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Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Player Grades & Man of the Match

How did your favorite Lions perform in a frustrating road draw against the Chicago Fire?

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6 months ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

A point is a point, but Orlando City is certainly capable of playing better than it showed in a frustrating 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire. Despite Facundo Torres’ early goal, the Lions looked like they weren’t on the same page for large stretches of the game, and displayed plenty of sloppiness. That may be partly due to being on short rest, but it was a disappointing performance against a struggling Chicago team. Here’s how I rated the individual performances during this one.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 5 — Pedro did some good things, one of which was coming off his line early in the 20th minute and neatly playing the ball with his thigh to avoid handling it outside the area, while preventing a 1-v-1 opportunity. Unfortunately, he should have done better on Chicago’s goal, as the ball was hit with not much pace, although it was back against the direction he was moving. He finished with two saves, one clearance, and 77% passing accuracy.

D, Robin Jansson, 5 — Like his partners in defense, the Swede looked more and more ill-at-ease as the game wore on in his return from injury. He allowed Hugo Cuypers to get goal-side of him for the equalizing strike, and looked like he just fell asleep on the play. He had one tackle, one block, three clearances, one foul committed, and one yellow card on the defensive end, which will earn him a suspension for card accumulation, preventing his participation Saturday in New York. Going forward, he completed a dribble, drew a foul, provided a key pass, and passed with 85% accuracy, while showing some uncharacteristic sloppiness with the ball — something that plagued the entire team.

D, Wilder Cartagena, 5.5 — Once again deployed as a center back, Cartagena had an okay night at the back, but we’ve seen better. For defensive statistics, he recorded two tackles, two clearances, one block, one interception, and one foul committed. His 80% passing accuracy wasn’t great though, and he looked uncharacteristically sloppy when trying to find his teammates and build out of the back. He was also partly at fault for Cuyper’s goal, as he failed to provide cover for David Brekalo, who stepped up to provide pressure on the ball. That counts as the major blemish on his night, alongside his passing accuracy.

D, David Brekalo, 6 — The Slovenian was the best of the three center backs in this one. The highlight of his night was an outstanding tackle on Cuypers in the 68th minute to stonewall him and prevent what surely would have been a dangerous shot. He finished with three tackles, a team-high five clearances, one foul committed, two fouls drawn, one completed dribble, and a passing accuracy of 85%. I’d really like to see what a partnership of him and Jansson are able to do in a four-man back line, as we haven’t really had the chance to see that due to various injuries.

WB, Facundo Torres, 6 — Torres grabbed the lone goal courtesy of one of the strangest goalmouth scrambles I’ve ever witnessed. Aside from that though, he didn’t carry a ton of danger himself, and instead did more work setting others up for chances. His highlight in that regard was serving up a cross on a platter for Luis Muriel that the latter headed directly at the goalkeeper just moments before Chicago’s equalizer. We know he’s capable of creating for himself and scoring, and he continues to look largely neutered in the wingback role he’s being asked to play, though he should have ended Wednesday night with a goal and an assist. Like most of OCSC’s other players, Torres struggled with sloppiness on the ball at times, and his distribution wasn’t his best. He was still able to provide three key passes, take three shots (one on target, two blocked), and passed with 83% accuracy. He contributed two tackles on defense, but the Lions need him at the other end of the field.

MF, Nico Lodeiro, 5.5 — Lodeiro, like most of the team, had an evening that he’ll want to forget. He chipped in on the defensive side with two tackles, an interception, and a clearance, but it just wasn’t happening for him going forward, aside from a well-timed pass to send Ivan Angulo behind the defense on a play that would draw a penalty 99 times out of 100. He took one shot that was blocked and drew a foul, but the big issue was his passing. His 84% success rate wasn’t awful, but on several occasions he delivered the ball directly to a Fire player (he had plenty of company in doing that) and just couldn’t seem to get on the same page as his teammates. One of his better passes was to Torres in the first half on a play that was ultimately called back for offside against the Uruguayan.

