It was the Strikers stealing momentum early on with a goal in the 12th minute by Jose Angulo. Then 3 minutes later the Lions roared back as Kevin Molino cut through the defense up the field and into the box, where he flipped the ball over a diving Diego Restrepo and into the net for the equalizer.
Then both teams had a back and forth affair, neither gaining any true advantage. Moreover, this continued into the second half until the 66th minute.
That is when chaos broke loose in the middle of the field with both teams coming together in a scuffle. Video would show Molino for Orlando City and Maicon Santos for the Strikers, exchange punches, that didn’t look to have connected. However, this resulted in both players being shown red cards and made it a 10 on 10 match for the rest of the night.
In times like these, it is usually a momentum swing to the home team and their crowd usually erupts 20,000+ strong in an echo of a rallying cry for their team, thus feeding the team with energy. However, this night, that cry was a fainter volume. Almost a trailing volume as the chants seemed to get lost in the 57,000+ empty seats in the stadium.
So the fight continued, and both teams fought valiantly in a physical match that found itself in a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation. Into extra time we went, with chance after chance coming inside the box for Orlando City. It looked for certain that the Lions would get the goal to edge Ft Lauderdale.
However, as the first 15-minute of extra time came to a close it was still a 1-1 draw and the second period of extra time began to dwindle down. Both teams were physically fatigued and maintained their defense as a top priority, not wanting to concede the game winner. There were times that the Lions made deep late pushes, but there just wasn’t that ambiance of fan support that is Orlando City SC, which usually ends in some “magic” for the home team.
Then it happened. In the 120th minute, Orlando had just conceded a foul, thus leading the ref to award the Strikers a free kick. As multiple members of the Lions squad argued the issue with the ref, the Strikers wasted not time putting the ball in play. Then left back PC danced his way through a lagging Lions defense on hit a brilliant drive with his right foot into the far right corner of the net, giving the Strikers the late 2-1 lead.
As the Strikers players erupted in celebration of the goal, many of the Lions players ran to ref in protest of the previous foul. However, the damage was done and after a final chance by Orlando City, the final whistle blew, and the Lions US Open Cup chances were dashed in the round of 16.
Now maybe if there were more fans in the crowd the Lions would have still lost, maybe it would not have made a difference at all. However, one has to wonder when the heart of the Lions is truly the beauty of their fan base. What if this was not the 4th least attended Orlando City home match in the history of the teams existence in the City Beautiful.
All that is for certain is that this was a thrilling match to watch and that Orlando City SC is eliminated from the US Open Cup.