Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Sporting Kansas City: Final Score 3-1 as Lions Dominate Second Half
The Lions won their fourth straight game in all competitions thanks to goals by Tyrese Spicer, Ramiro Enrique, and Nico Rodriguez.
Orlando City again couldn’t hold a 1-0 lead at Inter&Co Stadium, but the Lions dominated the second half, beating Sporting Kansas City 3-1 after a lengthy weather delay. Tyrese Spicer, Ramiro Enrique, and Nico Rodriguez scored to more than offset Dejan Joveljic’s goal. It was the fourth consecutive MLS win for Orlando City (13-6-8, 47 points) and the club’s seventh game without a loss in all competitions (6-0-1). The Lions have scored three or more goals in each of their last four games (all wins) in all competitions.
The win keeps Orlando City unbeaten at home (3-0-1) against Sporting Kansas City, which dropped to 6-14-6 (24 points) on the season.
“What a difficult game today,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “The first half we couldn’t connect our shaping, and they found a lot of spaces. It’s good that we opened the game so early, but we didn’t play well (for) 20 minutes. And then, the second half we reshaped things. The boys started to adjusting some lines and some tactics, movements there, especially in the middle, and then we started flowing in the game and it was much more Orlando. The second half was our half.”
Pareja’s lineup included a few changes. Pedro Gallese started in goal behind a back line of David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, who stepped into Alex Freeman’s right back spot. Kyle Smith deputized for the suspended Cesar Araujo with Eduard Atuesta in the central midfield between wingers Spicer — in his first Orlando City start — and Marco Pasalic, with Martin Ojeda and Luis Muriel up top.
Inclement weather once again reared its ugly head, delaying the start of the match by three hours and three minutes. Once the game started, Orlando quickly jumped on the visitors.
Just two minutes into the match, Spicer found Ojeda in the box. The Argentine took a heavy touch toward the end line but gathered and shot it into goalkeeper Jon Pulskamp, who deflected it back to Spicer. The Trinidad & Tobago international took his shot with his first touch and slotted home his first goal as a Lion. It was the second straight game in which Orlando scored in the second minute.
“I saw Martin in the box, but I was like, ‘You know what I need to do, like some decoy or some move to at least throw (the defender) off,’ because I didn’t want to give him the ball right away,” Spicer said. “So, I just did the step over to shift him, and I went inside. And I was like, ‘Okay, let me play.’ Maybe I played it a little bit too hard, but fortunately, he got the shot off. When it came back to me, it was like, instinctiveness, shoot automatically. And I see it went in. And I was like, ‘Let’s go!'”
“Many highlights moments for us. Tyrese was one of them, scoring, and not just scoring, but I thought he played a very good game for us,” Pareja said. “And the way he started mixing with our players and with our game model, it was outstanding.”
The next shot in the game didn’t come until the seventh minute as Joveljic sent a shot just inches wide of the left post from outside the area.
Orlando City got back on the front foot but could do nothing with a couple of corner kicks, and then Sporting Kansas City took possession for much of the next 15 minutes. The Lions were sloppy and kept giving the ball away cheaply during that spell, that saw Shapi Suleymanov slice a shot wide in the 13th minute.
Mason Toye got in behind the back line, beating the trap in the 20th minute. Gallese came way off his line to try to stop the Kansas City forward, but the shot got through. The stadium breathed a sigh of relief when it skipped just wide of the left post. Sporting then won a couple of corners and nearly paid one off on the recycle, as Gallese went down to make a diving, one-handed save in the 23rd minute on a shot from Toye.
The Sporting KC goal that had been coming finally came in the 26th minute. Joveljic slipped a through ball to Toye making a diagonal run between the center backs. Schlegel wasn’t able to keep up with the run. Gallese came out to cut down the angle, but Toye slipped the ball past the onrushing goalkeeper and Joveljic beat Jansson on the switch and tapped it in to make it 1-1.
Orlando woke up a bit after conceding and the rest of the half was evenly played. Spicer won another corner at the half-hour mark and the cross in from Ojeda found Schlegel, but the defender’s header was blocked in front by Joveljic.
Eight minutes later, another ball over the Orlando back line nearly paid off for Sporting Kansas City but Thorhallsson made up some ground and got to the ball first. He tried to chip it to safety and came close to putting it into his own net, but it sailed just over the crossbar for a corner. The Lions cleared the set piece but quickly gave the ball back to the visitors. Suleymanov fired just over the bar in the 39th minute on the end of the counterattack.
Spicer again got forward in the 42nd minute down the left and found Ojeda, who tried to shoot it with his first touch. He got under his half-volley effort and it sailed high. Two minutes later, Pasalic found some space about 25 yards out from goal and fired, but he hit his shot right at Pulskamp for the easy save.
