FOXBOROUGH — Call this weekend what you will, but in our eyes the Revolution face a must-win — no losses, no draws, less than three points just won’t do— when The Boys In Blue, fresh off the bye week, fly to the Sunshine State to take on slumping Orlando City SC Saturday night.
While New England is in the proverbial summer swoon with no wins in its last four outings including three straight L’s, the Lions’ slump is far worse: Orlando City has lost 12 of its last 13 in Major League Soccer play as well as 13 out of its last 16 in both competitions.
If anything, the time is right for the Revolution to get back on the winning side of the ledger: Orlando is also coming off a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday night, where the Lions held three separate one-goal leads. But with Zlatan Ibrahimovic involved, those leads were short-lived excursions as the Swede potted a hat trick and assisted on LA’s first goal.
In all of ’18, Orlando City has conceded 51 goals in the league, the most goals allowed by any side in MLS this year, and are on pace to shatter the league record for goals allowed in a season: a dubious mark set by the defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny in 2001 (68), its last season in the league.
It’s something that has the Revs’ offense salivating coming off the bye week.
“Hopefully we can take advantage of some of the situations that I’m sure we’ll be in to finish them off,” New England manager Brad Friedel said late Tuesday morning. “We don’t have the mentality that should lose three times in a row, never mind two times in a row … training has been very good, the spirit is high, and I know the boys are raring to go.
“We just can’t wait to get down to Orlando and have the game start.”
Yet while the Lions are in the midst of this decrepit run of form since May 13, they have looked to right the ship, so to speak: last month, OCSC parted ways with coach Jason Kreis. On June 29, the Lions hired James O’Connor as the new coach.
If that name sounds familiar to you, it should: O’Connor was at the helm of Louisville City FC when the Revs visited the Other Commonwealth for the US Open Cup Fourth Round tie in early June.
Since O’Connor has come aboard, the Lions are 1-5-0, including two defeats while New England has been on the bye week: the 4-3 defeat to LA, as well as a 2-0 defeat to New York City FC in Orlando last Thursday night.
“He played three in the back at Louisville; he’s playing four in the back in Orlando,” Friedel said. “You never know, he could change that up at any moment. He’ll have different resources at his disposal and a different quality of player… he’s trying to find the players that fit his system.”
Orlando will play akin to several sides New England has played this year: throwing the left and right backs high to help support the offense. And much like the Revs, the Lions like to press high, as they did against LA and NYCFC.
But defensively, this is a team that has seen better days. During this skid, 12 of the last 13 opponents have posted multiple goals, with the Lions yielding no more than on goal once (Toronto FC, a 2-1 win for OCSC on July 14). It hasn’t kept a clean sheet since April 13, when Orlando defeated Philadelphia, 2-0.
While Orlando has shown it can mark well on free kicks, it’s open play — a current bugaboo for the Revolution offense, at 225 minutes and counting — that is a different story. Orlando City has the tendency to react slow to the last pass in the final third, and against NYCFC, the Lions played a majority of the match with nine men behind the ball, their midfielders slinking back to support the defense.
That may be an issue for the Revolution, who have had difficulties in the past month in breaking down compacted defending.
But should the Revs get creative and stretch the defense, they can find success: as NYCFC added its second goal last Thursday, OCSC had five men strung across the back and could not slow the Cityzens down.
“We create chances in almost every game, and create a lot of good chances,” Friedel said. “Sometimes you’ll score off those chances, and sometimes you won’t, but we have to be a little more clinical in front of goal.”
Orlando City also has a nasty habit of giving the ball away in bad areas, which can open the door to counterattacks: against Los Angeles, the Lions gave the ball away in the first two minutes, which led to a near chance for the Galaxy.
But while this is all true, another fact is that Orlando, when given space, can positively pulverize a defense. With former US international Sacha Kljestan in the middle of the park, the Lions found ways to expose — as we already know — a rather drab Galaxy defensive unit during the first half on Sunday. Los Angeles was sloppy, and Orlando City took a 2-1 lead into the locker room.
And while poor defending against Zlatan leveled it, the Lions pulled ahead against after Dom Dwyer, who leads the squad with nine goals in 2018, bulleted a header into the net.
Also dangerous? Midfielders Chris Mueller, who has pace over on the right-hand side, and Peruvian midfielder Yoshimir Yotun, who has a rather trigger happy left foot.
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