VANCOUVER, B.C.—July has been a month to forget so far for Orlando City SC, but they will be hoping that a point earned in an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night will be the catalyst toward a change in fortunes.
An undermanned Orlando side battled from the start, taking the lead on a Julio Baptista goal in the 14th minute before the home side fought back to take a 2-1 lead. But Orlando never gave up and Cyle Larin leveled things five minutes into the second half.
Baptista almost claimed all three points for the visitors, but blasted a penalty high over the bar. Orlando City interim head coach Bobby Murphy was delighted by what he saw.
"I'm really proud of them," Murphy said. "What I saw for the first time in my three games in charge is the closest thing to a complete team performance that we've had.
"If they were going to quit then would have quit when they went down 2-1 and they didn't. They came out and they did well. I'm really thrilled for them because it's been a long week. To come out of here with a point, two hours ago we'd have snatched somebody's hand off if they offered it to us."
It was always going to be a tough game for Orlando, who traveled to Canada missing seven regular first-team players including star midfielder and captain Kaká. The absence of that talent could have dealt a death blow to the visitors, but Murphy felt it gave them the opportunity for some of the fringe guys to stake a claim to a regular starting spot. He noted that the team was playing with more passion and cohesiveness than what has been seen recently.
"In New York we saw signs of it," Murphy said. "They fought hard. Tonight, what we saw was a group that was in it together, which is what we've been preaching non stop for the last week. This was the most mature I've seen us in closing out a game, even though it felt like a basketball game – whoever got the ball last was going to win."
The Vancouver game was the second of a tough three-game road stretch for Orlando. Sitting one point above the red line in the East, they now get set to face Columbus next week.
The Crew are one of the teams below them in the standings and Murphy is hoping tonight's draw and next week's game will provide the ideal launching pad to push into the postseason.
"I think it does," Murphy said. "It proves to them that we can go into touch places and get results … We keep talking about having a game in hand and just being close, but at some point you use up at that game in hand and you have to draw a line in the sand and start getting some results. Today was a good first step towards that."
