PHOTO BY MARK THOR VIA ORLANDO CITY SC
Orlando City SC scored twice in the second half but let a two-goal lead slip before Tyrese Spicer’s stoppage-time equalizer salvaged a 3-3 draw against Minnesota United FC on Saturday night at Allianz Field.
Orlando opened the scoring in the 28th minute when Daryl Dike, making his first MLS start since returning to the club this summer, when he outmuscled his defenders and fired in the opener, and drew first blood.
Antoine Griezmann doubled the lead in the 64th minute after Justin Ellis found him and put him one-on-one with goalkeeper Alec Smir. Griezmann slotted the ball calmly into the lower right corner for his fifth goal across all competitions since arriving in Orlando and schmeared Smir.
Minnesota United then flipped the match in just a four-minute window with Marcus Caldeira, Anthony Markanich and Kelvin Yeboah all scoring to put the home side up 3-2 with roughly 15 minutes left. Which is insane.
In the third minute of second-half stoppage time, Griezmann picked up a pass in his own half and lofted a long ball down the left wing to Spicer, who drove into the box and finished at the near post to earn Orlando a point. It was Spicer’s eighth goal of the year across all competitions.
Interim head coach Martín Perelman made three changes to his starting lineup from Orlando’s previous match against Real Salt Lake, inserting Dike, Ellis and Joran Gerbet into the starting XI. Defenders Adrián Marín (thigh) and Bernardo Rhein (thigh) and midfielder Braian Ojeda (foot) missed the match due to injury.
“What everybody saw is probably 60 minutes of really good [football],” Perelman said after the match. “We came here, we were winning two-zero, and it’s disappointing to be losing three-two with some mistakes we committed. And then the guys did a huge effort. We never stopped fighting, even with those mistakes. We were able to come back to tie. Weird sensation because we were really close to winning, but a point on the road is always a point.”
Dike called the result frustrating despite the late equalizer. “Frustrating match,” he said. “I think we worked really hard from minute one. It’s never easy to go anywhere away. We put ourselves in a good position, and unfortunately, collectively, we made a few mistakes that they capitalized on. Frustrating. I think at the beginning, you take a point, but knowing how the game played out, and the quality, the standard, that we have for ourselves, it’s a frustrating one.”
Orlando City returns home to Inter&Co Stadium to face San Diego FC on Saturday, September 5, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. on Apple TV.
