Orlando City Earns Draw At Home Against Columbus Crew 1-1, Yotún and Dwyer Make Their Home Debuts

By  //  August 20, 2017

ABOVE VIDEO: Highlights from Orlando City’s draw against Columbus Crew Saturday night.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA (ORLANDO CITY) – In its first home match in nearly a month, Orlando City SC (8-10-7, 31 points) drew Columbus Crew SC (11-12-3, 36 points) 1-1 Saturday at Orlando City Stadium. Yoshimar Yotún and Dom Dwyer made their Orlando City Stadium debuts and Giles Barnes scored his second goal of the season.

“From my point of view it’s a result we didn’t want, of course. We wanted three points in the worst possible way,” Lions head coach Jason Kreis said.

“But the performance I thought was very good. It was a 10 or 15-minute spell in the first half where I felt we dropped a little bit with our level but the other 75 minutes I thought we were very good – on top of them. Frankly, I think we deserved to win this game.”

Orlando City pressed early and – with the support of captain Kaká in The Wall banging the drums with the supporters while serving a one-game suspension for a red card in the previous match – nearly found the opening goal several times in the first half. Shots from Will Johnson, Barnes and Yotún challenged Columbus goalkeeper Zack Steffen. Yotún looked comfortable on the ball, finding teammates with pinpoint long balls and quick short passes and showed great hustle on defense.

In its first home match in nearly a month, Orlando City SC (8-10-7, 31 points) drew Columbus Crew SC (11-12-3, 36 points) 1-1 Saturday at Orlando City Stadium. Yoshimar Yotún and Dom Dwyer made their Orlando City Stadium debuts and Giles Barnes scored his second goal of the season. (OC Image)

Johnson exited the match hurt in the 32nd minute, passing the captain’s armband to goalkeeper Joe Bendik. Three minutes later, Columbus struck off a free kick when Lalas Abubakar headed in Waylon Francis’ delivery.

The Lions turned up the pressure the remainder of the game. Kreis inserted Dwyer in the 63rd minute, and four minutes later City equalized.

Higuita played a slick through ball between the legs of his defender for Barnes, who drove a sharp-angle shot off the far post, across the goal and off the other post before it bounced in. It was Higuita’s second assist of the season.

In the 77th minute, Columbus was reduced to 10 men after Harrison Afful was shown a straight red card for violent conduct following Video Review.

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Again, City turned up the pressure on Columbus in search of the game-winning goal and came within inches of it several times over the final 20 minutes. Dwyer looked like he would score every time he touched the ball – two of his three shots hit the target – and he nearly scored twice in stoppage time.

The match saw Donny Toia make his 100th MLS appearance, including playoffs. Bendik’s lone save was his 200th as a Lion and tonight was his first time wearing the captain’s armband for City.

The Lions host Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m. ET, before embarking on a four-game road trip to New England, D.C., Atlanta and Portland.

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