Orlando City vs. Nashville SC: Player Grades and Man of the Match

It was a match that put fans through the full gamut of emotions, but in the end, Orlando City snatched a last-gasp win against Nashville SC and picked up a vital three points in the process. The win keeps Orlando in the race for the top four places in the Eastern Conference, although the Lions have little to no room for error in their final four matches of the season if they want to secure home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Let’s take a look at how the Cardiac Cats performed in Saturday’s 3-2 victory.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 7 — While he conceded two goals, Gallese couldn’t really do much to keep either one out of the net. What he did was save Orlando’s bacon on several occasions, as he made an excellent save on a Hany Mukhtar header from close range just before halftime, and did well to keep him out again in the 60th minute. El Pulpo finished the game with four saves, 89% passing accuracy, and would have had an assist had Ivan Angulo been able to find a way past Joe Willis after Gallese played a long ball to put the Colombian in on goal after a corner kick.

D, David Brekalo, 6 — If you skim the statistics from this one, you might wonder why Brekalo’s grade isn’t higher. After all, he recorded two tackles, one interception, four clearances, and three aerial duel wins on defense while drawing two fouls, completing a dribble, playing a key pass, and passing with 88.9% accuracy on offense. However, go back and watch the video of Jacob Shaffelburg’s tying goal. The Slovenian defender allowed Shaffelburg to get goalside of him far far too easily, and once that happened, he wasn’t able to cut out the cross which the Canadian slammed into the back of the net. It was bad defending in an instance when OCSC couldn’t afford it, and so his grade suffers. If not for that error, he’s probably sitting at a seven, as he had a pretty good game otherwise.

D, Robin Jansson, 6 — Orlando City’s captain had a quieter, albeit steady and reliable performance. He held things down in the center of defense with three clearances and two interceptions, while passing with 92.7% accuracy and completing three long balls. While he wasn’t the only one, he was guilty of ball watching on Mukhtar’s goal in first-half stoppage time, as he didn’t react to the rebound and the German was able to collect his own rebound off the post and put it past Gallese. He has to lose some points for that, but otherwise it was a solid performance.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 6.5 — Schlegel was largely effective in his center back partnership with Jansson. He ended the night with one tackle, two clearances, and two blocks on defense, and one aerial duel won, while taking one shot on offense that was off target, completing three long balls, and passing with 100% accuracy. He did commit two fouls and picked up a yellow card, which he has to lose some points for. The Argentine was also extremely lucky to have some questionable defending go unpunished in the 53rd minute. Shaffelburg played a cross for Sam Surridge at the back post, who lost Schlegel far too easily and had a free header in the six-yard box that he somehow contrived to miss. It was poor marking, and the Lions were fortunate to not pay the price for it.

D, Alex Freeman, 6 — There was to be no goal for Freeman in this game, but he still had an active outing. On defense, the young fullback won three aerial duels, recorded two interceptions, made one tackle, and added two clearances. Going forward, he took one shot that was blocked, completed two dribbles, drew two fouls, and passed with 84.6% accuracy while completing one cross and one long ball. On the flip side of things, he was another player who was guilty of ball watching on Mukhtar’s goal, and it was worse for him, since he was probably in the best position to get to the ball when it came back off the post. Still, it was a good game overall if not quite as buccaneering an outing as we’ve seen at times this year.

MF, Ivan Angulo, 6 — As is usually the case with Angulo, he was involved on both sides of the ball in this game. On defense, he chipped in with two tackles while also committing a foul. On the other side of the field, he completed two dribbles, drew a foul, passed with 71.4% accuracy, and took one shot which was on target and saved by Joe Willis. He could have done better on it since he was in alone on goal, but he has shown himself to be lacking in the breakaway goal department. He and Luis Muriel couldn’t quite get the timing right on an early second-half pass, as the striker was ultimately offside when Angulo played him in behind, although he failed to hit the target regardless.

MF, Kyle Smith, 7.5 — With Cesar Araujo and Joran Gerbet both unavailable, Smith got the start in midfield, and he did a little bit of everything. On defense he contributed two tackles and two interceptions, while on offense he drew a foul, completed two long balls, recorded one key pass, and distributed the ball with 81.8% accuracy. His best moment of the night however, came on Martin Ojeda’s second goal. Smith took the ball off Patrick Yazbek in midfield, played the ball to Luis Muriel, got it back, and then fed a nice ball in behind for Ojeda who dispatched it past Joe Willis. That means he also ended the game with an assist, which was the finishing touch on a well-rounded evening.

