Orlando City vs. LA Galaxy: Five Takeaways

Orlando City went on the road on a Galaxy quest, and will fly back across the country with three points after a snatch-and-grab second-half performance earned the Lions a 2-1 victory. The Lions joined the Pride in defeating California opponents via that scoreline on Saturday, and in an even greater coincidence, both teams scored a goal on a penalty kick in the 76th minute. To quote another California icon, Ice Cube, it was a good day. Here are my five takeaways from the match.

Early Sluggishness Led to an Early Deficit

Orlando City certainly looked the part of an East Coast team playing at 10:30 p.m. with the players on their normal body clock to start the game, as LA dominated possession during the opening minutes and took advantage by scoring the game’s opening goal. To be fair, LA is a team that likes to have the ball (70%, 53% and 56% possession in the three preceding games, according to Opta’s tracking) and the official stats that Apple showed on the broadcast around 20 minutes into the first half indicated that the Galaxy had 60% of the possession during the opening portion of the game. The goal the Galaxy scored felt inevitable with how they, and Orlando, were playing, and it seemed that the goal jolted the Lions into waking up and getting into the game.

VAR taketh away, but then VAR giveth

There are no fan bases in the world, save perhaps fans of Duke men’s basketball, who think that referees are generally fair when it comes to making calls during their team’s games. That said, the fact that there was not even a trip to the monitor to review Christian Ramirez’s goal was hard to fathom. We do not get to see all the angles that the officials reviewing the play do, but with the angles that we were shown, it looked pretty clear that Ramirez was in an offside position. Referee Jon Freemon surprisingly did not go to the monitor, and the goal stood. As the game went on, it seemed like once again Orlando City was going to suffer from “PRO gonna PRO,” but then Eduard Atuesta (the Man of the Match in my eyes) was fouled in the box and the Lions received a penalty kick. It seemed certain that the call would be overturned, as the contact did not look significant and Orlando City historically has not benefitted — ever — from PRO reviews, but once again Freemon did not even go to the monitor and the penalty kick stood. Ojeda converted, and the Lions had new life.

The Left Side Was Not Right…Until it Was

Oscar Pareja made a double change in the 66th minute, removing both Iván Angulo and Rafael Santos, and he probably should have made that change even earlier. Aside from hustle, which both players showed in abundance, neither left-sided starter brought much else to the table and both were responsible for Ramirez’s goal via a complete lack of awareness of the run by Miki Yamane into the box. There were scary moments in the back throughout the time when Angulo and Santos were on the field, and while the Galaxy’s Gabriel Pec is an elite talent, he did not have to work especially hard to create some of his opportunities down the right side. The tracking at whoscored.com showed 40% of the Galaxy’s attacks were down the right side of the field, and it seemed like 100% during the minutes when Angulo and Santos were on the field. David Brekalo entered the game for Santos and took over as left back, and he played quite well in an unfamiliar role, helping to shore up the left side of the defense and give Pareja another lineup configuration to consider for future weeks.

Orlando May Soon Run on Duncan Again

Duncan McGuire played his longest shift of the season in this match, and while he did not get on the scoresheet, he looked almost back to the terrifying freight train of a striker that we have seen in purple for the last two seasons. His speed and power were there, and though his touch let him down, he still was getting himself into great positions and pulling the back line apart, and the touch will surely return soon as well. His entrance into the game allowed Muriel to drop into a central attacking role and pushed Ojeda out wide to the left, and the game really changed once that lineup was on the field together. The Lions took 10 of the game’s next 12 shots and scored two goals to take the lead.

Sometimes It Is Better To Be Lucky Than Good

I will admit that I did not think it was a good idea for Luis Muriel to shoot when taking the free kick that turned into the second goal, as I thought it would have been a much better idea to play a ball into the box and try to get a header or a shot off a pinball situation inside the box. Muriel went ahead and took a shot anyway, and there is no other way to say it than Orlando City received a gift, as Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy made a mess of the shot and let it drop into his net. Muriel struck the ball with pace, but it looked like while McCarthy’s positioning let him down a little bit, his hands let him down a lot. Perhaps the karmic gods were evening out Rodrigo Schlegel’s unfortunate touch from the season opener that gifted Philadelphia a goal, or perhaps Orlando City was just due for some luck, but either way, it was an unlikely goal. They all count the same though, and this one gave the Lions two on the scoreboard and then three in the points column.

Those are my takeaways from a game that seemed headed for disappointment but then turned on its head with two late goals. Orlando City’s Designated Players added two more goals to their tally, as the M&Ms (Marco, Martín and Muriel) now have 11 between them. The team still leads the league in goals scored, and the Lions will have a chance to avenge their season-opening loss when they visit Philadelphia in their next match on April 5.

Let us know your thoughts about the match in the comments below.