Before an announced crowd of 31, 430 raucous purple-clad fans, Orlando City SC (3-5-5, 14 points) drew Columbus Crew SC (4-4-4, 16 points) 2-2, extending the Lions’ unbeaten run to three matches. (Orlando City Image)
ORLANDO – Before an announced crowd of 31, 430 raucous purple-clad fans, Orlando City SC (3-5-5, 14 points) drew Columbus Crew SC (4-4-4, 16 points) 2-2, extending the Lions’ unbeaten run to three matches.
Despite going down early 1-0 by a header from Crew SC midfielder Tony Tchani in the 6th minute, the Lions maintained their composure and found the equalizer in the 17th minute.
Kaká
Crew SC Defender Michael Parkhurst was sent off for handling the ball on the goal line, and Kaká converted the resulting penalty kick to even the score 1-1.
With Crew SC down to 10 men, Orlando City turned on the pressure producing 11 shots in the first half. Despite the barrage of attempts, the half ended deadlocked at 1-1.
Columbus created some chances in City’s end of the field at the start of the second half, including a crafty chip from Waylon Francis to Kei Kamara who headed the ball past Orlando City goalkeeper Tally Hall to take the lead in the 61st minute.
Crew SC then bunkered down in their defensive end, withstanding continuous offensive pressure from the Lions.
Substitute Pedro Ribeiro, who made his first appearance since being injured April 3rd, capitalized on a turnover and delivered a stinging shot to the right of Columbus goalkeeper Steve Clark in the 89th minute to draw Orlando even 2-2.
Orlando City pressured Columbus in the closing minutes of the match in search of the go-ahead goal but after four minutes of added time, the final whistle drew the match to a close.
Adrian Heath
“I’m obviously disappointed we hadn’t won the game – with 25 efforts on goal and all the clear-cut chances we had,” said head coach Adrian Heath.
“So, it looks like we left a couple points on the table for me. Obviously when you score later on, you have salvaged something from the game, but there is no way we shouldn’t have taken all three points out of this game tonight. We created six, seven clear cut chances and when you don’t take them, invariably it comes back to bite you and that’s what’s happened to us today.”
“The guys think they tried really hard. Sometimes we gotta try smarter not harder, and we might get a bit more reward from it if we do,” said Heath.
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