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Orlando City vs. Inter Miami CF: Player Grades and Man of the Match

How did your favorite Lions perform in the scoreless draw against Inter Miami?

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4 months ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Well, it wasn’t the most exciting of games, but that’s what you get when you put a rivalry game midweek. Still, Orlando City got a point against a good team, still hasn’t lost to Inter Miami at home, and looked the most defensively solid that it has in quite some time. Here’s how I graded the individual Orlando performances from an even, defensive affair.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 7.5 — This was another strong performance from Gallese, after he had a good showing in Saturday’s win over the Philadelphia Union. He was called into action mere minutes into the game, and made a great save to deny Luis Suarez in a 1-v-1 situation. He made three saves on the night, but didn’t face any real danger aside from Suarez’s early chance. His distribution wasn’t at its best, as he only passed with 65% accuracy on the night, but he’s far from the only Lion who had some trouble delivering their passes. Overall, he commanded his area well, came off his line at the right times, and made the big save when it was needed. He’s starting to look more like his old self.

D, David Brekalo, 6.5 — Like Gallese, Brekalo built off a good performance in his last game out. He made an excellent block in the seventh minute to deny Robert Taylor, although the play may have been called offside anyway (it wasn’t on the field). He was busy defensively and ended his night with three clearances, two interceptions, one block, and one aerial duel won. He popped up on the offensive end with one shot, which he put on target, and a passing accuracy of 88%.

D, Wilder Cartagena, 7 — If I didn’t know the Peruvian wasn’t a natural center back, then I never would have guessed it. He’s looked a natural at the position through two games. The play he made in the 54th minute to head a ball out for a corner while tracking back towards his own goal with Taylor draped all over him was excellent, and he made several timely interventions while generally keeping things very calm in the center of the back three. He also recorded three clearances, two interceptions, and one block on defense, as well as committing a foul. He also drew a foul of his own and delivered his passes with 80% accuracy. He gets a half-point bump over his compatriots for being a midfielder by trade and looking as good as he did back there.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 6.5 — Schlegel made his return from a red card suspension, and had a much calmer game than his last time out. His four clearances led all players, and he also won an aerial duel, and recorded a tackle and two interceptions while committing a foul. Like Cartagena, he drew a foul of his own, and also took one shot (blocked), while passing with 87% accuracy. I was a bit worried about his tendency to burn a little too hot during high pressure games, but he turned in a steady and reliable performance.  

WB/F, Facundo Torres, 6.5 — Like Angulo, Torres’ defensive responsibilities at the wingback position meant he wasn’t as involved on offense as we’ve become accustomed to seeing, although he did move up to forward late in the match shortly before subbing off in stoppage time. He took one shot (off target), drew one foul, made two key passes, completed one cross, and passed the ball with 83% accuracy. On defense, he contributed a tackle, a clearance, and one aerial duel won. He’s always started slowly and the constraints of his position in the last two games are what they are, but this team needs to find a way to get him firing on all cylinders. The Lions are better when Torres is balling, and so far this year he hasn’t been.

MF, Cesar Araujo, 6.5 — As the only true defensive midfielder, Araujo had his work cut out for him in this one, but he performed that work pretty well. He finished with two tackles, an interception, one completed dribble, one aerial duel won, three fouls draw, and a passing accuracy of 95% on 62 attempted passes. The big blemish on his night was from a boneheaded and unnecessary foul on Julian Gressel, which means he’ll be suspended for Saturday’s trip to San Jose. If nothing else, he’ll get a little rest after doing a bunch of running these last two games.

MF, Martin Ojeda, 5.5 — We got to see Ojeda as the no. 10 sitting behind the pair of Luis Muriel and Duncan McGuire, and it just didn’t quite work. The statistics say that he didn’t have a bad night, as he finished with two interceptions, three shots (one off target, one on target, one blocked), two key passes, two crosses, and 87% passing accuracy. The eye test says that things weren’t fully clicking though, and in a game where he was largely freed of defensive responsibilities, he didn’t have the necessary impact at the other end of the field, although Drake Callender did very well to save his low shot in the 32nd minute. Aside from that, his best opportunity to make something happen came when he had an excellent chance to put the ball on a plate for a wide-open Torres at the back post in the 69th minute, but failed to see him, and instead played a harmless low cross that was cleared out for a corner.

