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Orlando City vs. Seattle Sounders: Final Score 0-0 as Lions Wasteful in Good Road Effort

The Lions put in a great effort but it fell a bit short with Mauricio Pereyra missing a gaping net from right in front late in the match.

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1 year ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

For the second consecutive game, an Orlando City attacking player missed an empty net from point-blank range, and the Lions had to settle for another draw — this time a 0-0 affair against the Seattle Sounders at Lumen Field. Orlando (7-5-7, 28 points) missed a golden opportunity late in the second half, but Seattle (8-7-5, 29 points) was nearly as wasteful on its attacking end on this night.

With the draw, Orlando City remains winless in Seattle, going 0-2-2 there in the all-time series, and the Lions are now winless in three matches (0-1-2), but Orlando has taken four of the last six possible points from the Sounders. A point on short rest after traveling to a difficult place like Seattle is a good result and shows that if the team can get just a little more dialed in, the Lions can become a dangerous team.

“We walk off the field with the sensation that we could have won it and that feeling is heavy right now in the locker room, because we had our chances in the end,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “But it’s a game very well played by the players and with a lot of personality in a very difficult place against a very good team.”

Pareja had nearly a complete roster at his disposal for the first time in a few games and he went with Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Michael Halliday. Wilder Cartagena rejoined Cesar Araujo in the central midfield behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, and Facundo Torres, with Duncan McGuire up top.

Orlando City seemed to sleepwalk in the early going. Within the first minute, both center backs were concerned with the same attacker while Heber roasted Santos and got a good look at goal but Gallese parried away the shot.

A minute later, Nicolas Lodeiro picked up a loose ball as the Sounders befuddled the Orlando defense but fired a shot off the right post.

Orlando finally got hold of the ball in the seventh minute and Torres fashioned a chance out of nothing as Araujo was able to sneak in deep toward the right post. Torres’ cross-field pass was met by Araujo’s foot in the air but the volley attempt went just wide and into the outside netting.

Two minutes later, it was Santos making a good cross to switch the attack and Halliday volleyed it wide.

The game got a little more back-and-forth after the second good look for the Lions. Seattle won a corner kick after a turnover by Ojeda. The ball pinged around the box for a nervy couple of seconds before Orlando could clear.

Ojeda went for glory from distance in the 14th minute but his shot was always going over and he may have been better served to spray the ball left to continue the buildup.

A minute later, Leo Chu got in behind and only the fact that he was offside may have prevented Halliday from conceding a penalty.

Rusnak sent a free kick well off target in the 29th minute after a poor challenge by Jansson just outside the area.

Orlando’s best chance came in the 35th minute off a corner kick won by Angulo. McGuire got onto Ojeda’s cross and sent it toward the lower left corner but Stefan Frei made a big save to keep the game scoreless.

That was about it for the half as Orlando squandered a couple of late corners and the teams went to the break without a goal between them.

The Lions held the possession advantage (56%-44%) at the half, won more corners (5-4), and passed more accurately (85.8%-819%). Seattle attempted more shots (9-6), with each team getting one on frame.

The second half started like the first, with Seattle threatening to open the scoring. Santos set up a free kick for the hosts in the 47th minute when he took down Lodeiro. The Seattle Designated Player sent a ball on target that took a short hop but Gallese collected it cleanly. A minute later, Rusnak blasted a laser shot over the bar after Halliday was beaten by Chu and sent in a good cross.

Joao Paulo sent a ball way off target from just outside the box in the 53rd minute when he found himself in space and had a go. A minute after that, Cody Baker was left completely unattended outside of Santos and got to the end line, squaring a ball across for Heber, but the forward redirected it wide.

Pareja sent Mauricio Pereyra on for Ojeda in the 57th minute, looking to get more control of the midfield but it didn’t change much until the latter stages, when the captain started to find seams in the defense.

Orlando fashioned a good attack in the 65th minute with some numbers but Halliday couldn’t beat Nouhou with his cross. Halliday made up for that a minute later with a good low cross to McGuire, who flicked it on goal from the near post but Frei had it covered and made the save.

Unfortunately for the young right back, his night ended moments later. While bombing down the right with the ball, Halliday pulled up, grabbing his hamstring. He was subbed off for Kyle Smith. Pareja also sent Ramiro Enrique on for McGuire.

