Orlando City defeats Eastern Conference Leaders D.C. United with Kaká goal
Orlando City defeated Eastern Conference leaders D.C. United 1-0 before 30,054 fans at the Orlando Citrus Bowl tonight, extending the Lions’ unbeaten streak to five consecutive games.
The deciding goal came in the 28th minute from Kaká who saw his penalty stopped by D.C. keeper Bill Hamid before calmly heading home the rebound. As a result Orlando moves to third place in the Eastern Conference, as the team produced one of its strongest results so far. The goal was also the Brazilian’s seventh of the season, tying him for third among leading goal scorers in Major League Soccer (MLS).
After suffering narrow defeats to United earlier this season, City opened the game full of confidence, displaying some prominent possession-based style of play against their highly defensive-minded opponents.
Orlando eventually broke down D.C. midway through the first half, stemming from a Rafael Ramos and Pedro Ribeiro’s combination. The young Portuguese defender, who provided an additional attacking option for Orlando all night long, floated a high cross inside the box to Ribeiro who brought it down in traffic before firing on-target.
While attempting to recover the rebounded effort, Ribeiro was brought down in the box, forcing the referee to award the Lions a penalty. Kaká’s initial effort was blocked by U.S. international Bill Hamid diving to his right, but the midfielder pounced on the rebound and firmly nodded it into the back of the net.
“I’m obviously delighted. I’m not sure we would have saw that through about five or six weeks ago,” said head coach Adrian Heath. “But I think that is a measure of how far we have come as a group. I thought that we really dug in and defended the goal later on. I was very pleased with our first half performance. I thought our ball movement and circulation was excellent. And as I said I’m pleased for the players, pleased for the supporters and I’m pleased to keep this roll going.”
Lineups/Substitutions:
Orlando City SC – GK Tally Hall, D Luke Boden, Sean St. Ledger, Aurélien Collin, Rafael Ramos, M Cristian Higuita, Lewis Neal (Amobi Okugo 83’), Eric Avila, Brek Shea, F Kaká (Harrison Heath 90’), Pedro Ribeiro (Carlos Rivas 83’)
D.C. United – GK Bill Hamid, D Taylor Kemp, Bobby Boswell, Steve Birnbaum, Chris Korb, M Perry Kitchen, Davy Arnaud, Nick DeLeon (Conor Doyle 74’), Chris Rolfe (Luis Silva 78’), F Fabian Espindola, Jairo Arrieta (Miguel Aguilar 56’)
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