Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Nashville SC: Final Score 1-0 as Lions Sweep First-Round Series
Ivan Angulo’s early goal was just enough as the Lions squeaked past Nashville into the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Ivan Angulo’s early goal was just enough as Orlando City turned in another defensive masterclass to nip Nashville SC 1-0 at Geodis Park. In earning their first-ever road MLS playoff win, the Lions swept Nashville and are through to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“We’d like to start by congratulating the players and a squad that has been very responsible, very professional representing our community and our fans,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “I think we’re all very proud of what they do on the field. I thought we played a very complete match, because we were solid in both areas and probably could have scored a couple goals more, but against Nashville it’s not an easy task to do it, defending all those crosses and when they were throwing bodies up front. But we controlled the game. We’re happy. We looked more mature today.”
Pareja’s lineup was unchanged from Game 1. Pedro Gallese lined up in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena played in the central midfield behind an attacking line of Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres, with Duncan McGuire up top.
The Lions started brightly with some early possession. Pereyra fired a shot three minutes in that deflected out for a corner, but Orlando could do nothing with the set piece. Two minutes later, Torres had a go on the break from outside the box but couldn’t get his shot to dip under the bar.
Orlando grabbed the lead in the sixth minute. A poorly weighted back pass by Dax McCarty was closed down quickly by Angulo. He won a 50/50 challenge, survived a tug from behind by McCarty and then sent a shot off the Nashville midfielder that beat Joe Willis over the top to make it 1-0.
“We came out today with the with the intention to run and to really press them high and try to pin them back,” Angulo said through a club interpreter. “And so I just kind of pressed into that area in between the center backs and the holding midfielders that I really like to get in between and forced them to kind of make a bad pass. And thankfully I was able to take the ball off their foot and find myself into a nice spot in their box, and I just figured, ‘Have a hit and see where it goes,’ and thankfully it went in the back of the net.”
“Opening the (scoring) are obviously something we’ll desire, especially when you’re going away,” Pareja said. “We were waiting on reactions from Nashville and surely they were going to give us spaces in the back. We could have been probably more lethal there. But opening the game at that time, early in the game, was very important for us.”
Nashville nearly pulled the goal back in the eighth minute. A bouncing ball kept eluding Orlando’s control and it ended up on Sam Surridge’s foot. The forward turned and fired just wide of the left post. A minute later, there was a lengthy delay for Walker Zimmerman to get treated as he hit his mouth on the back of McGuire’s head and was bleeding. The defender was able to continue.
Alex Muyl fouled Gallese with heavy contact in the box after Thorhallsson’s wayward clearance attempt popped up in the air. Gallese needed treatment, but he too continued.
The game got extremely chippy in the middle stages of the first half. Nashville’s Surridge and Anibal Godoy were booked for challenges on Jansson and Araujo, respectively. Cartagena was booked moments after Godoy, and Pereyra picked one up minutes later, although his was easily the harshest of the four.
The Lions had a penalty appeal in the 30th minute when the ball came off Lukas MacNaughton’s arm, but it was his supporting arm underneath him and no penalty was given as a result.
Shaq Moore headed wide in the 34th minute after sneaking in behind an inattentive Torres at the back post.
The Lions had a golden opportunity to double their lead in the 37th minute when McGuire played Torres down the right. The Designated Player opted not to shoot with his right foot — as we’ve become accustomed to. He tried to clear his left for a shot but it was closed down, so he laid it off for Angulo. The speedy winger fired but his shot was saved by Willis.
A minute later, Mukhtar scored but the flag came up immediately. The forward was offside when Daniel Lovitz sent in the initial shot. The offside call saved Gallese, who had uncharacteristically spilled a fairly routine-looking ball in.
Nashville started creating some danger with crosses down the first half stretch run. Mukhtar headed just wide in the 41st minute off one such cross.
Pereyra went for the far right corner from the left in the third of nine minutes of first-half stoppage time but couldn’t curl it on frame.
Nashville sent a handful of crosses into Orlando’s area and the Lions did just enough to clear.
The last opportunity fell to Torres in the eighth minute of stoppage time but he missed his shot badly off target.
Orlando held halftime advantages in possesson (58.2%-41.8%), shots (7-6), shots on goal (2-1), and corners (2-0). Nashville passed more accurately (79.8%-75.9%).
Torres had a chance to double the lead just moments after the restart. He fired a shot with his right foot but hit it right at Willis.
A minute later, it was Nashville getting an early chance. Muyl got to a cross and headed it on frame but Gallese was able to range over and grab it.
Cartagena tried a volley shot in the 54th minute but his swerving effort stayed just over the bar.
The back-and-forth play continued moments later as Araujo did well to cover defensively, successfully winning a vital challenge in his own penalty area against Mukhtar and earning a foul on the Nashville Designated Player.
Angulo had a good look at a brace in the 61st minute when he cut inside from the left onto his right foot. However, he fired his shot right at Willis.
Again the next chance fell for Nashville. MacNaughton got forward into the attack and appeared to foul Pereyra but Allen Chapman allowed play to continue. MacNaughton picked up the loose ball and fired from outside the box. Gallese got over to make a solid save to preserve the lead. Gallese then made a good stop to deny a Jacob Shaffelburg effort in the 69th minute.
Second-half sub Martin Ojeda had a hit from outside the box in the 71st and got all of it, but Willis fought it off and the defense arrived to clear it before a teammate could pick up the loose change. Junior Urso tried his luck three minutes later but his effort was nowhere near goal.
Urso had a chance to put the game to bed in the 79th minute when he slipped in past the defense. Left 1-v-1 against Willis, he started his shot but a sliding Sean Davis got a piece of it and it deflected over the goal.
Nashville’s last gasp was a header wide from Zimmerman in the 90th minute. Neither team got a scoring chance in the four-plus minutes of injury time and the Lions did well to keep winning fouls and throws to see out most of that time. The whistle finally blew to end the series.
Orlando finished the match with the advantage in shots (16-10), shots on target (5-4), and corners (5-0). Nashville turned around the possession to finish with more of the ball (53.3%-46.7%) and passed more accurately (79.7%-78.8%).
“It’s important to know how to play these kind of games where they’re very tight, very intense,” Pareja said. “There is a lot of emotions during the game. The way we handled it today was good. Learning how to play these kinds of games made us a better team. And the boys have shown that we’re ready, but this doesn’t stop here. We’ve got to keep getting better. We have to prepare ourselves for the next one and keep learning from those moments, those games.”
[Editor’s note: the following paragraph has been edited from the original to correct an error created by Major League Soccer’s complete lack of logic.]
The game scheduled for Sunday is off. There’s no need for it. The Lions will await their next playoff opponent as the first round continues to play out. Because MLS makes zero sense whatsoever, Orlando will get the Columbus/Atlanta winner and FC Cincinnati will get either the No. 4 or No. 5 seed, even if No. 6 seed Atlanta advances.
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!
Orlando Pride Center Back Emily Sams Named 2024 NWSL Defender of the Year
How Orlando City’s Offense Stacks Up Against What Atlanta Does Defensively
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