By MIKE GRAMAJO
ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando City were heading towards a four-game losing streak at home, trailing by two goals to a tough opponent, but Adrian Heath’s men mustered some late-game magic that hadn’t been seen since the team’s season opener.
Cyle Larin’s second career goal and Aurelien Collin’s late-game equalizer in the dying seconds of regulation helped the Lions erase a 2-0 lead and earn a 2-2 tie against the New England Revolution on Friday night in front of 27,243 in attendance at the Citrus Bowl.
“I thought the response of the players was absolutely magnificent,” said Orlando City head coach Adrian Heath on the team rallying back to earn a draw. “They kept going to the very end, and although you take Rafa’s [Ramos] mistake out for the second goal, I don’t think they had a second opportunity, and that’s a really pleasing thing.”
Luke Boden, who was starting at left back for the Lions, whipped in a cross that reached Collin, who smashed the ball into the net in the final stages of the game.
Charlie Davies scored his fourth goal of the 2015 campaign after Amobi Okugo committed a turnover that paved the way for the forward to strike the ball past Donovan Ricketts in the 19th minute.
The Revs doubled the lead in the 71st minute when Rafael Ramos’ blunder led to Kelyn Rowe rounding Ricketts to slot the ball into the net. However, Orlando City pulled one back when Ramos’ cross found Larin, who headed the ball past Bobby Shuttleworth in the 74th minute.
The game marked the first time this season Brek Shea played at left midfield, while Luke Boden played at left back. The two worked well together on the left wing, combining on several passes, but they failed to penetrate through New England’s back line.
“We always know we can be in a game, and we always know we can win a game,” said Boden. “It’s massive to get another point and hopefully we can that on to DC United. We got great players and we’re a new team. We’re still trying to gel and that’s slowly coming together.”
The Revolution were clearly the dominating team in the first half, and almost doubled the lead in the 40th minute when London Woodberry headed a ball towards Orlando’s right post, only for Davies to head the rebound off the top cross bar.
OCSC played a more impressive second half, almost finding the equalizer twice. Kaka’s corner kick in the 54th minute connected with Aurelien Collin, who headed the ball toward Shuttleworth’s hands. Boden’s cross lead to Eric Avila smashing a volley over the top cross bar moments later.
The Lions almost secured the equalizer in the 82nd minute when Ramos again whipped in a cross, which resulted in Bryan Rochez converting a bicycle kick over the top cross bar.
With Friday’s result, Orlando City still remain winless at home this season, on top of being winless in their last three games. However, Heath’s men will look to shift their focus to DC United when they visit RFK Stadium on Wednesday.
The Revs welcome Toronto FC to Gillette Stadium next week and will look to build on their eight-game unbeaten run.
The revs looked shaky on corners all night. They could have given up another easily. They have to tidy up the restart defense. It also would have helped had they not taken their foot off the gas. 2-0 is the most dangerous lead…
That’s top cross bar as opposed to what? The bottom cross bar? Cross bar will suffice.
Jones to CB was a purely deep defensive/attack mechanism that truly helped to maintain and help in the attack. Works on the club level, but he is far more perfect in that midfield role for the Nat’l team. All around fun game tho!
Heaps blew this one with poor substitutions
I hope JK is done with the Jones to CB experiment.
Agreed.