MF, Nico Lodeiro, 6.5 — Asked to help facilitate play from deep, Lodeiro looked lively in the first half, although his influence waned as the game went on, which was true of most of the offensively inclined Lions. He totaled one clearance, one shot (which was blocked), one completed dribble, one foul drawn, two key passes, two crosses, and 94% passing accuracy. Lodeiro wasn’t as involved on the offensive end as he probably would have liked to be, but he did some important tracking back on multiple occasions when Miami sent runners from deep during its attacks.

WB, Ivan Angulo, 5.5 — Angulo seemed to be the man Miami singled out to try to pick on, as the visitors repeatedly tested him with chipped or diagonal balls in behind him. They were tests that he failed on several occasions, as he fell asleep on Franco Negri’s back-post run in the seventh minute, and again on Jordi Alba’s run in the 74th. Both occasions required timely interventions from his teammates to spare his blushes, but the visitors went after him for a reason. His night finished with one tackle, one clearance, two interceptions, one completed dribble, and one foul drawn, while passing with 90% accuracy.

F, Luis Muriel, 7.5 (MotM) — Listen, I get being frustrated with players when they don’t hit the ground running and light the league on fire. But for the people who have been vocal online about thinking Muriel looks washed, I just don’t know what to tell you. He contributed a tackle and a clearance, took three shots (one on target, two blocked), drew a foul, won an aerial duel, and completed two crosses and three key passes while passing with 74% accuracy. Oh, and his six completed dribbles were the most of any player on the field by a country mile. Time and again he beat one or multiple Miami players and got the ball into a dangerous area, and his pass in the 32nd minute to set up Ojeda’s shot was genius, as was his run in the 69th minute to set up the same man. He drew a yellow card on Robert Taylor after stealing the ball from the Miami forward in the 65th minute. His only blemishes on the night come from the counter that he and Torres couldn’t manage to fashion a shot from (a big blemish), and the “foul” he committed, and the subsequent booking he was given (much smaller ones). Still, it was a lively, involved performance, and he gets his second straight Man of the Match award.

F, Duncan McGuire, 6.5 — Like his strike partner, Muriel, McGuire also took three shots, one of which was off target, while the other two were blocked. He also recorded two key passes, two completed dribbles, one tackle, and one clearance. I would have liked to have seen him try to stretch Miami’s back line more than he did, but Oscar Pareja may well have given him different instructions. His work tracking back defensively was impressive, but it was an indictment of Orlando’s play in the second half that he had to pop up back there as often as he did.

Substitutes

WB, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, (79′), N/A — Brought on for Muriel, Dagur Dan slotted in at right wingback and had an extended cameo appearance, which wasn’t enough to earn a fair grade. Still, he contributed one clearance and two key passes, while accurately delivering all four of the passes he attempted.

WB, Rafael Santos, (80′), N/A — Santos came on for Angulo but went over to fill the left wingback role. He didn’t record any defensive statistics but completed two dribbles and 91% of his passes, and he was involved in some half-chances for the Lions as the game wound down.

F, Jack Lynn, (85′), N/A — Lynn entered the game for McGuire as the clock ticked ever closer to the 90th minute. He wasn’t super involved, and completed two of the three passes he attempted. He’ll want to have the other one back though, as he did really well to bring down a difficult ball and hold play up, only to misplay an easy pass to Santos with his left foot, which stopped a break before it started.

F, Yutaro Tsukada, (90’+3), N/A — We got the briefest of looks at the man the Lions signed to a short-term agreement from OCB for the next two matches. Despite coming on late, he had a chance to make the biggest impact of the night, but volleyed a tricky chance over the bar and out of play with the last action of the night.

How did you see the individual performances in this game? Make your voice heard down in the comments, and be sure to vote in our Man of the Match poll. Vamos Orlando!

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Opinion

Martin Ojeda Can Further Build on an Improved 2024

Martin Ojeda has picked things up after a slow start to the season, but he has room to play even better.

Published

1 day ago

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September 6, 2024

By

Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Argentinian attacking midfielder Martin Ojeda finished his maiden season in an Orlando City uniform with six goals and 10 assists. While 16 goal contributions in his first year in a new league with unfamiliar surroundings isn’t a terrible return, there was a widespread sense that he didn’t perform at the level the Lions needed from a Designated Player. He improved the deeper Orlando got into the year though, and coming into the 2024 season, a lot of the projections involving OCSC being one of the best teams in the league were predicated on him taking the next step and becoming a true force in Major League Soccer. So, has that happened?

