Orlando City Stay Top After Victory Over Richmond Kickers
A crowd of 4,715 saw two early goals by Lewis Neal and Kevin Molino ensure Orlando City stayed top of the American Division of the United Soccer League as they scored a convincing win over visitors Richmond. The 2-0 win avenges Orlando’s loss to the same opponents on the opening day of the season and after taking an early lead they rarely looked threatened.
Adrian Heath & Nigel Worrall
“We’ve been talking about this return game against them since the opening day of the season,” said coach Adrian Heath (pictured above with yours truly) . “Our players were really motivated for it, so I knew we would start quickly. Then we got a goal, which always helps.” Neal collected a through pass from Molino (pictured below) and scored in the fourth minute from what appeared to be a slightly deflected shot on goal. Neal said: “It was a magnificent goal. We lost to them in the beginning of the season, so it was a little bit of revenge tonight.”
In the 13th minute City scored again as Molino netted from an assist by Luke Boden although it could be argued the goal was more down to a huge defensive mistake by the Kickers central defence. “Kevin Molino is an awful lot of talent,” Heath said. “We knew that when he came here. We know that if we nurture him, if he works hard at his game and gets a little bit of luck, then we are going to have a really good player on our hands.”
Buddy Dyer & Nigel Worrall
A nice touch came at half time as Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer (pictured above) inducted future soldiers into the various military branches and that topped off the Orlando City sponsored Military Night that saw “The Ruckus”, a group of fans committed to supporting and growing soccer in Orlando, donate $600.57 to Wounded Warriors before the game. The win concludes a testing run of three games in six days for the Lions. A scoreless draw v Rochester 0-0 and a 3-1 victory over Harrisburg City had gone previously and tonight’s victory ensured that Orlando extend their lead at the top of the table. The next home game for Orlando City will be on June 2 against Charlotte with a kick off time set for 7.30 p.m.
Here’s some video and you can see more photos here …
Peter Stokes & Adrian Heath
