Lewis Neal proved his worth to Orlando City as Kaka missed the last three games. He had the three best games of his season holding the ship steady.
Kaka will be back for Orlando City’s game against New York Red Bull on Friday.
Even though Orlando City won the last two games without Kaka, it will be a welcome return. With Bryan Rochez finding the net a few times. Adrian Winter providing good width and pace on the outside. Brek Shea’s return. It seems Orlando City is ready to welcome him back.
It could mean though a change for another player who has played well in his absence.
Lewis Neal provided what Orlando City needed with Kaka absent. He played well and delivered a result for the Lions they had not seen in some time — consecutive wins.
Coach Adrian Heath told Alicia DelGallo of the Orlando Sentinel that Lewis Neal was the best player for the Lions when they defeated Sporting Kansas City:
“I thought Lewis [Neal] was arguably the best player of the weekend. Sometimes people only look at what people do when they get the ball, but he made so many positional changes during the game that made it difficult for them to pick our midfielders up.
“I enjoyed watching him play for us over the weekend.”
According to WhoScored.com, Neal had a player rating of 7.56 against Sporting Kansas City and followed that up with 6.38 rating against Chicago Fire — two of his three best games this season. In fact, his three best games have come in the past three contests with Kaka out of the lineup. That is what you get for having the opportunity to play.
Neal may not have been the best player on the field for either of those games. Considering the size of the absence though, he performed more than admirably.
Neal is not a goal scorer at all. He has only one assist on the year — coming in the Sporting Kansas City game two weeks ago. In his MLS career, Neal only has two goals in 71 career MLS games since 2012. With Orlando City in 2011, he scored six goals in 24 games.
Neal is more a rock in the midfield, able to stabilize things defensively and set things up moving forward. That makes him pretty versatile too. He is not a natural attacking midfielder as he said:
“Nervous is maybe not the right word, but I certainly felt a bit of pressure, for sure. I mean, I’m never going to be a Kaká, but I just needed to try to do my best for the team.
“I don’t have a lot of experience at that position. I guess you just take your football knowledge and what you’ve done over the years and try and be smart with it, and try to get in the right positions at the right times. It’s not easy, it never is.”
Neal has played mostly on the left wing, the position Shea currently takes up (with Kevin Molino behind him). Neal though has played all over the midfield, even as a defensive midfielder.
That versatility has helped keep him handy. And Neal is just steady. According to WhoScored.com, Neal’s range for player ratings in his 15 matches this year is from 5.90 to 7.56. Neal is just solid, with few mistakes on his ledger.
That has value, even if Orlando City needs to force some things to get points at this moment.
Where Neal fits in with Orlando City now that Kaka has returned is a bit uncertain. It seems certain though that Neal will be ready and able to fill in no matter where the Lions need him.
