Orlando City wanted
to make a statement with a win. Instead, the Lions fell 3-1 to Toronto FC.
Orlando City hoped to make a statement at home and get a win against one of the league’s top teams. Instead, the Lions (8-7-5, 29 points) hung their sweatsoaked heads Wednesday night following a 3-1 loss to Toronto FC (11-3-5, 38 points) at Orlando City Stadium.
The Lions now go on a two week break before returning home July 21 to host Atlanta United.
“Really disappointed to lose at home,” Lions coach Jason Kreis said. “Disappointed to go into a long break now, to feel the suffering of losing three points for the next three weeks.”
In the days leading up to the match, Kreis said it would be important to keep tabs on forwards Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore, two of the league’s best, at all times.
The all-stars showed their skills in the 18th minute, when four defenders closed in on Giovinco but lost sight of Altidore. As the duo raced toward the net together, Giovinco passed diagonally to Altidore, who had plenty of space to cue up a scoring shot for a 1-0 lead in front of the announced crowd of 25,029.
A minute into the second half, they did it again. This time, Altidore assisted Giovinco with a forward pass. Giovinco was wide
open and easily chipped the ball past Bendik oneon-one for a 2-0 lead.
As the game wore on, Kreis pushed players higher up the field in search of a goal. As a result, Orlando City had a disproportionate number of open-play crosses. Kreis said he thought some of the crosses were “a little superfluous” and the players could have shown more patience to find betting scoring chances.
“But, we’re a group of guys that wanted to get back in that game in the worst way,” Kreis said.
With midfielder Cristian Higuita suspended due to yellow card accumulation, Orlando City initially lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Kreis typically uses some variation of a 4-4-2, which he switched to when striker Carlos Rivas subbed on for defensive midfielder Servando Carrasco at halftime.
In the 63rd minute, Kaká played a ball forward to Rivas, who cranked a shot into the far post and it bounced the right way: into the back of the net. The revived crowd chanted loudly for its home team, hoping it was the start of a comeback and Kreis took a deep breath.
“I think we played good, created a lot of chances, had a lot of crosses,” Kaká said. “[We need] more players in the box taking chances to score goals. When Carlos Rivas went on the field, he was in the box and he scored a goal.”
Two minutes later, Altidore won a free kick a couple yards outside Orlando City’s box. Giovinco took the shot and unleashed a perfectly-placed ball into the top right corner of the net, just out of Bendik’s reach.
Toronto again led by two and would until the final whistle.
Frustration over the call caused Kreis to crack his typically impassive demeanor and call out the officials after the match.
“We go away and we feel like the away team on 50-50 calls, and we come home and still feel like the away team, and it's unacceptable,” Kreis said. “I'm tired of it and...I don't think that we as a club, as fan group, as a coaching staff that we should stand for it.”