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Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew: Five Takeaways

Here’s what we learned from Orlando City’s 4-3 defeat at Columbus.

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4 hours ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City went on the road to play one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, fell way behind, battled back, and ultimately lost an entertaining but also frustrating match against the Crew in Columbus. Here are my five takeaways from a 4-3 loss that could have been worse, but also could have been so much better.

Good Teams Punish Your Mistakes

Three of the Crew’s four goals came as a direct result of poor play by Orlando City: Martín Ojeda’s blind and poorly struck pass was intercepted and turned into a counterattack for the Crew’s first goal, Dagur Dan Þórhallsson missed a tackle, Rodrigo Schlegel had cheated up so he was out of position and Rafael Santos was yards away from a therefore wide-open Christian Ramirez for the second goal, and Felipe scuffed a simple pass to Thórhallsson that turned into another counterattack for the the deciding fourth goal. Columbus is already difficult to beat in its home stadium, gifting the Crew three golden opportunities was costly (understatement of the night) in this matchup.

Luis Muriel Looked Like a Designated Player

Muriel injected energy into what had been, frankly, a flatlined Orlando City offense since the first 15 minutes of the game. Orlando City went 50 minutes without a shot after Schlegel’s header in the 13th minute, and it was not until Muriel’s shot in the 63rd minute that the Lions finally emerged from their malaise. Muriel looked potent and powerful with the ball throughout his 32 minutes on the field, and I know this may sound a little hyperbolic, but his gorgeous pass to Iván Angulo that turned into Orlando City’s first goal reminded me of the passes from another Lion who once played in Serie A in Italy, the one and only Kaká. Muriel also slotted home a penalty kick and powered in a long range shot in the dying moments of the match, and looked to be the best player on the field for much of his shift. More of this, please and thank you!

El Pulpo Needed More Limbs

Anytime a team gives up four goals it is a natural reaction to think that perhaps the goalkeeper was not on his best form, but I do not think Pedro Gallese had a chance to stop any of the four goals by the Crew. Three of the four goals were from the center of the box, with two from point-blank range with no defenders in front of the attacker, and the other goal took a deflection off of Robin Jansson and went just beyond Gallese’s fingers into the side netting. Gallese did make a huge save in the 89th minute to keep the score 4-2, and as the season comes to a close, every plus or minus one in goal differential could be huge for seeding purposes.

One Foot Made All the Difference

Usually when we write about Facundo Torres and one foot it is about his preference to use his left foot nearly all of the time, but in Saturday night’s match, Facundo was about one foot offside on a free kick played in by Ojeda in the 24th minute, and during that play Orlando City would have received a penalty kick, because Duncan McGuire’s shot attempt hit a Crew arm that was in an unnatural position. Unfortunately, Torres was slightly offside, which negated the opportunity for the Lions to receive a penalty kick and possibly take a 1-0 lead. Five minutes later, the Crew pounced on an Orlando City mistake to take a 1-0 lead themselves, and oh what could have been had the Lions gone up 1-0 instead of going down 1-0 in the first third of the game.

No César Araújo, Yes Problem

Araújo’s yellow card during Wednesday’s match against Charlotte FC meant he was suspended for Saturday night’s match, and he was clearly missed by Orlando City. Jeorgio Kocevski got his first-ever MLS start in Araújo’s absence, and there is just a clear gap between he and Araújo and what they bring to the team. Kocevski was fine, especially for a rookie in his first ever start, but as (shameless plug alert) I wrote about this week the combination of Araújo’ and Wilder Cartagena is elite, and the Lions could have used elite instead of fine on the road against a difficult opponent. Araújo’s absence also hurt Orlando City in terms of their available substitutes, and Óscar Pareja ended up choosing to sub out both holding midfielders during this match — something that rarely happens when Araújo and Cartagena start. Had Araújo played, we likely would have seen only one of Kocevski or Felipe come off the bench if a holding midfielder needed to come out, which would have allowed one more sub who could have been more offensive in nature with Orlando City chasing the game late.

