ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando City traveled to Charlotte Wednesday night and scored a late goal to grab a point from Charlotte FC.
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The Lions played their second game in five days Wednesday night, when they went to North Carolina to play Charlotte FC.
Orlando and Charlotte have faced off three times this year, with two regular season matches and one U.S. Open Cup match in May.
Charlotte has had the upper hand this year winning their first regular season match in March, 2-1, at Exploria Stadium.
Orlando lost to Charlotte in the U.S. Open Cup in May 1-0. This ended the Lions’ attempt to defend their U.S. Open Cup championship.
On Wednesday night, the Lions coach Oscar Pareja, made two changes to his starting lineup.
Ramiro Enrique started on the front line with Duncan McGuire and Facundo Torres.
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Junior Urso got his first start since returning to the squad in place of Wilder Cartagena who was out on yellow card accumulation.
The first half of the match was all Charlotte FC. The Queen City club had 65% possession but could not find the back of the net.
Charlotte outshot the Lions 5 - 2. Orlando goalkeeper Pedro Gallese made several diving saves to keep the two teams tied.
The second half was much of the same, with Charlotte maintaining much of the possession for the night.
In the 79-minute, Orlando’s Rodrigo Schlegel committed a foul in the box against Charlotte DP Enzo Copetti and the ref whistled for a penalty.
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Copetti would take the penalty and beat Gallese to put Charlotte up 1-0.
Judging by the amount of possession Charlotte maintained, it looked like the penalty would be all they would need to take the win.
However, in the 88-minute, Martin Ojeda lined up for a free kick outside the box after a foul against Cesar Arujo.
Ojeda sent the ball towards the back post, over everyone and a diving Kristijan Kahlina, who could not keep the ball from sliding in the corner for the goal, game tied 1-1.
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