Loud & Proud Orlando

By: Luis Carlos Pineda

Orlando City SC got a 2-1 win on Saturday night against Charlotte FC at Exploria Stadium. Ruan and Facundo Torres each scored for the Lions, Ruan with his first of the year and Facundo with his first one playing at home. Also, Robin Jansson tally his 100th appearance as a Lion in all competitions. Mauricio Pereyra set a new assist record, tallying his 27th as a Lion to pass former City captain Nani for the all-time mark.

In the first half, the lions started the game with their usual 4-2-3-1 system and attempting to dominate possession as in previous games. On the other hand, Charlotte’s mid started to link up and started to press high. The lions were successful containing the high press and on the 6th minute, Ruan was able to link up with Facundo Torres to create a phenomenal attacking play that unfortunately his cross was not able to connect with any of Orlando’s strikers. In the 13th minute, Mauricio Pereyra hit a beautiful “shross” and it unluckily hit the post. The lions started to gain momentum and the link up plays in attack started to increase. Three minutes later, Ruan scored a golazo assisted by Robin Jansson off a back heel flick. The Brazilian celebrated the goal as the Flash and received a yellow card by referee Fotis Bazakos for excessively celebrating. After the goal, Orlando gained a lot of confidence, while Charlotte attempted plays mainly on the left flank either through Alcivar or Christian Ortiz. Charlotte’s plays went unnoticed due to great coverage by Rodrigo Schlegel and Robin Jansson. In the 27th minute, Charlotte’s Corujo horribly tackles Mauricio Pereyra. The visitors started to foul more out of desperation and their high press started tremendously to dwindle down. Orlando City started to gain a lot of attacking momentum through the flanks and Facundo Torres. In the 32nd minute, after a beautiful transition play through the feet of Mauricio Pereyra, Ercan Kara found himself 1v1 against Kahlina and he was not able to finish the play. It could’ve been the 2-0 for Orlando City. Charlotte then attempted to create some transition attacking plays but fortunately were denied by a solid Orlando City backline that played a fantastic game. As the game progressed, it seemed that Orlando City’s game was fluid but on the other hand, Charlotte’s was choppy and neither Ortiz, Alcivar or Franco seemed to find themselves to link up.

In the second half, Charlotte came out swinging. Miguel Angel Ramirez disbanded the three amigos. Christian Ortiz was subbed off for Bender. Orlando City maintained their starting lineup. Charlotte continued to look desperate and sloppy in their attacking plays and were always met by Orlando’s backline. Mauricio Pereyra was so influential in the attacking plays for Orlando City, silencing all the haters. In the 59th minute, Bender linked up beautifully with Alan Franco and the Ecuadorian was “fouled” by Rodrigo Schlegel and Charlotte was awarded a penalty. In my opinion, Franco was very clever and looked for contact. Rodrigo went to take care of the ball and in my opinion, it was a clean tackle. In the 59th minute, a penalty was awarded and Fuchs scored off the spot. Charlotte started to gain some momentum and the link up between Bender and Franco started to give the lions some headaches. In post press conference, Benji Michel mentioned “To me that was not a PK”. Charlotte gained some momentum after their goal, but also started their unnecessary fouling against the lions. Referee Fostis Bazakos just let it play on for the crown. Jozwiak (CLT) terribly fouled Benji Michel and everyone expected the worst, thankfully Benji was ok but he was subbed out immediately. Also, Van de Water got injured. The magnitude of his injury is unknown but we will know if the upcoming days.

Orlando City got a well deserved win against Charlotte. Personally, I expected more of this Charlotte squad, but their best players went unnoticed thanks to Orlando City being able to contain them and create attacking plays through the flanks. 17,012 screaming fans packed Exploria Stadium, a great sight to see. Coach Oscar Pareja in post press conference mentioned “It’s good to get back to good results. The victory, the three points, the goals, and the first half are the things I would highlight today. Mauro [Pereyra] setting a record with assists, Robin [Jansson] as well with an important honor with 100 games. All of those things are positive and we enjoy the victory, but our responsibility as well as the coaches is to see that in the second half we did not dominate that much so we need to become a team that has consistency throughout the game. I’m very pleased today with the effort of the players coming off a difficult result and getting this one, it was great.”

Vamos Orlando!