Orlando City vs. New York Red Bulls: Final Score 1-0 as Toothless Lions Fall at Home

Orlando City’s playoff motto for 2024 was “All Teeth,” but the team again showed no bite offensively in a 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls at Inter&Co Stadium in the Eastern Conference final. A redirected John Tolkin free kick by Andres Reyes early in the second half was the difference as the Lions were shut out for the second time in these playoffs — finishing with four goals in five 2024 postseason matches. It was the fourth time in the club’s last nine postseason matches. Despite conceding only twice across five playoff games, Orlando City is out.

The team had its chances, although they were few, but lacked lethality in front, particularly on a first-half chance that could have put the visitors on their heels. As a result, Orlando finished 0-2-1 in three games against New York in 2024, without scoring a goal against the opposition. The lone draw featured a goal in Orlando’s favor, courtesy of a Red Bulls own goal by Noah Eile.

“Obviously, a few words will not tell the whole story about how we feel tonight after not getting this result,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “I thought we had a good season and we had a bunch of things just to be proud of, but it’s very painful at this moment that we’re not achieving that objective. And that tells us that we have grown. This is a playoff game. I thought New York had two shots. It was a very rocky game for both. But in those options they took it and we didn’t take ours when we had the chance.”

Pareja’s lineup had no changes, with goalkeeper Pedro Gallese starting behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena started in central midfield behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, and Facundo Torres, with Ramiro Enrique up top.

The game was cagey from the onset, with New York holding more of the ball than it normally does. Orlando stayed well organized and didn’t give up many good looks, but also rarely broke down the Red Bulls’ attack to go the other way. The Lions were untidy in their passing as well, which broke down opportunities to get into the final third.

The game was back and forth for more than half an hour before a scoring chance materialized, and it was a good one. Cartagena unlocked the defense with a pass to Ojeda, sending the Argentine down the left side. Ojeda did well to draw two defenders toward himself and fed a pass to Torres in the box. Torres had time and space but fired his shot too close to goalkeeper Carlos Coronel, who made a good, if not difficult, save to keep the match scoreless in the 32nd minute.

New York’s first shot came two minutes later when Lewis Morgan went down softly, drawing a free kick from referee Rosendo Mendoza. The kick was from at least 30 yards out so the service was sent short, as Dante Vanzeir deflected it out front. The redirection didn’t miss the upper right corner by much.

The Lions should have had a good opportunity to score in the 39th minute when Enrique stole a ball in the attacking half. Entering the box on the right side, he had a trailing defender and rather than rip a shot with his right foot, he tried to make a move to improve his positioning inside, but he couldn’t finesse it past and the chance evaporated.

Vanzeir got inside of Santos in the 42nd minute but his angle was severe and he put a shot into the outside netting.

That was about it for the good looks at goal in the first half, as the teams went to the break without a goal on the board.

The visitors held the halftime advantage in possession (57.4%-42.6%), shots (4-1), corners (1-0), and passing accuracy (80.4%-74.3%). The Lions had more shots on target (1-0). But it was mostly a dull half with few chances and little play of note from the Lions.

“We had two or three chances in the first half that were really good chances for us that could have changed the game,” Ojeda said.

The decisive play came just moments after the restart on an unnecessary foul by Angulo just to New York’s attacking right side of the penalty area. Tolkin sent in the cross to the back post, where no one bothered to mark Reyes, who knocked it off the inside of the post and in to make it 1-0 in the 47th minute.

“A very unnecessary foul,” Pareja said about conceding the set piece. “We’re dealing with this obvious frustration. I have not seen (the goal on film). But what I saw in the game is not just that (Reyes) came out free, but the ball was very tight. I would have to see it. In this kind of games, it seems that those things sometimes are the tiebreaker.”

That was all the scoring the visitors needed, as Orlando rarely threatened Coronel’s goal frame, putting two more shots on frame in the second half, but neither was much of a threat.

Orlando managed to win a few set pieces over the next several minutes but couldn’t do anything with them. Jansson had a ball come off of him in the box in the 59th minute that pinged around but didn’t threaten goal. He felt he was knocked down from behind in the aftermath, and there was some contact, but no foul was given and it was a speculative shout for a penalty.

Chasing the match, Pareja sent Duncan McGuire and Luis Muriel on in the 61st minute for Enrique and Thorhallsson, moving Angulo to right back. The move nearly paid off three minutes later, when Reyes, already on a yellow card, raised a high boot that caught McGuire in the head. Mendoza inexplicably didn’t give the obvious second yellow card, allowing New York to keep 11 men on the pitch. There could hardly be an easier yellow card decision, but none was forthcoming.

Reyes then took a shot to the face from an Ojeda free kick a few minutes later and left the match either for precautionary reasons or because he’d gotten away with a second yellow offense already and the Red Bulls didn’t want to push their luck.

New York cleared a corner kick in the 78th minute that fell to Santos well outside the box. The Brazilian fired a shot on target but it was from too far out to trouble Coronel, who made the save. A minute later, McGuire ran onto a good ball over the top and fired with his weaker left foot from the left side, but the ball squirted off his foot sideways and sailed wide.

The Lions got a chance in the 84th minute on a Santos cross that skipped off the head of a defender and fell near the back post. Angulo knocked it just wide of the right post. Moments later, Ojeda won a corner and then picked out Torres in front, but the Uruguayan couldn’t get much power on his knockdown header, which bounced straight at Coronel.

Orlando again shouted for a penalty in the second minute of stoppage time. A set piece into the ball was cleared to the top of the box and looked as if it may have caught Cory Burke’s outstretched arm. It wasn’t given, and Burke streaked down the field on a breakaway. Gallese came well out of his box and did well to knock it away and Schlegel prevented further danger by holding a player back, picking up a yellow card for the professional foul.

The Lions couldn’t mount much of anything after that, and the full-time whistle blew on Orlando City’s 2024 season.

The Lions finished with the advantage in possession (60%-40%), shots (9-7), shots on target (3-1), corners (5-2), and passing accuracy (79.6%-71.6%). The Red Bulls got their smash-and-grab spot in the MLS Cup final on their lone shot on target.

“They’re a really tough team to play against,” Ojeda said. “They really take away those spaces that we like to play into, and they press really high. And it’s a situation where I think we have to have a little bit more patience and a little bit more calm in those moments.”

“Everybody is disappointed,” Jansson said. “Didn’t really get out what we wanted from this game. We didn’t really break through their pressure. We had some good chances in the first half to put it in the goal, and in these types of games we have to put the goals in there.”

“It was there for us and we didn’t take it, and it’s difficult,” Pareja said. “And I said to the players in the locker room that I was not going to prepare any speeches to lift their souls. It’s painful. We did have a bunch of things that we would be proud of and we will feel that this club is growing in a great direction, but I’m not going to mention that today because my frustration’s bigger than that. We will die for this club. Today, we have to accept that we’re not in the final of the MLS Cup.”

That’s a wrap on the season. Orlando went further than ever before but came up short on its own home field against a team it failed to score on in three matches.