Orlando City relishes another shot after strong opening in Concacaf Champions League
Orlando City coach Oscar Pareja was left with plenty to be pleased about at the conclusion of Tuesday’s scoreless draw against Tigres UANL during the Round of 16′s first leg of the Concacaf Champions League.
The Lions kept to their game plan going into the Estadio Universitario in Monterrey, Mexico, which meant a strong defensive outing to keep Tigres at bay and a hopeful offense from the Lions to leave plenty to desire ahead of next week’s return leg at Exploria Stadium.
“To keep Tigres scoreless is not easy,” Pareja said. “For our part in our defensive zone, we understood the game, that they like to open the lines, to center the ball a lot, and of course, it depends on their positioning in the area, but we controlled the game well. I think that’s the success we had tonight, to maintain a clean sheet; and obviously Pedro Gallese’s actions tonight as well.
“We had moments where we suffered and I’m very happy because we understood how to guard them well and defended their sequences and their football,” the coach added. “We had to get through to the times when we had our chances, and we did that. A very good game tonight.”
The Lions earned their third consecutive clean sheet across all competitions following Tuesday’s result, increasing their shots-on-target tally to three after hitting the mark just twice in their last two games.
Michael Halliday, 20, started at right back for Orlando and finished with three tackles and seven duels to complement teammate Facundo Torres on the right side of the field at various times of the game.
For the Orlando homegrown, who’s working to compete in the upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia with the United States, going into El Volcán — Tigres’ colloquially named stadium — was a new experience for the player.
“It’s big. Coming into this atmosphere is crazy; something I’ve never played in before,” Halliday said. “It’s a huge draw going home next; it’s big and up for grabs.”
Goalkeeper Gallese, who finished with eight saves, felt the result against Tigres was a justified one heading into next week’s deciding return leg in Orlando.
“It’s a result we have to close in Orlando. Tigres is a big and difficult team, and it’s going to be hard,” Gallese said. “We have to face the return leg the same way. They were on us the whole second half, but we did a great job.”
Orlando City is back on the road to take on D.C. United on Saturday for MLS regular-season play at 7:30 p.m.
For Pareja, however, he hopes his players bring the same audacity for the second leg scheduled for Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. at Exploria Stadium.
The winner of the tie will advance to the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions League, which would be a first for Orlando City.
“As you know, this is still a young team, but with very passionate supporters and the culture they have developed is very good,” Pareja said. “We came in to be the protagonists of MLS these last three years. We already won a championship and to enter a competition for the first time against Tigres, we also had to install a good plan. Tigres is going to find a team with a lot of courage, with passionate fans and surely we’ll do everything we can to go through to the next round because we’re optimistic and we know we can do this.”