Pereyra should have opened the scoring in the 76th minute. Torres got into the box on the left and sent a shot on target. Frei saved it but couldn’t control the rebound, which fell right to the Orlando City captain. Pereyra sent the ball over the bar and into the stands from just in front of the net.

“I think it’s the point of the night that just made us walk off with that frustration, knowing that we had the game in a position to kill it and take the three points,” Pareja said.

Heber headed wide in the 87th minute in his last action as he was then subbed off for Fredy Montero.

Torres had the game on his foot two minutes later when Pereyra sent a fantastic ball through the back line for him to run onto. The Uruguayan sent a left-footed shot toward the back post but the ball trickled a few inches wide.

“We had various chances,” Torres said through a club interpreter. “First, Mauricio had one that unfortunately he wasn’t able to get it, and I had that one and unfortunately wasn’t able to get it either. But I think the most important part is that we were creating those chances. The game certainly changed when Mauricio entered and it’s obvious the importance that he has for us as a team.”

Neither side had a good look in the four minutes of injury time and the Lions will bring a point home after a scoreless draw.

Orlando City finished with more possession (55.7%-44.3%), shots on target (3-2), passing accuracy (80.7%-80.6%), and corners (7-5). Seattle had more overall shot attemps (16-13).

“I think we dominated the game in terms of the clear (scoring) options,” Pareja said. “We’re gonna walk off with that point, we’re going to take it proudly, and take it to Orlando with the commitment to be heavy at home and keep ascending in the standings.”

“We knew that we were going to be playing a tough game against a tough rival,” Torres said. “We created ourselves some chances. Obviously a little frustrated not to be able to get the goal on some of those chances that we’ve been looking to find. But the important part is that we are creating those chances against a very difficult team.”

The fixture congestion lightens up now as the Lions will have a normal week before hosting the Chicago Fire next Saturday night at Exploria Stadium at 7:30 p.m.

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Orlando City

How Orlando City’s Offense Stacks Up Against What Atlanta Does Defensively

How Orlando City has performed against teams playing with three or four defenders, and how that may influence the playoff game against Atlanta United.

Published

15 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

The most famous quote about real estate is that “there are three things that matter in property: location, location, location.” Soccer coaches also like to think in threes, especially when it comes to points, but for a soccer coach, the three things that matter might be the rhyming triplet “formation, formation, formation,” as that is where they will have the biggest influence on every game that their team plays.

Throughout his tenure as head coach, Óscar Pareja has preferred to use a 4-2-3-1 as his formation (fbref.com’s lineup data shows that the Lions primarily played a 4-2-3-1 in 65% of their MLS matches this season, and 79% of their MLS matches during the last three seasons). The Lions have lined up in a 4-2-3-1 during each of their last 14 games, and my confidence level is strong to quite strong (can you believe Meet the Parents came out 24 years ago?) that they will do so once again on Sunday when they host Atlanta United.

Atlanta United also prefers to deploy a 4-2-3-1, but was less consistent than Orlando City this season during MLS play, as evidenced by the chart below that shows how Atlanta lined up this season:

The purpose of this image is a table to show how Atlanta United lined up in 2024 (mostly in a 4-2-3-1 but also in one of six other formations).

I am relying on the coders at Opta for their evaluation of the formation, as I do not watch a lot of Atlanta United matches (sounds terrible), but though Atlanta primarily played with four defenders in more than two-thirds of its matches, during the last two matches it played a 3-5-2, the only two matches all season in which interim coach Rob Valentino rolled out that formation. I suspect that the formation change was related partially to playing Inter Miami and trying to defend the Herons’ dynamic offense and partially due to an injury suffered by defender Brooks Lennon in the first game of that series. So, while Atlanta primarily played four in the back for most of the season, there is a good chance it will roll with what worked against Florida’s second-best MLS team when it plays Florida’s best MLS team this weekend.

Now, if you want to read more about Atlanta, then you can read our match preview, which will drop Sunday morning, but I want to look at how Orlando did against teams that play similar styles. Looking only at MLS games, the table below shows how Orlando City performed against different back line structures this season (the left side is how the Lions’ opponents lined up, the right side is how Orlando City performed against opponents in those formations):

Table embedded as an image showing Orlando City doing best in goal differential in 12 games against three-man back lines, second best against four-man back lines, and having played once against a five-man back line (a 1-1 draw).

