Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Charlotte FC: Player Grades and Man of the Match
How did the men in purple perform during Orlando City’s 2-0 victory over Charlotte FC?
Orlando City played a third straight game at home and picked up a third clean sheet win, beating Charlotte FC 2-0 in a match that ended up being a pretty comfortable affair for the men in purple. Facundo Torres and Duncan McGuire got on the scoresheet again, the defense played lights out, an the Lions picked up all three points.
Let’s have a look at how the individuals performed in Wednesday night’s victory.
Starters
GK, Pedro Gallese, 6.5 — It was a fairly quiet night in between the sticks for El Pulpo. Charlotte took four shots but only put two of them on target, both of which were placed comfortably close to Gallese, and were saved with no problem. At 72%, his passing accuracy could have been better, although he also completed two long balls and even picked up the secondary assist on McGuire’s goal. All in all, a nice, easy night’s work.
D, Rafael Santos, 6.5 — He was given the chance to try to replicate his stunning goal from the weekend, but Charlotte was wise to it and his shot was blocked. That was the only one the fullback took, but he also chipped in with two crosses and two long balls going forward. He had an excellent defensive night with a game-high four tackles, three clearances, one interception, and 91% passing accuracy. He’s been putting in vastly improved performances lately after a shaky start to the season, and Wednesday night was no exception.
D, Robin Jansson, 7.5 — Charlotte rarely threatened OCSC’s goal, and the Beefy Swede was a big reason why. He put in a composed and commanding performance at the back, and helped snuff out the few dangerous moments that the visitors did muster. He totaled four interceptions and five clearances, both of which were game highs, drew two fouls, and completed five long balls while passing with 89% accuracy. He did have a scary moment in the first half when he committed a silly turnover in his own half, but other than that it was the kind of performance we’re used to seeing.
D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 7 — Schlegel’s performance complemented Jansson’s perfectly. He stepped into the spaces the captain vacated the few times he ventured forward and did a good job marshalling his side of the back line. He recorded two tackles, one interception, three clearances, and eight long balls while passing with 93% accuracy. He’s another guy who’s been playing a lot better after having some difficult moments during the first few months of the season, and Wednesday was an example of what he can look like when he’s on form.
D, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, 6.5 — DDT provided exactly the sort of performance that won him the starting right back role, as he was steady, didn’t make mistakes, and combined well with Torres going forward, even though it didn’t show up on the stat sheet. He finished with one tackle, three clearances, four long balls, and 83% passing accuracy. He gets a black mark for picking up a yellow card, but frankly it was a soft one, so it’s hard to hold it against him too much.
MF, Cesar Araujo, 6.5 — Cesar did exactly what we’ve come to expect from him, as he ran a lot, did the dirty work in midfield, and took care of the ball. He even took a shot, which isn’t something you see every day, although it was blocked and didn’t come to anything. He recorded one interception, one clearance, drew a whopping seven fouls, completed eight long balls, passed with 87% accuracy, and committed two fouls of his own. The biggest downside of his performance was picking up a yellow card, which means he’ll be suspended for this weekend’s trip to Columbus due to accumulation.
MF, Wilder Cartagena, 7 — The Peruvian isn’t exactly known for his goal scoring, but he really should have gotten things started in the fourth minute when the ball found him in the box with a clear shooting lane. He blasted the ball directly at Kristijan Kahlina though, and the chance went wanting. He played a good game otherwise though, helping Araujo control the midfield and distributing the ball well. He finished with two tackles, one clearance, two completed dribbles, three fouls drawn, three fouls committed, four long balls, and 89% passing accuracy.
MF, Ivan Angulo, 6 — His game isn’t well-suited to opponents who put men behind the ball and bunker, but he still had good moments on offense. He did well to steal the ball and start the break with 20 minutes played, and while nothing came of it that time, he played a smart pass to find Martin Ojeda in the second half and picked up the secondary assist on the opening goal as a result. He finished with two tackles, two shots that were both blocked, one completed dribble, one foul drawn, and 94% passing accuracy.
MF, Martin Ojeda, 7.5 — As has usually been the case lately, Ojeda was involved in a lot of what Orlando City did well. His Olimpico attempt landing on the roof of the net was a moment to forget, but he did a lot of creative work from open play, particularly when drifting out towards the left side of the field. That’s the area that he ultimately created the goal from, as he made a nice diagonal run into space, kept his head up after receiving the ball from Angulo, and then played a perfectly weighted ball to the back post for Facundo Torres to smash home. His night finished with two fouls committed and a yellow card, one shot that was blocked, two key passes, one assist, three crosses, and 92% passing accuracy.
