New England Revolution vs. Orlando City FC
Hosts New England Revolution have handed to visitors Orlando City FC what appears to be a devastating defeat, which is likely to leave MLS expansion side Orlando out of the playoffs for its first Major League Soccer season.
Orlando City were missing several critical members of its squad last night, namely forward Cyle Larin (11 goals this season), star playmaker Kaka (9 goals) and defensive midfielder Darwin Caren (2 goals) are all are international duty this week.
New England Revolution played without central midfielder Jermaine Jones, who is also on international duty.
New England pretty much dominated the entire match, with 54% possession throughout, 21 shots (compared to Orlando’s 8) of which 8 were on target (compared to Orlando’s 4). Without its key players, Orlando City SC appeared to be overmatched by any count.
One Orlando player that did give an impressive performance was goalkeeper Tally Hall, who at times appeared to be standing alone in front of New England’s repeated attacks, as his team’s defense was nowhere to be found. Hall produced five saves throughout the game.
Tally Hall’s did manage to deny the Revolution from a goal for most of the first half, but as halftime was approaching, Lee Nguyen and Charlie Davies managed to deliver a ball to Diego Fagundez, who from the upper-left corner of the 6-yard box shot across to the right and found the back of Orlando’s net (43’).
New England Revolution 1 – 0 Orlando City SC
Returning from halftime, New England kept knocking on Orlando’s front door. While Tally Hall again continued to come up with impressive saves, there is only so much a keeper can do with a defensive back gone missing.
Towards the end of the match, Revolution did manage to come up with an insurance goal. With Teal Bunbury inside the right side of the box, passing to Juan Agudelo, who was somehow unmarked inside the 6th, and finishing another goal for the hosts (84’).
New England Revolution 2 – 0 Orlando City SC
Adding insult to Orlando’s injury, New England continued to play entertaining soccer inside Orlando’s box with little-to-no interruption from the visitors’ defense.
Completing his third assist for the night, Lee Nguyen passed a ball from the left to Diego Fagundez who was inside the box. Fagundez back heeled the ball to Chris Tierney, who concluded the night with another goal for New England (94’+4’).
New England Revolution 3 – 0 Orlando City SC
This match leaves New England at fourth and Orlando at eighth place in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference.
Both teams are set to play again next Sunday, with New England travelling to Toronto FC and Orlando returning home to the Citrus Bowl to host Sporting Kansas City.
