By: Manuel Chimoy
Following a 0-0 draw to the Houston Dynamo on September 22, Orlando City lost the October 6 game against FC Dallas 2-0.
Joe Bendik was back on goal against Dallas this game. The game before against Houston Orlando used Adam Grinwis in the net which made his first MLS Start for the Lions.
Orlando was going strong in the first half. They were creating chances and taking shots, as was Dallas. Both of the goalkeepers were making good saves during the whole first half.
In the second half, the Lions got scored on twice in less than 8 minutes, Santiago Mosquera scored in the 63rd minute and Victor Ulloa scored at 69 minutes.
Several players will be missing the next match, including All-Star Yoshi Yotun, center back Amro Tarek, and left back Mohamed El-Munir, because they all got called for international duty.
Dom Dwyer will also be left out next match because he got suspended due to yellow card accumulation after he was booked in the seventh minute of the game.
“We were very unfortunate to go in and not leading, and I think that was something that seem to play in our mind second half because I think first half it was performance the we looked great. We had some lovely passes to play, we caused them a lot of problems, we had the keepers made some big saves, obviously hit the woodwork as well and the expectation from us all is then to build off that and go out and get it in the second half and that’s something we haven’t really been able to do is to get a consistent performance really for 90 minutes and you know you look at the second half after the first half, and there’s a big difference,” said James O’Connor Orlando City coach.
“We just haven’t been very dangerous, you know, we lack maybe a little bit of personnel to help out Dom in the attacking areas, and we just haven’t been playing dangerous, we haven’t been putting teams on their heels or maybe playing more in behind to then create more space underneath so if we are just continuing to play underneath, underneath, underneath. It’s easier to defend so we gotta be a little bit more dynamic,” said Sacha Kljestan Orlando City midfielder.
“I think that this year mathematically is gone, but we should still finish strong and let’s hope next season might be a better one,” said Jose Alvarez, a 19-year-old Business major.
The next Orlando City game will be an away game against New England on Saturday, October 13.
Photo: By Steveo89 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
