Orlando City (12-6-7, 43 points) and St. Louis City (14-9-2, 44 points) met Saturday night in a clash of the “City SCs” and the game did not disappoint. The teams provided a high-tempo, physical affair without devolving into a chippy tit-for-tat, and that should have left every fan well entertained at the close of the evening. (Yes, even St. Louis fans, although they may need to let the sting of the 2-1 Lions victory settle for a little bit.)

The first half was not short of chances for either team, but both teams did well to limit the other’s final opportunities, allowing only a handful of shots apiece in the first half with only Duncan McGuire’s effort forcing a save by the opposing goalkeeper.

Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Facundo Torres came out of the break firing immediately, changing up their run patterns to allow Thorhallsson to lead Torres into space. Torres then worked his finishing magic to lift the Lions into the lead. Orlando City continued limiting St. Louis to low-probability chances from distance until the 79th minute, when finally the Lions conceded on a controversial call that once again demonstrates that PRO does not understand the meanings of ‘clear’ and ‘obvious,’ but alas.

Orlando redoubled its efforts to press for the win in the remaining time and was rewarded with Ramiro Enrique forcing a yellow card by Jake Nerwinski and Rafael Santos forcing a penalty kick for handball with a canon of a shot off Anthony Markanich during the resulting restart. Torres converted the penalty to complete his brace in the 91st minute and put Orlando in the lead.

The game was far from over, however, as nine minutes of stoppage time were added. Mostly this consisted of St. Louis desperately stretching for an equalizer, but as the game approached the end of stoppage time, late sub Jack Lynn sprung Enrique in behind, forcing Nerwinski to take him down in a red-card, last-man challenge just outside the box. Martin Ojeda made a valiant effort to make it three on the restart with the last kick of the game, but the effort was right at Roman Burki and the final whistle sounded immediately after 101 minutes of soccer.

As you can imagine, a high-tempo game can lead to some high-action images, so we hope you enjoy these photos of the excitement of the first-ever meeting between the two clubs.

Marta channeled Star Wars Night at Exploria Stadium with a blaster-bolt of a cross to Adriana to score the Pride’s lone goal, but the Wave’s Kyra Carusa mastered the Jedi mind trick (“I am not the runner you are looking for.”) to nod home a winner, allowing the visitors to escape with all three points.

It was a beautiful night, and a strong crowd of 7,556 turned out. The Pride played well, dominating most of the stats, but a missed clearance and the aforementioned mental lapse on two corner kicks left them just short. Costumes, banners and tifos embraced the Star Wars theme, making for a very fun and festive atmosphere. (And the soccer was pretty good too!)

Despite the disappointing result, we hope you enjoy the photos of a fun night at Exploria Stadium.

Wow, that was an exciting one!

The Cardiac Cats struck again in the 92nd minute through the dynamic defensive midfield duo of César Araújo and Wilder Cartagena to pull the Lions permanently ahead in a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle for supremacy in the Leagues Cup South 2 group. The Lions got their first win over Liga MX competition with the 3-2 victory. With the win, Orlando City (1-0-1, 5 points) advanced to the knockout rounds to face Inter Miami, while Santos Laguna (0-1-1, 1 point) crashed out of the tournament.

The Exploria Stadium crowd of 16,000+ was loud, and from the goal line, the atmosphere rivaled the U.S. Open Cup final from last year. Those who attended got to experience a thrilling match with a lot at stake, with Orlando City prevailing.

We hope you enjoy the photos of what will surely become a classic game in Lions lore.

Well, it wasn’t the three points that the Lions were hoping for, but Orlando City bested the Houston Dynamo in penalty kicks, 5-4, after playing to a 1-1 draw to take two points in the quirky scoring system of Leagues Cup. Orlando (0-0-1, 2 points) and Houston (0-0-1, 1 point) largely kept each other at bay for most of the night, each scoring on a gift – Houston’s in the form of a raspberry-award quality dive that was given as a penalty to close the first half, and Orlando’s as a howler of a pass from Houston `keeper Andrew Tarbell to a hustling Duncan McGuire to start the second half.

The Lions appear to have found a new right back in Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, who was brought on at halftime for Kyle Smith and filled the role well. Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said in the press availability after the game that this was something Thorhallsson had been working on, so it will be interesting to see how many minutes the versatile Icelandic player gets there in the future. Juninho made a cameo at the end — one of the four OCB players on the bench — continuing the play-your-kids trends we’ve seen of late.

While spot kicks as a game resolution are not a great way to determine games, they are a lot of fun as a photographer. We hope you enjoy the photos of the first two-point game in Orlando City (and Leagues Cup) history.

A light rain could not slow the Orlando Pride’s momentum, but the home team managed to dampen OL Reign’s performance for most of the game to start a new winning streak. The Pride (6-8-1, 19 points) again started quickly, with Messiah Bright running free to bury a pinpoint Julie Doyle cross in the 16th minute, and that proved to be enough. While the Reign (7-5-3, 24 points) did manage some occasional forays forward, they only troubled keeper Anna Moorhouse a handful of times in the first half, and the Pride’s well-executed press took its toll in the second half.

The Pride will feel a bit battered after this one, with both Moorhouse and Kerry Abello needing significant treatment on the pitch after late challenges by Elyse Bennett and Veronica Latsko, respectively. Luckily, due the international break they will have two weeks to allow the bruises to fade and linger in the afterglow of defeating another quality opponent.

