ORLANDO, FL – Orlando City SC faced off against LAFC on a rainy Saturday night in a game that stared out with a lot of action, and ended up with. 4-0 Orlando loss.
This will be the first meeting between Orlando City and Los Angeles FC since Orlando knocked LAFC out of the MLS is Back Tournament on penalties in the quarter final. LAFC is unbeaten in its two regular season matches against the Lions (W1 D1) including a 2-2 draw in Orlando in 2019.
In the first half of the match, there were 19 fouls committed, 11 by LAFC, and four goals scored.
Orlando opened the match with high energy, going on the attack right from the opening tip.
The Lions dominated possession, controlling the ball 61% of the first half, but Los Angeles played a physical game and took advantage of Orlando miscues to push to the other end.
“What happened is that we lost and we conceded four goals,” said Orlando Head Coach Oscar Pareja” three of them that are not accepted by ourselves at this level and that’s what created the difference in the game.”
In the 18th minute, Orlando’s Antonio Carlos went down after challenging on a play and needed to be stretchered off of the field, leaving a void as he was one of their defensive players.
LA started the scoring in the 24th minute when Carlos Vela looped a ball over Ryan to Christian Arango. Arango sent a cross over to Brian Rodriguez who sent it in to the far post.
Orlando equalized soon after when Ercan Kara headed a Pereyra pass in to the scrum in the box. The ball found. the feel of Alexander Pato who sent it in at the 36 minute mark.
The Black and Gold took advantage of an Orlando misplay and the ball found the feet of Jesús Murillo in the area, who was able to poke the ball into the back of the net in the 38th minute.
João Moutinho was in the right place at the right time in the 45th minute, and managed to put in a ball that was played across by Mauricio, and put it in for another equalizer before the end of the half.
LAFC was much more aggressive on the ball in the second half, coming a lot of the gaps and spaces that Orlando was able to take advantage of in the first half.
Thee Black and Gold managed to put two more scores on the board for the final score of 4-2.
The Lions return home to host Chicago Fire FC in a 1 p.m. ET kickoff on Saturday, April 9 at Exploria Stadium.
