Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting Orlando City 🔎
Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting Orlando City 🔎
FC Dallas welcomes former head coach Oscar Pareja back to Frisco.
FC Dallas will welcome back club legend and former head coach Oscar Pareja this weekend when Orlando City comes to Frisco.
The Lions are currently fifth in the MLS Eastern Conference after defeating Charlotte FC last Wednesday before dropping a tough one against the Columbus Crew over the weekend. A win on Saturday would help them lock up a playoff spot this season.
Key Player: Facundo Torres
Torres continues to lead the Lions. He currently has 18 goal contributions (12 g/6 a) on the season. Before last weekend’s loss in Columbus, Torres had scored in three straight games for Orlando, all wins for the Lions.
Key Matchup: Robin Jansson vs Jesus Ferreira
While the Dallas defense must devise a strategy to slow down Torres, Duncan McGuire, and Luis Muriel; the Orlando defense will need to devise a plan to monitor Ferreira and Alan Velasco in this match, as they aim to exploit the strengths of either Petar Musa or Logan Farrington in the penalty area.
Availability Report1:
Suspended: none
Out: David Brekalo (leg), Mason Stajduhar (leg)
Questionable: none
On Loan: none
International duty: none
Quick Notes:
All-time series: Dallas currently leads the all-time series with Orlando with a 4-1-2 record, with the last Lions win coming in 2019.
Last trip to Frisco: It has been almost four years since Orlando last came to Frisco. During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the Lions came to Frisco and picked up a scoreless draw.
Recent form: After their Leagues Cup exit, Orlando has gone 3-2-0 in their recent matches, with the three wins coming in a row before losing to Columbus over the weekend.
Potential Lineup:
Pareja continues to use the same 4-3-2-1 formation that he used during his days in Dallas.
Gallese; Thorhallsson, Schlegel, Jansson, Santos; Araújo, Cartagena; Torres, Ojeda, Angulo; McGuire
Keys To Three Points over Orlando
Find the pockets: We saw last weekend how good the attack can be when Velasco and Ferreira are playing their game. They tend to find the space in different pockets of the defense that opens up opportunities for Musa, Farrington and others. If we’re able to see more of that out of these two on Saturday, FC Dallas will come away with their 10th home win of the year.
Be smart defensively: With Asier Illarramendi suspended this weekend due to a yellow card accumulation, the Dallas midfield and defense have to find ways to keep the pressure off keeper Maarten Paes. This means limiting what Orlando is able to do in the middle of the field with Torres, Martin Ojeda and even guys off the bench like Nicolas Loderio (yeah, remember that guy? He leads Orlando in assists, mostly off the bench).
Put on the pressure: Orlando has done well against non-playoff teams this season (they only have one win against teams above the Wild Card spot in the standings right now). None of their six road wins have come against quality teams either. Dallas will want to find ways to put Orlando away early and keep the pressure on them for 90 minutes, similar to what we saw against LAFC last weekend's.
Note: MLS has a new injury report deadline: the day before each game. For now, I will include last week's injury report in our weekly scouting reports.