Carnahan Coverage: Orlando City Soccer Club Falls Short in Final USL Pro Postseason Run
On Saturday the Orlando City Soccer Club suffered its first home loss in 20 matches at the worst possible time.
The Lions, the USL Pro regular season champions, lost 1-0 to eighth-seeded Harrisburg City in the first round of the playoffs at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports. The setback ended a bid at capturing a third title in four years for the defending champs before moving up to Major League Soccer in 2015.
Defender Tommy Redding, just 17-years of age, played the entire 90 minutes. He compared the loss to how he felt when he and current teammate Tyler Turner played together on the U-17 National Team and became the first group to fail to qualify for the World Cup a year ago.
"It was tough, but because of that process it makes this a little bit easier, but not too much," Redding said. "I've felt this pain, but not as high of a scale. I was brothers with the guys at Bradenton (home of the U-17 residency program) but wasn't as close as all my teammates here in Orlando, so it's really tough."
( – Click here to read J.C.'s story on Tommy Redding and Tyler Turner for Major League Soccer – )
Posted in SPORTS, WORK and tagged 2015, Adrian Heath, Antoine Hoppenot, Bill Becher, Bradenton, Bradenton Residency Program, Brazil, Carl Woszczynski, England, ESPN Wide World of Sports, Europe, Florida, France, Germany, Harrisburg City Islanders, IMG Academy, Major League Soccer, Orlando City Soccer Club, Oviedo, Rob Valentino, Soccer, Tommy Redding, Tyler Turner, U-17, U-18, U.S. Soccer, UCLA, USL Pro, World Cup on September 14, 2014 by J.C. Carnahan. Leave a comment