Those are my takeaways from a game that broke Orlando City’s winning streak and shutout streak, but also may have given the Lions confidence that they can compete with the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Confidence does not put points in the league table though, and in the end, the Lions lost and now face a tough road trip next week against FC Dallas. Let us know your thoughts about the match in the comments below.

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew: Final Score 4-3 as Lions See Three-Game Winning Streak Snapped

Orlando City dug a deep hole and tried to climb out of it twice without quite succeeding in a high-scoring road loss.

Published

16 hours ago

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September 21, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Two teams that rarely concede gave up a combined seven goals as the Columbus Crew swept the season series against Orlando City with a 4-3 win at Lower.com Field. The Lions (12-11-7, 43 points) were their own worst enemies in this match. They handed the defending MLS champion Crew (16-5-8, 56 points) great scoring chances before improbably making a game of it and then ultimately capitulating a fourth and decisive goal through sheer miscommunication in their own end.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Orlando and prevented a chance to clinch a fourth consecutive playoff spot.

Diego Rossi, Christian Ramirez, Cucho Hernandez, and Aziel Jackson scored for the hosts. Down 3-0, Ramiro Enrique’s second-half goal spoiled the Crew’s bid for a third straight shutout, and Luis Muriel added a penalty to make things interesting. But rather than scoring an equalizer, Orlando made a mistake with a giveaway that handed the Crew a fourth goal to ice the game. Muriel added a second goal in the final minute of stoppage time, but there were not heroics at the death this time.

“Very intense match,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the game. “I have to give credit to our players that showed all the time our heart and our willingness to bounce back from adversity that the game put us on, since we couldn’t finalize our chances, especially in the first half. Second half we could have tied the game as well.”

Pareja’s starting lineup saw a couple of changes. Goalkeeper Pedro Gallese lined up behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. Rookie Jeorgio Kocevski started in place of the suspended Cesar Araujo next to Wilder Cartagena in central midfield behind the usual attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, and Facundo Torres. Duncan McGuire started instead of Enrique.

The opening 15 minutes were played at a frantic pace, with both teams getting into scoring poition and finding the woodwork. The Crew worked an early ball into the box in the second minute to Jackson but Schlegel blocked his shot. Moments later, a ball pinged around the box and ended up with a soft shot by Jackson that Gallese was able to keep out but the flag came up for offside anyway.

Orlando tried playing over the top a lot early, and in the sixth minute, a great ball over the top found Torres, but his first touch let him down. Two minutes later, the Lions came within inches of opening the scoring. A ball into the area from the left fell to Thorhallsson, who fired off the left post. The rebound came to Torres, who fired a shot that squirted under Patrick Schulte, who spilled it but held it on the line and kept the ball from crossing. McGuire then tried to chip Schulte in the ninth minute off an Orlando takeaway in the attacking half but his shot stayed high and sailed just over the bar.

Mohamed Farsi got down the right behind the defense in the 11th minute as Thorhallsson kept him onside. The Icelandic fullback did well to recover and knock the centering pass behind for a corner. However, the Lions completely ignored Max Arfsten on the set piece. He got a free header as a result but it hit the left upright and rebounded out for a goal kick.

It was Orlando’s turn to get a chance in the 13th minute. McGuire fired a shot inside the box that deflected off a defender for a corner kick. The set piece found Schlegel, who nodded it toward goal but it again hit the left post and stayed out.

“When we proposed to be dense and to be organized, as we did in the first half, we had clear assumptions in behind of them that we couldn’t finalize and change the story of the game,” Pareja said.

Ojeda won a free kick in the 24th minute and the Lions nearly made it pay off. Torres got onto the end of the Argentine’s service but it took a high bounce. He was able to knock a half-volley chance on goal but it hit Schulte in the chest. The ball caromed to McGuire, whose shot hit the outstretched arm of Malte Amundsen and deflected over the bar. The play was reviewed and it was a handball on Amundsen, but Torres was half a yard offside on the delivery of the free kick.

