Orlando, April 27, 2013 - Less than 24 hours after edging out VSI Tampa Bay in a 1-0 match played in Plant City Stadium, the Dutch Lions traveled at night across the Sunshine State to face 2011 and 2012 regular season champions Orlando City. In front of 9500 people the men from Dayton came out of the gate strong putting pressure on the Orlando defense, resulting in a near goal after a 20 yeard shot of Irakli Khutsidze that just went wide by a few inches. However the fatigue got more and more clear during the game and the distance between the defense, midfield and offense got too big and the Lions were but were unable to stave off a strong Orlando City round of attacks around the 30 minute mark. Orlando scored 3 goals in a 11 minute time span through goals of Chin, Dwyer and Watson (pk). The Dutch Lions FC found themselves down 0-3 at the half.
The Orlando Lions came out strong again the 2nd half and created multiple opportunities again but the defensive effort improved in the second half with a few good saves by Matt Williams. Despite bringing in Klaasse, Westdijk and Madigan up front, the offensive opportunities for the Dutch Lions FC were almost none. At full time the home team walked off the field with a deserved 4-0 victory handing the Dutch Lions FC their first loss in the season.
Line up Dayton Dutch Lions FC
Matt Williams, Taylor Lord, Greg Presciado, Shintaro Harada, Joel DeLass, Brock Granger, Irakli Khutsidze, Gibson Bardsley, Brandon Schwartzendruber, Eric Kissinger
Substitutions: Remco Klaasse, Tjeerd Westdijk, Joey Madigan, Jeremy Cheeseman, Ryan Groothuis
The Dayton Dutch Lions FC return home today and have a "Dutch Queensday" game scheduled on Tuesday night April 30 in Cincinnati against the Cincinnati Saints, and play 2013 USL Peo Champions Charleston Battery Friday night at Beavercreek High School for their 4th game of the season.