Orlando City at Nashville: Three Keys to Victory

Orlando City heads to Music City to take on Nashville SC on Saturday. This is a critical match as Nashville sits above the Lions in the standings, thanks to having one more win than Orlando City despite both teams sitting on 47 points. The Lions can overtake Nashville if they can get another road win. What must Orlando City do to earn all three points against Nashville on Saturday night?

Stop Surridge and Halt Hany

Nashville has scored 44 goals so far this season. Sam Surridge has 18 goals, and Hany Mukhtar has 12 goals. No other player has more than two goals for Nashville. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that stopping these two attackers is the primary key for an Orlando City victory.

Fortunately, Cesar Araujo will be returning from his yellow card suspension. We saw in the first half of the Sporting Kansas City match how much his presence was missed in stopping attacks. You can fully expect a first-choice lineup for this match, including on the back line. Expect Alex Freeman, Rodrigo Schlegel, Robin Jansson, and David Brekalo to start. Orlando City has been giving up a goal every match as of late, and that has to stop.

Crooked Numbers

The Lions have done a bang-up job recently in scoring more than one goal per game. In the last four regular-season matches, Orlando City has scored 12 goals. It’s much easier to get three points when you are scoring three goals per match. Most of those have come from Orlando City’s three Designated Players — Luis Muriel, Marco Pasalic, and Martin Ojeda — but not all of them. Against Sporting KC, other players stepped up when the three DPs were held scoreless.

While it’s good that others scored some goals, I still want to see Muriel, Pasalic, and Ojeda get back on the scoreboard. The three are a big part of Orlando City’s success this season. If they can get multiple goals against Joe Willis and the Nashville defense, it will go a long way towards bringing home three points.

Effective Rotation

This will be Orlando City’s third match in eight days. The team is returning from a trip to California. That’s a lot of miles and a lot of minutes to deal with for one team. Rotation will be important. Fortunately, Orlando City has plenty of quality backups.

We saw how well Dagur Dan Thorhallsson played in the midfield against Sporting. He can be deployed at right back or in the midfield. Kyle Smith can play both of those positions and more. Joran Gerbet is back, and Nico Rodriguez now knows he can score goals in MLS. Orlando City is getting healthy at the right time. Now, it’s up to Oscar Pareja to make the right choices on who to start and when to substitute.

That is what I will be looking for Saturday night. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!