The broad numbers say that it hasn’t. Through 27 appearances and 1,582 minutes, Ojeda has three goals and eight assists, compared to six goals and 10 assists in 34 appearances and 1,751 minutes in 2023. The Argentine still has time to eclipse his totals from last year, but barring a positively explosive run of form, it’ll take him more minutes to do so. For my money, it isn’t quite that simple though.

For one thing, Ojeda has shown improvement in two key areas: passing accuracy and key passes. His accuracy is up to 84% in 2024, while it was 79% last season. He’s also already eclipsed his total for key passes in 2023, currently sitting on 45, compared to the 42 he finished with in his debut season in purple. That suggests that not only is he passing the ball better, but he’s also putting it in more dangerous areas than previously. Some of that is to be expected, considering his shift into the center of the field to play the no. 10, but he’s still had to adapt to the new position, and he’s looked more and more comfortable as the year has continued.

Let’s talk about that positional change a little. The first few months of the season were ugly for just about everyone wearing an Orlando City jersey. Guys were hurt, off on international duty, or suspended, and many of the ones who could play were forced to do so in positions that weren’t natural for them. At various points throughout the early months of 2024, he found himself playing in the hole behind two strikers, as a deep-lying playmaker, deputizing at striker himself, or dropped from the starting XI entirely.

It was hard to argue with him coming off the bench, as he had just three assists in the 16 games prior to the LAFC match on June 15. He got his first league goal of the year in that match though, and in the 11 games since then, he’s recorded two goals and four assists. While not a staggering return, he’s trending in the right direction. Outside of the numbers, he looks capable of being able to produce at a higher level.

Saturday’s match against Nashville SC provided two specific instances which I found encouraging. The first was his assist on Ivan Angulo’s opening goal, specifically the way in which Ojeda created the goal.

Everything about that is fantastic. The anticipation and work rate to get into a position to intercept the wayward pass, the vision to see Angulo’s position, the quick decision to play the one-touch pass, and the execution to deliver that pass squarely on the money. One of the knocks on Ojeda in an OCSC shirt has been his decision making and execution in the final third, as at times he’s settled for long potshots or held onto the ball too long before trying to find a teammate. None of that was on display here, and the speed of thought, coupled with the execution, meant that Orlando grabbed an early lead.

Let’s then talk about the turn he executed at midfield during the buildup to Facundo Torres’ first goal. Ojeda receives the ball, takes a touch, neatly slips it through a defender’s legs, and then immediately drives hard at the Nashville defense before releasing the ball and finding Torres in space. It’s one moment of skill, but it’s something that happens when you have a guy who’s playing with confidence, and the fact that he then made the right pass at the right time makes it even better.

Those are the moments that we’ve started to see more of from the Designated Player as the year has gone on, and we’ll need to continue seeing more of if Orlando City wants to keep pushing up the table.

Ojeda has a chance to improve on his debut season and really make an impact for the Lions down the stretch. If he keeps playing with confidence, making the correct decisions, and executing in the way that he’s shown this summer, it should bode well for OCSC. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 9/6/24

Amanda Allen loaned to Lexington SC, Alex Morgan announces retirement, USMNT prepares for Canada, and more.

Published

2 days ago

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September 6, 2024

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Image courtesy of Victor Tan / New Day Review

Happy Friday! I don’t have many plans this weekend, but am still looking forward to the next few days after a hectic week. When not working, I plan on finally starting Book of Night by Holly Black and figuring out how to make the most out of some dark rum I was gifted. For now though, let’s get to today’s links from around the soccer world!

Amanda Allen Loaned to Lexington SC

The Orlando Pride have loaned forward Amanda Allen to Lexington SC for the remainder of the USL Super League season. This decision should give Allen some valuable minutes, and the loan includes a right to recall as well. The 19-year-old has made 17 appearances since joining the Pride and had an assist in this year’s season opener. She is also currently in Colombia for the U-20 Women’s World Cup and her Canada squad takes on Brazil tonight. Hopefully she’s able to tear it up in the USL Super League’s inaugural season.