MF, Facundo Torres, 7.5 (MotM) — Another game brought another goal for Orlando’s main man, and it really could, and probably should, have been two. Headers aren’t a strong point of the little Uruguayan’s game, but he’s scored them before and he should have done better with the free one that he got in the first half. He made up for it with a venomous volley in the second though, and he once again was a source of danger throughout the game. He got a well-deserved bit of rest with a substitution as the game wound down, and his final stat line read three shots (one on target and two off target), one goal, one interception, one clearance, one foul committed, one foul drawn, three key passes, one long ball, and 80% passing accuracy. He gets the Man of the Match award, although there were several worthy candidates in this one.
F, Ramiro Enrique, 5.5 — It was a pretty quiet night for the Argentine, as he only recorded 11 touches during the 45 minutes he was on the field. His biggest moment of involvement came during the 20th minute. The Lions broke down the left hand side and Ojeda found Enrique on the edge of the box with a great pass, but the striker’s first touch was far too heavy and he lost possession of the ball. Like Angulo, this type of game doesn’t really play to his strengths, and it showed.
Substitutes
F, Duncan McGuire (45’), 7 — Dunc entered the fray after the halftime break, and put in an efficient 45 minutes. He actually had fewer touches than Enrique as he finished with seven, but it’s what he did with those touches that made all the difference. He took his goal superbly, timing his run to perfection and splitting the Charlotte center backs with ease before executing a textbook chip to beat Kahlina and double the Lions’ lead. His run pulled plenty of Charlotte’s attention away from Torres on the back side of goal on the first Orlando City strike. He finished with 83% passing accuracy, one foul committed, one clearance, one goal, and two shots (one on target, one off target). The only improvement could have come if he’d scored on his second chance of the game, a free (albeit tricky) header.
MF, Nicolas Lodeiro (63′), 6.5 — On as a second half sub for Martin Ojeda, Lodeiro offered a different look going forward than his South American counterpart. He did an excellent job taking care of the ball as he delivered all 11 of his passes accurately, and provided a key pass and a long ball as well. He took one shot which was blocked, and chipped in on defense with a tackle and an interception.
D, Kyle Smith (79′), N/A — Smith came on for Dagur Dan to give the Icelandic defender a rest and help close out the game. He turned in a steady performance and completed 80% of his passes but didn’t record any other statistics. He didn’t spend enough time on the field to earn a grade.
F, Luis Muriel (82′), N/A — Muriel entered the game to give Angulo some rest, and managed to be pretty involved during his short time on the field. On defense, he chipped in with one tackle and committed one foul, and also picked up a silly yellow card for kicking the ball away. Going forward, he completed one dribble, accurately delivered all eight of his passes, completed one key pass, and notched an assist on McGuire’s goal. He did so by bringing down Gallese’s goal kick, and played an excellent through ball to Dunc with his second touch to put his fellow striker through on goal. If Orlando can get regular goal contributions from him, it adds another dimension to an already dangerous offense.
MF, Luca Petrasso (82′), N/A — Petrasso made his first appearance of the season when he came on for Torres, as Oscar Pareja looked to simultaneously give his star man some rest while also closing down the game. Playing winger instead of fullback, Petrasso committed one foul, completed one cross, and accurately delivered the one pass he made, which was also a key pass. He was unlucky to not pick up an assist on that pass, as he picked out a great back-post ball for McGuire, who couldn’t put his stooped header in the back of the net.
That’s how I viewed the performances from another nice win by the good guys. What did you make of the game? Have your say down in the comments and be sure to vote for your Man of the Match. Vamos Orlando!
Opinion
The Case for Starting Luis Muriel Against Atlanta
Muriel’s game is tailor made to help Orlando get the result in what will likely be a tight contest.
For the second season in a row, Orlando City finds itself hosting a match in the Eastern Conference semifinals. It was a scenario that was far less likely this year, with the Lions watching as all three seeds above them crashed out in the first round, leaving OCSC as the highest-seeded team still standing in the East. Last year’s semifinal match didn’t go so well, with 10-man Orlando falling to the eventual champion Columbus Crew in extra time. So, how do the Lions avoid that fate this year and advance to the Eastern Conference final for the first time?