Orlando City earned slightly more points per game — the stat that matters most — against teams that played four in the back, but the Lions had a better average goal differential when teams played three in the back. Atlanta will likely deploy one of those two formations. In both games against Orlando City this season, Sunday’s visitors went with a 4-2-3-1, but as mentioned earlier, they used three in the back in each of their last two matches, so it really could be either.

Soccer is not like baseball, where players primarily stay in the same spot throughout the game, so some of these stats have to be taken with a grain of salt, as players are not always rigidly in the same position throughout a match. A team may also primarily play with four in the back but switch to three when chasing a game, or five when trying to protect against a late goal.

That said, using the data around Orlando City’s opponents’ general formations, here are the attacking groups who played the most frequently against four defenders during the 24 MLS games where Opta coded the opponents as using a defensive group of four:

Table embedded as an image showing the most frequently used lineups against teams who deploy four defenders. The most frequently used attacking group has a plus eight goal differential for the season.

It is a little ominous that the main starting group, shown in row one, has played 666 MLS minutes against back lines of four this season, but do I like that green goal differential of +8 in those minutes, which is a strong +1.08 per 90 minutes. I like that goal differential more than I like all the things that Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin like on their song that is creatively named “I Like It.” Coincidentally, when people ask me what I think about that song, I say, “I like it.” I am very creative.

If we look at the lineups that Orlando City has used against back lines of three defenders then there are some pretty major differences in personnel groupings, but it must be noted that more than half of the games against teams playing three in the back came early in the season, when Ramiro Enrique was unavailable to play. Enrique, my presumed starter at striker, has played fewer than three games’ worth of minutes (265 total) against back lines of three this season, and only 28 minutes with the main starting group, which ranks 13th among all the attacking lineups for minutes played against three defenders. That group scored one goal in their 28 minutes together though, for a robust 3.21 goals-scored-per-90-minutes average.

While the team as a whole has been successful against three-man back lines, I do not expect any of the lineups shown in the table below to play more than a few minutes together this weekend, though the first row and the last row are strong groups and had a lot of success.

Table embedded as an image showing the most frequently used lineups against teams who deploy three defenders. The most frequently used attacking group has a plus three goal differential for the season.

I am sure that all week long the Orlando City coaching staff has been going back and forth on whether it is more likely that Atlanta reverts to its most commonly used four in the back, or if the Five Stripes try for three wins in a row with three in the back. I would prefer that Atlanta plays with zero defenders and goalkeeper Brad Guzan wears a blindfold, but I think that is unlikely to be the case.

Even though Atlanta defeated Orlando City both times while in a 4-2-3-1, based on available personnel and recent results, I believe that the team will come out in a 3-5-2 in Inter&Co Stadium in the conference semifinal. Good things come in threes, and Orlando City’s best offensive production this season has been against three defenders, so I am going to be hoping that this continues, and in the third game against Atlanta the Lions grab the three points. Three’s company!

Well, it is a playoff game, so there are no actual points at stake, but you know what I meant.

Vamos Orlando!

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Orlando City vs. Atlanta United: Three Keys to Victory

What do the Lions need to do to get a victory to advance to the Eastern Conference final?

Published

17 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City continues its playoff journey against Atlanta United Sunday at Inter&Co Stadium. The Lions are coming off an emotional penalty shootout win over Charlotte FC in their best-of-three, first-round series. Likewise, Atlanta United stunned everyone by taking out Inter Miami to advance in its own best-of-three matchup. Now, the rivals meet in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

What does Orlando City need to do to get past Atlanta United to advance to the Easter Conference final?

Beat Guzan

Brad Guzan made 16 saves over Atlanta’s three matches against Inter Miami, including seven in the 3-2 win on the road in Game 3. The 40-year-old former USMNT keeper is in excellent form and is a big reason why the Five Stripes are facing Orlando City. Converting chances against Guzan will be crucial to earning a result. There have been times this season when the Lions have struggled to convert their chances. Despite that, the team has done enough offensively to get to this point. Facundo Torres, Martin Ojeda, Duncan McGuire, Ramiro Enrique, and others have contributed and will need to do so this weekend.