The hosts scored a gift goal in the 30th minute to open the scoring. Tracking back into his own end, Ojeda took a pass from the defense and tried a no-look pass to his right for Santos. Instead, he passed the ball straight to Farsi and the ball was quickly sent forward to Rossi, who touched it to his right and fired a shot that deflected off Jansson’s leg and took the worst possible angle for Orlando.

Gallese had already committed to the original trajectory of the shot and the Peruvian had no chance of keeping it from sneaking just inside the left post to make it 1-0. The goal ended Orlando’s shutout streak at 300 minutes and was Rossi’s third against the Lions this season.

After taking the lead, the Crew held most of the possession and took the air out of the ball. Orlando didn’t get a single shot attempt off after falling behind for the final 15 minutes of the half, plus five minutes of stoppage time.

The Lions’ best opportunity to pull one back came off a quick takeaway and a brilliant pass by Ojeda to send Angulo down the left with numbers in the attack. The chance evaporated when the Colombian took a heavy touch and lost it to the defense in the 40th minute.

Columbus went fishing for a penalty in the 44th minute off a good stop in the box by Schlegel. Alexandru Matan went down easily and, rather than winning a penalty, received a yellow card for simulation. Schlegel had a terrific first half, putting out several fires when the Crew got forward.

Arfsten had the last look at goal in the half, cutting in from the left and trying to curl a shot inside the right post. He left the shot well wide and the hosts took their 1-0 lead into the break.

Columbus held the halftime advantage in possession (66.3%-33.6%), shots (5-4), corners (2-1), and passing accuracy (90.6%-84.8%). Each team put one shot on target. After Torres was ruled offside, his second shot off Schulte didn’t count.

The Lions made no halftime subs but the Crew brought on MLS MVP candidate Hernandez. Orlando’s first foray up the field ended with a Thorhallsson cross from the end line right at Schulte.

The Crew put the game to bed early in the second half on the counter. Schlegel cheated high to try to win the ball back but didn’t. Columbus broke with numbers and Thorhallsson tried to cut a pass to Jackson out but he didn’t make good contact and it fell favorably for the Crew attacker, who sent it wide into the space Dagur vacated on the defensive right to Arfsten. His cross was in to a wide-open Ramirez, as Santos was too slow to pick out a man to mark and Gallese could do nothing with the point-blank header in the 51st minute.

The Crew then had a shooting gallery for a few minutes, with Jackson missing wide in the 55th minute and Hernandez fizzing one over the bar in the 59th, just after Pareja sent on substitutes Nico Lodeiro, Luis Muriel, and Ramiro Enrique. Ojeda, McGuire, and Kocevski were sacrificed.

Muriel fired a left-footed shot toward goal in the 63rd minute, snapping a lengthy drought. The shot deflected out for a corner off a defender. However, the Lions elected to play the corner short and got nothing out of the set piece.

Hernandez seemingly put the game out of reach in the 71st minute, blazing past Schlegel and blasting a one-time shot from Arfsten’s cross past Gallese to make it 3-0.

Orlando pulled the goal back quickly. Muriel made a fantastic pass to send Angulo in behind down the right, but the speedy winger fired his shot off the right post. The rebound came straight to Enrique, who blasted it into the empty net to make it 3-1.

Three minutes later, a good cross in from Torres on the left nearly found Angulo, but he was shoved from behind by Yaw Yeboah as the ball arrived. The referee awarded a penalty immediately. Muriel waited Schulte out and sent a soft shot into the net after the goalkeeper dove to his right. The Lions were suddenly within 3-2 in the 78th minute.

Just two minutes later, the Lions came within inches of tying the game. Enrique stole the ball off the Crew defense and took it into the right side of the penalty area, looking for trailing runners. He sent the ball to Lodeiro just to the right of goal and the midfielder shot. The attempt deflected off a knee in front and skipped just wide of the far post. Orlando played the corner short but couldn’t create anything off the set piece.

