ORLANDO, Fla. — The Lions were on the road for the second time this week when they played FC Cincinnati Saturday night at TQL Stadium.
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City would beat the Eastern Conference top team, Cincinnati, 1-0. The Lions move into a tie for second in the Eastern Conference with the New England Revolution.
Both teams were evenly matched in the first half, with opportunities to get into scoring positions.
In the 27-minute, rookie Duncan McGuire went down with an apparent shoulder injury and would leave the game for the night.
Coach Oscar Pareja would bring in Ramiro Enrique to replace the rookie striker.
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Enrique would make an impact in the 44-minute when Enrique and Facundo Torres hooked up for a goal.
Captian Mauricio Pereyra found Enrique with a long ball upfield between two FC Cincinnati defenders.
Enrique took the ball to the endline and returned it to the penalty spot, where Torres was waiting to put it into the net.
Orlando City up 1-0 at halftime.
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In the second half, both teams became more physical with multiple fouls, four yellow cards, and one red card to Wilder Cartagena, who just came off of yellow card accumulation discipline.
City would hold off Cincinnati down a man for the rest of stoppage time to secure the win and keep a clean sheet.
Orlando City’s win gives FC Cincinnati their first home loss in the MLS regular season.
“We deal with that adversity and again we played a very good game with the ball, and we played a really good game without it which is something in soccer you have to do,” said Coach Oscar Pareja.
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The Lions will have a couple of weeks off for the international break, giving McGuire time to recover from the shoulder injury.
The Lions return to Exploria Stadium on Sept. 16 to play the Columbus Crew.
The Crew sits two points behind Orlando City in the Eastern Conference.
Next Game:
When: Saturday, Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Exploria Stadium, Orlando
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