Orlando City’s Ball Security and Passing Accuracy Lacking Early in the Season

Orlando City finds itself back in action tonight at home at 7:30 against Minnesota United FC in matchday three of the very young Major League Soccer regular season. Heading into the match this evening, it is certain that Orlando City knows it must do better in league play to earn the type of results that are expected this season.

Midweek action against Tigres UANL saw somewhat of a rebound of form as the Lions were able to muster a scorless draw in their first match of the Round of 16 in the Concacaf Champions Cup after a disastrous matchday two in Miami.

Two areas of concern early on this season for me (besides the lack of goals) have been the squad’s ball security and passing accuracy. Both statistics work hand in hand, and when one aspect is lacking or not up to the quality from certain players that we have come to expect, then it is not long until the other also falters.

In the opening match of this season, Orlando was dispossessed nine times and turned the ball over to CF Montreal an additional 13 times throughout the match. In the second game against Inter Miami, these numbers only got worse as Orlando was once again dispossessed nine times but committed 16 turnovers.

One can also argue that besides the raw numbers being less than ideal, there is something to be said about the actual quality of the turnovers themselves. Against Miami, lazy passes and turnovers in the Orlando defensive third and around the 18-yard box led directly to goal-scoring opportunities for the opposition. It is one thing to turn the ball over in the fever of the attack and lose out on the chance to put the ball on frame, but a whole other issue arises when the turnovers lead to easy passing lanes and eventual shots for opponents, and that is exactly the issue that affected Orlando City on matchday two.

Orlando has boasted team passing accuracy of 86.5% and 88.4% to start the first two league matches, and while on the surface those numbers don’t appear to be horrible, the quality (or rather lack thereof) in the passing game from players who one would expect to be playing in far better form — such as Cesar Araujo and Rafael Santos — has been lacking throughout league play thus far.

Orlando, under Head Coach Oscar Pareja, has been a team that has found success by playing out of the back and linking passes to create dangerous runs towards goal, but by removing the quality passing aspect of the game plan, it is not hard to imagine just how more difficult finding the back of the net can be if the team and its link-up connectors are either being dispossessed or turning the ball over due to careless or weak passing attempts.

The most concerning aspect is that the turnovers cannot be contributed necessarily to something that the opposition is doing to force the issue from Orlando. Whether it is early season fatigue due to travel and schedule congestion or team chemistry on the pitch, which needs time to develop at the start of each season, lazy passes are just that, and in the first two matches of the season, Orlando has beaten itself by giving the ball away rather than having it taken away more times than not.

While I will be looking forward to seeing the OCSC attack find the back of the net against Minnesota United tonight, the aspect of the match that I am going to be paying the most attention to is whether having a couple of days of training has helped to improve the quality that we see on the field. Fix those two issues discussed above and not only does defending the den get easier, but the goals will then start to come in spades as well.

Make sure to catch our pregame coverage by checking out the Intelligence Report and three keys to victory, and our match preview will be available later this morning.