Arace: Will Crew vs. Orlando City MLS playoff game be small-m Magic or big-m Massive?
Pro sports are different, as Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi writes in a piece that carries the headline, “Please, Orlando City, bring us our first real championship.”
Orlando City will host the Crew in an MLS Eastern Conference semifinal on Saturday. Kickoff is 5:30 p.m., or about 5½ hours after the only kickoff most people in Columbus care about.
Attention will be divided in Orlando, as well, as UCF hosts Houston at noon. But, seriously folks, 100 miles upstate, No. 4 Florida State plays at Florida at 7 p.m. That’s kind of a big one down there.
While there is hugeness to The Game and largeness to the Sunshine Showdown, the pro sports map is wholly different topography. There is a reason some of our more forward-thinking civic leaders sought an NHL franchise in the 1990s, just as Orlando’s leaders sought an NBA team in the 1980s.
The Blue Jackets are one of two NHL teams to have never made it to the conference finals (the expansion Seattle Kraken are the other). The Orlando Magic, who made it to the NBA Finals in 1995 and 2009, are one of 11 teams in the league to have never won a title.
“Let’s be honest, folks, we’ve never won a championship – a real, legitimate, bona fide championship – in any sport of any significance,” Bianchi writes.
He adds that, while the Arena Football League Predators and the minor-league hockey Solar Bears and Seals – and even the undefeated UCF football team that claimed a mythical national championship in 2017 after being denied a playoff bid – are nice and everything. But they don’t compare to winning a major league title.
It’s a little different here in Columbus, especially on Saturdays when No. 2 Ohio State is taking on No. 3 Michigan in Ann Arbor. UCF may have a larger student population than OSU, but it’s not bigger, if you know what I’m saying. It even borrows its U from another Florida city.
Yet, Bianchi’s words rhymed with Columbus history. When the incomparable Guillermo Barros Schelotto led the Crew to their first MLS Cup title, it put Columbus in another sector of the map. A pro sports history of baseball Senators, Reds, Jets and Clippers, and football Bullies, and a basketball Quest, replete as they were with titles, instantly faded when Crew captain Frankie Hejduk hosted the Cup in Carson, California, on Nov. 23, 2008.
Bianchi laments being surrounded by all the NBA, NHL and MLB championships that have been won in other Florida cities as he writes, “And what’s our answer to the ’72 Miami Dolphins — the 2019 Orlando Apollos finishing with the best record in the Alliance of American Football before the bankrupt league went belly-up midway through its inaugural season?”
Orlando City will never be big-m Massive, but the question is whether this 2023 team has small-m magic. Like Sigi Schmid (RIP, Big Man) in 2008, Orlando City’s Oscar Pareja is the greatest coach in the history of his franchise to date, and he is on an expiring contract. Just saying.
The Scouting report on Columbus Crew vs. Orlando City
Crew coach Wilfried Nancy’s 3-4-2-1 system is based on having the ball, baiting opponents into trying to get the ball, passing out of pressure to create cracks and exploiting the fissures. They go forward, and they score. They led the league in goals (67 in 34 games) and goal differential (plus-21), not to mention possession. Among other things.
This team can beat anybody in the league, anytime.
Pareja’s base formation is a 4-2-3-1 and his M.O. is flexibility and game management. Orlando City swept defensive-minded Nashville out of the first round with a pair of 1-0 victories. In the second game, on the road, Orlando put on a high press that was wicked in its intent, got an early goal and dropped numbers back as the game wore on. No problem.
While they have some estimable talent up front (striker Duncan McGuire, flanker Facundo Torres), a terror in the midfield (Cesar Araujo), some serious stoppers in the back (center backs Robin Jansson and Rodrigo Schlegel) and a terrific goalkeeper (Pedro Gallese), they’re probably best known for their paucity of mistakes. They don’t hurt themselves.
Orlando has been the hottest team in MLS for some months. In league competition, including playoffs, they’re 14-3-4 in their past 21 games, they’re 9-0-4 in their past 13 home games and they’re on a six-game winning streak.
The Crew played two of their better games of the season against Orlando, a 2-2 draw in Columbus in mid-May and a 4-3 Orlando victory at Exploria in mid-September. In the one, Crew conceded a stoppage-time goal to drop two points. In the other, the Crew played a brilliant 70 minutes before blowing a 3-1 lead in a span of 20 minutes.
Nancy has cleaned up a lot of things since that notorious loss. If the Crew’s set-piece defense is less problematic, they have a good chance of winning on the road. It will be a terrific game.
Hereon in the MLS playoffs, games that are tied at the end of regulation will go to 30 minutes of extra time divided into 15-minute halves. Then, if needed, there is a shootout. Either the underdog Crew will be Massive, or there may well be something magic in Orlando.
Sit down at the Soccer Speakeasy for more Crew talk
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Coaching wits and styles clash when Columbus Crew meet Orlando City