MF, Cesar Araujo, 6 — Cesar did pretty much everything he could have been expected to from a defensive standpoint. He finished with a team-high four tackles, was second on the team with four clearances, and also had an interception and a block. He drew four fouls while not committing any of his own, but his 84% passing accuracy left something to be desired. Like most of his teammates, he just looked out-of-sync on several occasions, delivering the ball straight to an opponent, and it was more noticeable due to how safe he typically is with the ball.

MF, Ivan Angulo, 6.5 (MotM) — Angulo had a lively evening, and was involved in almost everything Orlando did well going forward. His combination down the right with Muriel in the first half led to Torres’ goal, and just after the half hour mark he intercepted a ball near midfield and bore down on goal, but seemed to be caught between passing and shooting, and the ball he ended up playing went harmlessly behind for a goal kick. He should have won a penalty kick after evading Chris Brady and being fouled from behind by Federico Navarro, but no decision was forthcoming. His night finished with two shots (one off target, one blocked), four completed dribbles, two key passes, two fouls drawn, and 91% passing accuracy.

WB, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, 5.5 — This formation doesn’t seem to suit Dagur Dan’s attacking skills. He’s versatile and played well as a right back last year, but the in-between nature of the wingback role looks like its doing him more harm than good. He was too slow to track Arnaud Souquet’s run, who crossed for Cuypers to fire home, and that’s the big blip against him in this one. He finished with one tackle and two clearances defensively, while completing a dribble and passing with a team-best 95% accuracy on offense. I think he’d really benefit from either being a fullback or a midfielder, instead of a mix between the two.

F, Martin Ojeda, 4.5 — Asked to play as the second striker alongside Muriel, things just weren’t happening for Ojeda. Whether it was a ball that wouldn’t fully bounce his way, or a pass that was just off the mark, it was yet another case of so close, yet so far. He finished with one tackle, one foul committed, one foul drawn, and 85% passing accuracy. The lack of key passes or shots is indicative of the difficulties he had, and you simply have to get more out of a Designated Player. Given how involved Ramiro Enrique was during his short time on the field, Ojeda’s night is that much tougher to swallow.

F, Luis Muriel, 5.5 — Like most of his teammates, it was a frustrating performance from Muriel. He did some good things and showed plenty of flashes of the quality that he has, but ultimately wasn’t able to impact the scoresheet. His night was perhaps best summed up by his powerful 77th minute header, that would surely have been a goal if he’d put it anywhere but straight at the goalkeeper. He also was maddeningly reluctant to shoot. I’m all for a striker who wants to create for others, but sometimes you can’t look for the perfect opening and just need to hit the damn ball. He recorded two tackles, one clearance, one shot (on target), two fouls drawn, and 84% passing accuracy.

Substitutes

F, Ramiro Enrique, (79′), N/A — Enrique came on for Muriel with just over 10 minutes to play, and looked lively and dangerous during his time on the field. He made an excellent run from midfield as the game wound down, but fired his shot a bit off target. He finished with one completed dribble, one off-target shot, and completed the lone pass that he attempted.

D, Rafael Santos, (79′), N/A — Santos entered the fray in place of Ojeda, and did what was asked of him. He recorded one tackle, one clearance, one foul drawn, and a key pass, while accurately delivering 75% of his passes to their destination.

MF, Kyle Smith, (90′ + 2), N/A — Smith subbed on for Dagur Dan with the game in its final stages. He completed one of his three passes, sending the other two directly to a Fire player but helped Orlando get out of Chicago with a point.

MF, Jeorgio Kocevski, (90′ + 2), N/A — Kocevski came on for Torres in the dying stages of the game. He completed the one pass he attempted and helped the Lions see out the remaining time on the clock.

That’s how I saw the individual performances from a largely frustrating evening in Chicago. Feel free to voice your thoughts on how the players did down in the comments, and be sure to vote in our Man of the Match poll. Vamos Orlando!

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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.

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4 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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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!

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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

6 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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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!

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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.

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9 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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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!

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