Orlando City wins fifth in a row, stay atop USL PRO table

Dennis+Chin+scored+two+goals%2C+doubling+his+season+total+up+to+four.+

Bryce Brimhall / Valencia Voice

Dennis Chin scored two goals, doubling his season total up to four.

Dennis Chin scored two goals while leading Orlando City SC to a 3-1 victory over the Oklahoma City Energy FC in front of an announced attendance of 4,532 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on Sunday.

“I’m pleased, they’ve worked hard, they’ve responded to some of the stuff that we were talking about,” said Orlando City manager Adrian Heath about the club’s improvement since Wednesday’s game. “I still don’t think we’ve put a full 90 minutes together yet.

“A couple of little errors, things that we aren’t doing are still worrying me, but I thought we did more than enough to have won the game. We could have had more than the three that we had.”

Chin opened up the scoring in the 33rd minute when he headed a Kevin Molino cross into the back of the net for the goal for his third goal of the regular season.

“I was really pleased he scored with a header,” said Heath about Chin’s first goal. “I actually stop training normally when he scores a goal with a header and give him a round of applause.”

Yordany Alvarez extended the Lions lead to 2-0 less a minute later, for his first goal of the season. Molino assisted both of Orlando City’s first half goals, keeping him atop of the league leaders in points with 12 for the season.

Oklahoma City midfielder Philip Lund scored in the 41st minute to cut Orlando City’s lead to 2-1 just before the end of the first half.

Chin scored his second goal of the game in the 48th minute, extending Orlando City’s lead to 3-1 early in the second half.

Chin has scored four times in the past three games for Orlando City, if you include the I-4 Derby game against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

With the two goals on Sunday, Chin now has four during the regular season, which ties him for first on the club and in the league with Molino.

“Every game we are growing together as a team,” said Molino about the club’s chemistry. “In the game today you can see it.”

Orlando City played well on defense during the second half, shutting out the Oklahoma CIty offense and only allowing them three shots during the second 45 minutes.

Following the game coach Heath implied that the chemistry between the players on the pitch has been getting better over the last few games.

“The confidence is coming back in the group, I can see that,” said Heath after the game. “I’m always striving for them to get better and to perform better, but next week is a big challenge.”

With the win Orlando City improves their record to 5-0-2, 17 points and stay atop of the USL PRO table, 3 points ahead of the Los Angeles Galaxy II.

The Lions will now prepare for their next league game, which will be on the road against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds on Friday, May 9, before heading to Rochester to take on the Rhinos the very next day. Orlando City played to a 1-1 draw against the Riverhounds the last time the two teams met back in March.

“When you’ve got 10 games in a month a lot of it is making sure we rehydrate after games, look after ourselves,” said Heath about the club’s next stretch of games. “It’s just maintenance really, we don’t do an awful lot.”