It was a humid afternoon in central Florida as Orlando City faced off against Cruz Azul in the Leagues Cup. Both teams were in good form and had a lot of momentum. As we discussed earlier, the key to winning this match would be taking advantage of attacking opportunities and also being strong defensively. Despite some fans boycotting the Leagues Cup, Cruz Azul supporters filled Inter & Co Stadium with their presence. Orlando City started the game strong, controlling the match against Cruz Azul with quick attacks from Ivan Angulo and Ramiro Enrique. Meanwhile, Cruz Azul waited for Orlando to make mistakes and tried to capitalize on their chances. The first half was competitive, with Orlando creating more chances. Ramiro Enrique had a great opportunity to score, but Cruz Azul’s goalkeeper made a crucial save. Orlando’s turnovers in defense allowed Cruz Azul to create chances, with Gianoumakis almost scoring from a distance shot. Both teams had a similar passing accuracy, with 6 shots on goal for Orlando and 5 for Cruz Azul.
In the early minutes of the second half, there was some back-and-forth action. Ivan Angulo made a great run in the 54th minute, setting up Ramiro Enrique for a close shot that nearly went in but missed the left post by a hair. Facundo Torres had a near miss in the 58th minute, dribbling past two defenders before his left-footed shot grazed the left post. Rafael Santos was taken out due to an injury, and Luca Petrasso replaced him. Orlando had another close chance, but Cruz Azul’s goalkeeper made a big save. In the 78th minute, Muriel came in as a substitute and gave an impressive assist to Duncan McGuire, who missed a one-on-one opportunity.
Piovi had a rough tackle on Torres in the 84th minute and received a yellow card. Towards the end of the game, Orlando kept losing possession and Cruz Azul missed some scoring opportunities. The last 11 minutes of the game, plus extra time, were mostly boring, but there was a close opportunity for Cruz Azul to score in stoppage time that was saved by Gallese. However, the goal didn’t count because of an offside call. This was the final action of the game, which ended in a 0-0 tie.
Cruz Azul had more possession, shots, shots on target, and better passing accuracy than the Lions. However, the Lions won more corner kicks. The tiebreaker to decide which team would move forward did not involve extra time. Instead, the rules of the competition required penalty kicks to be taken right after a draw. Jansson was unexpectedly chosen to take the first penalty kick, which seemed like a bad decision when the goalkeeper saved his shot.
However, Cruz Azul’s Ignacio Rivero missed wide to the right, giving Orlando City a second chance. The following eight players all scored their penalties one after the other, leading to a sudden death shootout. Thorhallsson took the sixth penalty for Orlando, but missed his shot, putting pressure on Gallese to make a save. Unfortunately, Antuna scored for the opposing team, ending Orlando City’s perfect shootout record and eliminating them from the competition.
After completing the Leagues Cup, the Lions will not have another game until August 24th. Their next game will be against Sporting Kansas City.
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