Orlando, FL. – In yet another rainy and humid Orlando summer night, the Orlando City Lions faced an opponent not too familiar with playing in Orlando. Just the third time that Sporting has visited The City Beautiful, the previous two times they failed to grab the three points on the road trip. whoever wins.
Orlando City’s Dom Dwyer started off the match with a wide-open header in the second minute that he somehow managed to put wide. Dwyer’s form hasn’t been the best as he’s only racked up five goals and two assists in over 1000 minutes played in 19 games. Not but five minutes later a clash between Tim Melia and Kyle Smith occurred. Smith took an elbow/forearm to the head and went down. There was a four-minute period where Smith stayed down and when he got up you could see him holding his head with a rag. He ended up having to get six stitches in the side of his head to patch up the wound.
The impact this game came from the other striker, Tesho Akindele. Tesho slotted the ball near post from a Carlos Ascues cross from the right side of the goal in the 21st minute. The goal was a big morale boost for the home side, the Lions haven’t been known as one of the strongest teams in the league this year but a lead is a lead and they needed to hold it.
The rest of the match was consumed by both teams going back and forth in possession until the final 15-20 minutes of the match. Sporting starting passing the ball around the back and launching the ball forward in hopes of bringing the score level at one-a-piece. Benny Feilhaber had that opportunity but pushed the shot wide off of a Roger Espinoza cross. That would be the last true chance that Kansas would get to level the game.
In three trips to newly named Exploria Stadium, Kansas City has only come out with a single point when they drew with Orlando 2-2 in the 2017 season. Orlando picks up their ninth win on the season and their sixth at home. The Lions now sit tied with the two teams from Canada, Toronto and Montreal, at 33 points. Montreal holds the tiebreaker with 10 wins with Orlando and Toronto at nine. The final playoff spot is up for grabs in the East right now with only eight games remaining in the regular season. City travels North to Minnesota to take on former head coach, Adrian Heath this Saturday, August 17th at 8:00 PM ET.
Written by Zach Bartkus
