ORLANDO, Fla. (Florida Sports Wire) – Orlando City SC (2-2-2, 8 points) dropped a 2-0 result to Nashville SC (3-2-1, 10 points) on Saturday night at Exploria Stadium.
“Disappointed, tough being at home in front of our fans and not getting the result. It is the most painful part. The analysis of the game, I thought we made a couple mistakes on the defensive phase that costs the game in terms of chasing it all the time. In the other side, in the other box we are not fine, we were optimistic today because we came off a game where we played very well and today, we were not fine in those two areas,” said Head Coach Oscar Pareja.
The match saw the return of the Orlando City Sea Cows, with the Club bringing back an April Fools’ Day prank in the form of a special-edition Adidas pre-match top worn by the Lions ahead of the contest, as well as special match production features.
City netminder Pedro Gallese tallied his 90th appearance in all competitions as a member of the Club, returning in between the sticks after missing the last match on international duty.
The visitors took the lead off a free kick taken quickly near midfield by Hany Mukhtar, sending a ball over top for Fafà Picault, who was able to chip it over the head of Lions’ goalkeeper Pedro Gallese into the back of the net.
Nashville doubled the advantage with Dax McCarty finding Shaq Moore up the right flank, who was then able to thread a ball in between the Lions defense to a running Mukhtar. Hitting it with his first touch, Mukhtar shot deflected off a Lions defender and into the back of the net.
The Lions return to action on Saturday, April 15, traveling to take on Minnesota United FC in an 8:30 p.m. ET kickoff at Allianz Field.
Match Notes:Defender Rodrigo Schlegel notched his 60th start for the Lions in all competitions…midfielder César Araújo tallied his 40th start in purple on Saturday night…Head Coach Oscar Pareja made one change to his starting lineup from last week’s win at Philadelphia, with goalkeeper Pedro Gallese stepping in net for the 90th time in all competitions as a Lion.
