Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Real Salt Lake: Final Score 4-0 as Lions Fall Apart in Utah
After conceding a pair of goals on first-half set pieces, the Lions never mounted any kind of challenge.
Horrific set piece defending was costly as Orlando City fell 4-0 to Real Salt Lake at America First Field. The Lions (9-6-7, 34 points) gave up first-half set piece goals to Cristian Arango — on his RSL debut — and Justen Glad. Jefferson Savarino and Anderson Julio added insurance late for the hosts, providing a comfortable win for Real Salt Lake (9-7-6, 33 points), a club that had been previously struggling at home.
The loss snapped a four-match unbeaten run by Orlando City and ruined an opportunity to climb higher in the Eastern Conference Standings.
“Obviously a difficult experience today to solve at this moment where we are getting our confidence higher and coming from a good stretch of games,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “But today we found a team that was very effective going forward when they had their chances. I think we had ours too, but we didn’t have that capacity to finalize our opportunities.”
Despite playing a third game in eight days and crossing the country to play at altitude, Pareja’s lineup had no rotation whatsoever from the side that began Tuesday’s 4-0 win vs. Toronto FC. Pedro Gallese started in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Kyle Smith. Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena played central midfield behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Maurcio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres, with Duncan McGuire up top.
Orlando City started brightly and had a chance right off the opening kickoff. The ball was sent forward to McGuire, who lost it momentarily but quickly won it back and smashed a shot just 12 seconds in that fizzed inches wide of the left post.
Moments later, Torres cut across the top of the box and smashed a left-footed shot that Zac MacMath did well to save. The rebound came out to the right and a Smith shot was on target but MacMatch kicked it away.
Despite the quick start by Orlando, RSL quickly settled into the match. Damir Kreilach got his head to a cross in the 11th and sent it just wide of the right post.
The breakthrough came 12 minutes later. McGuire did a great job tracking back and won the ball from Braian Ojeda but then he showed too much of the ball and lost it back. The rookie then compounded the problem by committing an unnecessary foul near the right sideline. RSL took advantage on the set piece as Cartagena left Arango alone in the middle and the new Designated Player easily headed it inside the right post to open the scoring in the 23rd minute.
Whether the goal rattled Orlando City or inspired the home side, the rest of the first half was almost all one-way traffic for the hosts. The Lions repeatedly turned the ball over in their own end and failed to connect or break lines as the half wore on.
An attempt by Santos from outside the box was easily blocked and nearly ignited a breakaway for Arango in the 32nd minute if not for some vital emergency defending by a sliding Jansson.
Savarino shot just wide in the 37th minute as the hosts kept coming. A telegraphed pass in the attacking half was easily cut out by Glad and Cartagena was forced to take a yellow card for a tactical foul.
The Orlando deficit doubled in the 41st minute. The Lions gave up a corner and again failed to mark properly. Glad rose above the crowd and scored a goal that looked nearly identical to the first.
“We felt bad just conceding two goals at points in our control and we work a lot on it,” Pareja said of the set pieces that allowed RSL to take command of the match. “It hurt us a lot.”
The Lions had two late chances to get on the board before halftime. Angulo set up McGuire in the 44th minute with a nice run up the field and a through ball, but the rookie’s shot was deflected, making it an easy save for MacMath. Seconds later, Angulo was alone on the right and the ball came to him, but the Colombian badly mishit his first-time shot attempt and it went nowhere near the goal.
Real Salt Lake held only a slight edge in possession (50.4%-49.6%), although it seemed like much more. Each team fired eight shots and got three on target. RSL had more corners (2-1) and Orlando City passed slightly more accurately (80.7%-80.1%) in the opening 45 minutes.
Pareja made no changes at the break despite the situation and the first 15 minutes of the second half were fairly uneventful. A promising Orlando attack in the 56th minute ended with Smith sending either a poor cross too close to the goalkeeper or a weak shot from distance right at him.
Moments later, Martin Ojeda, Ramiro Enrique, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson came on to spell Angulo, Cartagena, and Smith.
Not much changed after the subs, with Enrique missing the net badly from distance and Ojeda sending an easy shot right at MacMath from distance.
Ercan Kara came on shortly after that for McGuire.
Orlando had a golden opportunity in the 71st minute when a Santos cross deflected in front to Torres but his shot was blocked in front. A few minutes later, he was subbed off for Luca Petrasso.
Having two left backs on the pitch didn’t help at all in the 78th minute. A simple cross from left to right found Savarino on the right and no one closed him down. Savarino chested it down and blasted the third goal past Gallese to seal the game.
Julio tacked another one on late and completely undid Tuesday night’s excellent goal-differential game against Toronto. The Lions went from +5, to +9 after Tuesday, and back to +5 after tonight.
RSL had the advantage in possession (51.9%-48.1%), shots (15-11), shots on target (6-4), corners (5-2), and passing accuracy (85.7%-82.4%).
“We are going to absorb it,” Pareja said of the loss. “I think we are intact. Our mentality keeps going. We have no excuses. Salt Lake was much, much effective and obviously the score reflects it.”
“Difficult moment after this loss and this result, but in this moment is when in my case as a captain I belive in the team and I trust in the team more than ever,” Pereyra said. “We have to love each other more than ever because we know how hard they are working. Today it was a difficult night for us as a team. We were not the best after we beat Toronto 4-0 and now we are not the worst, so we have to keep working, knowing that we have a game against Atlanta that is very important for us.”
After all the fixture congestion, Orlando City will get a normal work week before heading north to play Atlanta United next Saturday night. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
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.
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:
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):
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:
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.
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!
Orlando City
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?
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!
Lion Links
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.
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.
- Atlanta United interim head coach Rob Valentino, who was an Orlando City B assistant coach in 2015 and played for the USL Lions, spoke on Atlanta’s Cinderella run this postseason ahead of his team’s clash with Orlando City on Sunday.
- CF Montreal signed Canadian center back Joel Waterman to a contract extension that will keep him with the club through 2027 with an option for 2028 as well.
- D.C. United signed goalkeeper Jordan Farr from the Tampa Bay Rowdies on a two-year deal. Farr had 11 shutouts with the Rowdies this year and joins a D.C. side that declined the contract options for both Tyler Miller and Alex Bono last month.
- American forward Catarina Macario had an assist for Chelsea in a 3-0 win against Celtic in the Women’s Champions League.
- Spanish midfielder Juan Mata joined San Diego FC’s ownership group ahead of the club’s inaugural MLS season next year.
- Costa Rican club Alajuelense, which is the highest-ranked team in Central America, has hired a legal firm regarding FIFA allowing both Pachuca and Club Leon to take part in the 2025 Club World Cup despite having the same owner.
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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