Orlando City vs. St. Louis City SC: Five Takeaways

Orlando City hosted Western Conference leaders, St. Louis City SC at Exploria Stadium on Saturday night. It wasn’t easy, but the Lions were up for the challenge, defeating the expansion side 2-1 at home. The win keeps Orlando City in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Here’s what I took away from the big home win.

First Half Folly

Right from the first kick, the match was fairly open with each club getting a share of the possession and a share of the chances. Though the match was played end to end, neither team was able to find that last bit of quality to get on the scoreboard. Nicholas Gioacchini barely missed on a ball sent across the front of Pedro Gallese’s goal. For Orlando City, both Duncan McGuire and Mauricio Pereyra had barely missed chances. Neither club was able to score in the first half, but that changed in the second half.

Torres Takes Control

It didn’t take long for Orlando City to jump out to a lead, thanks to Facundo Torres scoring a goal in consecutive matches for the first time since June. As Orlando City moved into the attack, Mauricio Pereyra did well to catch up the ball and lay it off to Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, who beat a defender and put it on a platter for Torres to run on to and score the first goal of the match. It’s the type of thing that can give Torres confidence heading into the last part of the season.

A Pair of Interesting Calls

Pereyra got to the ball before a St. Louis player, he then tipped it over Rafael Santos, who sent the ball up the pitch to a streaking Torres. Torres was behind the defense, setting up a one on one with the keeper, but referee Joe Dickerson decided that Pereyra had somehow committed a foul on the play and called it back. There’s no way to know for certain that Torres was going to score, but it seems likely. That was bad call number one.

Bad call number two came on St. Louis City’s goal. The St. Louis player went to the end line and from my perspective at home on replay, Nokkvi Thorisson seemingly crossed the ball after it was over the line, meaning the ensuing goal was no good. That was the call on the field. Video assistant referee Sorin Stoica got involved and Dickerson took a look at the video monitor. In my view, there was nothing clear and obvious to overturn the call on the field from the angles shown, but that is exactly what happened. These two decisions were a potential two-goal swing against Orlando City.

Ball Don’t Lie

Orlando City may have been wronged with some of the officiating decisions, but justice was served when Dickerson changed the call from a corner kick to a handball on St. Louis defender Anthony Markanich, giving Orlando City a penalty kick. Once again it was Torres who took the penalty kick, and for the second match in a row, he finished it perfectly to give Orlando City the win. It was the correct call, but I was still worried that Dickerson would not make the correct decision. Fortunately, he did make the correct call, which gave the home team the chance to regain the lead.

Playing the Odds

Coming into this match, I felt it was very important for Orlando City both to score multiple goals, and to keep St. Louis to one goal or less. As I wrote in the Three Keys to Victory:

“When St. Louis’ opponents have scored two or more goals, the club has a 2-6-0 record. Just as important, 10 of Orlando City’s 11 wins this season saw the Lions score more than one goal. It is of paramount importance that Orlando City score more than one goal against St. Louis…”

The Lions were able to do both, and the result followed. Limiting a high-scoring offense like St. Louis took effort and a little luck, especially down the stretch. A win against the best team in the Western Conference is the type of result the club can use heading into the home stretch of the season.

That is what I saw in Orlando City’s result against St. Louis City SC. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.