After lots of bye week deliberation time following our 1-2 Nashville SC defeat on April 1, Oscar Pareja‘s Orlando City SC bounced back with a much-needed 1-2 road victory at Minnesota United last Saturday.
Achieving a comeback win against legendary former City head coach Adrian Heath, second-half goals from Iván Angulo and Duncan McGuire sealed a super satisfying victory at Allianz Field.
Starting with a 3-5-2 / 5-3-2 formation with Iván Angulo and Gastón González as wing backs, Oscar Pareja put pragmatism first as he always does on the road.
The early signs weren’t good however with Bongokuhle Hlongwane sending a glaring miss wide as early as the third minute.
The first-half saw Orlando City SC really struggle to get to grips with a relatively new formation.
With City learning on the job, Ménder García, Bongokuhle Hlongwane, and Jeong Sang-bin were all particularly menacing.
The Loons’ attacking trio found lots of space and forced a flurry of early pressure.
Indeed, it looked as if Orlando City SC and our supporters were in for a long night.
But as we’ve often seen from Oscar Pareja‘s side on the road, City battled hard, admittedly rode their luck, and survived through to half-time at 0-0.
However, by 58 minutes, that familiar sinking feeling was felt in the gut of Orlando City SC supporters everywhere.
With Hassani Dotson doing well to get to the byline, he cut the ball back across City’s penalty area for the dangerous Bongokuhle Hlongwane who dispatched a simple tap-in past Pedro Gallese.
At this moment, you could forgive City supporters for feeling super disappointed. After all, we had a lack of quality and ingenuity up until this point.
Just when you wondered whether this City side might crumble, up stepped Iván Angulo.
On 67 minutes, the right wing back rushed towards the Loons’ back post at breakneck speed before sending a deadly accurate strike past Dayne St. Clair into the top left hand corner.
Striking Gastón González‘s cross one-time, Angulo had a lot to do, and this equaliser was just the tonic Orlando City SC needed.
Then on 88 minutes, following an incredible Pedro Gallese save on Franco Fragapane just a minute earlier, pure bedlam.
Entering for Ramiro Enrique as a sub in the 78th minute, rookie Duncan McGuire scored his second City goal and his second on the road.
Heading home a delicately dinked shot from Iván Angulo that agonisingly hit the crossbar, McGuire wheeled away inside a silently stunned Allianz Field.
An incredibly sweet strike, especially amid mounting pressure on Oscar Pareja and Orlando City SC to get results, it was away day delight in a very well managed second-half.
At full-time, cue witty quips of “Orlando runs on Duncan” on social media. This is of course a fun homage to Dunkin Donuts’ famous “America runs on Dunkin'” motto.
As for Gameweek 9 opponents D.C. United, Wayne Rooney’s Black and Red earned a 0-1 victory at lowly CF Montréal last weekend.
Lewis O’Brien’s solitary strike helped defeat former D.C. head coach Hernán Losada in a super satisfying away day.
Elsewhere, Orlando City SC will have a temporary change of colour scheme for this MLS fixture at Exploria Stadium.
The Lions will wear the limited edition ‘acid mint and black’ version of the 2023 Orlando City SC Adidas One Planet Kit during this game.
With D.C. United wearing a ‘black and acid mint’ Adidas One Planet Kit too, these eco-friendly jerseys form part of an Earth Day awareness initiative between Adidas and Major League Soccer.
Orlando City SC vs D.C. United
Last 3 head-to-heads
- July 4, 2022: Orlando City SC 3 D.C. United 5 (MLS)
- July 31, 2022: D.C. United 2 Orlando City SC 1 (MLS)
- March 11, 2023: D.C. United 1 Orlando City SC 1 (MLS)
2015/23 head-to-head stats
- It was 1-1 the last time the sides met (March 2023)
- Played D.C. 16 times in MLS – Orlando 6, Draws 2, D.C. 8
- Wayne Rooney is unbeaten against Orlando in 3 games as D.C. head coach
- Orlando have failed to win their last 3 home fixtures in MLS
- There have been under 2.5 goals scored in D.C.’s last 3 MLS fixtures
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Watching the game
Orlando City SC vs D.C. United will be shown live on Apple TV at 00:30 (GMT) on Sunday, April 23.
Remember, UK supporters can watch all of Orlando City SC‘s 2023 MLS regular season fixtures by subscribing to Apple TV’s “MLS Season Pass”.
Subscribe now by clicking here.
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