Sports

Tough Weekend for Orlando Soccer: City and Pride Both Disappoint

Pride Draw at Home

Photo Credit: Marty Jean-Louis

The Orlando Pride (8-6-5, 29 points), fresh off of  a 2-1 road win over the Utah Royals, return to the Purple Palace on Saturday to face one of the leagues leading teams, Seattle Reign FC (8-4-6, 30 points). In front of a crowd of over 5,000 fans, started the charge but let one get by for a 1-1 draw.

Orlando took a 1-0 lead at the 21st minute when Toni Pressley took a blocked shot in the center of the box, spun her defender around and ripped a shot past Seattle keeper Lydia Williams. It was Pressley’s first goal of the season and second career goal.

“I thought we started okay. We had some decent passages of play, but we didn’t seem to have the energy tonight to really threaten Seattle as much as we should have and I just felt we made, what I call, a lot of really fundamental errors. And I felt that again we went back into bad habits at times and it was kind of frustrating,” Pride Head Coach Tom Sermanni said.

Early in the second half, Reign FC’s Jodie Taylor slipped into the box and attempted to shoot around Orlando goalkeeper Haley Kopmeyer. But Pressley came up big again, this time on the other end of the field, blocking the shot and then clearing it from danger. Kopmeyer made six saves in her second start of the season.

Photo Credit: Marty Jean-Louis

The Reign were able to break Kopmeyer’s shutout bid in the 70th minute, after Nahomi Kawasumi picked out Taylor in the six-yard box. The forward used a quick touch to sneak the ball past Kopmeyer from close range.

The Pride will see two weeks before their next match, returning to Orlando City Stadium on Aug. 5 to take on Sky Blue FC. The match will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET. During the break, Pride players Alex Morgan, Ashlyn Harris, Alanna Kennedy, Emily van Egmond, Marta, Monica and Poliana will all compete with their respective national teams in the Tournament of Nations.

Orlando City Lose The Lead After Questionable Call

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Orlando City (7-12-1, 22 points) was cruising with a 2-1 lead over the Columbus Crew (9-7-6, 33 points) until the 86th minute, which ended in a 3-2 Crew win on Saturday at MAPFRE Stadium.

The Lions once again scored first in the match, the second time in three MLS games under O’Connor when Kljestan buried RJ Allen’s cross in the 16th minute.

Gyasi Zardes equalized for Columbus in the 51st minute.

City retook the lead just seven minutes later. Yoshimar Yotún played the ball up to Kljestan, who passed across for Pinho for his second goal of the season to make it 2-1.

City appeared to be headed for a much needed win until Crew SC was awarded an extremely questionable penalty kick in the 86th minute. Joe Bendik, who replaced Earl Edwards, Jr. in the 32nd minute, guessed correctly but couldn’t catch up to Zardes’ shot.

Wil Trapp scored the winner from 30 yards out in stoppage time.

The Lions return to Orlando City Stadium at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 26, to host New York City FC.

 

 

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