There's plenty that Orlando City SC won't be mistaken for.
- They’re not Hollywood-style flashy like LAFC, the defending MLS Cup champions who have Golden Boot presented by Audi winner Dénis Bouanga, Carlos Vela and others.
- They’re not Seattle Sounders FC, with a core of household names who are proven winners.
- They’re not FC Cincinnati, the Supporters’ Shield winners with Landon Donovan MLS MVP frontrunner Luciano Acosta.
But the Lions appear to have the blueprint for winning Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs matches and are a legitimate MLS Cup contender.
Orlando dispatched Nashville SC in their Round One Best-of-3 series with a pair of cagey 1-0 wins, including the clincher Tuesday night at GEODIS Park. Iván Angulo scored the decisive goal in the sixth minute, capitalizing on a rare misplayed backpass from Dax McCarty.
“We continue with our journey thinking we can do it,” head coach coach Oscar Pareja said postgame. “I’m very proud, again congratulate the players and the tremendous effort they have done.”
Low-key greatness
With so much talk revolving around FC Cincinnati’s push to the Shield and St. Louis CITY SC’s sensational expansion season, Orlando have largely flown under the radar through their best regular season to date.
The Lions secured a club-record 63 points, finished second in the Shield race and lost just three regular-season games since early May (14W-3L-7D) while collecting 49 points. That was best in MLS (second in points per game) from a team that had the best road record (9W-4L-4D) in MLS this season.
“This team is a team that can always come out and play the way it wants to play and impose itself on the game,” Angulo said through a translator. “There’s a lot of difficult moments that this team is strong and focused and able to react to. That’s going to serve us well in this route to MLS Cup that’s filled with difficult teams.
“ … We have to focus on taking those next steps and the next team, one game at a time, but we’re confident we can make a run.”
In another professional effort, goalkeeper Pedro Gallese made four saves for his 13th shutout across all competitions this year. Second-half substitutes, especially Martín Ojeda, stepped up as well.
“I thought we played a very complete match, especially because we were solid in both areas and probably could have scored a couple of goals more,” Pareja said. “Against Nashville, it’s not an easy task to do it, defending all those crosses. But we controlled the game. We’re happy; we looked more mature today.”
Next Up
For their Eastern Conference Semifinal opponent, Orlando will wait and see who emerges from the winner-take-all Match 3 between the Columbus Crew and Atlanta United on Sunday (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
Whoever they’ll meet at Exploria Stadium in the next round (Nov. 25 or 26), the Lions have a blueprint for success clearly laid out.
“It’s important to know how to play these kind of games where they’re very tight, very intense, there is a lot of emotions through the game. The way we handled it today was good,” Pareja said. “Learning how to play these kind of games makes us a better team.”
