Orlando City vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC: Five Takeaways

Orlando City decided to make the upcoming Toronto FC match mean something by giving up two late goals in a 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps. This match against the Western Conference power was always going to be a challenge, but after scoring the first goal, it looked like the Lions might be able to get a positive result ahead of Decision Day. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Here are my five takeaways from the match.

Captain Crunched

Heading into the match, Orlando City was thin across the board, but especially on the back line with both David Brekalo and Alex Freeman on international duty. That meant there was no shifting Brekalo inside if something happened to either Rodrigo Schlegel or Robin Jansson. That something happened in the 18th minute when Daniel Rios listened to Cobra Kai Sensei John Kreese and swept the leg of Jansson. Do not go watch the slow motion replay, as it was not pretty. Suffice to say, losing the captain and key defender so early was not a good way to start the match, leaving Orlando with three-quarters of its starting back line missing.

Dagur Dan Man

The loss of Jansson meant Oscar Pareja had to make some major adjustments. He brought on Duncan McGuire and shifted Kyle Smith to the back line. The result was Dagur Dan Thorhallsson moving from right back into the midfield. This series of shifts allowed Orlando City to be more creative on the attack (or counterattack as it mostly turned out). Only six minutes after Jansson’s injury, Thorhallsson put the Lions up 1-0 over the visiting Whitecaps. Dagur Dan made a nice pass to Martin Ojeda on the left, who then crossed it to McGuire on the right. Thorhallsson wisely continued his run and McGuire saw that, nodding the ball into his path. The Icelandic midfielder/fullback settled the ball with one touch and put it into the goal with the second touch. It was a well-worked goal to put the Lions ahead.

Depth? What Depth?

I mentioned above that Freeman and Brekalo were on international duty. They weren’t alone, as Javier Otero, Marco Pašalić, and Tyrese Spicer — along with OCB players Gustavo Caraballo, Colin Guske, and Justin Ellis — were all out with their respective national teams. The result is that as the match went on, it was obvious the players were getting more and more tired from doing so much defending. The bench did not have many good options, especially with the early sub for Jansson. Orlando City simply did not have enough bodies to see out the victory after the first goal, or the draw after the equalizer.

Gallese Gaffe?

Pedro Gallese was good most of the match, though there were a few moments when he made me flinch. One of those moments came in second-half stoppage time, when he made a save on Sebastian Berhalter, but it wasn’t certain if the ball crossed the line. I think it most likely did, but fortunately, his sprawled body blocked all the camera angles, meaning the video assistant referee didn’t have enough evidence to overturn the call. We may never know if the entire ball crossed the line, but if it did, Gallese got away with the spill, which is something that never happens for the Lions.

It Had to Be Muller

This match was originally scheduled for Aug. 30, but was moved because of Orlando’s deep run in Leagues Cup. If it had been played as originally scheduled, German legend Thomas Muller would not have been fully integrated into the squad and may not have scored a stoppage-time winner against Orlando City. That is speculation, of course, but we know that going into this match Muller had more than enough time to acclimate to his team and to the league. We saw the result Saturday night. It also is not surprising that the Lions were able to defend him through 90 minutes plus the allocated five minutes of stoppage time, only to have him score in the 97th minute.

Those are my takeaways from Orlando City’s fully predictable but disappointing 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Lions now turn their attention to Toronto FC on Sunday. The Decision Day match will determine if the Lions will play one of the top four teams in a best-of-three series next or face a play-in game ahead of the first round.

Let us know your thoughts about the Vancouver match in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!