Cartagena is Essential

Orlando City lost twice to Atlanta United during the regular season. What is interesting, and perhaps relevant, is that Wilder Cartagena was out for both of those matches. Cartagena was shown a straight red in the match against Minnesota United prior to the first match against Atlanta way back in March. He was shown a yellow card in the match against FC Cincinnati and then served a yellow card accumulation suspension for the final match of the season against Atlanta. Fortunately for Orlando City, Cartagena will be available for the match this weekend. I’ve mentioned before the importance of Cartagena to Orlando City’s success. When he and Cesar Araujo are on the field together, the defense is simply better. Cartagena is frankly one of the better defensive midfielders in MLS. Atlanta scored five goals in the series against Miami, and Orlando will need to keep the visitors from having that kind of offensive success.

Overcome the Past

That darn international break in the middle of the playoffs is something I don’t love. More precisely, I don’t like it because Orlando City often struggles after a break. It would have been nice if Orlando City could have ridden the momentum from the penalty kick victory into the Atlanta match, but that’s not to be. Now is the time for Orlando City to break some bad habits, including turning around its historical lack of success against Atlanta, and tendency to struggle in the first match after a break. Oscar Pareja needs to have the players in the right frame of mind, and the players need to execute the plan. A full house of supporters can also make a difference. Given it’s a Sunday afternoon match, there’s no reason not to pack the house.

That is what I will be looking for Sunday afternoon. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links: 11/21/24

Marta’s chance to shine in NWSL Championship, NWSL and MLS award winners announced, 2025 SheBelieves Cup details, and more.

Published

20 hours ago

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November 21, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride

How’s it going, Mane Landers? I’ve been spending most of this week plotting out some holiday shopping to make things a little less stressful for myself over the next few weeks. A big weekend filled with Orlando soccer awaits us, so make sure to get any errands or obligations out of the way sooner rather than later. Let’s dive into today’s links!

Spotlight Falls On Marta in NWSL Championship

There are plenty of storylines heading into Saturday’s NWSL Championship between the Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit, including Marta’s opportunity to put an exclamation point on what has been an excellent season for the Pride. Orlando has been enjoying the fruits of its labor this season after a rebuild over the past few years that’s included plenty of change in the City Beautiful. Marta has been a constant, however, enduring some difficult seasons since joining the Pride and adapting her game She’s scored in both of the Pride’s playoff games so far and has a chance to author a storybook ending on Saturday.

Ann-Katrin Berger Named NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year

NJ/NY Gotham FC goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger was named 2024 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year, beating out the Pride’s Anna Moorhouse and Utah Royals FC’s Mandy Haught for the honor. It was Berger’s first year in the NWSL and she’s the first European player to win the award. She only conceded 16 goals across her 22 matches for Gotham this season and was a key reason behind her team’s success. I’m not too surprised that Moorhouse did not win, considering how solid the Pride’s defense was as a whole, but this won’t take anything away from a record-breaking season for her.

Wilfried Nancy Named MLS Coach of the Year

Columbus Crew Head Coach Wilfried Nancy was voted 2024 MLS Coach of the Year after a historic season in which the Crew set club records in both points and goals. The Crew also won the Leagues Cup this summer and their 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup campaign included advancing past Tigres and Monterrey en route to the final. This is Nancy’s first time being named Coach of the Year and he has been a finalist for the award every year since 2021. The Frenchman received 40.02% of the vote, winning the award over Inter Miami’s Gerardo Martino and Colorado Rapids Head Coach Chris Armas.

2025 SheBelieves Cup Details Unveiled

The 10th annual SheBelieves Cup will take place next year and the tournament will return to its usual format where each of the four teams plays each other once. The United States Women’s National Team will host Japan, Colombia, and Australia in February in what should be an exciting tournament. The U.S. will take on Colombia on Feb. 20 in Houston before facing Australia in Arizona on Feb. 23 and finishing the tournament on Feb. 26 against Japan at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. These games will also be the first domestic games of 2025 for the USWNT as it prepares to qualify for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.

Eric Quill Named FC Dallas Head Coach

FC Dallas announced that Eric Quill will become the team’s next head coach. Quill joins Dallas after a great year with New Mexico United that included trips to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals and USL Championship Western Conference semifinals. It’s also a reunion of sorts for Quill, as he previously coached North Texas SC and was named USL League One Coach of the Year with the club in 2019. Dallas missed out on the playoffs this season, with Peter Luccin coaching the team on an interim basis after the firing of Nico Estevez in June.

Free Kicks

  • District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser challenged Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to a bet involving this weekend’s NWSL Championship, with embarrassing lightshows on the line.

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!

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