Orlando City vs. New England Revolution: Final Score 2-2 as Lions Roar Back to Tie

Sometimes a draw feels like a win, and when you’re down 2-0 to the Eastern Conference champions, haven’t scored at home in more than three and a half games, and come back to earn a point, it’s one of those times.

So it was tonight, with Orlando City storming back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the New England Revolution, 2-2 in front of 27,243 fans at the Citrus Bowl.

The Lions (2-4-3, 9 points) got headed goals from Cyle Larin and Aurelien Collin in the game’s final 17 minutes to earn the point.

Orlando City controlled the play through much of the second half, allowing only one good scoring chance, which Kelyn Rowe deposited into Donovan Ricketts’ net after a howler of a mistake by Rafael Ramos. The Portuguese youth international tried to chest an aerial ball back to his keeper, but Rowe was waiting to pounce and he easily got onto the soft back pass, rounded Ricketts, and scored to make it 2-0 in the 71^st minute.

Ramos, who was left off Portugal’s U-20 World Cup team earlier in the day, didn’t hang his head. Instead, just four minutes later, he started Orlando’s comeback by keeping a ball in play up the right wing and firing a cross in that Larin nodded home. It was City’s first goal at home in MLS play in 345 minutes.

City always looked like the more likely team to score after halftime and when the club needed a goal, Collin started floating forward periodically to look for aerial balls, which he won all night. He had a chance cleared off the line and missed another over the bar, but at the 90-minute mark, Luke Boden found him and he buried it.

New England (5-2-3, 18 points) had the last decent chance to produce a winner with a free kick to the right of the box, but wasted the opportunity by overhitting the cross.

Orlando started the game on the back foot and the Revs got an early goal off a horrible Amobi Okugo turnover, which left Charlie Davies 1-on-1 with Seb Hines. The Orlando City defender did his best to cut off the middle, but Davies blasted it near-side past Ricketts just 19 minutes in.

“We allowed a very good, confident team to dictate the pace of the game,” said Head Coach Adrian Heath of his team’s opening 20 minutes. “I thought we played on the back foot and gave them too much respect.”

The Lions got some rhythm going but could not find a final ball, in a repeat of basically every home game this season. It was New England that came closest to scoring before the break.

The Revs nearly made it 2-0 at 41 minutes off a corner. London Woodberry got onto Chris Tierney’s cross and put it off the post, leaving Ricketts scrambling. Davies got a head on the rebound and hit the crossbar before the Lions finally cleared the danger.

Orlando City’s best chance of the first half also came off corner kicks, with Collin and Hines each heading over the bar on well-struck crosses.

The Lions still have yet to win a home match in MLS, but this is a game they can certainly build on. It’s a good result against a team that came in on a roll, and one of the best squads in MLS.

“I actually thought the response of the players was absolutely magnificent,” Heath said. “They kept going til the very, very end. Take Rafa’s mistake out for the second goal, and I don’t think they had another opportunity during the second 45 minutes. We turned the game around in our own favor, but they did it with their willingness to want to work hard and try to do something about it. That’s a really pleasing thing.”