Lions Must Carefully Navigate Long Layoff Until Conference Semifinals

Things are going about as well as they possibly can for Orlando City at the moment. The Lions posted a pair of 1-0 victories over Nashville SC to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals, have continued the kind of form that’s seen them only lose five games in all competitions since the beginning of May, and have a clean bill of health aside from Favian Loyola and Jack Lynn. Regardless of whether OCSC is facing Atlanta United or the Columbus Crew in the next round, Orlando should be a good bet on paper to advance to the Eastern Conference final, but the timeline of this year’s postseason creates some unique challenges to overcome.

The conference semifinals will be played on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, with the exact schedule yet to be announced. That means that in a best-case scenario, Orlando will have 17 days in between games. That gap does do some good things, like give any guys carrying knocks time to get healthy, and should be particularly helpful for guys like Robin Jansson and Mauricio Pereyra, who are on the wrong side of 30 and have lots of minutes on their legs this season.

What the layoff also does, is it allows plenty of time for rust to creep in and affect a team that’s been in an extremely good run of form lately. To be fair, this holds true for everyone left in the postseason to varying degrees, and the Lions have had to deal with extended periods of time between games on a couple different occasions as the season wound down.

There were two weeks and an international break between a 1-0 road win over FC Cincinnati and a completely bonkers, 4-3 comeback win at home against the Columbus Crew. Despite Orlando getting all three points in that game, some shakiness and rust were on display as OCSC spotted the Crew a 3-1 second half lead. There was another two-week gap between Orlando beating the New England Revolution 3-2, and a Decision Day match on the road against Toronto FC. Despite heavy rotation, the Lions dealt with the time off much better, dispatching a woeful Toronto side, 2-0. Regardless of whether Orlando comes up against Atlanta or Columbus, OCSC is going to need to avoid the sloppiness that was on display during that memorable win against the Crew back in September.

The final thing to consider is the reason for the long break between games for the Lions: the international break. Pedro Gallese and Wilder Cartagena will likely feature heavily for Peru against Bolivia and Venezuela, and Facundo Torres may see some time for Uruguay in its matches against Argentina and Bolivia. With the last of those games being played on Nov. 21, they’ll have time to recover before suiting up again for Orlando City, but they’ll need to come back healthy first. While three of OCSC’s most important players will have some extra wear on the tires, they’ll also have match sharpness, so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.

Despite the long amount of time between games presenting some challenges, I think they’re ones that Orlando should be able to overcome. This team has looked focused, hungry, and locked-in for months now, and is consistently turning out quality performances. The rest of the playoff field will be facing the same set of obstacles caused by the break, and if the Lions can navigate them well it could help the team build momentum for a deep run into the postseason. Vamos Orlando!