The Orlando City Lions find themselves in a dreadful run of form picking up a total of four points in the last nine games. The slump has cost Orlando City dearly as dreams of a playoff appearance in year one are quickly fading. Currently the Lions are level with NYCFC and the Montreal Impact with 28 points which is good for the sixth and final playoff spot. The only problem is that both Orlando City and NYCFC have played four more games than the Impact. Unless Montreal goes on a poor run of form as well those four games will allow Montreal to solidify that final playoff spot.

As you can see in the picture, provided by sportsclubstats.com, above the Lions only have a 12% chance of making the playoffs. With the way the team has played lately there shouldn’t be much surprise as to why that percentage is so low. It’s a very discouraging stat considering the amount of hype surrounding this team at the beginning of the season. So the main question that must be asked: Is where did it all go wrong?

The first thing that comes to mind is all the missed opportunities earlier this season. One only has to look at the opening game as Orlando City dominated NYCFC for the majority of the match, but found themselves down a goal before Kaka rescued a point after scoring the game tying goal at the death. The next two home games saw Orlando lose by the score of 1-0 to Vancouver and DC United despite dominating the possession stats and having taken more shots.

Even though the games happened a long time ago the missed opportunities to grab the points at home hurt even more know when you look at the schedule. All three of those games should’ve been wins which adds an extra 9 points to Orlando’s total (37) which would bring them up to 4th on the table and a point behind the Columbus Crew. Those type of games add up over the course of a season and can end up being the difference between making the playoffs and watching six other teams in the playoffs.

The second thing that comes to mind is the self-inflicted mistakes that have plagued the Lions season. One stat that probably paints the clearest picture is the 9 red cards that Orlando City has picked up which unfortunately leads the league. Thankfully the 51 yellow cards rank a little better, but is still the 5th most in the league so far.

The lack of discipline on this team has come back to haunt this team time and time again over the course of this season. While I’ll admit some of those red cards are a bit harsh, like Larin’s red card against the Red Bulls, the point is there have been way too many games ruined due to Orlando being reduced to 10 men. The worst part is the fact that many of these red cards have happened in the first half leaving the team little chance of squeaking out a draw let alone a win.

I mentioned a few weeks ago in my article dealing with the keys for the rest of the season that Orlando City needs to cut down on the red card, yet it has only gotten worse. If the Lions do end up missing out on the playoffs one of the first things that need to be addressed is a better sense of discipline.

The last thing that has gone wrong for Orlando City is something that has been completely out of their control. The team has unfortunately been ravaged with injuries causing the team to have serious depth issues as the season has progressed. Luke Boden, Aurélien Collin and Tally Hall have all missed significant time.

Brek Shea has yet to return from a hernia injury, while Conor Donovan and Kevin Molino are lost for the season. Even the coach’s son hasn’t been able to avoid the injury bug as he is a doubt to return for the remainder of the season after dislocating his knee cap. It’s very difficult to win in any league with many of your starters unable to play due to injury and it can be argued that it’s especially hard in the MLS with the amount of parity around the league.

While there isn’t much the Lions can do about the injuries this hopefully should mean that they are due for a healthier season next year. I’m not ready to give up on the season yet, but if Orlando can’t find a way to fix two of these three problems then we’ll have to start looking forward to 2016.