Orlando City vs. New England Revolution: Five Takeaways

Orlando City seemed in position to come away with a point on the road against a good New England squad, but the Lions fell apart in stoppage time, giving up two goals in the final minutes and losing 4-2.

Here are my five takeaways from the match.

Crépeau Caught Out

Maxime Crépeau was beaten over his head for the only goal of the first half, and initially it looked like he had somehow been chipped from just outside of the box. The play-by-play announcer, who the less is said about the better, indicated that Carles Gil had scored a dipping wondergoal, but after watching the replay, the ball clearly deflected off of David Brekalo and wrong-footed Crépeau. The Canadian perhaps was a foot or two too far off his line regardless, but we will never know if he was well-positioned for the original attempt, since once the ball was deflected, everything changed. The Lions ended up shipping four goals to the Revolution, but of all four, this goal was the one that Crépeau could have done the least about, and it left the Lions down 1-0 for the second straight game.

Speed Kills

This axiom reared its ugly head once again, as New England’s Peyton Miller outran everyone wearing Orlando City gold to score two times on Saturday night. On the first goal, he burst down the left side of the field, and on the second, he went down the right side. On each shot, he beat Crépeau by keeping his shot low toward the opposite side of the goal, placing it well. Orlando City’s fullbacks have decent speed, but the center backs do not, and when the fullbacks get caught up the field, as Zakaria Taifi was on the first goal and Iván Angulo was on the second, the defense is often in serious trouble. Earlier in the game, Angulo was able to use his own speed to beat his man to a loose ball in the box and score in his third consecutive MLS game, but when stoppage time arrived, he looked exhausted and Miller did not, and without any other top-end speed on the field for the Lions, they were punished for their inability to recover quickly enough.

Hey, a Call Went Orlando’s Way

VAR is the name for the video assistant referee. It is also often a three-letter acronym that feels like a four-letter word when it comes to Orlando City, but a call actually went the Lions’ way against New England, even though there were no angles on the broadcast that seemed to show that the referee made a clear and obvious error. The call in question was a handball by Miller, and the referee had to determine whether it was actually a handball and if it was in the box. Surprisingly, the decision went Orlando City’s way on both counts, and at least the “in the box” part appeared correct from the replays shown. Martín Ojeda stepped up and scored his 12th goal in MLS play by converting the ensuing penalty kick. Ojeda is now four for four on penalties this season, and those four goals put him into a tie with Kaká for the second most converted penalties in a single season.by a Lion. It was Ojeda’s second game in a row with a goal in all competitions, so that’s at least a good sign that Orlando’s No. 10 is finding his form.

The Wing(er)s Were Clipped

Martín Perelman went with Marco Pašalić and Tyrese Spicer on the wings to start, and both were mostly anonymous.. The most noteworthy aspect of Spicer’s performance was that the announcer on the broadcast thought that Spicy T was Canadian instead of from Trinidad & Tobago. And, while Pašalić played better in the second half than the first, he just looked out of sorts and like he did not fit with the offense. Harvey Sarajian came on in the second half but did not contribute a ton, and both Angulo and Justin Ellis played some minutes on the wings as well, with only Angulo finding much success. Griffin Dorsey’s back injury forced Angulo to play a lot of minutes as a defender instead of winger and Spicer to start instead of coming off the bench, and that combination was not a good one for the Lions.

No Griezmann, Yes Problem

Orlando City clawed back into a 2-2 tie late in the game, but its two goals came on a pass that was deflected right into Angulo’s path and a penalty kick. The offense did not look good, generating only 1.40 expected goals, and that includes the penalty kick which accounted for 0.77 of that 1.40 (55%). During the rest of the game, the Lions rarely looked threatening, taking fewer than 10 shots, completing 78 fewer passes in the opposition half, garnering 10 fewer touches in the opposition’s box, and just mostly looking disjointed and without a conductor to lead the offensive orchestra. This performance came after a similarly poor one during the portion of the game after Antoine Griezmann was forced off with an injury against Columbus in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, and if the Lions are to get back on a roll after consecutive losses, they need Griezmann to return to full health quickly.

Those are my takeaways from Orlando City’s 4-2 road loss to New England. The Lions fought back to even the game but collapsed in stoppage time and now have a week to recover before a massive six-pointer against a red-hot Philadelphia team next week.

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