Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Charlotte FC: Final Score 2-2 as Lions Erase Late Two-Goal Deficit
The Lions looked dead when staring at a 2-0 road deficit and not creating much offensively, but Orlando punched back twice to steal a road point.
Trailing 2-0 with less than 25 minutes remaining, Orlando City fought back for a 2-2 road draw against Charlotte FC at Bank of America Stadium tonight. Pep Biel scored late in the first half to put the hosts ahead, and Bill Tuiloma doubled the lead after the break. Ramiro Enrique pulled one back for Orlando City (9-5-7, 34 points), and Marco Pasalic fired home late to give Orlando a hard-fought, come-from-behind draw at Charlotte (8-11-2, 26 points). Martin Ojeda assisted on both goals.
The Lions are unbeaten in their last three road matches (2-0-1), but are winless in two straight overall after last week’s home loss to FC Cincinnati and tonight’s draw (0-1-1).
“The feeling is we could have, or we should, have got three points here in Charlotte,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after this game. “But we paid the price to our distractions on those two goals that was much more our responsibility there on our duties there that we have to control. And then we have to push in many different ways to find that equalizer and try to get the winning goal. But it was not enough.”
Pareja’s starting lineup included goalkeeper Pedro Gallese behind a back line of David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. Cesar Araujo and Eduard Atuesta started in central midfield between wingers Ojeda and Pasalic, with Enrique and Luis Muriel up top.
Charlotte opened the game pressing high up the field, forcing Orlando City to be precise to play out. The Lions did just that early on, winning a free kick just inside Charlotte’s half of the field. Orlando switched the field on the set piece, with Thorhallsson finding Pasalic after drawing two defenders to himself. The Croatian did well to work the ball into the box before being cut off. The ball fell between Enrique and Atuesta, with the latter sending a soft shot toward the near post that didn’t have enough power to bother Kristijan Kahlina.
Brekalo was able to sneak in behind the defense on the left in the 13th minute, getting onto a beautiful back-post ball from Pasalic, but the Slovenian’s header for the near post was saved by Kahlina.
Moments later, Brekalo was fouled by Brandt Bronico just inside Charlotte territory. The defender was knocked off balance by the foul and his flailing arm caught the midfielder, drawing blood. Brekalo was curiously shown a yellow card for an elbow that the foul by Bronico created.
Charlotte’s first look at goal came in the 26th minute. Jansson got caught forward after knocking a ball away and trying to chase it down. The hosts took possession and a quick ball over the top found Kerwin Vargas, who was kept onside by Schlegel. Vargas went for goal but Gallese did well to fight it off with a vital save.
A couple of set pieces and an Ojeda cross in for nobody attacking the goal later preceded a decent spell of possession by Charlotte. The hosts were able to keep the Lions pinned in their end for a few minutes, as Orlando couldn’t find precision in trying to break out. That eventually resulted in a couple of poor clearance attempts pinging around and finding Nicholas Scardina, who fired well wide of the left post.
Charlotte scored five minutes later. Bill Tuiloma had the ball on his foot in Charlotte’s defensive third and sent a great diagonal ball to Scardina, who was given plenty of space all throughout the first half by Brekalo. Biel cut from the middle toward the right, beating Araujo to Scardina’s pass before firing in an inch-perfect shot just out of Gallese’s reach and inside the back post to make it 1-0 in the 40th minute.
“The first goal, I think we had a second of distractions when they switched the point of the attack,” Pareja said. “It should have been positionally better, and our shape should have been better in those circumstances when they played that long ball to Scardina.”
Pasalic tried an audacious shot from distance in the 43rd minute, but he didn’t clear his defender and it was easily blocked. The ball went behind for a corner, and Pasalic went to the flag to take the kick. The Croatian’s cross found Brekalo, but the defender sent his shot wide of the target.
Orlando City moved the ball too slowly in stoppage time to create any final chances and went to the break down a goal on the road.
At the break, Orlando City had the advantage in possession (61.4%-38.6%), corners (3-1), and passing accuracy (89.5%-80.5%). Both teams attempted four shots and put two on target, but the hosts had the all-important goal.
“I think they played a very good first half tactically,” Atuesta said. “The chance that they had, they scored. But in the second half, we knew what to do maybe to make them suffer a little bit more, and we did it. Almost we won the three points.”
Pareja subbed on Rafael Santos for Brekalo at the break, looking to get more width from the fullback position to allow Ojeda to come inside more. It eventually worked and allowed the Lions to become dangerous from their left side.
“I think we unlocked the team with that movement,” Pareja said. “We wanted to see different connections on the left when we lined up Martin (Ojeda), Ramiro (Enrique), Luis (Muriel), I think we were very aggressive the way we lined up the group. I really think we should have had much more volume. Just bringing Rafa in the second half, I think immediately everybody just got back into the confidence and the better spots, and we looked a much, much (more) dangerous team.”
