners (2-1), and passing accuracy (85.7%-69.7%).

Pareja sent McGuire on for Kara to start the second half, hoping to bother New England’s back line with a little more pace.

“Second half the intention with Duncan was to be maybe faster and deeper on our movements, and he provided those diagonals,” Pareja said. “He held the ball for us. Both of them (Kara and McGuire) helped us today and obviously just happy with Duncan scoring another goal.”

The lions started the second half somewhat brightly with Pereyra nearly sending Ojeda in behind in the 47th minute but defender Dave Romney got their a fraction earlier to get a toe on it. Seconds later, Felipe tried a shot but hit it right at Edwards.

New England broke the deadlock just six minutes into the second period anyway. The Revs created an overload on the right and Bou fizzed a cross into the box that Stajduhar parried away. Unfortunately, it went straight out from goal, allowing Boateng to hit a blast just inside the right post to make it 1-0 in the 51st minute.

Ojeda either sent a shot just wide or a back-post cross to nobody in the 54th minute, looking to pull that goal right back. A minute later, a ball in from Halliday took a deflection that allowed Edwards to collect.

Angulo teed up a shot in the 58th minute but again couldn’t keep his shot down on what was a forgettable night for him. The next two decent-looking Orlando attacks ended with a thud with both Santos and Halliday sending crosses right at the goalkeeper, wasting more opportunities.

Ojeda’s best look of the night came in the 63rd minutes. With the ball pinging around near the top of the area, Ojeda spun his body and sent a shot toward the right post. He wasn’t able to get a lot of pace on it, but the shot through traffic was headed in but Edwards made a huge save to preserve the lead. The ball unfortunately bounced to maybe the only height that would have permitted the save.

Bou appeared to put the game away in the 69th minute, racing from right to left and unleashing a shot inside the far post past Stajduhar to make it 2-0.

The difference in quality on the night between the teams’ attackers was never more apparent than on Bou’s screamer and the eventual insurance goal from Gil.

Thankfully, Wood did not have that same quality in the 73rd minute when his shot found outside netting on the break.

Orlando’s sloppy night in front of goal continued for the next few minutes, with Araujo badly slicing a shot that ended up bouncing to Ojeda, who then missed the target.

Second-half sub Giacomo Vrioni fired a shot wide in transition after that, keeping the scoreline from getting worse.

Pareja then sent Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Luca Petrasso on for Araujo and Pereyra. The Lions scored a minute after those changes. Halliday sent his best cross of the night over the defense and McGuire met it in the air, heading it back to the right and in for his fifth goal of the season in the 80th minute, making it 2-1.

“I saw a teammate get his head up and I have a good connection with him,” McGuire said about the play. “He served a beautiful ball up and I’ve just worked on that header a million times in training, so it worked out perfectly.”

The Lions threw numbers forward but got caught looking for the equalizer. Just five minutes after McGuire’s goal, Orlando wasted opportunities to get the ball in the box off a set piece and after New England gained possession, the Revs attacked with numbers and both City center backs forward. Gil finished the play with a goal that beat Stajduhar in almost exactly the same way Bou had. The 85th-minute goal made it 3-1 and effectively killed the game.

Despite four goals and multiple subs on both sides, Bazakos determined three minutes of stoppage time were sufficient. Pareja sent OCB captain Juninho on for his MLS debut, along with Ramiro Enrique. The Juninho substitution nearly paid off immediately.

With one of his first touches on the night, Juninho freed himself up for a shot from outside the box but fizzed it just wide of the left post in the 92nd minute.

After Edwards was booked for time wasting, a final ball fell for Halliday with an open look at goal. The young fullback decided instead to square a ball into traffic and it was easily cut out as the game came to an end.

The Lions ate into the lopsided stats a bit, but New England controlled possession (59.4%-40.6%) and passed more accurately (85.4%-77.2%). Orlando City finished with more shot attempts (16-14). Both teams got four of their shots on target and each side earned two corners.

“The game got more open in the second half and they threw a lot more numbers forward, which allowed us to get some counters going, but we’ve got to put our chances away, and I think we’ve got to do a better job with that,” McGuire said.

Orlando City has a short turnaround with the Philadelphia Union visiting Exploria Stadium on Wednesday night. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

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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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4 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

6 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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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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