With time winding down, the Lions ended up costing themselves again. Felipe, who had come on moments earlier for Cartagena, tried to lay off a pass for Thorhallsson while under pressure from behind. There was an obvious miscommunication between the two, as Thorhallsson probably didn’t expect the soft return ball. Hernandez picked up the ball and fed Jackson, who fired home the Crew’s fourth goal in the 85th minute.

“Their fourth goal hurt us, especially with that short field and turning it over right there,” Muriel said. “But with the momentum that we had, with the inertia that we had, we really felt like we were in a position to equalize before that.”

Orlando City got into the box again moments later. Enrique got in against two defenders and cut back, looking for a shooting lane. He probably took too many touches and allowed a third defender to arrive before he turned and shot, but the effort was blocked in front. Felipe followed on the rebound but his shot was blocked as well and he was called for a foul on the follow-through.

Columbus nearly scored a fifth in the 89th when Herrera got in behind into the box, but Gallese made a big save.

Down two goals, it didn’t seem to matter that there were seven minutes of stoppage time added, but it did affect the final score. Although the Lions struggled to keep the ball and create in injury time, Muriel added a late goal with a shot from outside the area. The Colombian fired a curler that bounced in front of Schulte, who misjudged it. The goalkeeper got a touch but couldn’t keep it out and Orlando was back within a goal at 4-3 with about a minute remaining.

“Obviously happy for my goals, but we were really looking to tie it up or win the game tonight,” Muriel said.

Time ultimately ran out on Orlando City and the final whistle blew on a wild match in Columbus.

The Crew finished the match with the edge in possession (63.7%-36.3%), corners (5-3), and passing accuracy (88.8%-83.7%). Orlando City attempted more shots (13-12), and both teams put five shots on target.

Ultimately, the hole the Lions dug themselves was too deep to climb out of against the defending champs, but nearly climbed out of it anyway.

“It was a very complicated game against a really tough rival,” Muriel said. “I think they put us on the back foot and put us on the counter really quickly with with a lot of their pressure. But moving past that, looking at the end of the second half, we really showed that we’re a team that really likes to fight and wants to fight to be at the top of this league. I think we learned, especially in those last 15 or 20 minutes, the type of team that we can be and the strength that we can show together, especially against one of the best teams in the league. We were at the point where we were about to equalize from three goals down and put ourselves in a position to win the game.”

“In the second half, we chose to push much more and regardless of the spaces that we left in behind,” Pareja said. “We conceded two goals, but also we scored three. It’s that thing of the game that we have to balance. Today they scored one more than us and they take the result. But we had a good game. I thought that we were very competitive and we could have been leading (at) the half easily with the chances that we had.”

The Lions will be back on the road a week from tonight at FC Dallas, looking to bounce back.

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

Orlando City will take on the league’s best defense, looking for revenge for a controversial loss earlier this season.

Published

1 day ago

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September 21, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City (12-10-7, 43 points) and the Columbus Crew (15-5-8, 53 points) at Lower.com Field in Ohio’s capital city (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV). This is the second of the two scheduled meetings between the two Eastern Conference rivals this season.

Here’s what you need to know about the match.

History

The Lions are 9-7-4 in the all-time, regular-season series and 2-4-2 in Columbus. Orlando City is 10-8-4 overall against the Crew in all competitions when counting a home loss in the playoffs and a home win in the U.S. Open Cup.

The last time these teams met was back on May 25. As has been the case with so many matches between Orlando and Columbus, there was controversy in the Crew’s 2-0 win in Orlando. The opening goal came in the second half on a penalty kick that was awarded after a video review following a penalty call at the other end of the pitch. Referee Jairo Marrufo awarded the Lions a penalty for a foul on Steven Moreira against Luis Muriel in the box late in the first half. Before Orlando could take the spot kick, Marrufo went to the monitor and ignored a blatant foul by Diego Rossi in the buildup, ruling it a different attacking phase, despite the Lions never regaining clear control of the ball before the next attack, in which the referee ruled a routine shirt pull by Cesar Araujo — embellished significantly by Aidan Morris falling away from the direction of the tug — was clear-cut enough to wipe out the penalty seconds later at the other end. Rossi converted the penalty in first-half stoppage time, adding a second goal just past the hour mark.

