Reeves' Army

Orlando City earned a scoreless draw with Richmond Kickers in what proved to be a very physical match.

Richmond had control for most of the first half, leading on shots 8-3. Gallardo recorded four saves, including one barrage at 24′. But he was knocked out in a collision toward the end of the first half. Although he was able to finish the half, he was diagnosed with a concussion during halftime and would not return.

Gallardo’s injury would lead to huge changes for the second half, with Sean Kelley taking his place, and Max Griffin, Ian Fuller and Erik Ustruck also subbing in at the half. The second half leaned more in Orlando City’s favor, especially in the last 10 minutes or so, but the Lions were unable to take advantage of their opportunities.

City remains home for a match next Saturday night hosting Pittsburgh Riverhounds, game time 7:30pm. This is Cinco de Mayo, so expect some more festivities. This is also scheduled for Game 4 of Orlando Magic’s first round playoff with Indiana Pacers, but their game is at 2pm, so we could get some carryover.

Wash, rinse, repeat tonight as Richmond Kickers follow us home for a snap replay. The Lions look to continue their reign of terror over the third division.

As has been beaten into the ground for the past month, tonight is Faith & Family Night. I have the detail of feativities here.

Adam Soucie has the match preview. Chris Jones has the three big stories for the match.

The Scoring Third has their visual preview.

Don’t forget I have a pre-pregame party downtown at Frank & Steins at Magnolia and Church. Got trivia and European football going on.

As Orlando City continues to roll through USL Pro, all the teams of the Orlando City Youth Soccer system do is win.

In the tier-2 2012 FYSA Presidents Cup, tournaments were won in U-11 girls by the Central Florida Krush Black Team, and in U-15 girls by the Florida Soccer Alliance 97 team.

Meanwhile, the tier-1 2012 FYSA State Cup finals continue. The FSA Freedom 93 White Team, the Florida Soccer Alliance U-18 boys team, will be competing in the Round of 16 this weekend.

Orlando City has released its full list of activities for Faith & Family Night, the theme for Saturday night’s match against Richmond Kickers. Game time is 7:30pm.

The fan zone will have performance areas for several local Christian performers, including local freestyle Christian rapper StefanOtto, Christian rap/”psychobilly” group The King’s Offspring, and the choir of Body of One Ministries. They will also have a live art display from Evoke Ministries. Having researched the entertainment, it looks like they all are non-denominational Christian. The national anthem will be sung by Lucinda Howard, and sponsored by the Olympia High School chapter of FCA.

I previously mentioned that former wrestler-turned-minister Marc Mero will be giving a testimonial following the match. His event will be in the Citrus Bowl Varsity Club. To attend, exit the Citrus Bowl after the match and bring your ticket stub to the Varsity Club entrance. It’s the building next to the box office, between Gate C (our entry gate) and Gate D.

Those who bought tickets through Groupon or ODealsDaily can pick up their tickets at a table that will be set up next to the Box Office Will Call window. Those with vouchers from FCA can pick their tickets up in front of the Varsity Club. Those ticket locations will be available starting at 4:30pm, when the box office opens.

Weather is supposed to be excellent on Saturday night, if a bit warm. The Weather Channel and Weather Underground both have highs pushing 90°F, but AccuWeather predicts 86°. All have lows in the mid-60s Saturday night, with rain chances no higher than 20%.

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As usual, Juan Terrazas has his take on Monterrey taking out Santos Laguna for the 2012 CONCACAF Champions League title.

Translation via Google Translate:
Monterrey: Thank you, my king… every time you touch me, you turn me to gold!
Santos Laguna: And every time he touches me, he makes me the runner-up.

As usual, be careful when visiting Juan’s comic website. Mexican humor can get racy at times.

Monterrey dropped the away leg 1-2 to Santos Laguna, but scored the away goal late to steal a 3-2 aggregate victory, taking the CONCACAF Champions League and the North American club championship for the second straight year.

