Orlando City play to scoreless draw against Sao Paulo FC

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Photo by Alison Petro

Orlando City played to a scoreless draw against Sao Paulo FC on Friday night.

Miguel Gallardo made three saves for Orlando City SC as they played to a 0-0 draw against Brazilian side Sao Paulo FC on Friday at the ESPN Wide World of Sports.

Orlando City took on the 4th place Brazilian club as part of their final friendly of the season, Orlando played AS Roma to a 1-0 defeat back in May.

The scoreless draw against a team that features multiple superstars who have represented Brazil’s national team, and even one goalkeeper who’s won a FIFA World Cup shows that Orlando, who are considered to be a third tier team, can compete with some of the best players from around the world.

“I was proud of all of them,” said Orlando City manager Adrian Heat after the game. “We had three or four good opportunities ourselves, so overall I’m delighted with the effort the boys have put in.”

Sao Paulo outshot Orlando City 17-8 for the game, but Gallardo’s stellar performance kept the Brazilian side off the scoreboard all night.

“It’s always good to play a game and not receive any goals,” said Gallardo about his clean sheet after the game. “In particularly against teams like Sao Paulo, where they have so many quality players.”

Another topic on everyone’s mind going into the game was to reports by multiple media outlets that Orlando City had signed former AC Milan and Real Madrid player Ricardo Kaka, also known as simply Kaka.

Majority owner Flavio Augusto da Silva  spoke to a few members of the media during Friday’s game and said that Orlando City has signed a Brazilian player and that they will officially announce the signing sometime next week. Augusto da Silva also acknowledged the rumors of kaka having already signed with the club, and said that “the whole world would like to have a player like Kaka, but as of now it’s not official yet.”

“But in the upcoming week we will have the pleasure of announcing a Brazilian player, who we’ve already signed.” said Augusto da Silva about the upcoming player announcement.

Orlando City will now hit the road and continue USL PRO play on Sunday when they take on the Dayton Dutch Lions at 3 p.m. EST.

The Lions’ will return to Orlando on Saturday, June 28th, when they take on the second place L.A. Galaxy II at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. Kickoff for the game against L.A. is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST.