Sporting Kansas vs Columbus Crew Final at Disney Pro Soccer Classic, Orlando will play NY Red Bulls for 3rd Place.
The third round of the Disney Pro Soccer Classic was played last night and after a dull 0-0 draw between Philadelphia Union and Toronto and a marginally better 1-0 win for New York Red Bulls vs Fluminense, the fireworks began.
As normal, it was left to Orlando City to inject some energy into proceedings and to take the fight to their supposedly superior Major League Soccer opponents, Columbus Crew. Four times Orlando took the lead and four times they allowed the Crew to fight back.
The game began with both teams trading blows and creating chances but it wasn’t until the 30th minute that Orlando went ahead through a strike from El Salvador international, Darwin Ceren. Luke Boden fed a ball into Kevin Molino who placed a sweetly timed pass into Ceren who coolly slotted home to give his side the 1-0 lead.
The Crew then created their best chance of the first half so far when Ben Speas found Dominic Oduro all alone inside the six yard box. Fortunately for Orlando he didn’t connect with his header as well as he might and Miquel Gallardo in the City goal was able to collect. The game ebbed and flowed and Columbus got the equalizer they sought in the 42nd minute as Justin Meram whipped in a dangerous ball from the left hand side and Ryan Finley knocked the ball home high into the net past the advancing Gallardo. 1-1 at Half Time.
Orlando made five changes at half time as Carl Woszcynski, Mason Trafford, Jordan Cyrus, Adama Mbengue and Dennis Chin all came on and it wasn’t long before they surged into the lead again. In the 51st minute, Luke Boden ventured up the left hand wing and floated a cross over to Molino who tapped home with a neat finish to restore the Lions lead. This seemed to spark Columbus and they started to dominate the possession. It was no surprise when they equalized in the 76th minute through a penalty as rookie Joseph Toby brought down Finlay inside the box and the midfielder duly converted from the spot. 2-2.
Then the fireworks began. In the 83rd minute Dennis Chin found Mbengue inside the six yard box and he duly dispatched the ball home. A victory was in the offering for the Lions.
As usual with Orlando, they never like to make things easy for themselves and again it proved to be the case when Justin Meram was allowed to bring the scores level once again in the 86th minute. Two minutes later, Orlando went ahead for the fourth time in the match as Dennis Chin converted after Toby made amends for his earlier mistake by feeding a nice ball through. Surely Orlando were destined to win now?
Not so, and with the official time clock showing just four seconds of regular play left, the City defensive line made a mistake that saw Finlay charge through and finish low to the left hand corner past the desperate Woszcynski to tie things up 4-4. It was an incredible finish to a game with 4 goals in seven minutes and Orlando nearly stole the game at the death when they went close from a corner just into added time.
At the end Head Coach Adrian Heath went away a little disappointed with the result but said “We’re still growing and are trying to put this next group of players together. Everyone’s still not on the same page with their roles and responsibilities but some of our play was excellent.”
Orlando will now play the New York Red Bulls in the decider for 3rd place in the tournament. This will be a chance for Orlando fans to see Red Bull’s stars Thierry Henry, Tim Cahill, Bradley Wright Phillips and Dax McCarty in action. That game is scheduled for 6pm while the Disney Pro Soccer Classic Championship game will be between Columbus crew and Sporting Kansas.
Kansas clinched their spot in the final game of the evening as they defeated Montreal Impact 3-2 through a goal scored by Sal Zizzo in the 74th minute. Prior to that, the Impact had taken the lead with the fastest goal of the tournament when Sanna Nyassi scored after just 30 seconds before Dom Dwyer levelled from the penalty spot in the 9th minute. Montreal then regained the lead on the half hour mark through a Felipe penalty before Dwyer notched his brace in the 43rd minute with a neat header from Graham Zushi to make it 2-2 at half time.
The final round of games begin at 1pm on Saturday with the Championship game between Sporting Kansas City and Columbus Crew scheduled for 8pm. Orlando City will play New York Red Bulls at 6pm and at time of writing, I’m unsure of who will play Montreal in the 3pm kick off as I’m not sure whether it’s goals scored or goal difference that separates Toronto and Philadelphia who both finished their group games with 2 pts. The 1pm kick off will definitely feature Fluminense and if it’s goals scored then they will face Philadelphia who only scored one goal in the tournament. That will then leave Toronto with two goals scored to face Montreal. However, if it’s goal difference then Montreal will face Philadelphia and Fluminense will take on Toronto!
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Footnote: Just learned that Toronto will play Fluminese and Montreal take on Philadelphia. It’s goal different that counts!
