By Manuel Chimoy
Orlando City lost the September 17 game against Seattle Sounders 2-1. With this win, the Sounders qualified for the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs for the 10th consecutive season.
Orlando went with the attacking 4-3-3 formation which they only used one time in the season against New England and that game resulted in a draw.
Dom Dwyer was finally back from yellow cards accumulation. Cristian Higuita was in the starting 11 but, in a different role. He usually plays center defensive mid or center mid but, he played as a right winger this game.
Seattle was in control for the majority of the first half; they score two goals in less than 15 minutes. The first goal comes from Victor Rodriguez in the first three minutes in the game, assisted by Kelvin Leerdam. The second goal came from Handwalla Bwana, a deflection goal that hit Shane O’Neill on his right leg.
Late first half and the majority of the second half, the Lions were pushing for a comeback. Dom Dwyer scored in the 57th minute which was a perfect cross from Scott Sutter to put it in on the back of the net.
Orlando conceded 71 goals so far which is the most in MLS single-season in history.
“We’re striving to get a performance today again, you know, first half wasn’t one we were looking for second half had more pressure, so we’re trying to get that consistency into the game,” said James O’Connor, the Orlando City coach.
“The morale in the team we are trying to keep it together you know its been a rough season that’s no doubt you can see it in the results the results just haven’t turned our way of for whatever reason, and we are trying to keep it together, and I think the young guys, everyone has done a pretty good job of just trying to maintain a positive attitude and get better every day,” said Christopher Mueller Orlando City midfielder.
“I hope that we can look at all the things we did well this year and apply it for the next season that way we can make it to the playoffs next year hopefully,” said Freddie Costa Orlando City fan.
Photo: By Steveo89 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
