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Orlando City vs. Sporting Kansas City: Final Score 1-1 as Lions Fight Back for Road Point

The Lions had two goals called back before finally netting Nani’s equalizer.

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4 years ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

Orlando City paid for a late first-half mistake, but Nani’s cheeky backheel flick helped the Lions salvage a 1-1 draw against Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park. Orlando (0 W-0 L-2 D, 2 points) had two goals waved off for offside after video review and SKC (1-0-1, 4 points) had one called back as well. In the end, the result was probably a fair one, but a poor exchange between Pedro Gallese and Antonio Carlos kept the Lions from taking all three points.

City is unbeaten in its last three against Sporting, winning the last two before tonight’s draw. The Lions are now 3-2-2 in the all-time series and 1-2-1 at Children’s Mercy Park.

“I think it was a great performance for our team,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “The personality and, and the consistency in our sequences today was very good and was the highlight of our team, so I’m very pleased.”

Pareja made one expected change and one surprise change from Saturday’s lineup, replacing the injured Alexandre Pato (lower body injury) with Andres Perea and inserting Benji Michel at wing for Chris Mueller, who started on the bench. Gallese manned the net behind a back line of Kyle Smith, Rodrigo Schlegel, Carlos, and Ruan. Perea slotted into the midfield with Junior Urso, Sebas Mendez, and Michel, with Nani pushing up into the attack with Tesho Akindele.

Graphic by MLSSoccer.com

The game began rather sloppily with both teams turning it over often in the opening 15 minutes, but the Lions nearly scored in the opening seconds. Michel got onto a Nani cross but fired it way off target from in front of goal.

Daniel Salloi got the game’s first shot on target with a slow roller at Gallese in the sixth minute. Ruan then got down the right a few times but struggled with his crossing accuracy.

Sporting had a good opportunity early when Smith was booked for a foul just outside the area on a ball he obviously felt he won fairly. The hosts appeared to cash in on the training ground set piece, as a shot was fired off of Akindele, forcing Gallese to change directions to make a good save. However, he couldn’t control the rebound, and Nicolas Isimat-Mirin got there first to slot it home in the 13th minute. After a video review, the goal was correctly overturned as Isimat-Mirin was well offside when the initial shot was taken.

Ruan was set up at the top of the box in the 17th minute but his shot was headed way wide of goal when it was deflected out for a corner. Nani played the ensuing corner short for Mendez, who shot it way over the bar. Moments later, Perea got in behind and was in the act of shooting when Roger Espinoza stuck a leg in from behind and got both man and ball. The weak shot was easy for John Pulskamp to collect and the tackle was ruled a fair one.

The Lions continued to grow in confidence throughout the half and started controlling play. Nani fizzed a cross through the six in the 26th minute and Michel was inches from giving it the touch it needed to go in.

Michel thought he’d given the Lions the lead in the 36th minute, but again the goal was overturned. Nani had smashed a shot in that Pulskamp couldn’t handle and Michel got to the rebound first, finessed it over the goalkeeper and scored calmly, but he was a foot or so offside on the initial shot attempt.

Schlegel got in behind on a set piece in the 40th minute but Pulskamp came off his line and got a piece of it before he could pull the trigger. Minutes later, the game turned in Sporting’s favor.

The hosts took the lead in the 45th minute but didn’t have to put in much work for it. Carlos mishandled a pass from Gallese, allowing Salloi to take it away. The winger fed Gianluca Busio, who fired near side past El Pulpo to give his team a 1-0 advantage.

“Unfortunately we made a mistake in the first half. We conceded a goal and made our game more complicated but I think we reacted very well,” Nani said. “I think we deserve the point and could do better. Could deserve three points but one point is not bad after we conceded that first goal.”

Pareja said the goal Orlando gave up was a product of the way they like to play.

“We made some mistakes due to the risks that we play, but we committed with this way to play, and the players came back as a group,” he said.

Sporting Kansas City took its 1-0 lead against the run of play into the locker room at the break. Orlando City had more shots (6-3) but SKC got all three on target to Orlando’s two. The Lions held more possession (60.5%-39.5%), had more corners (1-0) and were the more accurate passing team (85.6%-82.1%).

Shortly after the restart, it appeared that Perea had tied it with his first career goal. But the play again went to review and the goal was disallowed. Nani’s corner kick cross was cleared but Smith picked it up and cycled it left to right for Nani again. The captain’s second cross skipped off a defender and found its way through traffic to Perea, who smashed a shot off the crossbar and in. Perea was onside when Nani delivered the cross but Carlos got a foot on it and that’s what put Perea just offside.

“I was really happy with my goal,” Perea said of that moment before it was ruled off. “I was really unlucky, but maybe the next one counts. I’m going to work to to score again and make opportunities for my team and do whatever the team needs to win. But I was really happy.” 

Alan Pulido nearly doubled the lead for SKC in the 54th minute. Ruan gave the ball away in his own defensive corner and it found its way to Sporting’s Designated Player, who fizzed a shot inches wide of the right post.

Moments after Chris Mueller subbed on for Michel, the Money Badger nearly had an assist, heading a cross back across the box. Akindele saw Pulskamp deny him from point-blank range but he was offside on the play anyway.

Gallese made a great save on a long-range effort in the 59th minute when the center back stepped up and no one closed him down.

Urso fired just wide of goal in the 67th minute as the Lions continued to press for an equalizer. Akindele got down the left and earned a corner in the 75th but may have had an opportunity to shoot rather than trying to thread a pass to Perea that was knocked out of play. On the ensuing set piece, the ball was played short to Smith, who had his initial shot blocked and didn’t make good contact on the second, sending an easy one right at Pulskamp.

Johnny Russell forced Gallese into another save at the other end on a set piece in the 78th minute. Then Orlando tied it at the other end.

A long ball from Mendez picked out Smith, who made a great run forward from his left back position. Smith did well to bring the ball quickly under control and tried to cross through the box, but the pass hit the trailing foot of defender Roberto Puncec. Mueller was first to the ball and fired, but his shot was blocked. The rebound bounced to Nani, who had his back to goal, but the captain nonchalantly flicked it softly backward and into the net to tie the match at 1-1 in the 79th minute.

The flag came up after the play but again it went to video review and the replay showed no Orlando players were offside. The goal was awarded. It was Nani’s 19th since joining the Lions in 2019.

“It was good because we deserved to score a goal,” Nani said. “I don’t remember (the last time I) scored a goal like that. It’s always nice to score goals like that because it’s like a release of a lot of stress, you know. We were in a situation in the game where we needed to score.”

The Lions withstood a couple of late corners and held on for the 1-1 draw to stay unbeaten, but also winless. Orlando out-shot the hosts (11-9), but Sporting KC got more on frame (5-4). The Lions held advantages in possession (59.9%-40.1%), corners (4-3), and passing accuracy (84%-83%).

“We had more possession. We controlled the game,” Nani said. “Especially in the first half, we dominated all game. And that’s the key. When you have more of the ball. We have players in the final third who can create chances.”

“Obviously, you wanted to walk (away) with three points after that many chances that we created, especially in the first half when we had the goal in front of us a few times,” Pareja said. “But we’re happy. We’re excited to play and to have this performance and so, we look forward to the next one.”

The Lions return home for their next match against FC Cincinnati at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 1.

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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

16 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

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

18 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

22 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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