For starters, they can succeed on each of Dave Rohe’s three keys to victory! I’d like to make an addition though, and campaign for Oscar Pareja to start Luis Muriel instead of Ivan Angulo. To be clear, it’s not that I have an axe to grind against Angulo, as he’s largely ranged from solid to good when starting out on the left wing. For my money though, this match is tailor made for Muriel and giving him the start could help Orlando get through to the next round without needing to resort to extra time or penalties.
It’s not unreasonable to expect Sunday’s game to play out in a similar manner to Orlando’s 2-1 Decision Day loss to Atlanta, in which the visitors had 34% of the ball to OCSC’s 66%. True, part of that disparity was down to Atlanta’s 2-0 lead after 16 minutes, which allowed the visitors to sit back, bunker, and protect what they had. Even if the game had remained scoreless for longer though, Atlanta probably would likely have ceded possession anyway and looked to play defensively and hit on the counter. They rolled out a compact 4-2-3-1 in that game, but deployed a 3-5-2 in their last two games against Miami, and they might do so again after its effectiveness.
With Orlando likely to have the lion’s share (hehe) of the ball, and Atlanta sitting deep, there figures to be less room for Angulo to deploy his electric pace. OCSC will probably need to make things happen in the “half-court,” with an emphasis on moving the ball quickly, making clever runs, and finding those runs with creative and accurate passes.
Enter Luis Muriel. The Colombian Designated Player had a slow start to life with Orlando City but has come on strong in recent months, excelling in a super sub role and frequently making an impact in games off the bench. In 56 minutes against Charlotte in Game 3, he completed two dribbles, played one key pass and one through ball, and took three shots, with one on target, one off target, and one blocked. He doesn’t offer Angulo’s speed, but he has maybe the best vision and range of passing of anyone on the team, he’s an outstanding dribbler, and he’s a calm and capable finisher.
He hasn’t been asked to do a ton of traditional striker work during his resurgence, but Muriel has excelled at setting up teammates and creating chances, as evidenced by the litany of key passes littering his stat sheet. Those attributes could be hugely important in breaking Atlanta down, and with two key passes and two completed dribbles against them in just 22 minutes on Decision Day, he’s already proven he can be effective against the Five Stripes.
Another thing that could help the Lions in starting Muriel, is that it would almost certainly take Atlanta by surprise. Oscar Pareja isn’t exactly known for tweaking his lineup on a game-to-game basis, vastly preferring to find an XI that works and stick with it religiously. As long as everyone’s healthy, that lineup has featured Angulo starting with Muriel coming off the bench, and flipping the script would certainly be an unexpected variation that Atlanta might not be expecting. At this level, teams are good enough to adjust on short notice, but you also take every possible edge that you can find, and a lineup shift could be exactly that.
In short, as much as I like Angulo, I think Muriel should get the call in his place on Sunday. The veteran’s combination of vision, passing ability, and dribbling makes him uniquely suited to help unlock defenses, which will be crucial in a game where Orlando City is likely to dominate possession. I don’t think it’s likely to happen given Papi’s consistency with his lineups, but the unexpected move could give the Lions the edge they’re looking for. Vamos Orlando!
Lion Links
Lion Links: 11/22/24
Emily Sams wins Defender of the Year, Orlando City’s turnaround, Barbra Banda nominated for African Woman Player of the Year, and more.
Happy Friday! Beyond working and catching some soccer here and there, I don’t have many plans for the weekend. I’m also hoping to find some time to trial some cranberry and brie bites I’m trying to perfect before Thanksgiving next week. For now though, let’s jump right into today’s links from around the soccer world!
Emily Sams Awarded NWSL Defender of the Year
The Orlando Pride’s Emily Sams was named 2024 NWSL Defender of the Year after a fantastic season. The Pride only conceded 20 goals in a record-breaking season, and Sams played in all 13 of the team’s shutouts. Sams was one of the most impactful players for the Pride this year and had 163 recoveries, 76 clearances, and 16 blocks. She’s the first Pride player to win the award and it’s great to see her receive some deserved recognition in her second year in Orlando.
