Antoine Griezmann attacks the goal and tries to win the game. (Photo/Mario Casamalhuapa)
Justin Ellis slipped the ball through the middle in the 48th minute, catching Cincinnati on the break. Tyrese Spicer beat his defender to the pass and finished right-footed from the center of the box, high into the net. Inter.Co Stadium came up out of its seats.
Orlando City had its goal. It spent the rest of the night going after a second.
The Lions drew 1-1 with FC Cincinnati on Saturday night, but they played the match for three points and never stopped playing it that way. Cincinnati arrived expecting to take all three home. It got on the road with one.
The visitors led early and cleanly. Pavel Bucha collected the ball outside the box in the 23rd minute and drove a right-footed strike into the bottom right corner past Maxime Crépeau. It was Cincinnati's best moment of the night and it held until halftime.
Orlando had already been the better side. Ellis tested Celentano in the 10th minute and again in the 36th, both off Griffin Dorsey passes, then forced a save with a header from a Joran Gerbet cross in first-half stoppage time. Three chances, three saves.
Ellis looks like a player the club will build around. He created the equalizer and came close to scoring three times before it.
The other reason Orlando kept coming wears No. 7. Antoine Griezmann has changed what this team looks like in possession — the ball moves through him, and the chances that used to die in the final third now arrive. He forced a diving save from Celentano in the 52nd, left-footed from the right side of the box after Spicer laid it back, and had another blocked in the 90th.
Orlando lost Bernardo Rhein to injury in the 37th, with Adrián Marín replacing him. Marco Pasalic came on for Gerbet at the break and the Lions came out of the tunnel with an urgency the first half never produced.
Cincinnati had its own escapes. Kévin Denkey hit the right post in the 53rd. Ender Echenique struck the left post in the 64th.
The rest belonged to Crépeau. With three minutes left he got across to deny Kenji Mboma Dem from the center of the box, pushing the shot away at his bottom right post. Two minutes later Evander cut in from a difficult angle on the left and Crépeau got down again, low to his left, to keep the ball out. Either one wins Cincinnati the match. The Orlando keeper made sure neither did, and the point his team fought all night for stayed on the board.
Orlando still finished the match camped in Cincinnati's half. Spicer went close in the 73rd and 79th. Pasalic pulled one wide in the 80th. Two stoppage-time corners came and went. Wilder Cartagena skied the last chance of six added minutes.
The standings didn't move. Orlando sits 10th in the Eastern Conference on 21 points from 19 matches — three behind D.C. United and the final playoff spot. Cincinnati is sixth on 27.
Three points is nothing at this stage of a season. What Orlando needs now is wins, not performances, and it has the schedule to get them.
Chicago comes Wednesday and then travels to Salt Lake to Real Salt Lake. Busy weak for the Lions.
