Orlando City vs. Toronto FC: Five Takeaways

If that isn’t a good way to finish off the regular season, then I don’t know what is. Orlando City took care of business on the road against Toronto FC by a score of 2-0, courtesy of a Duncan McGuire brace. Orlando continued its strong road form and its absolutely sterling overall form since the start of the summer. What follows are my five big thoughts from the Lions’ Decision Day match.

Papi Rings the Changes

It was reasonable to expect Oscar Pareja to employ some amount of rotation given that Orlando City had second place buttoned up nice and tight going into this match, and therefore had nothing to play for. Still, you probably would have gotten extremely good money on Papi making a whopping nine changes from the Lions’ previous game, with Cesar Araujo and Rodrigo Schlegel the only holdovers from the victory over the New England Revolution two weeks ago. Antonio Carlos started his first game in a very long time, as did Gaston Gonzalez, and it was a particularly welcome sight to see Carlos back on the field from the opening whistle.

Sleepy First Half

That being said, OCSC looked every inch a team that hadn’t played a game in two weeks and was fielding a lineup largely composed of backup players. Rust and an overall lack of chemistry tinged most everything that Orlando did in the first half, and there were multiple instances of players not being on the same page as each other. At the end of the first half, Toronto had 60% possession to the Lions’ 40%, and seven shots to Orlando’s two, and those stats very much told the story of the half. Toronto looked like the better team in every aspect of play, and the opening 45 minutes did not make for particularly pleasant viewing.

Get it to the Italians

Jon Herdman has gone on the record saying that he hopes Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi stay in Toronto and become the cornerstones of the team he wants to build. Watching the two of them play, it isn’t very difficult to see why. Almost everything good that TFC did flowed through one or both of the Italian players, and only some well-timed late tackles prevented them from getting off some uncontested shots in very dangerous areas. It was impossible to keep them completely quiet, and Bernardeschi in particular started to create some serious problems down the right during the second half. In the end, they weren’t able to get Toronto on the board, which left the door open for Pareja to play his trump card.

Duncan Keeps Running

That trump card is a 6-foot-1 rookie striker by the name of Duncan McGuire, and he put on a show worthy of capping off what’s been an excellent debut season as a professional. For his first trick, he latched onto a long ball from Mason Stajduhar, lifted it over Michael Bradley, bore down on the right side of the 18-yard-box and uncorked a stone-cold screamer into the far upper corner. It was an absurd piece of work from the touch to lift it over Bradley, to the outrageous finish, and he rounded it off with a standing backflip, because what can’t the young man do?

He then ran onto an excellent through ball from Kyle Smith, took one touch to get the ball where he wanted it, shaped his body, and eased the ball past Sean Johnson into the bottom corner. He entered the game in the 61st minute, and by the 74th he had a brace and the game was essentially over. Mama, there goes that man!

Rest for the Wicked

The upshot of Duncan’s 15-minute demolition job is that some key Orlando City players got some rest. Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and the aforementioned McGuire only played the final 30 minutes and Robin Jansson had 12 minutes to stretch his legs after entering the fray in the 78th minute. Pedro Gallese, Rafael Santos, Wilder Cartagena, and Facundo Torres had the night off completely, and that’s not a bad thing as all of those players but Santos were on international duty just last week. As a team, Orlando now has at least a week to rest up before the first-round matches start on Oct. 28.

All in all, OCSC’s Decision Day couldn’t have gone much better. Some backups got minutes on their legs, some key starters got to rest, and Orlando City got another win to close off the season and maintain the momentum that the team has built during an outstanding summer.

What were your key thoughts on this match? Be sure to have your say down in the comments. Vamos Orlando!