Final
Orlando City ready to tangle with DCU at Cirtus Bowl
Jun 12, 2015 - 8:23 PM Orlando, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - A pair of new Eastern Conference rivals will clash on Sunday as Orlando City SC welcomes D.C. United to the Citrus Bowl.Sunday's match marks the third and final clash between the teams this season. The clubs first met on April 3 in Florida as Luis Silva's stoppage-time goal handed United a 1-0 win.
On May 13, United again claimed three points, this time with a 2-1 victory over the Lions at RFK Stadium.
Orlando will be aiming for its second consecutive win after a late rally to claim a 3-2 result over the Chicago Fire last time out.
Chicago opened the scoring after nine minutes when Kennedy Igboananike bagged his second of the season off a nice assist from David Accam.
But the Lions battled back to equalize five minutes before the break when Fire defender Adailton knocked the ball into his own net for the own goal as the sides went into the break level.
The Fire grabbed the lead again in the 57th minute as Accam did well to latch onto a nice through ball from Harry Shipp and fire home a quality finish from the top of the penalty area.
But as the clock reached the final 10 minutes, Orlando roared to life and made it 2-2 with eight minutes to play via an excellent finish off the boot of rookie Cyle Larin, and the winning tally came four minutes later as Adailton put a second goal into his own net, handing three points to the Lions.
"In between the goals, I thought we were far and away the better team in terms of football this evening," OCSC said head coach Adrian Heath. "I feel as though the group is coming together a little bit more, there's a little bit more camaraderie and it's a really happy dressing room. I told them 'nothing comes easy. Anything that's worth fighting for is hard.' They dug in tonight and they were excellent. I thought there were some really good performances."
D.C. United, meanwhile, will aim to take three points after suffering a 2-1 loss to Toronto FC at RFL Stadium last week.
United started quickly and nearly scored in the fifth minute when Fabian Espindola smacked a shot off the crossbar.
But his corner kick one minute later was finished off by second-year defender Steve Birnbaum to give the hosts a great start.
United goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra did well to deny Sebastian Giovinco in the 24th minute, but he couldn't do anything to keep the ball out of his net 10 minutes later as the Italian cut the ball back to his left and scored from close range.
Jozy Altidore entered the match as a substitute in the second half for TFC and he contributed to the winning goal with a nice dummy that set up Giovinco for a 30-yard rocket that was certainly worthy of winning a match.
"It's pretty simple, we went in to the game trying to limit [Sebastian] Giovinco's influence and that didn't go so well," said United head coach Ben Olsen. "But, he's a special player. We are going to come up against very good players in this league and he's certainly at the top of that list. On any given day he can do what he did today. He's a difference maker."
- D.C. UNITED: 0
ORLANDO CITY SC: 1
Final
Jun 14 9:10 PM - D.C. UNITED: 0
ORLANDO CITY SC: 1
Halftime
Jun 14 8:04 PM - D.C. UNITED: 0
ORLANDO CITY SC: 0
1st Half - 17'
Jun 14 7:17 PM
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