• FINAL STATS

Squad! 😈#ORLvMTL | #VamosOrlando pic.twitter.com/qGtyynjzNg

— Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 23, 2018

ORLANDO, Fla. – The losing continues in the City Beautiful, as Orlando City SC (6-9-1, 19 points) dropped its seventh-straight match in a 2-0 loss to the Montreal Impact (6-11-0, 18 points) Saturday night at Orlando City Stadium in front of 23,498 fans.

Interim head coach Bobby Murphy was straight-forward with his assessment of the game, assuming the blame.

“Yeah, I wanna apologize to the fans who came out tonight,” Murphy said after the loss. “The team selection, you know, falls on me, and I chose the group that went out there, and we weren’t good enough tonight. So that’s my responsibility.”

Part of the conflict in Murphy’s lineup decisions stemmed from the team’s 1-1 (4-2) win over D.C. United in U.S. Open Cup play. In the June 20 matchup, six Lions played 120 minutes. Of those six, five started the match against Montreal.

After the second-straight shutout to Montreal, Murphy alluded to his team’s fatigue and, again, assumed the blame.

“You can’t discount that I put–and I’ll say this again–I did it. I put some tired legs out there thinking they would be okay and get us through,” Murphy said. “And that was not the case. So, that’s on me.”

The Lions got off on the wrong foot–well, technically, the wrong head–as center back Lamine Sané scored the first goal of the match on his own net in the 13th minute. A strong cross into the box by forward Matteo Mancosu took a deflection off Sané’s head, bounced once and slipped past a diving Joe Bendik.

Right back Scott Sutter, who made his first appearance since starting for 57 minutes against the Portland Timbers on April 8, acknowledged the team’s fatigue played a factor against Montreal but wouldn’t allow that to be an excuse for the Lions.

“It just wasn’t good enough,” Sutter said after the match. “It’s an easy excuse to make that a lot of the guys that played tonight played 120 minutes on Wednesday, plus travel. It’s an easy excuse to make, but, despite me saying that, that’s not the reason. It just wasn’t good enough, and I think everyone knows it.”

Orlando City’s offense was stunted for most of the match, as the Lions recorded just one two off-target shots in the first half and did not tally an on-target effort until the 69th minute.

A corner kick from the right fell to Sané near the top of the box, and the first-year Lion managed a grounded, medium-powered shot toward Impact keeper Evan Bush. Bush dropped to the ground and saved the ball directly on his goal line.

“When [Montreal] wants to sit in, we have to play faster, right?” Murphy said. “And there’s a natural tendency to think that because I have time and space on the ball that I can now take my time. But really what you’re doing is using up the next guy’s time that you can get it to to move things quickly.”

City’s hopes of at least a draw were dashed when Montreal forward Ignacio Piatti scored in the 84th minute. An initial offside call negated the goal, but, after review, Piatti was awarded his eighth goal of the season for a 2-0 Montreal lead.

Who’s Next?

Orlando City will have a week until they travel to face Atlanta United FC on June 30. The Lions started their standing seven-game losing streak with a 2-1 loss to Atlanta on May 13.

For more on the Lions, as they look to break their longest losing streak in club history, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.

To contact Victor, you can email him at vtan@newdayreview.com, or you can tweet at him.