Alex Morgan Announces Her Retirement

American forward Alex Morgan has announced that she will retire after the San Diego Wave’s match on Sunday. She also announced that she is pregnant with her second child.

In her 224 international appearances, Morgan scored 123 goals and was a major force behind the USWNT’s back-to-back World Cup victories in 2015 and 2019. At the club level, she has played in every year of the NWSL’s existence and joined the Orlando Pride ahead of their inaugural season in 2016. In her six years in Orlando, Morgan recorded 23 goals and 10 assists in 69 appearances. Off the field, she’s been an outspoken supporter of equality and increased investment in women’s sports. We wish her the best of luck after a legendary career.

USMNT Faces Canada on Saturday

The United States Men’s National Team will take on Canada on Saturday in Kansas City in the first of two friendlies this month. Plenty has changed since the U.S. beat Canada in a penalty shootout in the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinals, particularly on the sideline. American coach Jesse Marsch was hired by Canada in May, while the U.S. will be led by Mikey Varas in an interim capacity amid buzz that Mauricio Pochettino will take over. The U.S. is without Giovanni Reyna for these friendlies due to injury, with Cade Cowell replacing him. Canada boasts a talented roster that includes a trio of former Lions in Cyle Larin, Richie Laryea, and Kamal Miller. After this match, the USMNT will take on New Zealand on Tuesday.

Keeping Up With International Soccer

San Marino may be one of the smallest countries in the world, but it arguably had the biggest win of a busy day of international soccer after beating Liechtenstein 1-0 for its first competitive victory. Elsewhere in the UEFA Nations League, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 900th career goal in Portugal’s 2-1 win over Croatia, while Spain was held to a scoreless draw in Serbia.

The third round of AFC World Cup qualifying is underway and Australia was upset 1-0 at home by Bahrain. Japan suffered no such setback though, dominating China in a 7-0 home win. Palestine drew 0-0 against South Korea in Seoul, which is no easy task.

CONMEBOL’s World Cup qualifiers have also resumed, and Bolivia came up with a huge 4-0 win in high altitude against Venezuela to move up the table. We may see some Lions in action today. Facundo Torres and Uruguay take on Paraguay, while Pedro Gallese, Wilder Cartagena, and Peru host Colombia.

Free Kicks

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!

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Orlando City

Predictions for Orlando City’s Remaining Games of the 2024 Season

A deep dive into Orlando City’s final seven opponents and predictions on the Lions will do in those matchups.

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2 days ago

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September 5, 2024

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

We do not often write about National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell at The Mane Land, but it is clear that the NFL was intentional about scheduling its season-opening weekend on a bye weekend for Orlando City, lest they lose all of their viewers to watching the team that you know and I know is the most exciting team to watch in all of sports. Fittingly for the city of Orlando, that excitement has been similar to a roller coaster this season, with ups and downs throughout, but with positive results in eight of the last 10 matches and wins in six of those matches, the team is clearly now heading in the right direction. The question remains whether the Lions will continue this climb or if they are just leading up to a sudden drop.

The Lions have seven games remaining on their regular-reason schedule, and at a quick glance it would appear like they have an excellent chance of continuing their hot streak and picking up points in more than half of those games. The next games in order are:

  • Home vs. New England (1.04 points/game this season, 23rd in MLS)
  • Home vs. Charlotte (1.41, 14th)
  • At Columbus (1.96, second)
  • At Dallas (1.22, 18th)
  • Home vs. Philadelphia (1.11, 21st)
  • At Cincinnati (1.89, fourth)
  • Home vs. Atlanta (1.15, 20th)

As Orlando City is currently on a pace of 1.37 points per game, which is 15th in MLS, the Lions are playing four teams with lower points per game this season, one that is nearly the same, and two that have been performing better thus far this season.

In looking a little deeper at the seven remaining opponents, however, that schedule actually starts to look a little more difficult. If you look at the results from the most recent five matches instead of the season as a whole, Orlando City is playing four teams (Columbus, Dallas, Philadelphia, Atlanta) that are performing better recently than they had been for all games prior to their most recent five games. Two of those teams (Columbus and Dallas) are tied with Orlando City for second in MLS, with 10 points from their last five games. Unfortunately for Orlando City, both of those games against Columbus and Dallas will be on the road, but then again, Orlando’s road record of 6-3-5 (1.50 points/game) is better than its home record of 4-4-5 (1.23 points/game), so perhaps that is actually fortunate.

