ORLANDO, Fla. -- It was almost a reverse performance for Orlando City as they had in Columbus just five days ago.
On the road, the Lions battled back from 2-0 down to tie the game in stoppage time at 2-2.
Wednesday night, they kept that form rolling into the first 15 minutes of the match, scoring through Ercan Kara's third goal in his last four matches and putting the team up early.
Though as the game wore on, the visiting NYCFC started to build into the match and the Lions fell out of that rhythm, eventually conceding a late equalizer themselves.
It's a tough pill to swallow for the team, who are now winless in their last three matches.
"We as professionals, and people that are committed to the club and with the objective to perform better and better, to try to find our ways," head coach Oscar Pareja said after the game, "The desire that we have, the energy and the willingness to do it that's there, it's intact. But, you've got to be combined with results. We know; especially the coach.
"I've been in this industry for 35 years and we've got to respond better. I'm here to be responsible for the good things that we do, but also, especially, with the lack of things that we don't get done."
Despite this latest streak of dropped points, the team has found some good moments. Both Kara and Duncan McGuire have been hitting their stride in scoring. Kara has bagged goals in two straight games and four in his last five played, while McGuire has scored in three of his last five matches played.
Outside of those scorers, the team is still looking for players to step up. Only Iván Angulo and Facundo Torres have scored a goal each outside of Kara and McGuire over the last seven matches.
"We are not scoring many goals we've wasted opportunities," Pareja said, "We have done things that just give us hope and we're not going to give those up either. We're a good team, we have good players and the other teams in the league are pretty much in the same spot. And we want more, but we don't want to just throw everything out. We're gonna keep going."
And keep going they will do, in just a few days' time. The Lions have a chance to secure a result away from home just a few hours south in Fort Lauderdale. The game against Inter Miami will be the fifth game in a two-week span.
"It's hard for anyone," defender Mikey Halliday said. "They're doing well to get us recovered and feel good. We just keep going on and we'll be ready for Saturday."
