Honors even as Orlando and Columbus draw 2-2 at Citrus Bowl
A crowd of 31, 430 saw an exciting match between Orlando City Soccer and Columbus Crew end 2-2 at the Orlando Citrus Bowl earlier tonight.
Orlando started the game on the back foot as a powerful Crew side made all the early running and it was no surprise when they took the lead in the 6th minute from a fine header by midfielder Tony Tchiani following a Héctor Jiménez cross.
It took a while for Orlando to get going and they had a stroke of fortune in the 17th minute when referee Silviu Petrescu awarded the Lions a penalty for an alleged handball by Crew defender Michael Parkhurst. It was a somewhat harsh decision only to be compounded when Parkhurst was shown the red card moments later. Kaká then stepped up to convert the resulting penalty kick low to the left hand corner to even the score 1-1.
It was a decisive moment in the game as it allowed 11 man Orlando to control the ball against their 10 man opponent and the men in purple then applied the pressure as they produced 11 shots in the first half. The best opportunity fell to Cyle Larin in the 25th minute who was put clear 10 yards from goal from an excellent through ball by Cristian Higuita. Larin’s initial effort was then blocked by Crew keeper Steve Clark and it seemed Larin only had to tap the ball into an open net from the rebound to put Orlando into the lead. However, a fine lunging challenge from substitute Emanuel Pogatetz saw the ball cleared just at the right moment. The half ended deadlocked at 1-1.
At the start of the second half, Columbus took control of the game for a while as they put together some neat passing movements and they would take the lead again in the 61st minute as Waylon Francis crossed to Kei Kamara who planted the ball past Orlando City goalkeeper Tally Hall.
Crew SC then went into defensive mode and it was to cost them the three points as Orlando piled on the pressure. The Lions forced 10 second half corners and had a further 12 attempts on goal in search of an equalizer. Eventually the pressure would tell and the goal would come in the 89th minute as Lions substitute Pedro Ribeiro, making his return from an April hamstring injury, capitalized on some sloppy Crew play to score from a powerful shot to the right of Columbus goalkeeper Steve Clark.
Four minutes of injury time was all referee Petrescu would allow, which seemed odd given the amount of injuries the Crew claimed to have had, but it was nearly enough for Orlando to steal the game. In the dying seconds, Ribeiro found an inch of space and turned to fire a shot that went just wide of the left hand post.
The game finished 2-2 and after the game Orlando Head Coach Adrian Heath said,“I’m obviously disappointed we hadn’t won the game – with 25 efforts on goal and all the clear-cut chances we had. So, it looks like we left a couple points on the table for me. Obviously when you score later on, you have salvaged something from the game, but there is no way we shouldn’t have taken all three points out of this game tonight. We created six, seven clear cut chances and when you don’t take them, invariably it comes back to bite you and that’s what’s happened to us today. The guys think they tried really hard. Sometimes we gotta try smarter not harder, and we might get a bit more reward from it if we do.”
Lineups/Substitutions:
Orlando City SC – GK Tally Hall, D Luke Boden, Sean St. Ledger, Seb Hines, Rafael Ramos, M Cristian Higuita, Darwin Cerén, Eric Avila (Lewis Neal 71′), Carlos Rivas (Martin Paterson 66′), Kaká, Cyle Larin (Pedro Ribeiro 71′)
Columbus Crew SC – GK Steve Clark, D Héctor Jiménez (Chris Klute 63′), Michael Parkhurst, Tyson Wahl, Waylon Francis, M Ethan Finlay, Mohammed Saeid, Tony Tchani, Justin Meram (Kristin Steindorsson 46′), F Federico Higuaín (Emanuel Pogatetz 18′), Kei Kamara
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