The most significant meeting between the teams came in the 2023 Eastern Conference semifinals on Nov. 25 of last season. The teams played scoreless through the 90 minutes plus injury time, with Orlando City defender Rodrigo Schlegel getting sent off late with a second yellow card. The Crew were able to bundle home a goal in extra time and add an insurance marker for a 2-0 win en route to an eventual MLS Cup championship. Christian Ramirez and Cucho Hernandez scored for the Crew.

The most recent regular-season clash between the Lions and Crew in Orlando was a memorable game at Exploria Stadium on Sept. 16, 2023, with Orlando coming from behind to snatch a stunning 4-3 victory at the death. Julian Gressel gave Columbus an early lead that held up through the first half. Martin Ojeda equalized just after the restart, but Rossi and Hernandez staked the Crew to a two-goal lead. Facundo Torres pulled one back and Ramiro Enrique bagged his first MLS brace, with a goal just a few minutes from the end of normal time and another late in stoppage.

The teams met in Columbus on May 13 of last season, playing to a 2-2 draw. Orlando City fell behind 2-0 by halftime on goals by Darlington Nagbe and Jacen Russell-Rowe, but Ercan Kara pulled one back just a few minutes after the restart and Duncan McGuire leveled the game in stoppage time.

The two sides met in Orlando on Decision Day 2022, with Orlando City erasing a 1-0 deficit on a Derrick Etienne Jr. goal to win 2-1 and clinch a playoff spot. Junior Urso leveled the game in the second half and Torres struck from the penalty spot late. The meeting in Columbus that year took place on April 16, 2022, with the Lions winning 2-0 on goals by Schlegel and Kara.

The 2021 season series concluded on Oct. 27 in Columbus with the Crew winning 3-2. Columbus had lost five straight to Orlando prior to Lucas Zelarayan’s one-goal, two-assist performance. Miguel Berry and Etienne also scored for the Crew. Daryl Dike pulled a goal back from the spot and Robin Jansson struck late but it wasn’t enough.

The teams met at Exploria Stadium on Sept. 4, 2021, with the Lions winning 3-2. Orlando was cruising and built a 2-0 lead on goals by Dike and Silvester van der Water, but a bizarre own goal by Antonio Carlos threw the Crew a lifeline, and a Berry equalizer turned the game around. Urso provided the winner in the 69th minute.

City won the only meeting of the 2020 pandemic season when the 10-man Lions got a late Benji Michel goal to defeat the Crew 2-1 on Nov. 4. Chris Mueller gave Orlando the lead in that game but Harrison Afful was able to equalize just moments after referee Ramy Touchan sent off Nani on a ludicrous call that was overturned by the MLS independent panel a few days later. Thanks to Michel’s goal, the officiating error didn’t end up costing the Lions, who clinched their first-ever MLS playoff spot with the win.

The Lions swept the season series in 2019, defeating the Crew 1-0 on a Michel goal on July 13, 2019, and two weeks previously getting their first road win in the series, 2-0. Nani assisted on goals by Mueller and Tesho Akindele in that one.

Orlando won 2-1 on Oct. 21, 2018 to start a five-game winning streak against the Crew on a pair of penalty kick goals. Yoshimar Yotún and Sacha Kljestan provided the spot kicks to offset Federico Higuain’s opening goal.

The last Crew win in the series prior to the Orlando winning streak was assisted by a horror call by Silviu Petrescu in the 88th minute on July 21, 2018, giving Columbus an equalizer from the penalty spot. Wil Trapp then scored the kind of goal in stoppage time that he’ll probably never score again to lift the Crew to a 3-2 victory in a game the Lions had stolen away from them on a call that Petrescu’s own organization said was an error.

Columbus got the better of Orlando in 2017, going 2-0-1. The Lions were 0-1-1 against Columbus in 2016 and 1-1-1 in the series in 2015, with a home U.S. Open Cup win that season against the Crew as well.

