After dominating the first part of the game, including scoring the first goal early, Orlando City allowed the Philadelphia Union to climb back into the season-opening match Saturday with a costly mistake in the 24th minute. The Lions then made several mistakes at the back early in the second half, digging a huge 4-1 hole that was too much to overcome, despite a brace on his debut from Marco Pasalic, allowing the Union to leave Orlando with a 4-2 win.

The Lions created enough chances to climb back into the match, but Andre Blake was outstanding in the Philadelphia goal, denying nearly everything thrown at him. Pasalic was a bright spot for Orlando City, and Martín Ojeda also had a strong match, assisting on the first Pasalic goal and putting two shots of his own on target. Alex Freeman also played well, coming off the bench for meaningful minutes and putting a headed shot from an Ojeda delivery off the crossbar.

Joran Gerbet and Nicolas Rodriguez both made their MLS and Orlando City competitive debuts, but nothing was quite able to dig the Lions out of the hole they’d dug with catastrophic defensive-third turnovers. Orlando City suffered its first opening day loss and will enter Matchday 2 without a point for the first time.

We hope you enjoy these images from the season opener more than the match. The Lions will look to get on track Saturday when Toronto FC visits Inter&Co Stadium.

The U.S. Men’s National Team came to Orlando to play a January friendly against Costa Rica and kept its perfect record at Inter&Co Stadium intact, improving to 7-0-0 at the home of Orlando City and the Orlando Pride with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica. Hopefully Orlando was not chosen for it’s warmth, as temperatures hovered around 40 degrees with a fine mist for maximal heat dispersion. The conditions did not seem to bother the team however (or maybe it bothered Costa Rica more), as the youthful U.S. lineup picked up the win.

As is often the case for a January camp, the makeup of the Unitd States squad consisted of largely less-experienced pool players, so the game started a little on the nervy side. A little before halfway through the first half, midfielder Diego Luna took an errant arm across the face, breaking his nose. Luna running around the field with both nostrils packed may have helped galvanize the team, as he found Brian White a just moments after he returned from getting treatment and a new shirt, and the Yanks were up 1-0.

The Americans continued to grow into the match and by the second half mostly orchestrated the game, with a couple acrobatic saves by Zack Steffen as punctuation. The U.S. didn’t find the net again until late in the second half, however. Caden Clark finally broke through again in the 77th minute to relieve some nerves and ensure the victory. Patrick Agyemang’s goal in the 90th minute put an exclamation point on the match, sealing the victory.

We hope you enjoy these images from a cold, wet night of international soccer at Inter&Co Stadium.

Orlando City followed the lead of the Pride, advancing to the Eastern Conference final by a score of 1-0 over Atlanta United. Orlando came out attacking, creating several good chances but either putting them straight at Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan or missing entirely. Ramiro Enrique finally found the net late in the first half, cleaning up a fortunate deflection off a defender on a corner kick in the 39th minute to lead at the half.

Desperation settled in for Atlanta in the second half, as the visitors pressed hard to find an equalizer. Orlando continued to attack opportunistically and still managed to outshoot the Five Stripes but generally dropped the line of confrontation. Atlanta was forced to settle for only poor chances, and was unable to land a shot on target for the entire game. If you can’t get your shots on target, you can’t score, and Orlando’s goal held up as the Lions advanced with the win over their rivals.

The sold-out crowd was exceptionally vociferous in this match. Normally, the supporters end is the clear vocal center of the various chants and songs, but for this match the whole stadium was in full voice by the end. Especially of note was the final rendition of ‘Do you hear Atlanta sing?’ with the last line absolutely ear splitting from the whole building. (I’m afraid you’ll have to look up the lyrics if you aren’t familiar with this particular cheer.)

With the victory, the Lions have secured one last home game on the season, facing the New York Red Bulls on Saturday. A victory will see them through to the MLS Cup final, facing the winner of LAFC and Seattle on the road.

We hope you enjoy these images from a memorable win in the Orlando-Atlanta rivalry, even if the match itself was sometimes not the most entertaining example of the beautiful game.