OUR OLD FRIEND KYLE SMITH CLOSES IN ON DORSIE THE HORSEY PHOTO BY MARK THOR VIA ORLANDO CITY SC
Orlando City SC lost 6-2 to FC Cincinnati on Saturday night at TQL Stadium in the team’s final match before MLS pauses for the FIFA World Cup.
Martín Ojeda scored twice for Orlando City, including a 16th-minute penalty kick and a 48th-minute free kick that temporarily brought the Lions level at 2-2, but that was before FC Cincinnati responded with four unanswered goals to secure the win. Ojeda’s penalty was awarded after forward Tiago drew a foul in the box against Cincinnati defender (and former Lion) Kyle Smith.
“I think the scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story,” said interim head coach Martín Perelman. Whish was an interesting tactic. “It’s a heavy loss. We were winning until the first 42 minutes, playing well. Maybe we pay a little bit expensive the fatigue of the amount of games, or the semester in general, which wasn’t easy for us.”
“It’s not the way we want to go into this break, but overall, I think it’s a semester where everybody fought, and we will take the break to recover energy,” Perelman said. “Now, finally, myself and the team, we will have time to prepare ourselves after the break, which is something we didn’t have, so that will be so useful for us, and we will become stronger to face the second part of the year.”
Orlando City enters the break with a 4-9-2 record and 14 points. The team will return to action on July 22 at the San Jose Earthquakes. The Lions’ first home match after the break is July 25 against Nashville SC.