Overview

Orlando City enters on a three-game winning streak, outscoring its opponents 8-0 in that span. Orlando hasn’t conceded in 270 minutes. The three wins were all against teams below the Lions in the table, but teams have to play who the schedule puts in front of them. Tonight’s match will be Orlando’s third in eight days (the Crew’s too), as Orlando comes off Wednesday’s 2-0 home win over Charlotte FC. Torres and McGuire scored second-half goals to lift the Lions. City is 6-5-3 on the road this season, which includes a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Sporting Kansas City in the Lions’ most recent away match.

This match will be against the defending champions and one of the league’s best teams in their house. As such, it will present a much bigger challenge than recent home wins over Charlotte, New England, and Nashville.

The Crew enter this matchup as one of three teams 10 or more points ahead of fourth-place Orlando in the Eastern Conference. Columbus sits third in the table and rides a modest two-game unbeaten streak (1-0-1). Like Orlando, the Crew enter with a shutout streak. Columbus beat Toronto on the road Wednesday night by an identical 2-0 scoreline, following a scoreless draw at rival Cincinnati a week ago. The Crew haven’t conceded in 200 minutes and enter with a 7-2-4 home record, although Columbus dropped its last home game 4-0 to Seattle on Sept. 7.

The Crew are a rare combination of great offense and possibly better defense. Only four teams in MLS have scored more than the 54 Columbus has amassed this season. No team in the league has conceded fewer than the Crew’s 28. In short, Columbus will be a tough nut to crack. (That’s a Buckeye joke and it’s hilarious. Trust me, I grew up in Ohio, so I know. Please proceed once you stop laughing. Thank you.)

Crew Head Coach Wilfried Nancy is one of the best tacticians in MLS and he has the talent and depth to employ it in Columbus, whereas he didn’t quite have all the pieces he needed to do it while he was in Montreal. His system features a three-man back line with solid defensive positioning and an opportunistic attack that can win the ball in dangerous areas and exploit transition opportunities. Rossi, and Ramirez are obvious threats but obviously Hernandez is the biggest weapon when it comes to goal contributions. Orlando City will need to not only limit Hernandez, Rossi, Ramirez, and company, but will have to find a way through the league’s best defense.

“The rivals, we know them [Columbus Crew] already, and I think we know each other,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the match. “We have had competitions already not long ago. I know this is a new game, but we’re trying to be faithful in what we do. This is going to be a match that will have its challenges, but we try and find potential or ways to hurt them and see if we can get our results.”

The Lions will be without David Brekalo (thigh), Mason Stajduhar (lower leg), and Cesar Araujo (yellow card suspension). The Crew will be without Evan Bush (arm).

Match Content

Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defenders: Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.

Defensive Midfielders: Wilder Cartagena, Jeorgio Kocevski.

Attacking Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres.

Forward: Duncan McGuire.

Bench: Javier Otero, Luca Petrasso, Kyle Smith, Michael Halliday, Felipe, Heine Gikling Bruseth, Nico Lodeiro, Luis Muriel, Ramiro Enrique.

Columbus Crew (3-4-2-1)

Goalkeeper: Patrick Schulte.

Defenders: Malte Amundsen, Yevhen Cheberko, Steven Moreira.

Wingbacks / Central Midfielders: Max Arfsten, Darlington Nagbe, Alexandru Matan, Mohamed Farsi.

Attacking Midfielders: Diego Rossi, Aziel Jackson.

Forward: Christian Ramirez.

Bench: Nicholas Hagen, Rudy Camacho, Yaw Yeboah, DeJuan Jones, Andres Herrera, Derrick Jones, Dylan Chambost, Jacen Russell-Rowe, Cucho Hernandez.

Referees

REF: Sergii Boiko.
AR1: Corey Parker.
AR2: Zach McWhorter.
4TH: Fotis Bazakos.
VAR: Kevin Stott.
AVAR: Fabio Tovar.