Los Rayados had difficulty dealing with the away crowd for most of the match, giving up goals at 45+2′ and 51′. But a goal at 82′ by Argentine midfielder Neri Cardozo invoked the away-goal advantage, putting Monterrey instantly two goals ahead and silencing the Torreon crowd. If the aggregate had remained 2-2, the match would have entered extra time.

Although he was suspended for the match for yellow card accumulation, Humberto Suazo won the golden boot for the competition. He tied for the most goals in the competition at seven with Santos’s Oribe Peralta, but Suazo scored two goals in the first leg of the final, while Peralta only scored one in the final tie.

With the win, Monterrey will now take a second consecutive trip to the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan this coming December. They are the first to qualify for this year’s tournament. Oceania (OFC) will determine its championship with a two-legged Final on April 29 and May 12 between AS Tefana of Tahiti and FC Auckland of New Zealand. UEFA will decide the European participant in a one-match final on May 19 between FC Bayern Munich of Germany and Chelsea FC of England.

Asia (AFC), Africa (CAF) and South America (CONMEBOL) are still running their tournaments. The host berth from the J. League in Japan will be decided this fall (J. League has a similar schedule to MLS).

Orlando City continued to tally players named to the USL Pro Team of the Week. This week, they supplied goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo and midfielder James O’Connor.

Gallardo had seven saves last weekend against Richmond Kickers, and O’Connor was highlighted as key in distribution for Orlando’s offense.

The Player of the Week for the last week was Ryan Richter of Charleston Battery, who had a goal and an assist against Charlotte Eagles.

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Orlando City is also looking to write the record books of USL Pro.

With their win over Richmond last weekend, Orlando City now has a seven-game home winning streak in the regular season, breaking the longest streaks of last year (Richmond and Antigua Barracuda both had six-game winning streaks).

Now, they are gunning for Richmond’s record of six wins to start a season.

Orlando City already has the longest streak without a loss, running a string of 11 matches without losing last year (going 8-3-0 in that stretch). Including playoffs, they have a 10-match winning streak in USL Pro play.

Orlando City’s supporters’ clubs are releasing their pregame plans for Saturday’s home match against Richmond Kickers.

All the festivities will kick off with Reeves’ Army’s Pre-Pregame Meetup downtown at Frank & Steins at Church and Magnolia at 11am. It will be beer (300 varieties), brats (the best wieners in town) and Buzztime Trivia (with yours truly, the leader of the winning bar for Buzztime’s Sunshine Showdown trophy tournament). I hope to get a bunch of Orlando City fans together to take out a few rounds of digital trivia.

The plan is to break that party up at 3:30pm. From there, it’s on to the Citrus Bowl for the supporters’ tailgates.

Iron Lion Firm will be meeting for their tailgate at Lot U starting at 4pm, with pulled pork on the menu (alternative being planned for non-porkers).

The Ruckus will meet for their tailgate at Lot L, along the paved Lot H. As a play on the Kickers mascot, Kickaroo, their chef is planning a special: kangaroo chili.

Yes, as in real kangaroo meat. They actually eat kangaroo in Australia.

Los Guerrilloz, Riddim Section and Space Coast Alliance will all meet around The Ruckus as usual, with SCA further down Lot L, and the others actually in Lot H.

The storms tried to stop it, Orlando City used a strong second half to extinguish Richmond Kickers last night, 2-0.

The first half was uneventful outside the rain, with both teams squandering the chances they generated. About 8 minutes into the second half, the match was delayed by lightning, and would not resume until 40 minutes later. Soon after, a corner kick was found by Jamie Watson and fed to Ian Fuller, who buried it at 61′ for the opener.

As time waned, Dennis Chin attacked the penalty box with a shot that hit the crossbar. But the Kickers goalkeeper, Ronnie Pascale, had thrown himself into Chin’s legs, missing the ball, therefore incuring a penalty since the shot missed. (I’m certain if Chin scored, it would’ve counted.) Anthony Pulis was tasked with the penalty kick, and slotted it home to ensure a Lions victory and sweet revenge for last year’s opener.

Richmond will come down to Orlando for a return match next Saturday night at the Citrus Bowl. Game time is 7:30pm.

