Orlando City’s Top Home Performances of 2023

Tonight Orlando City will take the field against the New England Revolution in its last regular-season home game of the year. Early in the season there were certainly several instances of frustration during home matches as leads were squandered late or lower caliber opponents seemingly had their way within the walls of Exploria Stadium. Despite that, the Lions have continued to elevate their level of play throughout the season, especially at home over the last several months, leaving fans dumbfounded at some of the amazing results we have seen in person. Tonight’s game notwithstanding, (hopefully I eat all these words and have to add it to my list) here are my top three MLS matches played in front the OCSC faithful this season.

Fourth of July Fireworks

Anyone who lives and works in Central Florida is no stranger to nightly fireworks at numerous local theme parks. What fans may not have been prepared for this past Independence Day was a straight steamrolling of Orlando’s visitors from the north, Toronto FC. What sets this match apart is that it certainly was positioned on the calendar as a possible trap game as a midweek fixture with a big match out west looming against Real Salt Lake in just a few days. Instead of succumbing to the trap, Orlando City came out of the starting blocks in a full-out sprint, scoring two goals before the match reached the 30th minute, courtesy of Ceasar Araujo and Duncan McGuire.

The Lions scored twice more in the second half, with Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Ercan Kara each finding the back of the net. A handful of firsts were checked off the list, as Araujo scored his first MLS regular-season goal, Thorhallsson opening his scoring account as a Lion, and Orlando City as a whole winning for the first time on the Fourth of July in four attempts. Did I mention that this match marked the most goals Orlando City has scored in a match for the entire season, at four — tied with another match which will show up later.

Orlando Hosts the Best of the West

A little over a month ago, Orlando City was in the midst of arguably its toughest four-game stretch of the season and it started by playing host to new MLS expansion team and Western Conference frontrunner, St. Louis City. The result of that match could have very easily swung the rest of the season for the Lions in a positive or negative direction. The lead up to the match had some extra special sauce sprinkled on it when comments were made by former Lion Nicholas Gioacchini, who had apparently had this match circled on his calendar for some time. Gioacchini tried several times to give his new squad the lead in the first half but ultimately had to be subbed off at halftime after picking up a knock. From the start, the Lions were the aggressors, holding the advantage in possession (55.1%-44.9%), shots (6-5), shots on target (1-0), corners (4-1), and passing accuracy (83.8%-80.5%). Designated Player Facundo Torres got OCSC on the board first, scoring right after halftime, firing an absolute bullet past Roman Burki.

Orlando City looked as if it had fallen back into its familiar early season form of relinquishing leads when after a lengthy VAR process St. Louis was awarded a leveling goal in the 79th minute. The teams traded halfhearted attempts over the waning minutes of the match until second-half sub Ramiro Enrique earned a free kick in the final minutes of the match. The ensuing play led to a blast from Rafael Santos, which hit the arm of Anthony Markanich. Video review was once again called into action and referee Joe Dickerson awarded Orlando City a penalty kick. Torres stepped up to the spot and iced the match as he earned a game-winning brace.

The Cardiac Cats were alive once again and surely that proved to be the most exciting moment at Exploria all season long…or so we thought.

What the (Bleep) Just Happened?

One match after defeating the top dog in the Eastern Conference and eventual Supporters’ Shield winners FC Cincinnati on their home turf, Orlando returned to the City Beautiful to take on another challenger from the Buckeye state, the Columbus Crew. The Crew came into the match as one of the hottest teams in MLS. The only problem for them was that Orlando proved to be just a tad hotter. I wish I could tell you that the Lions blew this game wide open like they did against Toronto. They didn’t. I wish I could tell you that they scored four goals like they did against Toronto. They did. And I wish I could tell you the game wasn’t as exciting as the match against St. Louis City. It was, and then some! Columbus scored early when Julian Gressel took advantage of a poor turnover in Orlando City’s own end and basically walked in a chip shot from Diego Rossi. The match headed into the break with the visitors up 1-0 after a sloppy first half from Orlando City. The Lions equalized quickly after halftime and new energy poured over Exploria as DP Martin Ojeda scored in the 48th minute to level the match.

It was just after Ojeda’s goal that the train exploded off the tracks and the match turned into an instant Orlando City classic. Rossi and Cucho Hernandez scored 12 minutes apart in the 56th and 68th minutes, and it looked to those in the stands that the great run of form Orlando had enjoyed was finally crashing down to Earth. It looked that way to everyone except the 11 on the field, who used a final hydration break and key offensive substitutes of Torres and Jack Lynn, along with Luca Petrasso and Michael Halliday, to do the unimaginable. Torres, who missed the starting 11 with a knock, injected instant energy onto the pitch and found the back of the net in the 73rd minute, bringing Orlando City back within a goal of being level with a decent amount of time left on the clock.

Still playing from behind, Orlando City had no choice but to throw the kitchen sink at Columbus to try to salvage a draw at home. The equalizer came in the 86th from Enrique, who found himself in the right place at the right time to slot home a deflected header from a set play, and in the blink of an eye, Orlando City was level. The Lions could have sat back and parked the bus in hopes of splitting points, but the soccer gods had other ideas.

In the waning seconds of stoppage time, an Ojeda cross from a set piece 25 yards out squeaked all the way through to a diving Torres, who headed the ball back across the box to the waiting foot of Enrique, who buried the late game winner, sending the crowd into a feverish celebration.

So there you have it Lions fans, my top three home matches of this MLS season. Let me know in the comments below if you agree or if some other home matches fall into your top three ranking instead. I will happily eat crow if the final home game tonight can out-wow-factor any of these three matches above, and as always, vamos Orlando!