Ugh.

That’s all I really want to write.

Instead, I have to break down a match that should have been a Louisville City win but turned into the team’s second consecutive loss. City started yet another new lineup tonight, with Ranjitsingh, Montano, Reynolds, Shanosky, Newnam, DelPiccolo, Abend, Davis IV, McCabe, Kaye, and Hoffman getting the start. Aodhan Quinn was out on yellow card accumulation. Orlando brought some guys we’ve never heard of.

The game was fairly back and forth for most of the opening ten minutes, with neither team generating much in terms of chances. That changed in the 13th minute when Guy Abend got on the end of a second ball from a Louisville corner kick and put the ball past the Orlando keeper to put the good guys up front. Louisville would continue to attack the Orlando goal in the first half including a vicious flurry around the 40 minute mark, but wasn’t able to convert any chances.

O’Connor made two changes at half time to try and get some more speed going forward, subbing Kadeem on for Mark Anthony Kaye, and then putting Cameron Lancaster on for Niall McCabe. It didn’t seem like those changes worked as well as hoped, as Louisville spent most of the half defending and not generating a lot on goal aside from a few flubbed chances.

It seemed as though the match was headed for a 1-0 Louisville City win. Then, just before the clock hit 90′, the ref called a penalty kick after a scrum in the box following an Orlando City B corner kick. I was sitting in the opposite end, so I didn’t see it, but I could have sworn it had been called a goal kick. Obviously I was wrong. Tyler Turner converted the penalty and the match was level. Louisville mounted a furious attempt to get the game winner, but somehow fell asleep on and Orlando City B counter and Keegan Smith put one over Ranjitsingh’s head to win the game for Orlando.

We could agonize over the ref’s decisionmaking in this game. It sure seemed like someone on OCB should’ve been thrown out for decking Paolo in the face in the second half, but somehow the B team got a free kick out of the deal instead. I don’t know how the penalty was called, but it was.

The result sucks. The fact City couldn’t close out the win sucks. The fact they fell on their faces and lost REALLY sucks. This one stings, and it’s gonna take some time and a win or two to get over. Have a good night.