EDIT NOTE: The Fuller goal was originally credited to Luke Boden with an assist from Ian Fuller. I listed it as a corner kick from Fuller, but without more accurate coverage from Richmond, I had no clue.

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In other action, the A-Lion-ce didn’t fare too well in their action last night, but it had its ups late.

Stoke City was demolished at Newcastle United, 3-0. Anthony’s dad was not happy with their finishing. The win allowed Newcastle to keep pace with Tottenham and Chelsea, holding onto its spot for Europe, while the loss keeps Stoke City in 14th place, held down by a -13 goal differential. Things are so tight in the middle of the Premier League table, a win would’ve put Stoke all the way up to 9th. They do have a match in hand, however.

Burnley did Stoke one better, losing at Blackpool, 4-0. With just one match to go, they remain stuck in 12th place, but a +3 goal differential has them ahead of two others.

Monterrey continued its late form with a 1-1 draw against Pachuca. With one match to go before the playoffs, Monterrey has already clinched their spot.

Stoke City is looking to make the most of the end of the season. With four matches to go, they have slipped to 14th place, but are well off the drop zone. They will play at Newcastle today at 10am. The match will be on Fox Soccer (619 DirecTV, 1654 U-verse).

Burnley is pretty much played out of promotion this year in the Championship, 11 points out of the playoff with only two matches to go, but a run of 7 points in the past four matches has them firmly in the middle of the ladder. They play at Blackpool today at 10am.

Monterrey is in 4th place in the 2012 Clausura, but only three points out of the top seed, currently held by Monterrey rivals and Apertura champs UANL Tigres. They host Pachuca tonight at 10pm.

As for AS Roma, they head to Juventus tomorrow at 2:45pm. With six matches to go after last week’s match abandonment, they are only four points out of the Champions League. Their match will also be on Fox Soccer.

Richmond Kickers are celebrating their 20th season of fielding soccer teams.

Their present to themselves: A sense of seriousness, as expressed by their new logo.

Teams at all levels of USL giving up basic wordmark logos for crests are proliferating, and Richmond is no exception. Their new logo is unorthodox, but classy. It reminds me of what we might’ve seen if the original NASL had gone the crest route in the 1970s.

Richmond continues to be a formidable foe, same as it ever was. They’ve only failed to make the postseason once in the past ten years, and have three championships from eight finals appearances.

Of course, we eliminated them in the American Division final last year in the playoffs. But they also beat us in our inaugural USL Pro game at City Stadium.

That is where we will try to exact our revenge tonight.

Chris Jones and Adam Soucie have their match previews. The Scoring Third is continuing to experiment with their visual preview.

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Orlando City signed Rollins College graduate and Seminole County native Nick Sowers to the team yesterday.

Sowers, born in Longwood, played all four years of soccer at Lake Mary High, where he netted 36 goals and 32 assists. As a four-year player at Rollins, he moved from forward back to midfield in his sophomore season. He scored 16 goals and 15 assists, and was a regional Division II All-American this past year.

Sowers had a goal against Stetson during the preseason campaign. He joins Dennis Chin and fellow recent signee Justin Clark as Rollins players on Orlando City’s roster. Sowers and Clark played together all four years at Rollins.

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Orlando City has several promotions coming up fans.

First, our April 28 home return match hosting Richmond Kickers is Faith and Family Night. It will be a night of Christian music, tables for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and a post-match testimonial by former wrestler-turned-minister Marc Mero. Several major area churches are pushing attendance to this event. The Orlando Magic and Orlando Predators are having their own Faith and Family Nights as well.

Then, the Orlando City Soccer Foundation is sponsoring Youth Sports Day at Wet ‘n Wild. The water park will have a special day of operation on Sunday, May 6, with regular hours of 10am-5pm and special hours for YSD ticketholders of 5pm-8pm. You can purchase tickets directly from the Orlando City ticket office (855-675-2489) for $25 a piece, or buy them online from the Wet ‘n Wild website for $28.59 a piece. Group rates and special group promotions are also available. Soft drinks will be free from 1pm-7pm, and Orlando City players will be there to meet.