Orlando City played a solid defensive game on the road against the New York Red Bulls. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the anemic offense may have just had its worst performance in the Oscar Pareja era, mustering only four shot attempts and just one weak dribbler on frame. The Red Bulls converted a free kick that shouldn’t have been given and that was enough to give the hosts a 1-0 win.
We broke down the match to the extent that we could stomach to do so, checked on our score predictions, and made our Man of the Match selections.
If you’re looking for more good news after the team went 0-2-1 in its last three matches, well, the team is off until June 15. The bad news is that it’s against LAFC.
This week’s mailbagbox asked us about MLS contracts and the shape employed by OCB’s opponents on Sunday. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.
After the mailbagbox, we discussed OCB’s 3-1 loss to Inter Miami II in South Florida. The Young Lions had the manpower advantage throughout the second half, but not only couldn’t equalize, but also conceded a third goal and refused to send any fresh legs onto the pitch when the game was still within reach.
In better OCB news, Yutaro Tsukada was named MLS NEXT Pro Player of the Month for May. The 2024 MLS SuperDraft pick has been impressive with the reserve side this season.
Finally, we’ve got news about the OCSC academy teams. The U-15 and U-17 squads each fared better against Inter Miami than the first team or reserve side has managed in 2024.
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Here’s how No. 424 went down:
0:15 – The Lions were not good on Saturday night…at least offensively. The defense was good.
18:26 – Our mailbagbox shows our listeners aren’t afraid to ask the tough questions.
28:23 – OCB suffered a bad loss, but there’s some good news about the club’s young players as well.