Post Season Review Part 2: Defense
Orlando City’s inaugural MLS season is firmly in the rearview mirror, but we take one more look back and reflect. In this five part series we review the season and discuss the triumphs, successes, shortcomings and improvements needed as the club prepares to enter their sophomore campaign.
Today, part two — the defense.
Orlando City’s defense was a bit of a revolving door in their first MLS season. The starting keeper began the season still recovering from injury and an expensive stop-gap was in goal through the start of the campaign. The backline featured a former MLS Cup MVP, a USMNT star returning from a failed attempt in Europe, a USL veteran and a friend of Taylor Swift who would be released mid-season. Also among them, young players with a penchant for red cards. To say that it was an eventful season along the defense is an understatement.
By the end of the season there seemed to be some consistency and quality that had been missing most of the season. Today we look back at the season that was and forward towards year two.
The Positives
Aurélien Collin- The Frechman was a stalwart in central defense from game one and was easily the most consistent defender of the group. Only a couple of minor hamstring injuries and an early red card suspension held the high priced center back out of competition. Collin made 27 starts with 1 appearance off the bench. His veteran leadership proved invaluable as he paired with Seb Hines, Sean St. Ledger, David Mateos, Tommy Redding and even Luke Boden at times. He added two goals and an assist while managing only two yellow cards the entire season- a remarkable achievement considering his aggressive style of defending. While 500K center backs are not the norm in MLS, Collin lived up to his salary and easily makes the short list of Orlando City’s best players during their inaugural season. As long as the front office can afford it, Collin should remain the first defender on the team sheet for several more years.
Brek Shea- The positive here is that Adrian Heath seems to have figured out that left back is the position that Shea needs to occupy going forward, even if it took nearly the whole season to figure that out. With a full season at left back, Shea can become the best player at his position in MLS. His rare combination of height, speed, athleticism and on the ball technique are rare qualities to find from an outside defender. Of course, the oft-injured American will need to stay healthy to make this a reality. His versatility still gives Heath the option of moving him farther forward in case of injuries or other scenarios, but the more time Shea has to gel with Carlos Rivas the better. Rivas is not an easy midfielder to play behind, but this tandem could be absolutely deadly and easily the fastest and most dangerous in all of MLS.
Selling Donovan Ricketts- With projected starter Tally Hall not fit to start the season Orlando City acquired Ricketts as a MLS experienced keeper to keep the position warm until Hall’s return. Ricketts was a shell of his younger self, but served his purpose. The real positive here was the front office’s ability to trade him to Los Angeles at the end of July. In return Orlando City received a second round draft pick for the upcoming SuperDraft. Maybe this is more of a front office positive, but we will get to that later.
Rafael Ramos’ Early Season Form- Ramos has all the tools to be a dominant right back, but if we learned anything from his first year in MLS, it’s that he has a lot of maturing to do. His early season form was nothing short of sparkling, however he seemed to regress over the course of a grueling, rookie MLS campaign. A thigh injury and subsequent mental breakdowns, leading to multiple red cards, actually led to a frustrating end of the year for Ramos. The sky is the limit for him, but if immaturity and stamina over year two begin to creep in again, then it would be wise to give the youngster more rest and learning from quality veteran competition.
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Corey Ashe/Luke Boden- While neither of these players seem to be penciled in as year two starters (Ashe has been released), their first season with Orlando City in MLS couldn’t have gone much better. Boden received the bulk of the starts at left back over the course of the year and his service into the box was perhaps the best on the team. While his athleticism limits his ability to be an upper tier player at the position, his experience, even at USL levels was sorely needed. Boden was the perfect example of quality depth that evolved into an important starting presence. The same can be said for Corey Ashe, who has the added bonus of being able to play right or left back, although during this writing it was announced that Ashe had been released. Depth was probably Orlando City’s ultimate undoing in their first year in MLS. With Boden around, it helps lessen that problem just a bit. C
The Negatives
Goals Allowed- Only 3 teams gave up more than Orlando City’s 56 goals on the year. While you can certainly blame plenty of them on the defense, Orlando City’s problem was more of a team effort. Red cards were mostly to blame for lopsided scores and inflated goals against numbers. Individual errors, whether in defense or midfield, were also costly. The defense wasn’t as poor as the numbers show, but goals are goals — and either way, those numbers need to improve next year. If Orlando City can settle upon a consistent back line, that would help a lot. If we had to pick the four defensive starters at the moment, it would probably be Ramos, Collin, Hines, and Shea. Consistent starts together, coupled by a dramatic decrease in playing down a man should easily improve one of the worst statistical defenses in MLS. Cristian Higuita is simply too good at shielding the back four and Adrian Heath’s possession based system with two holding midfielders should always be strong defensively. As long as there isn’t an injury crisis, expect much improved play from the defense.
Collin’s partner- The biggest revolving door of the season, besides RM, was Collin’s partner at center back. It started out with Seb Hines, then went to Sean St. Ledger, then back to Hines. Hines would get hurt and St. Ledger would party too hard in NYC and all of a sudden Tommy Redding was getting a start. Then David Mateos was brought in from Hungary and largely underwhelmed. Hines would get healthy again and prove to be the most reliable CB, but no defense will remain strong if they can’t find consistent starts from a preferred CB pairing. There is probably still plenty of questions going into next season on who that will be. We’d imagine Hines would have the upper hand at the moment, but with only Mateos as the other option, then expect Orlando City to bolster their depth and add competition at CB. This is one of the biggest needs of the Lions have going into the offseason.
David Mateos- Mateos underwhelmed after his late arrival from Hungary. The Spanish defender looked slow and incapable of handling the demands of a rugged MLS. While his aerial prowess can’t be questioned and is certainly an advantage, he was badly victimized by smaller and quicker players. If he sticks around, then maybe he can be a matchup play against big forwards like Kei Kamara or Blas Perez, but other than that, this looks like a wasted acquisition.
Tally Hall released- The negative here is that Hall will have to ply his trade elsewhere. His salary and injury issues were obviously a concern for the front office. Hall’s experience and locker room presence will be greatly missed.
Final Verdict
As a collective unit the defense underwhelmed, and as mentioned above was statistically one of MLS’ worst. It’s hard to give a unit high grades when there were so many problems throughout the season. However, if they find the right partner for Collin and cut down on the red cards, there is certainly reason for optimism moving into year two. The talent is there for Orlando City to be much improved and possibly one of MLS’ better defenses in 2016.
Season Grade: C-
This article is a joint effort of CST editorial (Shaun Gurd and Ronald Methot).