In looking even deeper, well, this chart will help show how all over the place Orlando City’s opponents really are when you look at their full season performance and also their more recent performance. (PPG = points per game and GDG = goal differential per game, which I needed to use instead of just plain goal differential, since the teams have not all played the same amount of games.)

New England’s -0.84 under Full Season GDG means that for the full season the Revolution have been losing games by an average of 0.84 goals per game.

A few takeaways from this chart:

  • I mentioned earlier that four teams are getting better results recently than they had been before the most recent five matches, but Dallas and Philadelphia are both playing significantly better than they had before, while Atlanta and Columbus are only playing slightly better than they had before.
  • That said, Columbus was playing really well and is still playing really well, so that lack of improvement is relative, since the Crew did not have a lot of room to improve and yet they still did.
  • Cincinnati is a stunning case, since the club had only lost four of its first 22 matches before losing four of its next five. And in those four losses, Cincinnati was outscored 9-2, leading to that big drop in GDG. Even with that swoon, Cincinnati is still ranked fourth overall in MLS and third in the Eastern Conference in points per game.
  • Lastly, the section on the far right shows how each team has performed at home or on the road this season. The Match Location is for Orlando City, and the Opponent PPG shows, for example, that Philadelphia averages 1.31 points on the road this season. Orlando City has a better location-based PPG than its opponent in only three (New England, Charlotte, Atlanta) of the final seven games.

During each of the last three seasons, Orlando City earned at least 48 points during the regular season, and to make it four years in a row, the Lions will need to pick up at least 11 points from these final seven games. Here are the possible points the Lions can still earn, based on the number of wins they could have in those seven games:

Just looking at the math, it is possible that they could get to 11 points with only two wins, but that would require no losses in the other five games, and I think that is asking a lot for a team that has lost 37% of its games thus far this season. I think the most likely way that Orlando City gets to at least 11 points is three wins and two draws or four wins and any number of draws, so we need to rank the final seven opponents based on the likelihood of an Orlando City win.

Before we do that, however, we should note that Orlando City’s only MLS loss in its last seven MLS matches was at Sporting Kansas City, a team that is among the hottest in MLS, with results in four of its last five matches. Even though SKC lost, it played some close matches with several of the top teams in the league (LA Galaxy, Real Salt Lake, Colorado, Vancouver) before that. Perhaps Orlando City’s loss away in Kansas City was not as bad as it seemed at the time.

No, that loss still stunk.

Coming back to our ranking, I got out my mathematics degree, shined it up, blew it a kiss, and then put together a very fancy (read: very simple) algorithm using standard deviations to determine the order of most to least likely for Orlando City to get a win, with a formula that went:

That formula produced the list below, ranked in order of the upcoming schedule, accompanied by the team’s rank in order of likelihood of Orlando City getting a win (higher numbers mean Orlando City is more likely to win):

Whether this algorithm is correct or not, there is no doubt that the next two games for Orlando City are absolutely critical in both the made-up pursuit of a fourth straight season of at least 48 points and the more important push to secure a playoff berth and the opportunity to win MLS Cup. The next game (New England) is always the most important game, and after that, Orlando City could have an opportunity to pass Charlotte and move up the table, depending on how the Lions do against New England and how Charlotte does in its Sept. 14 match against CF Montréal. Both matches are at home, and despite their poor overall home record the Lions have three wins and one draw in their last four home MLS games. It would be quite nice to extend that to five wins in their last six before going on the road to Columbus.

I am going to predict that Orlando City does indeed win against New England and Charlotte, loses on the road at Columbus, ties at Dallas, ties Philadelphia, loses at Cincinnati, and closes with a home win over Atlanta for a final record of 3-2-2 during those last seven matches. The mathematically inclined will quickly recognize that a 3-2-2 record adds up to the 11 points the Lions needed to get to 48 points, but leaves them short of getting to 50 for the third time in the last four years. They would secure a playoff position, but they would also be on the road for the first game, and a third game as well if the series goes to three games.

While the team has definitely been playing a lot better as of late, I think this last seven-match run is a difficult one and the Lions will have to really push to do even as well as I predicted, which is only earning 11 of a possible 21 points. They have it in them to make a run. Let’s hope they come back from this bye week ready to roar and rub my prediction right in my face.

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