Orlando City B (5-6-9, 24 points) entered the field Tuesday night seeking break its five game winless run, but ended the match with a 0-0 draw against the Harrisburg City Islanders (6-9-6, 24 points) at Orlando City Stadium.

“Frustrating night again. I feel like it’s deja vu as the last probably four home games now,” OCB head coach Anthony Pulis said after Tuesday’s game. “I’m Probably going to say the same exact thing, where we had the majority of the ball, some really good passages of play and just an end product again as you’ve seen, creating good chances, we just can’t finish them off at the moment.”

Overall Orlando held 52.2 percent of ball possession versus Harrisburg’s 47.8 percent, but it was Orlando’s poor 15.4 percent shooting accuracy that made it difficult for the Lions to capitalize off of any of their 13 shot attempts, 10 more attempts than their opposing team.

The Lions who played a 4-4-2 formation, started the game with a completely new back line composed by Youmeni Jules, Zach Carroll, Leo Pereira and Victor Pagliari Giro, but for a team whose lineup is in constant change, being able to do their best independent of the situation is all that’s left.

“I thought they were all good tonight. It’s not easy but it’s something we are all used to with this team. I don’t think we’ve ever had an unchanged lineup in the 18 months we’ve had this team,” said Pulis. “Three games in seven days, we knew coming into this stretch that we were going to rotate the squad and play virtually a different 11 tonight. It is a worry sometimes when you throw a group out there that have trained together for one or two days in preparation, but I thought that the back line for the most part played pretty well.”

Since their last win against the Rochester Rhinos on June 23, the Lions have ended their matches with a tie or a scoreless draw. According to Pulis, the football is there, their training sessions have been perfect, the ball is just not going in at the moment.

“Training sessions have been excellent all year. The attitude and the application of the guys everyday has been first class, so I’m not going to sit here and criticize them, cause as you’ve seen they’ve given their all again tonight. I think we could’ve easily won all four of those last four home games we’ve tied. It’s not going for us at the moment, it’s not dropping but I’ll make sure that their heads are right for what is going to be a massive game at Cincinnati for us on Saturday.”

OCB’s next chance to seek a win will be on Saturday at 7 p.m. as they face FC Cincinnati in the Nippert Stadium.

Orlando City B starting lineup: Earl Edwards Jr., Victor Pagliari Giro (45’ Conor Donovan), Leo Pereira, Youmeni Jules, Zach Carroll, Scott Thomsen, Pierre da Silva, Ryley Kraft, Jordan Schweitzer (62’ Tony Rocha), Albert Dikwa, Michael Cox (62’ Hadji Barry)

Orlando Substitutes: Tony Rocha, Austin Martz, Hadji Barry, Jake Fenlason, Joe Gallardo, Conor Donovan, Timbo

(Photo Courtesy of Mark Thor / Orlando City) 

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