ORLANDO, Fla. (April 13, 2024) – Orlando City SC (2-3-2, 8 points) was backed by three different goal scorers on the night, defeating hosts D.C. United (2-2-4, 10 points) 3-2 at Audi Field on Saturday evening.
After falling behind in the first five minutes, Dagur Dan Thórhallsson headed in his first of the season to level things, with David Brekalo then scoring his first goal in purple on the other side of the half, which made it a 2-2 game at the time.
It was second year forward Duncan McGuire who provided the difference, coming in as a second-half substitute and finishing off a long-ball from Nico Lodeiro to give Orlando all three points away from home. McGuire’s goal marked the fifth game-winner of his young MLS career.
Goalkeeper Pedro Gallese finished the night with five saves, including two massive stops in second-half stoppage time to preserve the Orlando City victory. With the start, captain Robin Jansson also surpassed the 15,000-minute mark, hitting the milestone in the 59th minute of play, and becoming the first Lion to accomplish the feat.
The Lions will next head north to Canada for a meeting with CF Montréal on Saturday, April 20 at Stade Saputo, with the match airing on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Scoring Summary:
5’ Christian Benteke (Mateusz Klich) – DC 1, ORL 0
The hosts opened things up just five minutes into the game off of a corner kick. Mateusz Klich sent in the corner to the Lions’ far post, where Christian Benteke was waiting. Benteke sent it back to the far corner as goalkeeper Pedro Gallese was blocked from getting to the cross by a United defender.
28’ Dagur Dan Thórhallsson (Iván Angulo) – ORL 1, DC 1
The Lions equalized in the 28th minute as Facundo Torres sprung Iván Angulo down the left wing to get behind the United back line. Angulo sent in a cross to the far post where Dagur Dan Thórhallsson headed it past goalkeeper Alex Bono to level for City.
66’ Gabriel Pirani (Christian Benteke, Jared Stroud) – DC 2, ORL 1
D.C. United took the lead back in the second half when Jared Stroud sent a cross into the far post for Benteke. Benteke then turned provider, heading the ball to Gabriel Pirani at the center of the box, who took a controlling touch before volleying it in to regain the lead.
82’ David Brekalo (Nico Lodeiro) – ORL 2, DC 2
The Lions evened things up late in the match off the head of center back David Brekalo, who hammered home a corner kick from Nico Lodeiro. The goal marked Brekalo’s first-ever as a Lion.
90+1’ Duncan McGuire (Nico Lodeiro) – ORL 3, DC 2
Orlando City found its game-winner in the first of 11 minutes of stoppage time, after Nico Lodeiro collected a ball in the defensive third and sent a long ball up the field to a streaking Duncan McGuire. The forward found himself in alone behind the D.C. defense and calmly slotted a ball past Alex Bono for his third of the season.
Head Coach Oscar Pareja:
“Obviously, very happy with the result. I want to give all the credit to these players that gave everything and understood the game, how to play it – in many ways that we didn’t want to play it – but tried to match that model of D.C. of playing the long ball and finding those second balls. I thought, first half, we played better, we had some options and in the second half they gave us a little of trouble there with the style. But, as I said, we solved it and we found our ways to score, which is fantastic for our team at this moment. The most important thing is the heart that the players showed today. They have done it before, but not with results, but we got a result and that’s important for us in this moment.”
Match Notes
- Dagur Dan Thórhallsson scored his first goal of the 2024 campaign, with his 28th-minute tally serving as his third all-time for the Lions.
- Forward Iván Angulo provided his second assist of 2024 across all competitions on the Thórhallsson finish and his 13th all-time.
- Duncan McGuire’s goal marked the fifth game-winning goal of his MLS career.
- David Brekalo scored his first Orlando City goal with his 82nd minute header.
- After starting the match and playing more than 59 minutes, defender Robin Jansson surpassed 15,000 minutes played all-time for the Lions across all competitions. The City captain is the first player in Club history to pass the 15,000-minute mark.
- Head Coach Oscar Pareja made four changes to his starting lineup from his side’s last match against the New York Red Bulls, with César Araújo, David Brekalo, Wilder Cartagena and Martín Ojeda all returning to the Starting XI.
