Game #92- Orlando City SC

Orlando City SC vs New York RedBulls Camping World Stadium May 6th, 2016 After a trip to Raleigh, NC for a business trip I took a short flight down to Orlando for an opportunity to see my uncle, go to Universal Studios, and see an OCSC game. Universal is great because it brings back a ton of memories for me. My uncle has been with the company for probably close to 40 years and worked his butt off to be one of the top execs running and expanding the Universal theme parks all over the world. We use to go to the Hollywood park with my family when I was a kid, riding the tram through movie sets, Jaws, King Kong, and Earthquake. After the tram we would see the shows including A Team, Miami Vice, and Conan…so much fun in one day. Every time I step onto the properties is reminds me of the good times with my parents. In Orlando it is even better. I was given a two park pass and I spent the entire day checking out rides, Harry Potter World, and a good lunch with my family. Not a bad way to spend the day in Florida. The night before Universal I drove out to Camping World Stadium to watch one of the newest MLS teams, Orlando City FC take on the New York Redbulls. The stadium was clearly built for football not soccer. It probably holds 50 to 60 thousand people and I naturally assumed a local college used it for regular season games, but apparently it is only used for the MLS and women’s soccer. Albeit they have had some notable games including the Citrus Bowl, FIFA soccer games, and the occasional Monster Truck races. I roamed around the stadium and was not surprised by the fact that they have no fan appreciations areas. With a team that is only a few years old there is little history to show off, so instead of wasting time I headed inside to get some pics. The stadium is actually really nice. It has a double concourse, and inner and outer area, that allows for fans to easily get around. The place is decked out in purple, the home colors of Orlando City, and honestly there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Normally I wouldn’t want to see a soccer game in a football stadium, the size of the structure usually dwarfs the fan base. I saw this in our nations capitol where DC United plays at RFK stadium and only about ten thousand fans were in attendance. But Orlando loves their team, their soccer, and especially Brazil’s Kaka. The famed former football player of the world joined the team and things took off from there. Good crowd, good atmosphere…unfortunately bad calls. Because I was not rooting for either team and I had no skin in the game, the ref calls usually don’t bother me. If they do their job the fouls usually equal out and they have little impact on the game. Tonight was an exception. There were 8 yellow cards and one straight red over 90 minutes of play. That doesn’t include any of the blatant missed calls on the field. There were two goals, neither of which were spectacular. For the Redbulls Sal Zizzo sent a diagonal pass to Sacha Kljestan, who in turn passed up to Bradley Wright-Phillips. The English striker made a quick strike past Orlando City goalkeeper Joe Bendik to grab his third goal of the season. On the Orlando side they tied the score in the 67th minute on the counterattack, as Darwin Ceren played it forward up to Cyle Larin in the channel, who in turn sent a pass across the box that was converted by Kevin Molino. But the turning point of the game was when OCSC’s Cyle Larin was brought down by Aurelien Collin in the box, the ref called a penalty shot, but then took it away after consulting with the linesman who said the play was offside. That call made the home fans go crazy! The amount of boos and “Ref You Suck” chants was deafening. Both teams played to a 1-1 draw but wow was that game ugly. The good thing, this trip wrapped up my teams in Orlando…check!