Orlando finished the half strong with a quick give-and-go in the second minute of injury time with Ojeda slipping the ball through for Muriel’s run, but the Colombian got under his shot and it sailed into The Wall on the last look at goal for the half.
At the break, Orlando City had the edge in possession (52.9%-47.1%), corners (3-2), and passing accuracy (89.5%-88.6%). Sporting Kansas City attempted more shots (8-7), with each team putting two on target.
“I feel like we were doing sloppy mistakes and giving the ball away pretty easily, and especially in these games where the humidity is so high, we we can’t be giving the ball away with teams that counterattack, because they want to stay and counterattack much,” Thorhallsson said of the first half. “So, I feel like we played into their hands. But as soon as we just took over the ball and played our game, I felt like we controlled it.”
At the break, Pareja sent on Freeman for Smith, pushing Thorhallsson to the midfield.
Orlando started the second half well, earning an early corner on a Muriel cross that the defense had to knock behind. The visitors cleared the initial corner but Orlando created a good chance in the 50th minute on the recycle. The ball ended up with Freeman on the right side of the box, and he found Muriel in front. Pulskamp came off his line and Muriel made a slick move to spin and find Ojeda near the penalty spot, but the Lions’ No. 10 sliced his shot badly wide of the left post.
Five minutes later, Freeman made a lunging shot on a ball across the box, but he sent it wide of the right post.
Sporting KC got forward and created some havoc with a Jovelic cross into the six, but none of his teammates where there to finish the play.
Atuesta ignited the break with a takeaway in the attacking half in the 64th minute. He quickly found Ojeda, who sent Muriel into the right side of the box. Muriel stopped quickly to lose his defender before finding Pasalic in the middle. The Croatian’s shot was on goal, but Pulskamp made a vital save to keep the game tied.
Gallese made a pair of comfortable saves in the 65th and 69th minutes.
Pareja then made two subs in the 71st minute, bringing on Ivan Angulo and Enrique for Pasalic and Muriel. It didn’t take long for the subs to make an impact, as they instantly added a spark of energy to Orlando City.
After a Spicer cross into the box was blocked by a defender in the 73rd minute, the Lions regained the lead three minutes later. Angulo won the ball in the attacking third with help from Thorhallsson and quickly sent it to Ojeda on the right. Ojeda sent a right-footed pass into the middle for Enrique, who made a quick spin move, touched it to his left, and smashed it in past Pulskamp to make it 2-1 in the 76th minute. Enrique’s eighth goal of the MLS season tied his career high of eight, set last year. It also moved him past Kaka into sole possession of sixth place on the team’s all-time goal-scoring chart (all competitions).
“Ramiro patiently weighted for his moment, knowing that in any time he can start as well, and probably he deserves it as much as as Luis (Muriel),” Pareja said.
Following the goal, Pareja inserted Rodriguez for Spicer.
Buoyed by the goal, Orlando City kept the pressure on Sporting and looked to counter whenever possible. Atuesta found himself with space at the top of the box in the 79th minute, firing a shot that went straight to Pulskamp for an easy save. Four minutes later, the Lions put the game to bed.
Ojeda took the ball on the left side and sent a cross over the box to Freeman on the right. The fullback fired a shot that took a deflection and bounced in behind the defense, where Rodriguez got to it first and smashed home his first goal as a Lion in the 83rd minute.
Orlando could have won the game by much more than two goals. In addition to wasting some good chances earlier, Angulo was let loose in behind on a breakaway, speeding past the last defender and getting in on goal, but he sent his shot over the bar in the 85th minute.
From there, Orlando City pinged the ball around with energy and a lot of one-touch passing, seeing out the victory.
After a dominant second half, Orlando finished the match with the advantage in possession (54.6%-45.4%), shots (19-11), shots on target (7-4), corners (6-4), and passing accuracy (90.3%-86.1%).
“I would say very good first 10 minutes, then pretty bad, 35 minutes, and then very good 45 minutes, if I was to summarize the whole game,” Thorhallsson said. “Very good second half. I feel like we dominated the game.”
“I want to express the gratitude that we have with our fans,” Pareja said. “With this (weather) delay, I didn’t expect that all of them staying, and when we came out from the locker room and we saw them in the stands, it was something that we won’t forget. I wanted to dedicate this victory for them and show our gratitude.”
The Lions have a quick turnaround, as they’ll fly out to Carson, CA to face Toluca on Wednesday in Leagues Cup action. Orlando City’s next MLS match will be a week from tonight at Nashville SC.