How to Watch

Match Time: 7:30 p.m.

Venue: Lower.com Field — Columbus, OH.

TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Radio: FM 96.9 The Game (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).

Twitter: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at @TheManeLand, as well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).

Enjoy the match. Go City!

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Opinion

A Look at Orlando City’s Goal-Scoring Race

It is a two-horse race with five matches to go.

Published

1 day ago

on

September 21, 2024

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City has enjoyed a great run of form over a significant amount of its summertime fixtures, but as October quickly approaches, only a handful of matches remain on the schedule to pick up points and score goals. The Lions have been paced by their two stars in Designated Player Facundo Torres and USMNT Olympian Duncan McGuire. Currently, through 29 matches, Torres leads Orlando City with 12 goals and McGuire is right on his heels with nine. Let’s take a look at the underlying numbers to try to predict who will ultimately finish the Major League Soccer regular season as the top goal scorer for OCSC.

Facundo Torres

At this point in his Orlando City career, everyone should just accept the fact that Torres starts to heat up right about the same time as the Central Florida temperatures. Three years running and the DP has consistently started slowly before roaring to life over the summer months of the season. The 2024 campaign is no different, as it took Torres six MLS regular-season matches to score his first goal of the year and then another seven games before finding the back of the net for goal number two. After almost half the season (15 matches) Torres stood firm on those two goals and, coincidentally, his team’s position in the standings reflected his sluggish start.

Torres finally started to turn things around on June 19 against Charlotte FC and found the back of the net six times before the Leagues Cup interrupted the regular season near the end of July.

Since returning to action after the Leagues Cup, Torres has bagged an additional four goals and currently sits just two goals shy of his career high, which was set during the 2023 campaign. Facu has netted 12 throughout the regular season across 27 matches and 2,216 game minutes played. He has logged 54 total scoring attempts and has placed 25 of those attempts on target for a shooting percentage of 46.3%.

Duncan McGuire

So much has been made about McGuire’s off-season transfer drama that it might as well just be turned into its own telenovela at this point. Despite all of the drama and back and forth, McGuire has continued to work and has been nothing short of a consummate pro for both his club and country. McGuire scored his first and second of the year in a 3-2 loss to Minnesota United FC back on March 9, and throughout the first half of the season, he did well to find the back of the net fairly frequently, scoring about once every other game between March 30 and May 15. Time away representing the United States certainly played a role in McGuire finding himself as second on the goal-scoring list instead of leading it for Orlando City, as prior to the Sept. 14 match against the New England Revolution, McGuire’s last goal came all the way back on June 28 against New York City FC.

McGuire sits four goals behind the 13 that he scored in his rookie campaign as he has contributed nine through 23 matches and 1,465 game minutes. He has logged 35 total scoring attempts and has placed 15 of those attempts on target for a shooting percentage of 42.9%.

Projecting Orlando’s Top Scorer

If the current starting lineup holds true over the final five matches of the year, I have a hard time projecting that McGuire could be able to catch and then surpass Torres, even though he is only three goals behind. McGuire has operated out of a super substitute role since rejoining the squad from the Olympics, and if that role continues, then he will have far less time on the field compared to Torres to find the back of the net.

McGuire has done his best over the last two matches, scoring in each game quickly after entering, but at this point, he is unlikely to crack the starting lineup again before the end of the year. Not to mention that in the last two matches when McGuire has scored, Torres had already found the back of the net, keeping the striker at the same deficit despite McGuire’s efforts.

Torres is also the go-to penalty kick taker for the team and has converted two of his three attempts on the year, giving him the ability to pad his numbers from the spot should an opportunity arise over the last stretch of matches. Falling back to the numbers, Torres’ shooting percentage is few ticks better than McGuire’s and should allow him a slightly higher statistical chance to find the goal more times before the end of the season than his second-year counterpart.

I think they both should just keep scoring with reckless abandon…what a great problem to have! Do you think McGuire will catch Torres? Let us know in the comments below and as always, Vamos Orlando!

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