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Orlando City vs. Cavalry FC, Concacaf Champions Cup: Photo Gallery
An album of images from Orlando City’s 3-1 home win in Concacaf Champions Cup action.
Orlando City continued its Concacaf Champions Cup run on Tuesday where it left off last week by playing slightly sloppy but still overmatching soccer against Calgary’s Cavalry FC. The Lions beat Cavalry 3-1, advancing 6-1 on aggregate. Cavalry played the ‘just happy to be here’ role well, clearly relishing the non-competitive tie and taking home a road goal as its only trophy.
Personnel-wise, Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja went deep into the roster due to the grueling schedule, rotating nine of 11 starters from Saturday. You will notice a few new faces in the gallery, as Shakur Mohammed (start) and Abdi Salim (64th-minute substitute) got substantial run-outs. Luis Muriel also made his debut, starting and playing 79 minutes, so it may not take that long for him to achieve 90-minute match fitness.
Being down three goals in the tie, Cavalry came out with the slightly baffling strategy of playing a well-organized team against the Lions’ highly rotated side. The scrambled personnel mix, such as the Rodrigo Schlegel-Kyle Smith center back pairing, and nerves all likely contribued as well, leading to a scoreless (and fairly slow) first half played largely in the midfield.
Orlando continued rotating personnel in the second half, with substitutes Nico Lodeiro and Facundo Torres contributing to Orlando’s three goals on the evening. Lodeiro notched a goal and an assist, while Torres set up a late insurance goal by Smith, who moved from center back to left back when Salim came off the bench. Ramiro Enrique took advantage of his extended minutes, playing the full game and leading the team in shots (5), putting three of them on target. He looked dangerous all game but it took a while to get dialed in. He was eventually rewarded with a stunner of a goal in the 71st minute.
We hope you enjoy these images from a memorable home match that saw the Lions advance to the Round of 16, where they’ll have a rematch against Liga MX giants Tigres, starting Tuesday night at Inter&Co Stadium.