ORLANDO, Fla. — Their raucous capacity crowd of 25,527 fans chanted “We want the cup” before a ball was kicked, and Orlando City delivered Wednesday night, capturing the first major piece of silverware since the club joined Major League Soccer seven years ago.
Facundo Torres hammered the go-ahead goal in the 75th minute, and slotted home an insurance penalty five minutes later as the host Lions defeated second-tier Sacramento Republic 3-0 in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final.
Orlando’s win, however, could be clouded in a bit of controversy after Sacramento — as first reported by ESPN — filed a complaint with the U.S. Soccer Federation alleging that an Orlando City staffer was spying on the team’s training session on Tuesday.
Sacramento head coach Mark Briggs didn’t want to talk about the controversy after the game, saying in his press conference: “That’s for other people to decide and other people to talk about. Congratulations to Oscar [Pareja, Orlando City head coach] and the organization for winning the Open Cup.”
Prior to this year, Orlando had never advanced beyond the U.S. Open Cup semifinals. The club has won just one MLS playoff game since its expansion campaign in 2015.
And yet, Orlando was far from the biggest underdog on the pitch Wednesday night — let alone in America’s premier multi-tier tournament.
Sacramento Republic embarked on a magical run to become the first non-MLS side to qualify for the championship game since 2008.
Republic took down MLS opposition in three consecutive round — San Jose Earthquakes in the round of 16, LA Galaxy in the quarterfinals and Sporting KC in a memorable semifinal that required penalties after 120 scoreless minutes.
Sacramento’s sturdy defense, the backbone throughout the cup competition, withstood Orlando’s attack and a steady downpour in the first half. The Lions maintained 55.7% possession and outshot Republic 6-1, but never truly threatened Sacramento goalkeeper Danny Vitiello.
Dan Casey bravely defended Orlando’s best chance at one end, and created Sacramento’s at the other. He fairly tackled Mauricio Pereyra and sprung Maalique Foster in on goal, but Foster’s shot dragged just wide of the bottom right corner.
Republic showed some positivity in attack and a bit of confidence out of halftime, winning the match’s first corner in the 48th minute and forcing Orlando keeper Pedro Gallese into an uncomfortable punch to defend a dangerous free kick in the 72nd.
But Orlando’s well-timed, aggressive press sealed Sacramento’s fate.
Ivan Angulo and second-half substitute Benji Michel hounded Casey and forced a turnover inside the Sacramento box. Michel placed it on a tee for Torres, who lashed a left-footed strike past the diving Vitiello.
First blood to @OrlandoCitySC đź‘Š
Facundo Torres finds the top corner to send the home fans into hysterics — and leave @SacRepublicFC with work to do.
1-0 | #USOC2022 pic.twitter.com/9KEIOSwu0C
— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) September 8, 2022
Five minutes later, Michel won a penalty as he headed a loose ball around Vitiello and was tripped up from behind by Casey. Torres took the spot kick, and buried it to effectively seal the outcome.
Michel added a third in stoppage time, splitting two defenders to track down Torres’ pass and slide it across the face of goal and into a yawning net.
Orlando City was a deserved winner on the night, but the spy controversy again came up in Pareja’s post-game press conference.
The Orlando City coach offered a full-throated defense.
“The only thing that I say in these times is, nobody’s spying [on] anybody,” he said. “[There] is a lot of knowledge about this team. Everybody knows the team. But I understand.
“I would cooperate with anything the [U.S. Soccer] Federation wants us to say, and anything they want to know. But, I want to recognize the way our players concentrated on the game and didn’t let anything of [the spying reports] filter through the group. That was fantastic. They just absorbed it.
They said, ‘we’ll just concentrate on our game,’ and I thought it was very fair play for both teams. Sacramento is a fantastic team, but we were the best team on the field, and there’s nothing else to say.”
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