Once again, Orlando City fell behind in the first half and once again, they came back in the second. The Lions scored three goals in the final half-hour – including two in four minutes – to pick up a 3-1 win over Real Salt Lake, a club-record sixth in a row.
Orlando were forced to work from behind when Corey Baird opened the scoring after the visitors broke a spell of early spell pressure. Damir Kreilach lofted a through ball into Baird’s path, and the Homegrown forward chipped Joe Bendik for his second goal of the season.
After an early RSL flurry to start the second half, Orlando turned the game on its head with two goals just after the hour mark. In the 61st minute, Sacha Kljestan found a streaking Dom Dwyer with a floated cross, and who then redirected it into the goal for his sixth in as many games. Then, three minutes later, Yoshi Yotun connected with an unmarked Lamine Sane on a corner kick for the Senegalese defender’s first MLS goal.
The goals brought the home crowd to life, and Yotun would give them further reason to celebrate when he slammed home a rebound to give Orlando some insurance heading into the final stretch of the game.
Goals
- 13′ – RSL – Corey Baird | Watch
- 61′ – ORL – Dom Dwyer | Watch
- 64′ – ORL – Lamine Sane | Watch
- 78′ – ORL – Yoshimar Yotun | Watch
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: For the fourth time in six games, Orlando gave up the first goal, but for the sixth time in six games, they found a way to win. It’s certainly thrilling the fans at Orlando City Stadium but as always, the question will be whether the comebacks sustainable. RSL are left still seeking their first road win since mid-August 2017, but can take some positives away from the loss – they created good looks in attack and were unlucky to hit the woodwork twice in the game and be denied by Bendik on a number of other occasions.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: The visitors created by far the better of the chances for the first hour of the game, but it went all for naught thanks to a brutal four minutes of defending. First, Pablo Ruiz lost Dwyer on Orlando’s equalizer, while Justen Glad failed to challenge Sane on the go-ahead tally:
Nightmare 5 mins for RSL right there. Nice header from Sane but Glad *has to* do better there. #ORLvRSL
— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) May 6, 2018
- MAN OF THE MATCH: Kljestan hasn’t missed a beat since his offseason trade from the New York Red Bulls, and he was excellent again on Sunday. He delivered an inch-perfect assist for Dwyer’s crucial equalizer and made five more key passes as he pulled all the strings in Orlando’s attack.
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