RSL in the WSL Part 3: Match 2

Taking on Orlando City SC

RSL in the WSL Match 2

A few days have passed, and it’s now time for the second game of the season.

We’re facing Orlando City – another older team that is expected to do better than us.

There’s not really too much to report about Orlando City SC.  Like most of the MLS clubs we’ll face, the team is young.  The franchise came to be early in the second general round of MLS expansion, back in 2015.  As is the case with most expansion teams in American sports, Orlando City hasn’t really done much – aside from winning the Open Cup in September 2022, that is.

This is also our home opener for the season.  We’re looking at a completely sold-out crowd, with 20,252 in attendance at Rio Tinto Stadium (an older stadium sponsor name I prefer to the current politically tinged version).  It’s a hot and breezy August day – knowing the desert heat, probably a better day for staying inside than baking in the hot evening sun.

Lineup

I haven’t said much about the schedule yet.  It’s still the very beginning of the season; however, it’s also already time to start thinking about rotation.  As we’ll soon see, it’s always time to think about rotation in this league.

We’ve made a few changes from our last game.  I won’t get into too many details at this stage, since I haven’t told you much yet about exactly who is on the team.  We rotated the defense heavily, and decided to start Riccardo Tonin as a striker.  We purchased the 19-year-old Tonin from Milan for a measly £400,000 about two days before today’s game started.

First Half

Today’s game was nuts – absolutely nuts.

We gave up a pretty woeful looking goal in the 6th minute.  Our 33-year-old central defender Nedum Onuoha, one of the key leaders of our team, missed a header that led directly to the goal.

I was really starting to worry at this stage.  Orlando City might be better than we are, but they aren’t exactly the best team in the league.  Was I wrong to go with such a youthful setup?  Should I have at least held on to our original goaltender?  Was my plan going to fail this quickly?

And then came Tonin.

Riccardo scored this beautiful looking goal off a rebound around the 20-minute mark.  Apologies for the awkward angle.  I credit this goal to the aggressive tactic that we are using – it’s the sort of goal that comes when you play with an offensive focus.

And then, right at the stroke of halftime, came another one. Just about the same spot, and the same result – by the same man. 

I went into halftime thinking about a potential hat trick, and asking myself if my fiddling around hadn’t made things a little bit too easy.

Now, I should note that we came into this match underdogs.  In fact, we’re likely to come into every match this season underdogs.  We don’t have many high-reputation players in this squad.  It’s chiefly built up of unproven, hungry young players, which is a pretty big risk.

Second Half

I had a feeling that it couldn’t last long – and I was right. Orlando City came right back with their second of the game.

I’ve got to blame this one on our goalkeeper.  Stott, who looked so brilliant in our first game, looked like he’s flopping all over the place in this one.  I wondered if he was actually ready to play at this level when we signed him, and this one really has me worried.

And so it went – a 2-2 game played under the lights and below the mountains of the Salt Lake City suburbs.  Both teams played an attacking game, and several good chances were turned back by desperate defensive performances.

And then it came.

Tonin got his hat trick, all right – and in the 89th minute, no less.

I wanted to upload a GIF image of this one, but Substack doesn’t like larger GIF files, unfortunately. I honestly thought Tonin was offside.  There was a review, and the game showed that he was right on line with the defender.  However, I’m still not sure I believe that after watching the replay

Maybe Football Manager does get it wrong from time to time.  Not that I’m complaining, of course.

If it was an illegitimate goal, the game certainly made us pay for it quickly.  Alexandre Pato scored his second for Orlando City in the first minute of stoppage time.

I was ready at this point to write a blog post about how no lead is safe in Football Manager, about how you never know what is going to happen, and about how crucial it is to have strong defenders.  We have a very young central defender, Lundqvist, making his first professional appearance, who missed a crucial header that led to this goal.  It’s not fair to judge an entire game on a single play like this, but, at the same time, this kind of defending is unacceptable with the game on the line.

3-3 now – surely the end?

Not quite.

In the very final minute, the 4th minute of stoppage time, Tonin provided yet again. He was fouled in the box, and he converted the penalty.

That’s right – 4 goals for us in a narrow, exciting 4-3 victory.  Not bad for a debut!

Match Review

I feel almost like we got away with one here.  We had the better numbers of shots and shots on target, but we simply couldn’t maintain possession.  That led to a very nerve-wracking game, one in which I felt like we were about to blow it at just about every minute.

Things are different, though, when you look at the xG stats:

Now, don’t let the total fool you too much.  The xG value of a penalty is almost 1, as I understand it.

What I see here is that our defense is in desperate need of help.  We’re giving up too many goals that simply should not be goals.  This might be because of our young goaltender.  It might also be because of some really poor individual performances, however.

To me, this is actually the most telling graphic.  As we’ll learn in coming posts, Toia and Kreilach are two of the elder statesmen of the club.  Seeing them have such poor games is extremely concerning.

In contrast, many of our young players had excellent games.  Paredes made his first ever professional start, and rewarded us with two assists and a show of general excellence on the left side.  Cardozo made up for his poor performance last game, Lundqvist certainly looks like he had a better game than that goal highlight indicates, and Barros on the right side also played quite well.

Maybe the push to youth is the right decision after all.

Record?

I wanted to share this bit of news as well:

In retrospect, I should have found a mod to change Football Manager’s internal records.  There’s simply no way that 2 goals in a single game is the Major League Soccer record.  I’m guessing this is referring to the record within this particular version of Super League 1 division Major League Soccer, which has existed for only 2 match days.

Damir Kreilach, who had such a poor virtual game today, seems to hold the Real Salt Lake record in real life, with 3 goals in this 2018 game.

League Table

Well, we’re doing pretty well, with a goal differential of 2 after 2 games.  Unsurprisingly, the high-quality Mexican teams seem to be doing best.  It’s still early, however.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a proper season preview.