Analyzing Orlando City’s Revitalization
It’s been a rollercoaster of a season for the Lions to say the least. There were serious concerns over whether or not the Lions would even make the playoffs back in June and now they find themselves as the highest remaining seed in the Eastern Conference this postseason. Facundo Torres’ excellent run of play is a major reason behind the club’s turnaround, but the buy-in from all of Orlando’s attackers has helped create a dynamic and unselfish offense. Although expectations are rising once more for the Lions, Executive Vice President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Luiz Muzzi spoke on how the team is focused on Sunday’s playoff match.
“There’s only one team that matters: Atlanta United,” Muzzi said. “The easiest way to lose a game is to look ahead. I’ll say we didn’t expect to be playing at home, but it’s welcomed. We’re focused on Atlanta, they’re playing great. They have a lot of confidence and momentum. It doesn’t matter they’re the No. 9 seed because they’re not playing like the No. 9 seed.”
Barbra Banda Up For African Woman Player of the Year
Orlando Pride forward Barbra Banda was one of 10 players nominated for this year’s African Woman Player of the Year award. The 24-year-old has done well for both club and country this year. She scored 13 goals in her first regular season with the Pride and has three goals so far in the playoffs. Banda also had a hat trick for Zambia in the Summer Olympics. She’s joined by fellow NWSL players Temwa Chawinga and Racheal Kundananji on the list of nominees. Bay FC striker Asisat Oshoala, who has won the award in five of the past six years, was not nominated for the first time in a decade. The nomination list will be trimmed to a three-player shortlist before the winner is announced on Dec. 16 in Morocco.
Croix Bethune Named NWSL Midfielder of the Year
Washington Spirit rookie Croix Bethune won NWSL Midfielder of the Year after recording 10 assists and five goals in 17 matches this season. A knee injury cut her season short in September, but she still tied Tobin Heath’s record for the most assists in a season. Bethune gave plenty of NWSL teams headaches this year and also won Rookie of the Year earlier this week. She’s the first player to ever receive NWSL Midfielder of the Year and she beat out the Pride’s Marta, the North Carolina Courage’s Ashley Sanchez, and Kansas City Current duo Lo’eau LaBonta and Vanessa DiBernardo.
Eastern Conference Clubs Making Moves
FC Cincinnati officially signed striker Kevin Denkey from Cercle Brugge on a deal that will last through 2028. The 23-year-old joins as a Designated Player on a reported $16.2 million transfer, which would be a league record. He won the Golden Boot in Belgium last year after scoring 27 goals and should give Cincinnati some considerable firepower next year.
Elsewhere in the league, CF Montreal declined the option on Josef Martinez’s contract, meaning the Venezuelan forward will be a free agent once again. The 31-year-old led Montreal with 11 goals this season and we’ll see where he winds up next. Charlotte FC did not trigger the purchase option on Pep Biel’s loan, opening up a Designated Player spot. Former Lion Junior Urso’s contract option was also declined by Charlotte. The Philadelphia Union signed defender Olivier Mbaizo to a contract extension that will keep him with the club through 2026, with options for 2027 and 2028 as well.
Free Kicks
- In preparation for the 2026 World Cup, FIFA named 26 new options across the country as “base camps” for participating teams to train and rest. Orlando was included, with OCSC’s training grounds at Osceola Heritage Park pitched alongside the Lake Nona Wave Hotel.
- ESPN‘s Jeff Kassouf dove into how the NWSL stacks up to the biggest sports leagues in the U.S. Saturday’s NWSL Championship between the Pride and Spirit should showcase just how entertaining the league is to plenty of viewers.
- Pep Guardiola will stick around as Manchester City’s manager for a couple more years after signing a two-year contract extension with the club. His contract was set to expire at the end of this season.
- Here’s a cool breakdown of the seven amateur teams that have qualified for the 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup so far. None are from Florida, but there are some great logos to check out if you’re looking for a team to root for in the early rounds next year. Debutants Southern Indiana FC and the Virginia Dream are my personal favorites of the bunch.
- The draw for the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations will take place today. Zambia is in the second pot, meaning it will be put in a group of four that will include one of Nigeria, South Africa, or Morocco. The tournament itself will be in July of next year.
- Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City all clinched a spot in the Women’s Champions League quarterfinals with two games still left to play.
That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend. Go Orlando!
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.
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:
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):
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:
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.
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!
Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More
Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit: Three Keys to Victory
The Case for Starting Luis Muriel Against Atlanta
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