Orlando City heads to the City of Angels to take on Western Conference leaders LAFC late Saturday night. Both teams are returning from the international break and will want to get back on the front foot. What must Orlando City do to earn all three points against another tough opponent Saturday night?<\/p>\n
C\u2019mon Son (and Bouanga)<\/p>\n
If you are too young to get the reference, Google \u201cEd Lover catchphrase\u201d and it will make sense. I am referring to LAFC\u2019s Son Heung-Min and his attacking partner Denis Bouanga. Despite the fact that of the two only Bouanga has a goal so far this season, this is still the pair the defense needs to deal with effectively. <\/p>\n
Despite Robin Jansson making an appearance in training, he won\u2019t be in the lineup for this match. That is a shame as this team desperately needs him. Without him, some combination of David Brekalo, Iago, and Nolan Miller will need to stop LAFC\u2019s attack. Griffin Dorsey missing some recent training time doesn\u2019t help, but if Adrian Marin wants to have his best match, this is a good time.<\/p>\n
Be the First<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t pay attention to the Western Conference, you may not have known that LAFC has not given up a goal this season. Not one goal. It\u2019s impossible to win a match if you don\u2019t score, and that is exactly what someone on Orlando City will need to do against a stubborn defense.<\/p>\n
LAFC sports a good defense with the likes of Nkosi Tafari, Eddie Segura, Ryan Porteous, and Sergi Palencia, and that doesn\u2019t even count Aaron Long, who has been out with a leg injury. Assuming the Lions are able to get past LAFC\u2019s defense, they will then have to put the ball past one of the best goalkeepers in MLS \u2014\u00a0Hugo Lloris. There\u2019s a reason that LAFC hasn\u2019t given up any goals, but that\u2019s exactly the type of weird stat that begs for a Martin Ojeda brace.<\/p>\n
Time Travel<\/p>\n
Given the win probability of this match I would not blame you if you didn\u2019t want to stay up to watch the match. I\u2019m not entirely sure I want to stay up. The players don\u2019t get that choice. They will have to deal with travel, a different time zone \u2014\u00a0starting the match when it would usually be ending, and sleeping in a hotel. Yes, they are professionals, but that doesn\u2019t change the conditions.<\/p>\n
How well the players are able to deal with the time change will impact how this match plays out. If the Lions can get on the board early, that will make things a bit easier. I say \u201ca bit\u201d because we know all too well how difficult it is to play emergency defending against a good attacking team with a lead. Just look at some recent results. Time isn\u2019t Orlando City\u2019s friend, whether we\u2019re talking about the kickoff time or how long the match goes on.<\/p>\n
That is what I will be looking for Saturday night. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando City heads to the City of Angels to take on Western Conference leaders LAFC late Saturday night.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-217104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}