Orlando, FL. – On a very rainy and dark Orlando Wednesday afternoon, Orlando City hosted their first Open Cup match versus the New England Revolution. The Revolution coming off of a 3-2 extra time win over fellow MLS team, New York Red Bulls. Orlando had a slightly easier path to get to the Round of 16 as they breezed by USL Championship team, Memphis 901 FC, by a score of 3-1.
A midweek game in the US Open Cup played out exactly as it sounds. It was a very lackluster performance from both sides, with both sides only producing nine shots combined. Orlando seemed to hold possession and control the game, however, when the Revs had the ball they seemed to take advantage. Of the nine shots in the first half, seven of them were from New England’s attacking side. Only one of those seven shots was on target for the Revolution though further showing the slow pace of the match.
The second half of the game wouldn’t change much as Orlando would muster up a total of five shots to New England’s seven. It was practically a repeat of the first half, until the final five minutes of the match. The tempo would change, Orlando City actually looked like a decent attacking team and the atmosphere of the crowd got amped up by 10. Although there wasn’t a change in the score, it felt like a different game and it would be the same way heading into extra time.
Extra time would prove to be the deciding factor in the match, as Orlando City put two past New England goalkeeper Matt Turner, the first coming from homegrown player, Benji Michel. This would be his first senior team goal and boy was it a crucial one. Michel was in the right place at the right time and slid the ball right past Turner to put the Lions up 1-0 in the 96’. Just five minutes later Tesho Akindele would put the Lions up 2-0 in the 101’ off of a lucky sequence of a deflection that forced Turner to dive the wrong way and allowing the ball to roll slowly into the back of the net.
The Lions looked to have put the game away with Akindele’s goal, but not before their nickname of “cardiac cats” would catch up with them. In the 117th minute, Justin Rennicks nodded in a header on the back post to make the score 2-1 with three minutes of extra time left. Referee Marcos De Oliveira then added on three minutes of added time and the whole stadium seemed to hold their breath for those three minutes. New England would get two more shots off but neither would be close to goal.
The Lions proved some people wrong as they kept their fight in this game and didn’t slow down. “I think we showed a lot of character in this game… we’ve been building on this since preseason, James came in and tried to really flip the script on what we’re trying to build here.”, Orlando City Goalkeeper, Adam Grinwis, said postgame. We will see if the Lions can continue playing with that grit and fight on June 26th versus DC United at 8 PM ET.
Written by Zach Bartkus