MF, Eduard Atuesta, 6.5 — Atuesta partnered Smith in midfield, and while he was quieter than his counterpart, he still turned in a good performance on the defensive side of the ball with two tackles, one interception, one clearance, one aerial duel won, and one foul committed. Going forward, he drew two fouls, took one shot, which was blocked, and delivered two long balls while passing with 89.1% accuracy. It wasn’t as impactful of an offensive performance as he’s shown himself to be capable of, but it was still the sort of solid outing that we’re used to seeing from him.

MF, Marco Pašalić, 7 — While he didn’t manage to make an impact on the scoresheet, Pasalic was far from quiet. He didn’t do much on defense, although he registered one interception. Instead, as expected, he put in work going forward and finished with a game-high five completed dribbles, one long ball, one foul drawn, one key pass, 81% passing accuracy, and one shot on target. He was unlucky to not score with that shot, which was a beautiful curling effort that Willis saw late and ultimately did well to save. As suggested by the dribbling stat, he was constantly looking to keep the ball at his feet and probe the Nashville defense by going on mazy runs. He’ll hope to get back on the scoresheet soon as its now been four league games without a goal.

F, Martin Ojeda, 8.5 (MotM) — Surely you had to know this was coming right? As he so often has been this year, Ojeda was the man at the center of it all for the Lions. Let’s start with the stats you probably don’t know, as he registered one tackle, one clearance, and one foul, while also playing a game-high three key passes, connecting on three crosses and one long ball, and passing with 81.8% accuracy. He took four shots and put two of them on target, and he scored from each of those two shots on target. His free kick goal for the opener was nothing short of spectacular, as he found the gap that Schlegel and Jansson created in the wall, and banged a shot in off the post. His second goal was all about pinpoint finishing, as he shot first time from Smith’s pass and unerringly hit the far corner. He’s a worthy Man of the Match, and continues to force his way into the MVP conversation.

F, Luis Muriel, 6.5 — Although it wasn’t a bad performance, it wasn’t one of the Colombian’s better outings either. He wasn’t able to impact the game with his dribbling or vision and passing range, although he contributed the secondary assist on Ojeda’s second goal. Other than that and some moments where he flashed his mind-meld understanding with his strike partner, he had a pretty quiet evening. His stat line reads two shots with one off target and one on target that forced an excellent save from Willis, two fouls drawn, and 69.2% passing accuracy.

Substitutes

F, Duncan McGuire (63′), 7 — Brought on to replace Muriel, McGuire had an effective 27 minutes on the field. He injected energy and a desire to press from the front into the team, and he managed to get on the ball in dangerous areas. He took two shots, with one off target and one on target, and played one key pass while distributing the ball with 88.9% precision. Then there was the obvious, as he scored the all-important winning goal with a fantastic first-time finish as the game was entering its final moments. It was great to see Dunc back among the goals after his injury struggles this season, and the departure of Ramiro Enrique means the Lions are going to need him if they want to make any noise in the postseason.

MF, Tyrese Spicer (72′), 7 — Like McGuire, Spicer made the most of his 18-minute substitute appearance after he came on for Angulo. Some of his dribbling wasn’t as crisp as it usually is, but he chipped in defensively with one tackle, drew a foul, passed with 100% accuracy, delivered one cross, one key pass, and had the all-important assist on the winning goal. He was brought on to help change the game and give the Lions more offensive juice and he did exactly that. If he can become a reliable weapon off the bench, then it makes OCSC a much more dangerous team as we enter the final stretch of the regular season.

D, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson (86′), N/A — With just four minutes on the field after replacing David Brekalo, it wouldn’t be fair to assign DDT a grade in this game. He contributed one tackle and two clearances in his limited minutes, and passed with 100% accuracy. It should be noted that while he was the man who fed Spicer before the winger streaked down the left flank and assisted McGuire, Thorhallsson was not credited with an official secondary assist.

MF, Colin Guske (86′), N/A — The injuries to Orlando’s other midfielders meant it was Guske who came on for Smith, but he also wasn’t on the field long enough to be assigned a fair grade. Similar to Thorhallsson, he was plenty involved though. Guske had one tackle and one clearance, while committing one foul and drawing a foul. He completed all four of his passes for an accuracy rate of 100%.

There you have it. Ojeda shone again, Smith had one of his best games of the year, and McGuire came to the rescue to prove that Orlando does in fact, still run on Duncan. Do you agree with my pick for Man of the Match, or should the honors go to someone else? Be sure to vote in our poll, and have your say down in the comments. Vamos Orlando!