Following the heartbreak of yet another bitter defeat to Atlanta United (0-1), Orlando City SC simply have to respond with a positive result at San Jose Earthquakes.
Currently three points below seventh and eighth-placed Montreal Impact and Toronto FC (both on 37 points), there is no room for error with just six regular season fixtures remaining.
Travelling to San Jose for only the third time in Major League Soccer, James O’Connor’s side can’t afford defeat with New England Revolution and Toronto FC both winning last weekend, not to mention Montreal Impact in midweek.
With TFC having played a game less (27) than Orlando City SC (28) right now, the Lions have to win as many games as possible while relying on their Eastern Conference rivals to slip up.
Achieving a victory at Matías Almeyda’s rejuvenated San Jose Earthquakes won’t be an easy task however, far from it.
The charismatic Argentine has breathed new life into the Avaya Stadium franchise this season and in Quakes’ last game, they recorded a whopping 43 attempts on Vancouver Whitecaps’ goal in a 3-1 win.
Following a shaky start, Quakes now sit sixth in the Western Conference with their dreams of making the 2019 MLS Cup Playoffs very much alive.
If Orlando City SC are to achieve a positive result in Northern California, they really need to bring their shooting boots that completely went missing against Atlanta United last Friday.
Outshooting The Five Stripes 22 to 15 throughout the ninety, Brad Guzan had to deal with just five of these on target on a night where the ball just wouldn’t go in.
With defensive midfielder turned attacking threat Carlos Ascues wasting multiple key opportunities, not to mention Tesho Akindele placing a huge second-half chance wide, James O’Connor watched on in disbelief as the Lions simply couldn’t overturn Josef Martínez’s 60th minute strike.
2015/18 head-to-head stats
You have to go way back to April 2018 for the last time Orlando City SC faced San Jose Earthquakes.
Facing Quakes in the midst of a record-breaking streak of six consecutive MLS victories to start 2018 fantastically under Jason Kreis, the Lions prevailed 3-2 in Central Florida.
Suiting up in the limited edition 2018 Orlando City SC Adidas Parley jersey, goals from Chris Mueller, Sacha Kljestan and Dom Dwyer saw City race into a three-goal lead by the 70th minute.
Orlando City SC never do things easy however and made their supporters sweat by conceding two late goals, both scored by German midfielder Florian Jungwirth.
Fortunately, the Lions held on to secure a third consecutive home win after similar goal crazy victories over New York Red Bulls (4-3) and Portland Timbers (3-2) before.
Orlando City SC 3 San Jose Earthquakes 2 – Highlights – April 21, 2018 (Credit: Major League Soccer)
It’s reaching must win territory for Orlando City SC now and the good news heading into this one is the fact San Jose Earthquakes still haven’t defeated the Lions in FOUR attempts.
The last time City travelled to face Quakes at Avaya Stadium in May 2017, Orlando City SC took the lead late on but just couldn’t hang on for all three points – sound familiar?
After Carlos Rivas‘ neat strike put the Lions 0-1 up in the 80th minute, City were staring at a hugely valuable three points over 2,848 miles from home.
That was until San Jose Earthquakes club legend Chris Wondolowski haunted City yet again with a tap in just three minutes later.
San Jose Earthquakes 1 Orlando City SC 1 – Highlights – May 17, 2018 (Credit: San Jose Earthquakes)
Prior to the aforementioned 1-1 draw, another 1-1 draw was played out in Northern California in our inaugural 2015 MLS campaign.
With the game taking place in front of 36,224 at the much larger Levi’s Stadium rather than Avaya Stadium, Chris Wondolowski proved the Lions’ undoing yet again – this time from the spot.
Taking three minutes to cancel out Carlos Rivas‘ opener in 2017’s meeting, he took four minutes to cancel out a Kaká penalty in May 2015.
Orlando City SC will hope history doesn’t repeat itself for a third time on Saturday with as many points as possible required for James O’Connor‘s side from here on out.
San Jose Earthquakes 1 Orlando City SC 1 – Highlights – May 24, 2015 (Credit: San Jose Earthquakes)
San Jose Earthquakes form
Ok, so the good news was that San Jose Earthquakes have failed to defeat Orlando City SC in four attempts.
The bad news? Quakes are unbeaten in their last ELEVEN home fixtures, winning at both half-time and full-time in EIGHT of these games.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround in home form for Matías Almeyda’s side with the Argentine overseeing three consecutive home defeats to open the campaign.
Suffering three consecutive road losses to Colorado Rapids (2-1), Sporting Kansas City (2-1) and Los Angeles FC (4-0) prior to last weekend’s much-needed 3-1 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps, Quakes will be glad for home comforts a second week running.
Orlando City SC form
Besides a 0-1 win at New York Red Bulls, a 0-3 win at Montreal Impact and a 0-2 win at Columbus Crew, Orlando City SC have failed to win anywhere else on the road in MLS this season.
Extending into last season, the Lions have now failed to win TWENTY FIVE of their last TWENTY EIGHT road games.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out that this form isn’t good enough to reach the MLS Cup Playoffs, compounded by the fact we’ve only managed six home victories this season too.
Most frustrating of all is the fact away leads were surrendered at Chicago Fire (1-1), Philadelphia Union (2-2), Portland Timbers (1-1), Toronto FC (1-1) and Minnesota United (1-1) already this season.