How Orlando City SC keeps adapting strategy for success
• Emphasizing central midfielders
• Powering up sideline coverage
With increasing success, Orlando City SC has been forsaking their three-defender scheme in favor of variations of the 4-4-2.
Just last February, a publication proclaimed the 4-4-2 soccer formation dead. Yet, in five of the last six matches of Orlando City SC the team played variations of this formation. If momentum means anything, the team’s success with the formation increases with the players’ confidence.
Orlando is 2-2-1 in 4-4-2 matches across the previous six matches. That group includes the 4-3-3 prevailing formation against Toronto FC, resulting in a 2-1 win.
The momentum has grown over the past four matches, 3-1, with two of those wins in the 4-4-2.
Of those five 4-4-2 matches, only one of them featured a standard 4-4-2 for the entire match.
The others had the players frequently showing the Double-Six or Double-Pivot version of that formation.
The strategy starts by using two central midfielders. The sidelines are well-covered with two wide fullbacks and two wide wingers.
The reason for a Double-Six or Double-Pivot with central midfielders is to increase possession and power up the defense.
While the variation is common in 4-4-2 systems, it’s adaptable in 4-2-3-1 and three-defender schemes.
Head Coach Oscar Pareja said their recent 4-4-2-based win over a D.C. United – a 5-0 shutout – was a confidence builder for the players. Yet, the Double-Pivot helped Orlando City play the possession game they prefer.
Possession partnered with a decisive win builds confidence better than anything.
They finished that match with 55.6% possession. But more impressively, they executive 15 of the 16 crosses in the game, plus 561 passes with 91.3% accuracy.
This performance so frustrated the opponents that D.C. United got charged with eight of the 13 fouls in the match, plus a red card to defender Lucas Bartlett during the first-half overtime.
A wise person once said that neither the smartest nor even strongest of any species survived through the ages. But the adaptability of the species always did.
Orlando City SC keeps adapting match strategy for upcoming opponents. It’s got them over the playoff line. And as the remainder of the MLS season plays out, that’s where the action is.