There were moments for Orlando City. Moments when the anger turned into focus and turned into brilliance.
Kaka, fresh off screaming at the referees in the first half and picking up a yellow card for his troubles became a man possessed. He bolted through the defense and fired a shot that forced Luis Robles into action.
Robles punched the ball out and right to Cyle Larin.
Aside from the referees, this was the second frustration. So many close chances — better chances than the New York Red Bulls — and no break through.
Robles saved that shot and got called for a few others. Each miss breaking Orlando City’s spirit and resolve as tempers continued to flare. There were opportunities after opportunities, but Orlando City could not break the 1-1 tie at Camping World Stadium on Friday for the team’s fourth draw in five home games.
These are points the Lions are leaving on the board, a disappointing way for things to start for the home crowd.
There was certainly plenty of disappointment and frustration throughout the evening. The defense had its moments where it was very soft and unable to engage or pressure New York’s attack. Perhaps some of that was caused by the way the game was called with seemingly any contact getting called a foul and anything beyond that issued a card.
The officials issued eight yellow cards in the game and one red card, creating an uneven and frustrating game. It did have the unflappable Kaka shouting at the ref at one point to draw his own yellow card.
That frustration that has existed throughout the season (really throughout the league) continued. But Orlando City let it get to the team at certain points to its detriment and the team still lost the chance to win the game.
The Red Bulls carved Orlando City’s defense on two occasions, one resulting in a goal. Sacha Kljestan threaded a ball through two defenders to Bradley Wright-Phillips, who found Joe Bendik off his line to score a goal in the 19th minute. It was a rare mistake for Bendik this season.
Orlando was chasing the game and getting frustrated heading to the locker room.
The Lions were the better team throughout the second half, even with action seemingly going end to end and still getting interrupted by officiating at various points. They finally broke through for a tie when Kaka started a break in open space, fed it Larin who fed it across the box on the ground to Kevin Molino.
Molino got to the ball before Robles and put the ball in the top of the net for the equalizer.
The Lions had plenty of chances throughout the game too to break the tie. Each time they would end up short, either a product of overpassing or struggling to make that last bit of magic necessary for a goal. At home, that continues to be a struggle.
So too does consistently connecting through the midfield without making bad turnovers. That started a fair amount of New York counterattacks. And the Red Bulls nearly put one in past Bendik if not for a save and deflection off a New York attacker and the offside flag being up.
The draw certainly may be a fair result. The frustration from another draw and another puzzling game from the officials only served to hurt Orlando City in the end.
And left a game that should leave the team very unsatisfied once again.
