Martin Ojeda’s second goal of the night and ninth of the campaign came in the 90th minute to deliver Orlando City a dramatic 4-3 win over the visiting Philadelphia Union in the rain Wednesday night.
Eleven minutes after Philadelphia tied the match, Orlando was probing and Adrian Marin sent a service to the center of the box. Ojeda laid out for the header and Union goalie Andrew Rick could do nothing to stop it.
Orlando City (4-8-1, 13 points) notched their third win in five matches, taking advantage of the heartbroken Union (1-9-3, 6 points), who erased a 3-1 deficit but remained deep in the Eastern Conference cellar.
Teen phenom Cavan Sullivan scored his first MLS goal and Ben Bender followed four minutes later to spearhead Philadelphia’s comeback. Rick made two saves in his first start of the season for an injured Andre Blake.
Griffin Dorsey and Duncan McGuire also tallied for the Lions, and Maxime Crepeau had four saves.
The Union trailed 2-0 at halftime, but Milan Iloski got them on the board in the 54th minute with his team-leading third goal of the year. Sullivan directed the play on the break, passing it to Nathan Harriel to his right. Harriel cut it inside for Iloski in the center of the box.
Moments later, Philadelphia won a corner and Crepeau had to make a precision save with the tip of his finger on Olwethu Makhanya’s header attempt.
McGuire and Tyrese Spicer were two of Orlando’s five subs, and they teamed up on the team’s third goal. Spicer beat a weak challenge near midfield and went on a 3-on-1 break. McGuire was unmarked the entire way and finished the play in the 72nd with a right-footed strike.
Sullivan, 16, trimmed the deficit to 3-2 just three minutes later. He sent a high cross over the box to Bender, who passed it right back to him to set up the stellar finish.
After Ojeda missed a chance way over the crossbar, Bender took his turn. Playing left back for the first time in his career, according to the broadcast, Bender was unmarked trailing a Union foray in the attacking zone and his low shot to the far post went out of Crepeau’s reach.
Ojeda opened the scoring in the 19th minute on a penalty kick.
Not long after Ojeda stumbled on a would-be breakaway, he got another chance straight through the Philadelphia defense, and Rick drew a yellow card on his dive that tripped Ojeda up. Ojeda had an easy PK goal after his initial hesitation got Rick to splay to the right.
In the 27th, Tiago twice recovered the ball after Union takeaways in their end, and he shuttled it ahead to Dorsey for an open strike, his first goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
