Orlando City B earned a 1-1 draw on Wednesday night when they hosted the Rochester Rhinos at Orlando City Stadium. The match marked their second game of the week, having defeated the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 2-1 on Saturday night.
It was Hadji Barry who opened up scoring in the game in the 23rd minute after Richie Laryea delivered a nice ball in the box. The goal marks the second for Barry in two games and his third goal on the season.
“[Scoring] feels good,” Barry said after the match. “As a striker you want that every game you go into, you want to score goals. That’s your job out there and I feel good right now, two games, two goals.”
The goal from Wednesday’s matchup highlights an ongoing connection between Richie Laryea and Barry. Both men, along with Albert Dikwa, have three goals on the season-- a three-way tie for the highest goal tally on the team this season.
“Richie is a good friend of mine so every time we step on the field we want to showcase the chemistry we have off the field and relate that onto the field,” Barry said. “It was a great ball by him, we have that chemistry we play that one-two pass and he played it back to me and I took it around the keeper and finished it.”
Barry has bounced around between the MLS squad and the USL squad, which can create some disruption in his playing form. OCB Head Coach Anthony Pulis believes that back-to-back starts may have contributed to Barry’s back-to-back goals and that when Barry finds a more comfortable rhythm, he will be able to produce more offensively.
“He's a threat and I've said this numerous times before. It's getting Hadji to understand what his strengths are. And in my opinion, his strengths are running towards the opponent's goal because he's got so much pace, so much power. And defenders hate defending against that,” Pulis said. “And I think for Hadji it's been a little bit of a start-stop season. He was around the MLS group at the start, on the bench and coming on here and there and he's been with us in fits and starts and been difficult to get a rhythm so I'm sure he'll be pleased to get his second start in as many games for us. And he's a player that I'm sure with a string of games that he'll score goals at this level.”
OCB will have a week off before they travel to face Toronto II. That game will take place at the Ontario Soccer Centre on Wednesday, June 14th at 12:00pm.
