Photo Courtesy of Orlando City
Frustration followed moments after the final whistle blew during Wednesday’s Round of 16 Leagues Cup match between Orlando City and Inter Miami at DRV PNK Stadium.
A group of Orlando players swarmed head referee Ivan Cisneros in protest of several controversial calls following a 3-1 loss to their rivals.
In the postgame press conference that followed, Lions coach Oscar Pareja shared the same sentiment of his players while expressing disappointment in not only the loss but the way the match was also officiated.
“We have to be clear on the game that was disputed by two teams and analyze tactically and analyze what could happen but we have to start with the reality of the call of the penalty and other calls that were ridiculous,” Pareja said.
“I don’t want to say that the attention that we’re getting here with all that is happening, it becomes a circus — today was a circus,” he added. “The PK was unbelievable, I don’t know if the VAR came today. So if the VAR came today and we have referees there, we have to be honest and go and see it because the game deserved it.”
The call Pareja referenced was a penalty called for Miami after Josef Martinez appeared to go down with minimal contact at the start of the second half. Martinez would eventually score the penalty to put the South Florida club 2-1 over Orlando.
Another call that left Pareja puzzled was a shove from Lionel Messi, who was already on a yellow card, to Cesar Araujo in which the latter recovered the ball after the shove but was called for a foul instead and issued a yellow card as well.
“It’s not clear, the message is not clear, the game didn’t deserve that,” said Pareja. “They don’t need to be the protagonist, just go and see it but those plays obviously had an influence. We’re very frustrated. We tried to get composure of the game but the people want to see soccer and the things were not fair.”
“There were some plays perhaps for the fans in attendance didn’t pay much attention to but there was a second yellow card [play] for Leo,” Pareja continued in Spanish on the topic of Messi’s shove on Araujo. “I don’t care if it’s him, I’m sorry but a second yellow card has to be measured the same.”
The Lions exit the 2023 Leagues Cup but return to regular season action on Aug. 20 on the road against the Chicago Fire.
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