Keys against Orlando: Keep It Clean & Make Them Perform

July 12, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Colorado Rapids News Release

The last time the Colorado Rapids faced Orlando City SC in an MLS regular season match, the world was normal. It was March 7th, 2020. It was the last game either team would play before the sporting world was halted the following week. Drew Moor scored a game-winner in that match to mark his return to the club where he won MLS Cup in 2010.

The Lions are back at elevation Wednesday evening. We’re closer to being back to normal than at any other point since the last time these two teams duked it out on the pitch at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park. Normal for the last couple of years has been the Rapids making the playoffs. The heat of summer is on just over halfway through the season, and so is the heat that comes from the pressure of expectations. The Rapids, by virtue of making the playoffs in consecutive seasons, have put pressure on themselves to make it three years in a row.

The good news is the Rapids have always performed when their backs are up against the wall. They now sit seven points below the playoff line with a difficult stretch of games the rest of July and into August upcoming. It’s not going to be easy, but this team doesn’t need easy to make it. What they need are points, and they’ve got two home games in three days to get going. If they can close the gap with two wins by the end of the weekend, I guarantee everybody will feel really good about this club’s playoff chances.

Orlando City currently occupy a playoff spot. They’re in fifth in the East and just five points out of first. Oscar Pareja continues to be one of MLS’s better managers with minimal obvious weaknesses and a talent for bringing out the best in his squad. Perhaps their best player is Ercan Kara, the Austrian forward in his first season in MLS. Behind him they have a pair of Uruguayan midfielders, Mauricio Pereyra and Cesar Araujo, who work the middle of the pitch and a Concacaf-proven goalkeeper in Peruvian Pedro Gallese. They’re solid at every level, but perhaps their defending leaves a little to be desired. They’ve conceded 28 goals which is one more than the Chicago Fire who sit in last place.

So with three points up for grabs, a chance to right the ship with two home games in three days, here’s how the Rapids can beat Orlando City SC.

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