Since
its inaugural season in 2015, the Orlando City FC have generated a lot of buzz
in Major League Soccer. Although their
on-field success hasn’t quite measured up to their off-field success, it has
always been an interest of mine to watch them play at Orlando City Stadium – a soccer-specific
stadium located right in the middle of downtown Orlando. Fortunately, the timing of my recent trip to
Orlando worked out that the Orlando City FC were in town hosting the Montreal
Impact.
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| Orlando City Stadium |
Orlando
City Stadium is located several blocks west of downtown Orlando in the
Parramore District making it relatively easy to get to. The box office is located at Gate A. You can’t miss it as it has a beautiful mural
of the Orlando City FC’s Lion logo above it, as well as Walt Disney World
signage. Security appeared to not be
letting people in just yet when I arrived just after 2pm EST, but made
exceptions for anyone looking to purchase a last minute ticket. Upon entering, you make an immediate left to
the box office. I ended up buying a seat
in you will be sent an e-ticket to your cell phone and not a physical
ticket. Make sure you have a fully
charged phone with you in that case.
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| Orlando City Stadium Festival Plaza |
With a
couple of hours to spare, I decided to just walk around the festival plaza
located just outside of Gate A to check out all the action. Here fans could find different vendors
hawking products, partake in some interactive games or just relax with a few
beers with their friends. I didn’t see
anything particularly interesting here that grabbed my attention, so I ended up
going the Yard Bar – a beer garden located kitty corner from Gate C. It caught my attention quickly because it is
set up like a beach bar with soft, white sand, picnic tables, and umbrellas. Yard Bar is cash only, but has an ATM machine
near the entrance if you require one.
The beer selection is very limited with an average price of $4 US. There are food trucks available here, as well
as classic lawn games, like cornhole, to pass the time.
Upon
making my way back to the stadium, I stopped for a few moments to take in the
Orlando City FC Supporters march. It was
kind of hard not to with the loud chants, drum beats, and flares that could be
seen and heard more than a block away. Soccer
culture is truly one-of-a-kind. You’d
never see anything like this before an NHL, NBA or MLB game, for example. And NFL culture is really just tailgating
pre-game and that’s it. There’s no
cheering or banging of drums or lighting smoke bombs and flares when
approaching the stadium. There’s no
sense of “being at war” against your opponents here. And that’s what I loved about the
Ruckus. They bring that same flair and
intensity to each match like other Supporters clubs do in Europe and other
parts of the world.
Orlando
City Stadium is simply beautiful venue.
With a capacity of 25,500, it’s small enough to still retain a bit of that
intimacy with the players on the field.
Soccer-specific stadiums are much larger in size in Europe – almost comparable
to NFL and NCAA football stadiums. The
Orlando City FC Supporters Clubs sat directly behind the team’s net. Just before kickoff, a massive plume of
purple smoke engulfed the entire stadium for nearly 10 minutes. My nose didn’t quite appreciate what my eyes
saw, but it was good see some typical soccer traditions being kept alive here
in Florida.
Sadly,
this would be the biggest highlight of the day as the match just went horribly
wrong for the home team. Montreal Impact
took an early 1 – 0 lead in the 14th minute when Saphir Taider cut a cross back
to a wide open Orji Okwonkwo who buried it past Orlando’s goalkeeper in the
bottom left corner. Less than a minute
later, Shane O’Neill made a costly error in his back pass to Orlando’s defense as
it found its way into the path of Montreal’s Maximiliano Urruti. Despite a last ditch effort by Orlando’s
goalkeeper to protect his net by aggressively charging Urruti, the ball made
its way over to Ignacio Piatti who easily scored his first of two goals of the
game with a wide open net. Without a
doubt, this moment summarized the entire match as the stadium full of cheers
turned into a stadium full of jeers just like that.
The
second half of the match was pretty uneventful until the final minutes when Piatti
scored his second goal in the 80th minute to put Montreal up 3 – 0 all be
assuring an easy victory for the visitors.
Dom Dwyer brought a little life back into Orlando City Stadium by
putting the Lions on the board in the 91st minute of extra time before a melee a
few minutes later ended any chance of a miraculous comeback from the
Lions. Montreal ended up winning the
match 3 – 1. Like I said earlier,
Orlando City FC has a lot of hype off the field. But it’s on field performances lacks
energy. Given that it’s only their fifth
season in Major League Soccer, one can only hope that Orlando City FC will find
a winning formula in due time.
2019 MLS Season – Week 3
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| Orlando City FC Supporters set off purple smoke bombs prior to kickoff |
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| Orlando City FC vs. Montreal Impact |
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| Orlando City FC's Ruan Teixeira gets tripped up on the field |
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| Orlando City Stadium |
Match:
Orlando City FC vs. Montreal Impact
Stadium:
Orlando City Stadium – Orlando, FL
Date:
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Kickoff:
4pm EST
Attendance:
22,352
Score:
3 – 1 (Montreal Impact)
14 ‘– MTL
– Orji Okwonkwo
15’ – MTL
– Ignacio Piatti (Maximiliano Urruti)
80’ – MTL – Ignacio Piatti (Harry Novillo)
91’ – ORL
– Dom Dwyer (Santiago Patiño, Chris Mueller)
