Orlando City SC (7-10-7, 28 points) faced fellow Eastern Conference rivals the Philadelphia Union (6-13-5, 23) at the Orlando Citrus Bowl Saturday evening before a crowd of 28,495 fans. (Orlando City Image)
ORLANDO, FLORIDA – Orlando City SC (7-10-7, 28 points) faced fellow Eastern Conference rivals the Philadelphia Union (6-13-5, 23) at the Orlando Citrus Bowl Saturday evening before a crowd of 28,495 fans.
Despite controlling overall possession throughout the match 56-44 and creating a number of threatening opportunities, the match ended in a 0-0 draw.
A few new faces made their debut for the Lions, including rookie Conor Donovan, who started the first Major League Soccer (MLS) match of his career.
Unfortunately, a left knee injury in the 13th minute forced an early exit for the youngster, and he was replaced by teammate and Orlando City Homegrown product Tommy Redding.
Tonight’s match marked Redding’s MLS debut and the 18-year old turned in a noteworthy performance.
Lastly, newly signed midfielder Adrian Winter made his debut in Purple and Gold, coming in for Servando Carrasco in the 72nd minute. The newest Lion made his presence known on the field immediately, combining with Darwin Cerén and Cristian Higuita on a number of attacking plays.
Goalkeeper Tally Hall registered his fourth clean sheet of the season, delivering a number of heartstopping saves including a point blank parry off the line to preserve the scoreline in the 86th minute.
Adrian Heath
“Obviously we’re disappointed that you don’t take three points at home. But the last 10 minutes I actually thought we were going to lose the game so we have actually taken something from it,” said head coach Adrian Heath.
“I thought [Tommy] was very composed, very good on the ball, he read the game well. [Tally] came up big on a couple of occasions when it was really important. But we looked very very tired towards the end.”
“It looked like the games that we’ve played of late and the game on Wednesday night in Toronto had an effect on us. The players worked really hard, I can’t fault them,” said Heath.
