Thanks to Orlando City Communications for all pictures shown.
Orlando City defeated the Tampa Bay Rowdies by 2-1, last night at Exploria Stadium and eliminated them from the U.S Open Cup. The streak continues and now Orlando City is 7-0 against the Rowdies in all competitions. Both Pato and Urso scored their first goal in the US Open Cup. Defender Thomas Williams had his first start for the first team coming days after his MLS debut. Attendance was 8,057 souls on a purple Wednesday night.
In the first half, Orlando City came out to dominate possession with their usual passing but, by doing so, they turned over the ball unnecessarily making it easier for Tampa to create attacking plays on the left flank constantly. Tampa almost opened the goal count of a header that was rejected by Mason Stajduhar. While Tampa kept pushing, Orlando City’s backline was dominant and stopped Tampa’s attacking chances. Offensively, Pato was very influential in the attacking third. The Brazilian tried to find the open space on the flanks and attempted long balls to either find Van der Water or Benji Michel. Unfortunately, Dayonn Harris and Leo Fernandes (Rowdies) had a good first half containing Orlando’s wingers. Tampa gained some momentum and took away some of Orlando’s possession. The only issue with the Rowdies, is that their play was so poor they were not able to create anything out of the chances Orlando City provided for them. In the 37th minute, Andres Perea missed a great opportunity to put Orlando up in the scoreboard. The Colombian-American missed a header after a superb cross from Alexander Pato. A minute later, Perea missed again. Instead of finishing Arozarena (Rowdies GK) in the 1v1, he passed the ball to Benji and his shot was contained by the Rowdies’ backline. In my opinion, the three best players on the pitch in the first half were Pato, Rodrigo Schlegel and Thomas Williams. Both Rodrigo and Williams had near 90% passing accuracy in the first half. Fans are not missing Antonio Carlos, when those two are playing in such high level. Pato had one chance created and 75% passing accuracy. It was a rocky first half for Orlando City, even Coach Pareja mentioned it in the postgame presser, “We were quiet in the first half, I don’t think we dominated the game. I have to give credit to Tampa that most of the time they had the initiative and for us it was difficult to recover the ball.”
In the second half, Coach Pareja made 3 substitutions. Mauricio Pereyra, Robin Jansson, and Joao Moutinho entered the game. Orlando City started not only dominating possession but attacking plays on the wings started to develop. Orlando City changed their system to a 3-5-2. In the 50th minute, there was a PK for Orlando City. Pato went to the spot and score a true Golazo. Arozarena, just stared at the ball going in. In the 56th minute, there was a great transition play between Urso, Ruan and Pato. Pato’s shot unfortunately was no good. In the 63rd minute, Jr. Urso put Orlando City 2-0. Mauricio Pereyra lofted a ball into the area, a Rowdies defender deflected and Junior Urso finished the play and was able to strike the ball into the net. His celebration, was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. But, two minutes later, Orlando’s backline fell asleep, Mason Stajduhar was left vulnerable, and the Rowdies Scored. Lucky Mkosana was able to slide a loose ball in the box and send it into the back of the net. After Tampa’s goal, Orlando came close on scoring a third one and still dominated possession. Also saw Rodrigo Schlegel bring influential on attacking plays through the right flank. Tampa then resulted in unnecessary fouling which resulted in important set pieces for Orlando City that unfortunately they could not capitalize.
Another great derby and Orlando City maintains their winning streak on the Rowdies. In parts of the game you saw Tampa gaining some momentum but there was an abismal difference between both rosters. It showed that MLS level of play and pace is much higher level than USL’s. Orlando City, entered the first half with caution while the Rowdies attempted to play their game and were successful a couple of times. In the second half, Orlando City was the better team. Again, superb game from Rodrigo Schlegel and Thomas Williams. Also Alexandre Pato, and Junior Urso were part of most attacking plays for Orlando. On the Rowdies side, Coach Neill Collins was rowdy and complained to the ref in the 47th minute which resulted in a yellow card. Then in the 90th, he got a red and was ejected of the game. Coach Collins attempted to stick around and watch from the stands but was told politely to exit to the locker room.
Orlando City will continue their winning ways against the NY Red Bulls, Sunday April 24th. Vamos Orlando!
