Photo by Kim Klement/USA Today Sports
By MIKE GRAMAJO
ORLANDO — For Orlando City, Friday night provided the latest in a worrying trend of reminders that poor finishing in Major League Soccer will be punished.
D.C. United (3-1-0) withstood a first-half onslaught from the Orlando City (1-2-2)attack, with goalkeeper Bill Hamid providing the early heroics, then Luis Silva made Orlando City pay for its missed chances when he delivered a stoppage-time free kick goal to lift DC United to a 1-0 victory at the Citrus Bowl in front of 32,822 in attendance.
Silva, who came into the game in the second half, converted on a free kick, sending the ball past Donovan Ricketts in the dying minutes of the game to prevent Orlando City from recording its first win at home this season.
“It’s not an easy night,” said Orlando City head coach Adrian Heath. “Goals change games, and we didn’t score when we had the opportunities at really important times. Unfortunately, we paid the price for it in the end. It’s disappointing, and I don’t think the team deserved to take nothing from this game this evening.”
The late goal surrendered marked the third time in as many home matches where Orlando City saw points dropped due to a last-minute free kick.
Brek Shea, who arguably had his best game yet at left back, dominated the flanks for a majority of the game. The former Potter almost helped put OCSC on the scoreboard in the 17th minute when he whipped in a cross from a Kaka corner Kick, finding Amobi Okugo only to head the ball wide of the post.
The tempo of the game changed in the 18th minute when Orlando City lost Pedro Ribeiro to a hamstring injury. The Brazilian, who scored for the Lions during the Montreal Impact game, has been tipped as the starting forward for the past two games.
Orlando City’s possessive style of soccer was displayed on Friday night, which saw the Lions control 52.4 percent possession overall against DC United. On the attack front, Heath’s men had 17 attempts on goal to DCU’s 11 shots at goal.
“It’s tough, we did a lot of good things, so we’re going to focus on that,” said Amobi Okugo. “We can’t make this into a habit when we’re at home and we dominate the game. We’re not assassins in the final third and we end up getting punished. After the game, [DCU] coach Ben Olsen came up to me and said ‘You guys killed us, I don’t know how we came out” so we gotta take that positive. We could of finished on chances.”
Chris Rolfe almost put DC United on the board before halftime, hitting a volley which went inches away from the net. Conor Doyle also got the opportunity to put DCU on the scoresheet in the 68th minute before getting denied by Shea at the goal line, only to follow with Donovan Ricketts making a finger-tip save for the Lions to keep the game leveled.
Kaka was Orlando’s catalyst for the first half, finding Molino, Rafael Ramos and Cyle Larin on occasions, but the attackers failed to capitalize on those opportunities. The Orlando City captain put much of the pressure on D.C. United goalkeeper Bill Hamid, who made a total of five outstanding saves to keep Ben Olsen’s squad from conceding.
OCSC’s last chance of creating the game-winning goal came in the 81st minute when Molino found Carlos Rivas, who came into the game in the 71st minute, open only to send the ball wide of the post.
The Lions are now in a three-game winless streak, and will look to shift their focus to next week when they visit the Portland Timbers on Sunday. D.C. United welcomes the New York Red Bulls to RFK Stadium next week.
Wasn’t pretty from DC last night, but the way they keep grinding out results without Johnson, Espindola, and Silva (save 15 minutes last night) has to be commended!
Orlando really needs forwards, badly. Kaka’ creating all those chances, and yet no finish. I am drive-up to Orlando, to see MLS game…haha
DC really needs good CM for better tempo, keep Farfan on check.
Ribero going down really hurt them.
true, what happened to Rochez? have they used him yet? isn’t he a DP? seems silly to DP a player and not use him. they defeintaly should have finished like 4 goals yesterday. credit OCSC for playing hard but geez, just finish. I’m not talking about the Hamid saves, just the shots that weren’t even on target which should have been.
BTW Brek’s goal line save was great. he got crossed over in the box and had the mind to immediately go to the goal line to help out. that’s a good sign for his LB progression.
I watched the highlights online and WOW, how horrid was that commentator? Literally had to watch the FOUR MINUTE highlight video on mute.
i watched the 21 minuted condensed game and SHOULD have watched it on mute. he was terrible. sounded like he knew nothing about the game and would just yell any time there was a shot to try and sound like the game was crazy.
Orlando City is a pleasure to watch except for Aurélien Collin who is a piece of crap. Every time Kaka has the ball you expect something exciting to happen. Brek Shea who looked exhausted after his European travels looked very good linking up with Kaka. Win or lose this team will fun to watch when Aurélien Collin isn’t throwing elbows at opposing players.
What a shame Orlando didn’t at least draw! I thought they played better. But give DC credit they took their chances.
Rivas has to do better on his finish for Orlando.
That kaka pass to Lervin (forget his name) was so sick!!
DC fans…. what do u think about the away jersey? ? Look good I thought. Different.
I like the new away jersey. I bought one the day it came out.
Agreed. Nice to see DC continue its tradition of classy jerseys.
Larin
Good for Silva!
DCU will be SBI Team of the Weak!
Intentional mispelling? They certainly were pretty weak
😉
Hamid needs to get himself to Europe soon, maybe even in the summer.
+1 I have to agree with this statement. Hamid was an absolute boss out there today. DC has 3 points instead of zero almost entirely because of him– kept his team in the game in a way that made the believe they could win. You could tell by the end that OC was scared of putting the ball anywhere near him, and as such they began putting relatively straightforward chances well off-frame.
Heading to Europe at this point in the career has definitely been a successful blueprint for our top keepers. And unlike our outfield players, they have mostly had success in finding and claiming first-choice opportunities with the teams that brought them over.
I have not always been a believer in Hamid, but he is converting me game-by-game. Probably time for him to take it to the next level, at least as far as pressure and expectation are concerned. It would be nice to have somebody coming in behind the current crop of 30-somethings who really looked the part of a US GK.
So which European team’s bench will Bill go sit on? Of course there is always Scandinavial leagues, MLS in Europe.
+1
Thank you! I love Hamid but he is not starting at any serious club in Europe right now. So the options become sit and wait (lot’s of good that will do him) or go become a starter on a relegation lifer side.
I wonder if folks think these things out when they say our guys should run to Europe. Hamid is a goal keeper for Pete’s sake! There is a somewhat of an argument to be made about other field positions going to Europe but Keeper has not been one of those for us.
“There is a somewhat of an argument to be made about other field positions going to Europe but Keeper has not been one of those for us.”
you’re kidding right? because Friedel, Guzan, Howard have never played in Europe……………………
I don’t agree. He just needs to avoid the mistake of going to a club with an established keeper. Basically don’t go to the EPL.
Go to Italy, Germany or France. for a new that wants a new keeper and not just a good backup. I’m pretty sure he could start for a team like Empoli.
So what you are saying is DC United will be back in the playoffs.
Very likely yes.
Well, now that you mention it, that’s probably true. Still more proof that fussing about beautiful soccer is often pointless. If you don’t have much talent, stay compact on defense, hire a good goalkeeper, keep playing and wait for the other team to make mistakes. Bingo, results galore.
Keys to DCU long term success: play teams that can’t finish and can’t maintain a disciplined wall on free kicks.
Key to DC is spelled H-A-M-I-D. Dude was sick. I haven’t seen so many spectacular saves in a loooong time.