Orlando City 1 Pittsburgh Riverhounds 1 in Home Season Opener!
In front of approximately 5,000 fans, Orlando City SC and Pittsburgh Riverhounds shared a 1-1 draw at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex tonight. Defender Luke Boden provided the equalizer in the 58th minute as City drew their second consecutive match in the early stages of their final USL PRO campaign.
“I have a lot of confidence in this group, despite the result,” said Head Coach Adrian Heath (pictured above). “We scored a lot of goals in the past three years and I guarantee that we’ll score more goals this year.”
In their first home game at ESPN WWOS, City began in typical fashion, controlling the pace of the game in the early stages. The Lions enjoyed large amounts of possession in midfield and the final third, but couldn’t quite find a cutting edge.
The Orlando’s midfield of Alvarez, Da Luz, Quinn and Ceren controlled large parts of the first 45 minutes but the best chance of the half fell to Orlando’s first MLS signee, Kevin Molino (pictured above left), when he curled a dangerous effort that went just past the post. Visiting Goalkeeper Hunter Gilstrap was kept on his toes as Lions full backs Luke Boden and U.S. international Tyler Turner, also got involved in the attack and provided multiple crosses for Corey Hertzog who couldn’t quite convert.
The Riverhounds’ defense did a resolute job in making some important blocks that prevented Hertzog from earning his first USL PRO goal in purple and white.
As so often happens in this wonderful game, in the 48th minute Orlando was made to pay for failing to score in the first half as Jose Angulo skipped past Miguel Gallardo, after a Rob Valentino slip up, to put the visitors up 1-0. City stepped up their game and put plenty of crosses into the box without really looking threatening. Everything changed in the 58th minute as an Orlando corner saw a nasty collision between Pittsburgh keeper Gilstrap (pictured above) and Orlando’s Valentino. Both players fell to the ground as Luke Boden (pictured above) kept his cool and drilled a powerful shot into the roof of the net.
Pittsburgh could rightly feel aggrieved as 99 times out of a 100 the referee would give a foul and free kick to the defending side for a foul on the goalkeeper. Adding to Pittsburgh’s woes, after a 7 minute delay, Gilstrap had to leave the field and was replaced by reserve keeper Greg Blum. Orlando then piled on the pressure and went close several times but couldn’t find the net. It wasn’t just one way traffic though as the Riverhounds always looked dangerous on the break and also created a couple of chances they might have done better with on another night.
In the waning moments of the match, Head Coach Adrian Heath brought on forward Dennis Chin (pictured above) for Aodhan Quinn and in the 83rd minute, Chin came close with a header that went just wide of the post. It summed up a frustrating night for the Orlando fans but Pittsburgh will no doubt feel they were unlucky not to be leaving with the three points.
Orlando’s next home game is on 5th April against Rochester Rhinos. Hopefully by then they’ll have rediscovered their goal scoring touch!
