Mirage vs. Reality: On the Sustainability of the San Jose Performance

While we all no doubt missed having Orlando City games to watch during Major League Soccer’s sabbatical for the World Cup, its also probably fair to say that Wednesday’s return to action against the San Jose Earthquakes was tinged with a good deal of trepidation. After all, the Lions had been hammered 6-2 on the road by FC Cincinnati in their final match before the layoff, comfortably had the worst defense in the league, had yet to keep a clean sheet, and had given up a whopping 31 of their 44 goals conceded on the road.

It didn’t help matters that San Jose was in the top five of the Supporters’ Shield standings, was the second-best team in the Western Conference (level on points for first but edged out on goal differential), and had scored 33 goals in 15 games while giving up just 15. It’s true that the Quakes weren’t in great form before the break, winning just one of their last five, but there was still plenty of reasons to worry that Orlando would pick up where it had left off in Ohio back on May 23.

Instead, the Lions not only hammered San Jose 4-0, but arguably should have beaten the Earthquakes by an even more lopsided scoreline. The team played a fluid, position-less brand of soccer that gave the home team absolute fits, and kept a first league clean sheet of the year to boot. It was an extremely unexpected, but exceedingly welcome, performance.

The big question now, is whether it can be replicated.

Well, maybe not directly replicated, as 4-0 wins tend to be relatively uncommon occurrences for even the very best of teams. Rather, can the things that made Orlando successful on Wednesday be built upon and repeated, or was the team’s performance a flash in the pan that we shouldn’t expect to see again?

First, let’s talk about the performance itself.

The highlight was how the team looked going forward. Every player on the field not named Maxime Crepeau, Adrian Marin, Robin Jansson, or David Brekalo was constantly drifting anywhere and everywhere in the attacking half, taking up unexpected positions and rarely remaining in the position designated for them by the formation. Ivan Angulo functioned as a no.10 despite nominally playing right midfield, Justin Ellis and Antoine Griezmann could be found anywhere from the opposition’s 18-yard box to the midfield line or deeper, and the same could be said for Braian Ojeda and Eduard Atuesta. San Jose found the positional interchanging extremely difficult to deal with, especially during the first half hour of the game, but did settle in a little better after halftime.

Speaking of Ellis and Griezmann, they were terrors for their entire time on the pitch. As previously mentioned, both of them were dropping deep to receive the ball, exchanged quick passes with their teammates, and then turned to bomb forward themselves or play balls through or over the defense. That quick passing and clever movement was a theme for OCSC as a whole, but the two forwards were the best examples of it with Angulo coming a close third.

The speed of play for Orlando meant that the team had a lot of joy in transition moments, and the Lions constantly seemed to be springing players behind the defense, or running at San Jose’s defense with men in support. Only some poor execution when it came to passing and finishing in the final third prevented the good guys from putting even more goals on the board.

When it came to keeping the ball out of their own net, the Lions did several things very well. For one thing, the defense seemed to be more organized than we’ve seen it this year, aside perhaps from the U.S. Open Cup win against Atlanta. Orlando caught San Jose offside seven times on Wednesday, and on several occasions it was more down to the defense stepping together as a unit and staying in a disciplined line than it was on the Earthquakes being lazy or mistiming their runs.

When San Jose did carve out good chances, Crepeau was a towering presence in between the posts for the Lions. His seven saves will take the headlines, but there were also several instances where he was quick and smart in coming off his line to beat a San Jose runner to a ball and prevent a 1-v-1 situation. He also made several of his best saves on shots that were ultimately ruled out for offside or he almost certainly would have cracked double digits. It was a pre-eminent performance, and he looked to be brimming with confidence after a good showing for Canada at the World Cup.

Now to be objective, OCSC had some things working in its favor. San Jose was without Niko Tsarikis, who has two goals and four assists in 11 games (then again, the Lions were without Martin Ojeda, Marco Pasalic, and Daryl Dike), and the Earthquakes’ finishing was…not great. Two particular instances stood out: Beau Leroux missing wide left in the 38th minute when he was unmarked at the top of the six-yard box, and Jack Skahan touching a ball toward on onrushing Crepeau in the 57th minute rather than passing to a wide-open Ousseni Bouda for a tap-in. There were also several times when a ‘Quakes player just missed getting on the end of a ball in a dangerous area, or when bad giveaways in dangerous areas by the Lions went unpunished.

San Jose also made some unforced errors of its own, like the turnover that led to Griezmann’s goal. Then there was the set piece marking, which was atrocious. Brekalo and Ojeda were both completely unmarked for their goals, and it was shockingly bad defending for a team that hadn’t given up any set piece goals going into Wednesday’s game.

Now, what exactly should we make of all this?

Well, when it comes to what Orlando did, there’s an argument to be made that the team’s offensive performance from open play can be replicated. The team has had plenty of time to work on this position-less style of play on the training ground and was still having lots of joy with its quick passing and fluid movement even after San Jose had time to make halftime adjustments. The defense mostly held up well and stayed organized against one of the league’s more potent attacks, and when the Earthquakes did create chances, Crepeau kept up the form he showed in his last four games for Canada.

Orlando could also have benefitted from Tiago and Tyrese Spicer finishing clear-cut chances they were given by Ellis, Atuesta, and Griezmann. Martin Ojeda’s return and the addition of Dike can help chances turn into goals.

On the flip side, this is the first time anyone’s seen the Lions try to play this way, so its always going to be tougher to stop something you haven’t been able to train for. The element of surprise isn’t something that should be discounted when it comes to Wednesday. Other teams may make Orlando pay for some of the shaky moments that it had at the back, and not every team is going to make three big errors that the Lions can take advantage of.

For me, the answer lies somewhere between the two ends of the spectrum. I do not expect the Lions to look like 2008-2009 Barcelona every week, but I also don’t think its fair to say that Orlando simply benefitted from favorable circumstances and bounces. It’s perhaps best to say that OCSC did things that can be replicated, but there’s no guarantee those things will be replicated. The movement, passing, decision-making, defensive organization, and goalkeeping are things that can build a good foundation for success if Orlando can repeat them, and those are the things I’d focus on more than the number of goals or the clean sheet.

At the end of the day, we’re working on a small sample size and shouldn’t get carried away by one game, regardless of how fun it was. Wednesday’s performance wasn’t necessarily an illusion or the truth of what this team is. Rather, it was a glimpse of what this team has an opportunity to be. There’s work to be done and areas that can be improved on, but the Lions showed enough in San Jose for us to have hope for a season that’s looked hopeless more often than not. Vamos Orlando.