Orlando City vs. CF Montreal: Photo Gallery

You’ve heard the saying, “Good work is rewarded with more work”? Well, Orlando City’s excellent season last year was rewarded by having to open its Concacaf Champions Cup (CCC) run at the furthest reaches of the continent soccer-wise, and then three days later, opening its regular season in Florida. Unsurprisingly, the on-pitch product showed the travel wear a bit and Orlando (0-0-1, 1 point) had to settle for a draw against CF Montreal (0-0-1, 1 point). In the end, this is a point happily taken to start the season, given the scheduling circumstances.

Martín Ojeda and Nico Lodeiro showed signs of starting to get on the same page, and Dagur Dan Thórhallsson and Iván Angulo had their same fearsome ground-covering dynamics of last year. They just could not find Duncan McGuire with a final ball, however, despite his normal chaos-inducing runs, and Thórhallsson and César Araújo both failed to finish good looks. I personally thought — and the game stats tend to agree — that the Lions were the better team for the majority of the game and deserved more, but you have to put the ball in the net to win.

The fans were raring to go, with the sold-out Wall in full voice, harassing the opposition (and the substitute refereeing crew) and generally continuing to provide the environment that Orlando is (in)famous for throughout the league. In the end, the Lions remained unbeaten on opening night (3-0-7) and still haven’t conceded in their MLS opener under Oscar Pareja. The downside is that three of the last five openers have been scoreless draws.

We hope you enjoy these images from a great night at the stadium, even if the result wasn’t quite the one for which you were hoping. Your next opportunity to come out and experience the atmosphere will be tonight at 6 p.m. when the Lions host Cavalry FC in the second leg of the CCC series. It’s a bit early, but with the Lions already up three goals on aggregate in the tie, they are well positioned to advance.