A second half brace from youngster Daryl Dike helped Orlando City come from behind to beat Nashville SC in Wednesday’s solitary league game. There were five other games due to be played, but they were all postponed in the aftermath of the Jacob Blake shooting. Here are our talking points from the evening’s action.
Orlando concede first yet again
With the exception of the MLS is back tournament and their opening week stalemate against Real Salt Lake, Orlando have now conceded the first goal in all of their league games. Nashville drew first blood here, with David Romney nodding home from a Hany Mukhtar set piece in the 15th minute. In these four games, Orlando have won only once, and it was in this fixture against Nashville. It’s a fact that would not have escaped the attention of City coach Oscar Pareja.
Daryl Dike impressive again
The 20 year old striker, making only his second start of the campaign, netted twice after the interval to continue from where he had left off over the weekend. The first was a good finish after a swift counter attacking move, the second a far easier one after Nashville keeper Joe Willis had fumbled Junior Orso’s header, thus allowing Dike a simple tap in from close range. A job well done from the Orlando forward, who also happens to be the cousin of Super Eagles star Emmanuel Emmenike.
Orlando bounce back from Miami defeat
Having lost to Inter Miami over the weekend, it was imperative for Orlando to avoid defeat at the hands of another expansion team in the form of Nashville. Back to back defeats against the league’s newest teams would’ve robbed them of all the momentum they had built following their run to the final in the MLS is Back tournament. The BetNJ site has Nashville as massive +12000 (120/1) outsiders to win the league this season, and it would’ve been a tad embarrassing for Orlando to lose to Gary Smith’s side in front of their home fans following their Florida derby defeat.
Nashville had their chances
While 3-1 sounds a fairly convincing scoreline, Nashville were not without their chances. The expected goals metric shows that the visitors actually edged this game (2.18 to 1.91) in terms of the quality of chances. The likes of Daniel Rios, Abu Danladi and Dominique Badji all had decent opportunities, but were unable to find the back of the net.
Mueller’s goal vital
Chris Mueller scored a fine header to level things up for Orlando after Romney’s opening strike. Despite being virtually on the ground, the 23-year-old managed to get on the end of Joao Moutinho’s cross after the Portuguese medio had done some fine work in the box to bamboozle the Nashville defence. It was the Schaumburg born forward’s 5th goal of the season, and he’s already equalled his league tally from last year.