Lions and Crew battle in score-fest draw

Photo | Joe Petro / OCSC 

By Danny Morales

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Orlando City SC and the Columbus Crew played to a 4-4 draw on Wednesday night in the Disney Pro Soccer Classic, in what was a back-and-forth game from start to finish. 

Dennis Chin scored his first goal of the preseason in the 88th minute, giving Orlando City what looked like the game-winning goal, but Columbus’ Ethan Finlay came and scored the game-tying goal in the 90th minute.

“I was overdue,” said Chin about his goal. “Preseason's all about getting sharp and just trying to get as many as your chances in as possible. It’s good to get my first one in, hopefully it’s more.”

Both teams scored a combined five goals during the final 14 minutes of the game, including one from newly re-signed midfielder Adama Mbengue.

All-in-all, OCSC got three goals from three different midfielders, showing that the chemistry is starting to improve in the middle.

“We’re starting to get some chemistry within the group,” said Orlando City head coach Adrian Heath. “The combination play within the mid-third of the field is becoming very, very good.

“We’re still growing and trying to put this next group of players together, there’s six or seven news players and everybody’s still not completely on the same page with their roles and responsibilities.”

Darwin Ceren was one of the Lions’ midfielders to put the ball in the back of the net on Wednesday, giving him his first goal for the Purple Kits. 

The preseason is still young for Orlando City, as this was only their fourth game all year. The Lions will return to Disney on Saturday to face the New York Red Bulls for the third place spot in the preseason tournament on Saturday, kickoff set for 6:00 p.m. 

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do , we know that, still got a lot of stuff to nail down,” said Heath. “There’s certain things that please me and there’s stuff that doesn’t, but that’s what preseason's about.”