Our City Extra: Orlando City Set Out for Revenge Against the Columbus Crew

Every Orlando City supporter remembers what happened when we first met the Columbus Crew on April 18 in Ohio. We’ve tried to forget, to skip past it quickly on the MLS Live archive, to conveniently not discuss it when we talk about the season so far. It was our worst game in the top tier. It was the worst account the team has given of itself so far. Sure, New England wasn’t our best match either, but one revenge game at a time.

As the season rolls right along, the Lions find themselves with a chance to enact some revenge. A chance to show the one MLS team that left them bruised, bullied, and pushed off the park, that we won't roll over for them again. A chance for a team becoming more and more sure of itself by the day to take the one team that embarrassed them out to the wood shed and given them a thrashing of their own.

This first MLS season is a narrative with multiple story lines: A successful team adjusting to life on the top, a superstar adjusting to a new league, a campaign to defy expectations and start our tenure in the league with success. A good season this year is the start of a legacy in Orlando that will very will live beyond us all.

That is why it is imperative for Orlando City to set sail on the pirate ship Revenge!, give no quarter, and decimate the Columbus Crew. Every team has a nemesis; a club that for whatever reason gets the best of them every time. The Columbus Crew should not be that team for Orlando City. The Crew won't be that team for Orlando. The Lions need to take care of business Saturday, they need to show our fellow Eastern Conference rivals that one night in April they might have gotten the best of us, but it was a one off rough night.

More important, as we set the tone and continue to learn the teams we will face in MLS; the Lions need to show themselves that one game in April was just a bad night at the office, one they have the power to erase from their minds and ours with a decisive victory Saturday night.

This weekend’s match up lacks the glamour of our last few home games, teams like MLS Cup runner’s up and Champions, New England Revolution and LA Galaxy. That is true, but I want to pack the bowl for this one. I want the Citrus Bowl to back our boys in purple in full voice, and I want to see an embarrassed Columbus Crew walking off the field after 90 minutes.

We've gotten the first home win, let's get some home revenge now. A big win against the only club to truly decimate us this season would send the right signal to the league, the supporters, and most importantly, the team themselves. Much like the first match-up, on paper it seems to be lacking that something special, but a win Saturday night could be another crucial turning point in a season that seems to be chock full of them. #GoCity