Connect with us

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Inter Miami, Leagues Cup: Final Score 3-1 as Lions Exit the Tournament

A tie score from halftime was broken by yet another soft penalty given to an Orlando opponent and the Lions are done with Leagues Cup.

Published

1 year ago

on

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

Anyone who wants to see what the Lionel Messi era in MLS is going to be like had only to watch the way the game was officiated when Inter Miami defeated Orlando City 3-1 at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale tonight. Offside calls that weren’t, downy soft penalty calls, an ignored blatant foul right in front of the referee by the league’s new star man, and free kicks that should never have been given were the rule of the night.

But the Lions are not only out of Leagues Cup because of that. Orlando City also neglected to capitalize on chances in the loss, getting just one goal through Cesar Araujo — who had a second waved off for offside in the buildup. That wasn’t enough to overcome Messi’s brace and a Josef Martinez penalty that should never have been awarded. The latter broke a 1-1 deadlock just after halftime and was an obvious source of frustration for the team.

“I think we have to be clear. The game was disputed by the two teams and then analyzed tactically and analyze what could happen here and there. But we have to start with the reality of the call of the PK and other calls that were ridiculous,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “I don’t want to say that the attention that we’re getting here with all that is happening, it becomes a circus. Today was a circus. The PK is unbelievable. It’s unbelievable. I don’t know if the VAR came today. So, if the VAR came today and we have the referee there, then we have to be on it and go see it (at the replay monitor), because the game deserved it.”

Pareja boldly made no changes whatsoever to the team that played four nights ago at home against Santos Laguna. Pedro Gallese took his customary spot in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Kyle Smith. Wilder Cartagena and Araujo manned the central midfield behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres, with Duncan McGuire up top.

A lengthy delay for severe weather threw a damper on the proceedings, causing kickoff to push back from its 8 p.m. scheduled start time to 9:35 p.m.

Orlando City started with a good press and controlled play for the opening few minutes but Miami settled in and Martinez smashed a shot from outside the box that Gallese parried away in the fifth minute.

Two minutes later, Messi opened the scoring when Araujo got caught ball watching. The Argentine waited until Araujo’s attention waned and made a run into the box with no one on him. Robert Taylor lofted in a ball for him and it was an easy finish from point-blank range to make it 1-0.

The Lions responded well, sending in some crosses over the next few minutes but couldn’t get on the end of them.

Martinez fired over the bar in the 14th minute and then McGuire was sent down the left side of the box a minute later but his shot was always going left. Just after that, Araujo won a foul on the right and Sergio Busquets knocked it behind for a corner.

The Lions scored on the ensuing set piece. Orlando City played a corner short and Angulo darted toward the end line and sent the ball in front of goal. Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender knocked it away but it went straight to Araujo, who smashed it on goal. Callender got a piece of it but couldn’t keep it out as the Lions leveled the game in the 17th minute.

The next 15 minutes were back and forth and the Lions started to get to Messi as he was booked in the 21st minute for fouling Cartagena from behind. The next decent look fell to Orlando when McGuire sent a shot too close to Callender in the 22nd minute. Pereyra then got an opportunity a few minutes later but couldn’t dig the pass out of his feet.

Messi nearly restored Miami’s lead when he fired off the outside of the left post in the 32nd minute. That was followed by a good Orlando attack that should have resulted in a corner but the offside flag wrongfully came up. McGuire managed to hold his run but the assistant referee made an assumption on the play and the replay showed that assumption was clearly wrong.

Taylor fired just wide of the right post in the 41st minute after being given too much space outside the box. Gallese followed with a huge save to deny a Messi free kick in the 45th minute on a soft foul about 25 yards out just seconds after Pereyra seemed to be fouled from behind further up the pitch.

In stoppage time, Messi blatantly fouled Araujo and perhaps should have gotten a second yellow card, but the ref let it go and then booked Kyle Smith afterwards instead with both teams pushing and shoving.

Busquets put his hand to Smith’s throat in the scrum after the play but was not cautioned or penalized for it in any way. Miami was then allowed to take the free kick and play 30 seconds beyond the two minutes of stoppage time, with Benjamin Cremaschi firing just wide on the last kick of the half.

Miami dominated possession in the first half (71.9%-28.1%), fired more shots (7-5), and passed more accurately (90.5%-78.8%). The Lions won more corners (4-1), and both teams got three shots on target.

Referee Ivan Barton tilted the field in Miami’s favor just after the break. A through ball that Martinez had no shot at getting to was collected by Gallese as the former Atlanta forward fell in the box. A penalty was awarded immediately despite there being only the slightest contact. It was extremely soft and Barton did not go to the monitor to look at it himself. The VAR did not overturn it so the penalty stood and Martinez scored to make it 2-1.

“It’s not clear,” Pareja said. “The PK…the game doesn’t deserve that. (The match officials) don’t need to be protagonists. Just go and see it. The people want to see soccer and things have to be fair, and today was not the case.”

Chasing the game, Pareja sent Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Ramiro Enrique on for Smith and McGuire. Orlando won a couple of set pieces but did nothing with them and then Pereyra fired a shot off a teammate and out for a goal kick in the 64th minute. That was the captain’s last involvement in the game as he was subbed out a minute later for Martin Ojeda, who was less than effective in his roughly half hour of work. He fired a shot in the 68th minute that was nowhere near the goal frame.

Moments later, Messi put the game to bed on the counter. A bad giveaway in the attacking third caught the Lions with numbers forward. The Lions tried to get back but a good quick layoff from Martinez to Messi confused Cartagena and Jansson, who both ended up on Martinez, only to see it get sent to Messi for the insurance goal.

To add insult to injury, Barton did go to the monitor late in the game after Araujo scored his second goal off a wicked cross by Santos. The ball bypassed Enrique, who had a shoulder offside but Callender was already hugging his near post and the ball passed out in front of everyone to Araujo at the back post for the finish. There’s no way that Enrique’s presence was an issue for Callender, given his positioning on the play but Barton ruled the Lions offside. It’s funny how going to the monitor can change one’s perspective and funnier still how selective referees in Orlando City games are about doing it.

“It doesn’t make sense at all,” Pareja said of the inconsistency in the referee going to the monitor or not. “I’d rather just be talking about the soccer tactics. We’re confused. We don’t know why he didn’t go see (the penalty review). Because he has the chance to see it, because that’s what the VAR is for. And then in the second one, there is a body (part) that was offside. It was not intervening that much, but he was offside and then he went (to the monitor) and that’s what he should have done. He has to be more consistent for sure, because the players get frustrated with those things.”

The final whistle on the charade blew moments later and the Lions were out of Leagues Cup.

Miami finished with more possession (63.8%-36.2%), shots (12-11), shots on target (5-3), and passing accuracy (89.1%-83.6%). The Lions won more corners (5-1).

In the end, Orlando City’s finishing wasn’t good enough and once the penalty changed the game, it was a difficult rest of the match.

“We were not sharp up front. We probably could have been more aggressive when we had the ball,” Pareja said. “And we’re going to take as well the blame on our team, that we couldn’t score. And then they opened the scoring in the first half and the second half very early. We could have avoided that. But honestly we are very disappointed in the game because of those two plays. This is not what we need.”

Orlando City will have a long rest now, as the next match isn’t until a visit to the Chicago Fire on Aug. 20. Inter Miami will take its sideshow to FC Dallas in the Round of 16.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

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.

Published

6 hours ago

on

November 21, 2024

By

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!

Continue Reading

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

8 hours ago

on

November 21, 2024

By

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!

Continue Reading

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.

Published

12 hours ago

on

November 21, 2024

By

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!

Continue Reading

Trending