Orlando City ties 1-1 at D.C. United to remain unbeaten in season
Duncan McGuire scored in his MLS debut for Orlando City, but a late goal from D.C. United’s Chris Durkin mitigated the postgame joy as the Lions played to a 1-1 MLS draw on Saturday night at Audi Field.
McGuire played the entire game for his professional debut as Orlando improved to 1-0-2 with 5 points in the Eastern Conference standings.
The opening goal came in the 53rd minute when a play started by Ivan Angulo found Kyle Smith making a run down the right side before sending the ball into the area, finding Dagur Dan Thorhallsson to head the ball toward McGuire to finish the play from close to give Orlando the 1-0 lead.
D.C. United almost had a penalty awarded in the 58th minute when the ball off a Christian Benteke shot hit Wilder Cartagena’s arm. Head referee Jon Freemon consulted with the VAR before overturning the call to prevent United’s potential equalizing goal.
D.C.’s equalizer arrived in the 80th minute when a ball from Pedro Santos to Durkin beat Cesar Araujo inside the box before Durkin curled the shot toward the bottom-left corner to elude keeper Pedro Gallese.
The Orlando City keeper finished with 4 saves, including a highlight stop in the 28th minute to deny Benteke from close after a failed clearance from Abdi Salim.
Ruan started for DCU against Orlando. It was his first match against his former team after being traded to the nation’s capital during the offseason for an MLS draft pick.
Rafael Santos started in making his MLS debut for the Lions.
Ramiro Enrique did not travel with the team. It’s unclear the status of his health after leaving last Wednesday’s game at Tigres at halftime.
Antonio Carlos was on the bench after recovering for most of the preseason and the first two games of the regular season.
Orlando was outshot 16-9 and had four shots on target.
Saturday was Orlando’s third game in a week, which also saw coach Oscar Pareja rotate his squad in preparation for Wednesday’s Concacaf Champions League return leg against Tigres.
Robin Jansson and Martin Ojeda entered at halftime for Salim and Facundo Torres.
Araujo joined the game in the 64th minute for captain Mauricio Pereyra while Gaston Gonzalez entered in the 68th for Angulo.
Orlando plays Tigres on Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. at Exploria Stadium in the Round of 16′s second leg of the Champions League.
The Lions played the first leg to a scoreless draw in Monterrey, Mexico.
Charlotte winless: Next week’s MLS opponent for Orlando City, Charlotte FC, remains winless.
On Saturday, Charlotte (0-3-0) lost a club-record fourth consecutive match dating to last season in falling to Atlanta United 3-0.
Charlotte lost three in a row twice last season — its first in MLS. It managed just 1 goal through its first two matches despite taking a league-high 81% of its shots from inside the box (17 of 21).
Defender Caleb Wiley, 18, who scored once as a rookie last season, had 2 goals and an assist in the first half as Atlanta United cruised to victory.
He found the net in the 5th minute for an early lead. Thiago Almada and Amar Sejdić had assists on the goal, giving Almada a hand in five consecutive scores dating to last season and eight of the last nine. Almada’s streak ended seven minutes later when Wiley picked up an assist on Luiz Araújo’s first goal of the season. Wiley made it 3-0 at halftime when he scored unassisted in the second minute of stoppage time.
Both clubs honored the late Anton Walkes before the match. The 25-year-old died in an accident in South Florida on Jan. 19. Walkes spent three seasons with Atlanta before being selected by Charlotte in the 2021 expansion draft.