We hope you enjoy these images of another Pride victory over one of the league’s better teams.

It was a forgettable result as the Young Lions gave up two early goals and fell short at home. In a night of frustration as one quick transition, one pounced-on error, and one lazy throw-in late led to a 3-0 loss to Philadelphia Union II for the home side, dropping OCB to 7-6-2 (24 points) on the season.

On the offensive end, the Young Lions had a couple good looks early, but as the game wore on, OCB repeatedly couldn’t get the shot away or missed the target. Even weather didn’t cooperate, contributing a 100-minute delay just five minutes before halftime.

Despite a frustrating result for the reserve side, we hope you enjoy the photos from Orlando City B’s most recent match at Osceola Heritage Park.

The Orlando Pride avenged their early season loss to the Portland Thorns by comprehensively beating the defending champions Sunday night, 3-1. After a few nerves at the start and yielding a goal to an unmarked Sophia Smith, the Pride executed their game plan to perfection for most of the last hour, stymying the visitors in the midfield and not allowing them to build up, then taking advantage of their transition opportunities when presented.

It was the Adriana show, as the playmaker produced two goals on the night. The first was on a thunderous free kick following a foul suffered by Julie Doyle and resulting in a yellow card to Portland defender Natalia Kuikka. Her second goal came after receiving a great pass by Ally Watt and wiggling out of a three-defender sandwich to open a shooting lane before tucking it into the inside netting. Messiah Bright rounded out the scoring and regained a share of team scoring lead by smartly sniping a back pass left short and rounding Thorns ‘keeper Bella Bixby from a tight angle.

The team rightly celebrated with the supporters and everyone went home happy. (Well, except for Portland.)

We hope you enjoy these images from a memorable night at Exploria Stadium.

It was milestone night at Exploria Stadium as the Orlando City successfully navigated the Colorado Rapids, winning 2-0 after a weather delay of almost an hour. Before the game, the team celebrated the lives of the 49 individuals who lost their lives in the Pulse nightclub shooting seven years ago. Then Pedro Gallese made his 100th appearance as a Lion, Ramiro Enrique scored his first MLS goal, and Alex Granados made his MLS debut at just 17 years and 11 days of age.

The first half seemed like it was man against mountain, with the men in purple seeming the better side but failing to tally. Then a red card for Colorado winger Braian Galván for dangerous play near the end of the first half allowed coach Óscar Pareja to make some aggressive substitutions at halftime and Orlando dominated the second half. A deflected goal scored by Facundo Torres — his fifth of the season — opened the scoring early in the second half, and from there the mountain crumbled. A well-placed goal by Ramiro Enrique followed an additional red card to Lalas Abubakar, who received his second caution, to completely swamp Colorado’s chances to mount the kind of late comeback that the Cardiac Cats had allowed in the previous two home matches.

The Lions’ victory extended their run of good form to six unbeaten in MLS play. Colorado continues to struggle, failing to win in its last seven.

We hope you enjoy these images from a memorable night at Exploria Stadium.

The visiting Lions (5-4-4) feasted on the Herons (5-8-0), dominating the first 30 minutes, absorbing pressure as needed after Inter Miami made a tactical change, and then getting back on the front foot with a second-half change of their own. In the end, Orlando City left Fort Lauderdale with a 3-1 victory over its intrastate rivals, holding the hosts to just six shot attempts.

The traveling supporters chanted, cheered, and heckled away, trying desperately to overpower the artificially piped-in chant loop (which quite frankly is a shame — La Familia are more than strong enough to not have to compete with their own stadium).

Goal contributions from Ercan Kara and Martin Ojeda (a goal and an assist each) and Duncan McGuire (one assist off the bench), plus less regular offensive contributors Rafael Santos, who scored his first MLS goal, Cesar Araujo (his first assist of the season) and Rodrigo Schlegel (his first career assist) allowed Orlando to raid Miami’s Fort Lauderdale nest and return home with all three points.

We hope you enjoy the images from the away day in Fort Lauderdale!

Well, the Orlando Pride managed to dodge the lightning and most of the raindrops, but couldn’t quite dodge video review, as referee Elvis Osmanovic changed his initial ruling, awarding Gotham a penalty. That decision led to a late Pride loss to Gotham at Exploria Stadium, leaving Orlando pointless (0-3-0) on the nascent season.

The first half saw both teams able to advance the ball, but neither was able to provide the final pass or finish chances. The second half settled into more of a rhythm, with each team sustaining advantage for sections of the final 45 (plus) minutes, but the same inability in the attacking third persisted for both teams. It looked as if the game would end in a scoreless draw until a glacial video review awarded Gotham a penalty for a Caitlin Cosme handball in the box. Midge Purce smartly converted in the upper right, leaving Kaylie Collins no chance in her NWSL debut. Whether it was disappointment at conceding in stoppage time the second week in a row, or the distraction of the six-minute (!) VAR stoppage, Orlando lost focus and conceded a second goal in the 17th minute of added time (you read that correctly…17 minutes!) to seal the loss.

Despite the impending weather and the disappointing previous games, a decent crowd of 5,258 came out to support the team. That, combined with the club’s efforts to engage the spectators at halftime (T-shirt cannon anyone?), made for a refreshed atmosphere that hopefully will help energize the Pride into some better results soon. We hope that comes across in the photos from the game and we encourage you to attend one soon.