On Saturday night, Carlos Ascues and Uri Rosell paired up in the defensive midfield for the second time this season. The duo was tasked with handling a speedy Houston midfield who lives and dies on the counter-attack. 90 minutes later, the two had helped Orlando City to their second clean sheet of the season.
Their head coach James O’Connor was impressed.
“I think when you look at how [Houston] play, they’ve got a lot of speed in the wide areas so I thought they were very disciplined in stopping their counterattack. I think their [Houston’s] biggest threat is the two wide players coming at pace. So, I thought they [Carlos and Uri] did a fantastic job of helping the team nullify their threats. I think that was a big reason in us stifling their attacking side.”
The pair’s work in the midfield enabled Jonathan Spector and Lamine Sané to focus on cleaning up probing long balls into the final third.
“I think Carlos did a lot of unselfish work for the team tonight as did Uri,” Jonathan Spector said. “The way they played, keeping three players high, it’s difficult. Especially with the pace that they have. And I think having Carlos and Uri in front of us doing that dirty work enable Lamine [Sane] and I to drop off a little bit more for anything that was played in behind. So, I think credit to them, the hard work they put in doesn’t go unnoticed.”
Ascues and Rosell also served as the transition men for Orlando’s attack. They combined to complete 119 passes on the night.
“I think there was some lovely passages of play tonight,” James O’Connor said. “You could see it came from the back line all the way through and then finished with either a shot or an attacking phase in the final third.”
Ascues and Rosell will look to build on their performance when Orlando City travels to Dallas on October 6th.
