Orlando City still looking for preseason groove at Disney

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Ty Wright / Valencia Voice

Corey Hertzog scored his first goal in an Orlando City uniform on Wednesday night against the Philadelphia Union.

Soccer made it’s return to Central Florida on Wednesday, as Orlando City SC played their first game at the ESPN Wide World of Sports, with a 1-1 tie against the MLS’ Philadelphia Union on the opening day of the Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic.

Orlando City kicked off the first game in their new home with an early halftime lead when Corey Hertzog gave them a 1-0 lead in the 31st minute by chipping the ball over the Philadelphia goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Philadelphia came back to equalize in the 73rd minute when Leo Fernandes tied the game at 1-1 for the Union with a shot from outside the 18-yard box.

The Union outshot Orlando City 16-11 for the game, while Orlando only managed two shots on goal, not including a couple attempts that went off the post.

Orlando City also saw multiple trialists get playing time on Wednesday, including R.J. Allen, who got the start on defense.

“I’m getting more of a gauge of them when I’m working with them everyday,” said Orlando City head coach Adrian Heath about his trialists. “But they’ve done okay, it’s never easy to come in onto a team.”

Heath added that two of the team’s trialists had just joined the team on Wednesday and didn’t even know everybody’s name yet.

With the tie Orlando is now 0-1-1 during the preseason, while only one goal in their two games.

But the season is young and the boys of Orlando City haven’t been together for more than two weeks.

“We look like what we are,” said Heath. “We haven’t played together enough and that will come given time.

“We’ll get better we know that, I’m very demanding of the guys and I put them under a lot of pressure to perform all the time and sometimes it’s too early for us to play the way we want to play, but we’ll keep trying.” added Heath.

Orlando City’s next game will be against Toronto FC on Saturday, with kick-off set for 8 p.m. at the ESPN Wide World of Sports.