Orlando City at FC Cincinnati: Five Takeaways

Orlando City traveled to Ohio to take on third-place FC Cincinnati looking to maintain its fourth-place spot. Cincinnati had lost two straight coming into the match, and the Lions made it three in a row thanks to a 3-1 win on the road.

Here are my five takeaways from an impressive win against a top-three club.

The Accountant Makes it Count

FC Cincinnati was doing well in taking the game to Orlando City, though the Lions were getting the occasional foray into Cincy’s half. It was on one such push that Ramiro Enrique received the ball and passed it wide to Kyle Smith coming up the right. Smith, a Cincinnati native, decided to show his hometown that he was worthy of the start. He took one touch and then put in a curling cross back to Enrique, who did well on a difficult strike to give Orlando the early lead. Smith also added a secondary assist on Ivan Angulo’s goal in the second half.

PRO Gonna PRO

Referee Filip Dujic was less than great most of the night. There are some who will say he “let them play” without calling every little thing. I am of the mind that he let too much go. There were several card-worthy fouls that were not even called as fouls. It’s fortunate that he didn’t impact the match in a negative way for Orlando City. PRO Referees have done so in the past, so I was expecting it early on from Dujic. Thankfully, he didn’t.

Acosta Will Cost Ya

It turns out that the reigning MLS MVP is pretty good at soccer. Orlando was hoping to to get to halftime with the lead, but Acosta had a different idea. Like he has done so many times before, he struck an excellent shot from outside the box to beat Pedro Gallese. To be fair, Gallese had a couple of defenders in front of him, and had cheated a bit to his left, making it to difficult to go back to his right to make the save, but the Lions could have closed down the space better on that play.

Go On, Angulo

As of late, Ivan Angulo hasn’t been great. He hasn’t necessarily been bad, but not as good as we expect. Even in this match, he looked better, but not great. That changed in the 66th minute when he put the Lions back on top with a shot that squibbled — yes, I made up that word, but it’s the right word — past Roman Celentano and into the back of the net. Angulo wasn’t satisfied with just a goal, as he added an assist a mere six minutes later. FC Cincinnati defender Luca Orellano played a poorly weighted pass back to the keeper, allowing the speedy Angulo to take the ball and tap it over to Enrique for goal number three. It was a much better second half for Angulo.

Clinical Scoring

Orlando City has been scoring in bunches over the last seven matches. The Lions have scored 19 goals in that timeframe. The team was particularly clinical against Cincinnati. Orlando City took six shots, putting five on target and three in the back of the net. That is 83% of shots on target, and 50% scoring. If the Lions can be even half as efficient going forward, the playoffs could be pretty fun.

That is what I saw in the 3-1 victory. What were your biggest takeaways from the game? Let us know in the comments below and as always, vamos Orlando!