However, whatever was said at halftime in the Orlando City locker room was not immediately successful. Biel fired a shot on goal from Charlotte’s attacking right within a minute of the restart that required a Gallese save. Orlando quickly gave the ball right back and Biel was left in too much space just outside the box. He fired just over Gallese’s crossbar in the 47th minute.
The Lions were bereft of ideas in the attacking third and started trying to strike from distance. Muriel fired a couple of yards wide from range in the 51st minute, and Santos smashed a shot wide of the same right post in the 53rd on an impatient play that appeared to have promise with numbers. Three minutes later, Muriel did well to give Ojeda the ball in the box at pace, but the Argentine took a touch and that allowed the Charlotte defense to converge and prevent a scoring chance.
Enrique should have put the Lions on the board in the 62nd minute. Sent over the top, the forward did well to round Kahlina, but he couldn’t pick up the ball cleanly and by the time he fired his shot, Scardina had gotten back and blocked it off the line. Araujo sent a weak header at Kahlina on the ensuing corner kick.
Gallese came out of the box to try to prevent a transition over the top but he didn’t get enough on his clearance and he committed a foul, taking a booking for it. He’ll miss the next match due to yellow card accumulation. Charlotte made the ensuing set piece pay off when Santos failed to stay tight to Tuiloma, who headed it in at the back post to make it 2-0 in the 65th minute.
“On the second one, I think we’re all conscious that the ball should have been cleared and it ended up just giving up (a goal) on a set play,” Pareja said. “In those moments I feel that we should have done better.”
The way Orlando had been playing to that point, it seemed the game was done and dusted, but the Lions scratched their way back into the match out of nowhere. A nice give-and-go between Muriel and Ojeda ended up with the latter sending a ball across the six for Enrique to tap home for his fifth goal of the MLS season. It was game on in the 69th minute.
As the Lions chased the game, they were bound to give up some space, and second-half sub Liel Abada found himself in acres of it near the top of the area in the 71st minute, but Gallese was able to make the save.
Ojeda did well to set up Pasalic in the 73rd minute on the right, but the winger missed the target just wide to the right on a golden opportunity to tie the game.
Jansson picked up a yellow breaking up a transition in the 75th minute and he will join Gallese in missing the next match because of yellow card accumulation. However, the captain picked up a knock on a collision two minutes later and had to sub off for Kyle Smith, ending his night early. Pareja said after the match that Jansson should be fine after serving the suspension.
Pasalic tied things up in the 80th minute, taking a layoff from Muriel in the box and smashing his shot just inside the right post. Improbably, the Lions were level with 10 minutes plus injury time remaining after Pasalic’s 10th goal of the season.
Both teams looked for the winning goal down the stretch, but Orlando held more of the ball. Abada fired wide in the 84th minute on one of Charlotte’s few looks in the final minutes.
Atuesta did well to walk through the defense into the box moments later, eventually turning down a shot to give the ball to Enrique, but the forward couldn’t collect it until he had his back to goal and couldn’t work his way into position to shoot. Atuesta said the artificial turf had played a role in the lack of sharpness at times in the attacking third, and it was a factor on that play.
“I had the opportunity there to have the chance to shoot, and I saw the defender comes with with everything to not let me should shoot,” Atuesta said. “I cut, then I did another. The ball goes through (the defender’s legs), and I saw (Enrique) ready to just kick the ball inside the net. But it’s not easy, this field, to be sharp in those little details. It’s not the same as grass. Maybe that’s why we missed a little bit some chances in the box.”
Ojeda had a shot from outside the area blocked in the sixth minute of injury time, and neither side came closer than that in the final minutes. The teams had to settle for splitting the points.
Orlando City finished with the advantage in possession (62.2%-37.8%), shots (16-11), shots on target (6-5), corners (6-2), and passing accuracy (89.8%-81.3%). Had Enrique or Pasalic been able to convert for a brace with their golden opportunities, the one point may have been three, but the Lions are likely glad to take home anything after trailing by two goals on the road past the hour mark.
“I thought we accomplished the fact that we tied the game in a very difficult scenario for us, just losing 2-0 away,” Pareja said. “So credit (to) the players that never gave up that intention. Even if we had a few minutes more, I’m pretty sure that the result was ours. But we take this point. There’s some things that we still feel that we should have done better, but it will tell us in the next two games at home, if we get our results, that this point is valuable.”
“I’m very proud of my team,” Atuesta said. “Because it’s not easy losing 2-0 and then drawing the game like that. It’s good to have that feeling that we almost won the game.”
The Lions will return home to face CF Montreal a week from tonight at Inter&Co Stadium.