Nashville SC are back at Geodis Park this weekend for one of the biggest games of their season to date. They'll take on Orlando City, who are tied with them on 47 points, in a match that will have significant implications on the final table.
For the latest on the Lions, we caught up with Ben Miller, who covers Orlando for The Mane Land.
Ben Wright (SixOneFive Soccer): Orlando have been one of the hottest teams in MLS recently. What's led to the uptick in form?
Ben Miller (The Mane Land): It's been a combination of contributions from the supporting cast and getting back to a clean bill of health and availability.
While he can still be maddeningly inconsistent in the final third, Ivan Angulo has stepped up his play in recent weeks, and new signing Tyrese Spicer has shown some really positive flashes in the limited time he's had on the field since arriving.
Eduard Atuesta spent some time on the sidelines earlier in the summer with injury issues, but now that he's back it's given Orlando a really dangerous orchestrator from deep in midfield. The team looks very different with him versus without him.
Then you have Alex Freeman being available after spending time with the USMNT at the Gold Cup. Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Kyle Smith filled in admirably for him while he was away, but Freeman is just so dangerous going forward and he gives the team more options to choose from in the final third.
BW: The Lions are fairly famous for being miserable to play against, but it seems like they've added real quality to their team going forward. Is that fair, and how serious a threat do you think they'll be in the postseason?
BM: I think it's absolutely fair. The Lions still have a reasonably strong defense, but the offense has been great with 53 goals in 27 games, which puts it level at the top of the charts with Miami. The real question is whether those numbers can translate to postseason play.
Orlando are at their most dangerous in transition, whether it's from turnovers in the midfield or stopping an attack in the defensive third and going on the break from deep in their own half. The team still has trouble when it comes to breaking down bunkered opponents though, and the worry has to be that teams will tighten up and bunker against them in the postseason.
If they improve at breaking down compact defenses in the "half-court", then they start looking like a serious threat to make a deep run. If that doesn't happen, then I'll have my skepticisms.
BW: Give me the elevator pitch for Martín Ojeda for MVP.
BM: The easy thing to point to is the raw numbers: 14 goals which ties him for 5th most in the league, and 14 assists, which is 2nd behind only Anders Dreyer (San Diego). 28 goal contributions in 27 games is nothing to sniff at, and he's just such a big piece of the Lions' success.
He can hurt you in a variety of different ways from a variety of different areas on the field, and his partnership with Luis Muriel in particular borders on psychic at times. At the end of the day, his MVP candidacy will be hurt or helped by 1) whether he can keep providing goal contributions at his current rate, and 2) how Orlando shows in the playoffs.
If he keeps racking up contributions and Orlando makes a deep run then he probably has a reasonable shot at it, but if anything lags then there are plenty of other deserving guys like Dreyer, Evander, and that short guy on the pink team who would be great picks.
BW: How do you think Orlando can hurt Nashville on Saturday? And what are some areas Nashville should target for them?
BM: As I hinted at earlier, the most threat will come during transition moments. OCSC is probably better when it doesn't necessarily have the bulk of possession, and instead looks to force turnovers in the midfield and exploit the spaces that open up in behind as a result.
Wide areas are also something to keep an eye on with Angulo, Freeman, Spicer, and Marc Pašalić all threats from out on the wing. The big question is going to be what sort of lineup Óscar Pareja trots out for this one. The Lions have a Leagues Cup semifinal against Miami looming large next Wednesday, and make no mistake, this team already wanted to win the competition badly before it knew it would get the Herons in the semis.
Orlando has beaten their in-state rivals twice in the regular season, but to do so in the semifinals of a knockout tournament would be an extra level of sweetness, so it's just hard to know what the XI is going to look like. Regardless of who's out there, the Lions can be a little lax when it comes to defending at the back post, and the offside trap isn't always the crispest one in the league. Rodrigo Schlegel can be susceptible to getting pulled out of position and leaving gaps behind him, and Sam Surridge and Hany Mukhtar should look to pick on him rather than his center back partner Robin Jansson.
BW: Do you have a lineup/score prediction?
BM: This feels like a very chippy, defensive 1-1 draw to me. Which probably means it'll be something wildly different.
Thanks so much to Ben for his time! For more incredible coverage of Orlando Soccer, visit The Mane Land.
