Lions show off resilience
Club overcomes lackluster start
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Orlando City (5-2-1, 16 points) won its fifth consecutive match, downing the Colorado Rapids 2-1 Sunday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in front of an announced crowd of 15,702. Here are three things we learned from the match:
1. The Lions can still battle from behind
During the first two wins of Orlando City’s five-match win streak, the Lions had to battle back after conceding first. They were thrilling victories, sure, but coach Jason Kreis and pretty much every player with the club agreed controlling the match from the start would be better.
The third and fourth wins of the streak were the first and second matches of the season during which Orlando City scored first.
The Lions started slow against the Colorado Rapids
“We are defenders. If we’re not doing that, nobody will do it. I have to go, no matter what.” Lions left back Mohamed El-Munir
Sunday and gave up a bad goal to fall behind in the 26th minute. A few times, Orlando City players were flat-footed with their hands in the air, looking at officials for calls. Those calls didn’t come and the Rapids kept pressing.
Left back Mohamed ElMunir and midfielder Cristian Higuita both said it was tough to get into the swing of things because of the altitude.
“I thought this was a really difficult game,” Higuita said through a translator. “We had a hard time breathing. It was very windy out there. I think we were able to control them, not give them too many opportunities, so that’s what we’ll keep doing moving forward.”
Things turned around after about 30 minutes. Really, it looked like the Lions got much more aggressive after the 36th minute, following a confrontation between Yoshi Yotún and Enzo Martinez.
“All I said [at halftime] was I basically repeated to them, or tried to describe to them what I saw over the last 10 minutes [of the first half ] and I thought we needed to do more of it,” Kreis said.
A five-match win streak is a five-match win streak. The Lions have found ways to win and, after a rough start, are in solid form heading into May.
2. Let’s give the back line some credit
No, things weren’t perfect, but Orlando City’s back line stepped up against the Rapids.
Will Johnson, Amro Tarek, Lamine Sané and ElMunir – especially El-Munir – all made solid plays and didn’t fold near the end of the match when the Rapids were desperately searching for an equalizer.
El-Munir saved the match and, early on, worked his way into the penalty area with skill any forward would envy. Tarek and Sané both had solid outings, despite some mistakes. Johnson was consistent and aggressive.
Sané’s failure to recover on Dominique Badji’s goal – because he thought Badji was offside and threw his hand up while Badji was running full speed – wasn’t a good look. In truth, all four players in back for Orlando City were caught ballwatching a little too often.
“I think it was another pretty strong night for us defensively if you erase the first however many minutes it was that it took for us to get going,” Kreis said. “But after that I think the defense was connected and compact and played well.”
Still, credit where credit is due. After that first goal, the back line did just fine.
“We are defenders,” ElMunir said. “If we’re not doing that, nobody will do it. I have to go, no matter what.”
3. It turns out, the Lions can defend corners
The San Jose Earthquakes scored two goals off corner kicks in the final 15 minutes of the Lions’ win last week, prompting Kreis to say he was “extremely disappointed” with the number of dead-ball goals the club has conceded this year.
Counting the two goals Minnesota scored — one off a restart following a foul and the other following a throw-in — the Lions have given up eight goals off dead-ball situations this season.
Kreis surely wasn’t happy about the Rapids’ first goal, but the Lions didn’t give up a goal on any of Colorado’s 11 corner kicks. There were a few scary moments, but Orlando City continued to turn away the Rapids.