Two goals from Sebastian Giovinco, and a goal and an assist from Jozy Altidore lifted Toronto FC (10-3-5, 37 points) past Orlando City 3-1 on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of 25,029 at Orlando City Stadium.

“Obviously disappointed to lose at home, first and foremost,” said Orlando City coach Jason Kreis. “A result like that at home is never something that we want. Disappointed to go into a long break now, to have to feel the suffering of losing three points now for the next two weeks. But it doesn’t change the fact that we know there’s some particular areas that we need to be really focused on improving in the next couple of weeks.”

Giovinco set Altidore for the first goal in the 18th minute. 

Moments into the start of the second half, Altidore served Giovinco to double the lead. Altidore, who faced Bendik on a 1-on-1 challenge, managed to pass the ball to Giovinco who capitalized off the assist.

In the 63rd minute of the match, Kaka came through with an assist to Carlos Rivas who netted Orlando City’s first and only goal of the night elevating the score to 2-1, but two minutes later, Orlando conceded a free kick and Giovinco easily struck the ball past Joe Bendik for the eventual 3-1 lead. 

Despite the outcome, the Lions finished the game with 61.5 percent possession and 14 total shot attempts versus seven from Toronto. Kreis emphasized the team not only has to take this time and start working on their flaws, but that the lack of energy might be the main factor bringing them down.

“We know there are some particular areas that we need to be really focused in, on improving in the next couple of weeks and we are going to take the opportunity of extended period of time to train, to really get back to some of those things that brought us a lot of success at the beginning of the season,” said Kreis. “As well as the fact that we are a team that needs energy, and when we don’t have enough energy we suffer like we did tonight. I thought we lacked a little bit of the energy to get us back into this game and we have to find a way to stop conceding goals early … we do that. I think we’ve struggled so early in the first half.”

Kreis is usually not the type to comment on controversial topics, nor has he ever brought any of the kind. However, on Wednesday, he voluntary shared how he strongly feels about certain calls made, or better said, not made by the home referees.

“It hasn’t been asked by anybody, and I’ve spent the entire season keeping my mouth closed about it, but tonight I need to say that it’s beginning to feel like in this stadium, and I know this from prior experience, that in this stadium we have referees that will not make critical calls for us for whatever reason,” said Kreis. “It appears to me that the referees are bending over the rules backwards to show that they are not going to show any biased, perhaps that has to do with us having a ruckus crowd or whatever it is, but I am tired of it. I don’t think that us as a club, a fan group, a coaching staff, as anybody else that we should continue to stand for that.”

The Lions (8-7-5, 29 points) have a two week break before hosting Atlanta United FC on Friday July 21 at 7 p.m.

(Photo Courtesy of Orlando City) 

The Orlando Soccer Journal is now on Patreon. If you’re enjoying our independent coverage of Orlando City, Pride and OCB, please consider becoming a patron.