Photo by Justin Gatt / Orlando Soccer Journal
For the third time this season, the Lions conceded first at home.
And for the third time this season, they were also dealt defeat to add to the ongoing home struggles this season.
This time against D.C. United as the visitors stamped a 3-1 victory over Orlando City on Saturday night in front of an announced attendance of 19,514 at Exploria Stadium.
The loss marked a continuation of struggles at home that’s plagued the Lions since last season. Apart from their defensive struggles on one end — on the other, Orlando has only scored three goals in its first five games of the season at Exploria Stadium.
Taxi Fountas opened the scoring for DCU early on in the 15th minute after a turnover in the midfielder from Ivan Angulo saw former Orlando player Ruan play an open ball to the Greek forward to slot the ball past Pedro Gallese.
Duncan McGuire, who’s been a revelation so far this season for Orlando, scored for the second consecutive time — for his third goal of the season — in the 23rd minute to tie the game.
But a second-half defensive collapse saw DCU score twice within ten minutes to secure the win.
A goal from Donovan Pines in the 52nd minute gave Wayne Rooney’s team the go-ahead goal off a corner kick. Christian Beneteke made it 3-1 in the 62nd after the forward pounced on a failed clearance from Orlando.
“Surely we need to find reasons and be clear on that,” Lions coach Oscar Pareja said after the game. “At this point, it’s difficult to be very precise on that, because the boys have been training well. The courage and the style and information work on these games where we had to go out and battle in different stadiums, and we come here at home and we don’t get the job done in front of our fans is disappointing, but we have to keep pushing and we have to find those answers.”
Orlando fell to 3-3-2 with 11 points this season. At home, however, the Lions are 1-3-1 where they’ve only been able to secure 4 points out of a maximum 15 points at this point of the regular season.
Up next, the L.A. Galaxy visit Exploria Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. and will stream live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
Scoring Summary
15′ – Taxi Fountas, assisted by Ruan (DC)
23′ – Duncan McGuire, assisted by Martin Ojeda and Antonio Carlos (ORL)
52′ – Donovan Pines, assisted by Mateusz Klich (DC)
62′ – Christian Benteke, assisted by Victor Palsson (DC)
How the Lions lined up:
Orlando City XI: Pedro Gallese; Antonio Carlos, Rodrigo Schlegel (Rafael Santo, 65′), Robin Jansson; Ivan Angulo, Gaston Gonzalez, Cesar Araujo, Mauricio Pereyra – c (Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, 67′); Facundo Torres, Martin Ojeda (Ercan Kara, 65′), Duncan McGuire (Ramiro Enrique, 52′).
Unused substitutions: Mason Stajduhar, Wilder Cartegena, Felipe Martins, Abdi Salim, Kyle Smith.
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