Your City starting XI. 😈#ORLvATL | #VamosOrlando pic.twitter.com/87jBiRJupj

— Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) August 24, 2018

ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando City SC and Atlanta United FC entered halftime tied in most aspects of the game, including a 1-1 scoreline, but the night ultimately belonged to forward Josef Martínez and his record-breaking game-winner.

The Lions (7-16-2, 23 points) fell 2-1 to first-place Atlanta (16-4-6, 54 points) at Orlando City Stadium Friday night in front of 25,058 fans.

First-year Lions boss James O’Connor was brief about his emotions after losing to the 2017 expansion side.

“Obviously very disappointed,” O’Connor said after the match. “It was a game we wanted to try and win for the supporters. Very, very disappointed. Extremely disappointed.”

With the match tied at 1-1, Martínez put the finishing touches on his team’s second-straight win.

On one of Atlanta’s many threatening counterattacks, right back Julian Gressel delivered the ball to Martínez entering the box. The Venezuelan, then, used a fake that dropped City goalkeeper Joe Bendik before chipping the ball into the back of the net for a Major League Soccer, single-season record 28th goal.

Martínez promptly stared down Bendik after the goal before sprinting shirtless to the Atlanta section of Orlando City Stadium, flashing his jersey to his supporters.

“When you look at the level of the performance, I think it wasn’t good enough. We need to be honest with ourselves,” O’Connor said. “Look, we can point, and we can say we had key players missing, but, again, for me, they’re excuses…

“The intensity, especially second half, when you look at the second half especially — we get back in it at 1-1, my hope is that we’re going to go on, and we’re going to try to really make it difficult for them and go and garner some kind of momentum, and the complete opposite happened.”

For Orlando City, leading scorer Dom Dwyer nearly equalized in the 79th minute. A corner kick delivered to the near post was misdirected by Dwyer to the far post. United keeper Brad Guzan quickly threw his left hand up, making one of his three saves on the night.

Offensive opportunities came in bunches in the first half for both Orlando City and Atlanta United. In total, both teams combined for 14 shots (nine on-goal) and a goal each.

Atlanta opened the scoring with a 21st-minute score off a free kick from just outside the left part of the box. It seemed like Atlanta United attacking midfielder Ezequiel Barco was initially looking for Martínez, but the ball, instead, took one bounce into Bendik’s chest.

There for the rebound was center back Leandro González Pirez, who shot the ball into Bendik’s chest before collecting the second rebound for the goal-scoring shot and a 1-0 lead.

Orlando City waited until the final minutes of the first half to equalize. In the 39th minute, new Lion Carlos Ascues initiated the scoring effort by sending the ball to City rookie Chris Mueller just outside the right part of the box. Mueller, then, found a cutting Will Johnson, who back-heeled the ball to right back Scott Sutter for a one-timed, curling shot past a diving Guzan.

“It was a good play by the guys,” Sutter said after the loss. “We switched the side from one side to the other — kind of what we’ve been working on in training. We needed that. They were quite vulnerable… I think it was Chris who played the ball inside, and Will laid it off perfectly, and [I] took it in stride, closed my eyes and struck the ball.

“It was one of the better goals I scored in my career.”

About two minutes after Sutter’s third goal of his MLS career and his second of the 2018 season, Martínez nearly helped Atlanta take the lead again. United attacking midfielder Héctor Villalba sent a short, grounded cross from inside the box to Martínez, who surrendered a close-range chance with a wide-right shot.

Orlando City team captain Jonathan Spector, who was making his first appearance after sitting out the past six matches, was there to contest Villalba.

“I’m sure [Spector’s] very, very tired. He managed to start training towards the middle of last week, toward the end of last week. He was able to come in,” O’Connor said. “I think you could see he started to tire second half. When you look at most of the team, I think we started to tire second half, as well. It wasn’t just Specs.

“For him, it was important that he got the 90 minutes under his belt, having been out for so long with the injury.”

Midfielder Pierre da Silva also played his first significant minutes for the first team after making a one-minute debut in 2017. Against Atlanta Friday, the 20-year-old played the final 29 minutes of the match, recording a tackle and drawing one foul.

“I thought he had one flash second half where he cut inside. He was pretty direct, got at them and then got in behind and got a decent cross,” O’Connor said of da Silva. “But I think he’s a young guy who’s trying to make his way in a difficult team performance.

“It’s hard for a young player when you come on in a situation like that to really go on and really impact the game. He needed some other guys to be really helping him, as well. It’s unfair to make judgments on a young player when we have that level of performance in the second half.”

As for Ascues, he was pleased with his MLS debut but disappointed with the team’s result. He played as a defensive midfielder alongside Spaniard Oriol “Uri” Rosell, clocking 67 minutes, recording two tackles, drawing a foul and completing 93.3 percent of his 30 passes.

“I’m sad because, aside from my debut, we wanted to win,” Ascues said, translated from Spanish, after the match. “Our objective was to win. My objective was to win. I’m sad also because we’re in a tough situation. We needed to win tonight, and we weren’t able to do it. But now we’re looking forward to the next game.”

Ascues’ first language is Spanish, as he does not completely understand English. Despite that, he described the communication with his new teammates as “very good.”

“I felt like the communication was very good. All of my teammates were great with me,” Ascues said. “I personally don’t fully understand English, but they’re making a great effort to make sure that I’m getting all the information.”

Who’s Next?

The Lions will go on to host the Philadelphia Union (10-11-3, 33 points) Sept. 1 at at 7:30 p.m. Fifth-place Philly is tied with the sixth-place Montreal Impact in points with two games in hand.

For more on the Lions, as they look toward their last nine games of the 2018 season, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.

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