Orlando City vs. LAFC: Five Takeaways

Orlando City followed up a rough loss on the road at Nashville with an even worse loss on the road at LAFC on Saturday night, giving up six goals for the second time in club history and losing 6-0. LAFC was excellent and Orlando City was not, and the the cross-country flight back home will likely feel even longer than usual after the fifth loss in the season’s first six games.

Here are my five takeaways from the match.

Another Early Deficit

The Lions gave up a goal in the first 10 minutes of a game for the third time this season, and the second game in a row. LAFC blitzed Orlando City like the L.A. Rams playing the Detroit Lions, and from the opening kickoff it seemed like it was only a matter of time until LAFC took the lead. It happened in the seventh minute, when David Brekalo deflected a cross into his own net after Iago was badly beaten by a through ball, but that goal had been coming, and though it was an own goal, it was less bad luck and more bad defending that led to yet another opposing team taking an early lead. Slow starts to halves have plagued Orlando City all season (three opponents have also scored goals in the opening 10 minutes of the second half), and that trend continued in this match.

The Kinds of Records You Don’t Want To Set

LAFC’s blistering first half added Orlando City to the list of MLS teams to give up five goals in a first half, and even though Major League Soccer has been around since 1996, that was only the ninth game in which a team gave up five goals in a first half. The six goals allowed by the Lions also tied a club record for goals allowed (Oct. 22, 2017 against Philadelphia was the other time), and with 23 goals allowed in six games, Orlando City is now on pace to allow 130 goals this season. The record for goals allowed in a season is 78, and if Orlando City continues to play “defense” like it did, the Lions will break that record by August. As a reminder, the last game of the regular season is in November, which is several months after August.

Sonned by Son

If you are not familiar with the term, “sonning” someone, it is a phrase most often used in pickup basketball when a player dominates another player so badly it is like when a father plays their son in the driveway and does whatever he wants because he is older and stronger. Four assists and utter dominance in the first half definitely qualifies under this definition, and that is what Son Heung-Min did to the Lions, while doing basically whatever he wanted during the game’s opening 45 minutes. Son is among the best players in the league, so it is not a surprise that he was a handful, but he looked like a man among boys against Orlando City.

A Spine In Name Only

The players who played in the middle of the field on Saturday night were collectively bad, though Maxime Crépeau deserves a little love because LAFC should have scored more, if not for some excellent saves by the Canadian. The rest of the central players looked like they needed to get a coffee or fifty from Central Perk (timely Friends reference), because they never woke up. Iago, Brekalo, and Nolan Miller were roasted multiple times on the back line, Eduard Atuesta was completely out of sync with his teammates, Colin Guske delivered hustle plays but not much else, and none of Duncan McGuire, Martín Ojeda, and Tiago contributed anything that looked like offense until the final minutes when LAFC was just seeing out the game. Braian Ojeda was solid, but did not do anything of note when he shifted back into the middle, and while Luis Otávio played what were probably his best minutes as a Lion, he missed a glorious opportunity on a corner kick from point-blank range. LAFC overran Orlando City in the middle of the field, and Robin Jansson’s return cannot come soon enough.

Signs Of Life In The Second Half

Orlando City looked much more lively in the second half, but as LAFC was winning 5-0 at halftime, its intensity level was not the same as it had been in the first half. The main highlights in the first half for the Lions were a few corner kicks and some shots from distance that barely troubled Hugo Lloris, but in the second half, Orlando City should have scored several goals. When you are cold, you are cold though, and despite having chances throughout the second 45 the Lions were unable to convert. I had hopes that there would at least be the moral victory of being the first team this season to score on LAFC, but it was not to be and Orlando City still has yet to score a road goal this season.

Those are my takeaways from Orlando City’s brutal 6-0 loss on the road at LAFC. The Lions will be on the road once again next weekend, against a Columbus team that is coming off its first win of the season. Hopefully Columbus will wear its home yellows so Orlando City can go purple, as the Lions have really put the “sunk” in “Sunken Treasure” every time they have worn those kits this season.

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