Larin Tallies Twice in OCSC Victory

The Orlando City Soccer Club got their season off to a 2-0 start, beating the Philadelphia Union Saturday night at Orlando City Stadium.

Cyle Larin scored in the 39^th minute and broke a 1-1 tie in the 73^rd minute, giving the Lions a big three points. They now have a game in hand on the rest of the Eastern Conference, with their game in New England on March 12, being postponed. They will play that game in September.

Orlando City (2-0) dominated in their third of the field in the first half, backing the Philadelphia defense up for much of the first half hour. Philadelphia came within inches of gifting the Lions a goal in the 20^th minute when José Aja drove a long ball toward the Union goal, that was headed backwards by Oguchi Onyewu and went off the Union crossbar.

Larin’s first goal came about 20 minutes later, on a great cross pass from Carlos Rivas, who found Larin and he was able to push it home from point blank range. As you would expect, the 25,527 supporters went nuts, as Larin scored his second goal of the season on his home pitch.

Orlando City came out in the second half, looking to shut down the Union, as they did in the first 45 minutes, but the Union broke through in the 52^nd minute when Alejandro Bedoya found an open CJ Sapong just outside the 18. Sapong headed the ball straight down and past Lions’ goaltender Joe Bendik, tying the match.

With that unexpected goal behind them, the OCSC defense got back to more of what they were doing in the first half, shutting the Union attack off for long stretches. Meanwhile, Rivas and the offense had some good runs. The pressure finally paid off, when Matías Pérez García found Larin, who drilled it past Union netminder Andre Blake.

Bendik, who wasn’t pressed into action much in the first half, got his work in late in the game. After a shot rang off the post, Bendik jumped up and punched a ball away, that would have tied the contest.

Bendik, who signed a contract extension during the week, made just that one save in the game. Philadelphia had seven corners in the match and Orlando had five. Orlando made good on two of their 10 shots, while the Union took 13 shots.

Highlights from ESPN.com| Jason Kreis press conference from Orlando City website

With the International break now upon them, the Lions will not play again until April 1 at the Columbus Crew. The game will kick off at 4:00 p.m.

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