A.K.A. the Dwyer Effect.
This weekend the Hounds travel to Orlando to take on the Lions in the first round of the playoffs. Orlando finished the season towards the top of the table as the number 2 team in the USL. If you look at their season totals they had a very impressive season, but when you start to break down the stats Orlando doesn’t look quite as good going into the playoffs. They are a team of two halves and one player- Dom Dwyer.
Orlando is one of the few teams to affiliate with an MLS team this season and for the most part greatly benefited from the partnership with Sporting Kansas City. Sporting sent Dywer to Orlando at the beginning of the season, and he tore it up in the USL. Dywer scored 15 goals in 13 games with Orlando, enough to keep him at the top of the Goals Scored stat category until the end of the season when Jose Angulo tied him. Orlando benefited immensely from Dwyer’s offensive performance going 10-1-2 (32 points) and posting 34 goals for with a goal differential of +22. Unfortunately for Orlando this wasn’t going to last as Sporting KC called back Dwyer at the halfway point of the season.
The second half of the season wasn’t quite as sunshine and rainbows for Orlando. When Dwyer left their offense took a big hit. Orlando’s goals for dropped to 20 (a 15 goal difference) with a goal differential of +7, and their record dropped to 6-3-4 (22 points). While this is still a decent record, it’s much more middling compared to the rest of the USL (for instance Pittsburgh went 7-4-2, 23 GF, +7 GD in the second half). Besides Dwyer leaving Orlando took another major blow by losing their second best scorer Jamie Watson to injury at the end of July. Also the few times CJ Sapong has been in Orlando he’s been nearly invisible as far as offensive production goes. Without these players Orlando hasn’t had the same offensive spark they had in the first half of the season, and it brings up the question- where would Orlando be if Dwyer never played there this season?
With the announcement that MLS wants to expand with 4 more teams by 2020 Orlando has been constantly mentioned as front runner. There is a lot of pressure on them to perform over the next few seasons. With their lack of offense, and Pittsburgh’s surge in the second half of the season, there is a very good chance Orlando will be heading home early and disappointed.
Other Orlando notes-
At the end of the first matchup between Orlando and Pittsburgh in late July Orlando’s starting keeper Jon Kempin went down with an injury. Much like the Hounds Orlando has a very capable backup in Miguel Gallardo-Aparicio. Gallardo-Aparicio only allowed 13 goals against in 15 games played this season with a 0.87 GAA. In the final 7 games he’s played since Kempin went down he’s allowed 6 goals in 7 games. Orlando posted a 4-3-0 record since he took over the starting job. 3 of those wins were shut outs, but in the 4 games he’s given up a goal Orlando lost 3 of them. Orlando hasn’t had a draw since the Pittsburgh match. It’s more or less a coin flip if they win or lose, and if Gallardo-Aparicio has a good game or not.
As mentioned above Orlando lost their second best scorer Jamie Watson and keeper Jon Kempin in late July. At the time their recovery schedule was listed as 3-4 weeks. It’s been 4 weeks. There hasn’t been a decision if either will play this weekend, but if they do it could be a game changer.
