Orlando City vs. Philadelphia Union: Five Takeaways

Orlando City made it back-to-back 4-2 losses on Saturday night, falling behind 4-0 on the road to the Philadelphia Union before scoring two late consolation goals to make the scoreline look a little more flattering. In reality, the Lions were played off the field, as the defense looked terrible yet again and the offense clearly missed Justin Ellis, who was “away” at Inter.co Stadium with the U.S. Men’s National Team.

Here are my five takeaways from the match.

Another Atrocious Start

Orlando City conceded a goal within the first 20 minutes for the fourth time in the last five games, and in this game, the Lions conceded not one but two. Milan Iloski, who was a terror all night, converted a penalty kick and a counterattacking goal, setting the tone for what was yet another poor performance on the road. The Lions have not led in any of their most recent three games, and while they fought back to tie the games against Columbus and New England, they never threatened to equalize against Philadelphia.

Iago and Dike Are Four-Letter Words

This is a family friendly website, but both Iago and Daryl Dike caused extreme, shall we say, frustration and disappointment with their performances against the Union. Iago was, quite simply, awful. His passing was sloppy and his touch was worse, and the Lions were lucky they did not allow even more than the four goals they gave up with how poorly he played at right center back. These reps will help him the future, but it was ugly on Saturday. The issue with Dike was not that he was bad, it was just that he has yet to really live up to expectations and that continued against Philadelphia. He struggled to get himself open and seemed a step slow all night, losing possession 15 times and completing only 50% of his passes. The effort was there but the pace and the productivity were not, and the excitement from his return to Orlando is waning as he has yet to recapture the form from his initial years.

Sergii Demianchuk Is a PRO

The only person who might have been worse than Iago on Saturday night was referee Sergii Demianchuk, who seemed intent on giving Philadelphia every chance to get a home win. Demianchuk and the video assistant referee team at the Professional Referee Organization (PRO) failed to give what looked like a legitimate penalty to Orlando City early in the first half, and then awarded a dubious one to Philadelphia just minutes later on a foul that appeared to take place outside the box, if it was indeed even a foul. Demianchuk also allowed multiple Union players to foul repeatedly without picking up cards, but gave out three cards to Orlando City players in the first half and four total, as opposed to the two he gave to Union players, despite the fact that the Union committed six more fouls. It is never a good sign when the referee plays a major role in a game, and as Demianchuk went Philadelphia’s way on several corner decisions that should have been goal kicks, or vice versa, the looks of incredulity on the faces of Orlando’s players told the whole story about how bad the head referee was all evening.

Some (Too) Late Offense

The Lions finally got on the scoreboard in the 78^th minute, as Antoine Griezmann extended his streak of MLS games with a goal contribution to seven with an assist to Iván Angulo on a cleverly taken set piece. Angulo’s goal gave him five on the year and was his fourth straight MLS game with a goal. It was well-deserved for the Lion, who I thought had played the best on the night. Martín Ojeda got in on the late scoring party as well, bagging a goal in the 90^th minute off of a nice pass from Harvey Sarajian that Griezmann dummied to leave Ojeda wide open, and with that goal, the Argentine tied Facundo Torres as the all-time leading goal scorer for the Lions.

It Could Have Been Worse

Both the score and the Eastern Conference standings could have been even worse for Orlando City by the end of Saturday night. Maxime Crépeau made several big saves to keep the Union from becoming the fifth team to put up at least five goals on the Lions, and both FC Cincinnati (loss) and New York City FC (draw) failed to win their games, so Orlando City stayed in seventh place. Crépeau was credited with five saves and two high claims, and though he might have been able to do better on Iloski’s second goal, he would have been hard-pressed to save any of the other three, and he kept out several in the second half that seemed destined to make it phive, sorry, five for Philadelphia. As for the standings, FC Cincinnati and the Red Bulls each still have a game in hand, so they could jump the Lions with a win, but at least for this weekend, Orlando City remains in seventh place despite the loss.

Those are my takeaways from Orlando City’s ugly 4-2 loss on the road against Philadelphia. The Lions have a break next weekend and then will return to play on Oct. 10 when Columbus comes to Inter.co Stadium, with all rosters back to full strength after the international break.

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