Orlando City SC (7-12-7, 28 points) suffered a 5-0 defeat to Toronto FC (10-10-4, 34 points) at BMO Field on Saturday afternoon after defender Rafael Ramos and midfielder Adrian Winter were sent off during the match.
The ejections marked the Lions’ eighth and ninth red cards of the season – the most for any team in Major League Soccer (MLS).
While maintaining a strong defensive shape, Orlando kept the home side relatively quiet in the first half, limiting chances from Designated Player Sebastian Giovinco and U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Michael Bradley. However, with less than 10 minutes remaining in the half, Ramos was controversially sent off while making a strong challenge, reducing the Lions to 10 men with over 50 minutes left in the game.
As a result, the Reds got off to a strong start in the second 45, beginning with Marco Delgado’s finish in the 46th minute. Ten minutes later, Sebastian Giovinco doubled Toronto’s lead with a free-kick from the edge of the area that hit the far post before finding the back of the net.
In the final 20 minutes of the fixture, Justin Morrow’s goal, a brace from second-half substitute Jozy Altidore, and Winter’s red card on a counter-attack would secure three points for Toronto, despite a concerted effort from City to fight back into the game.
“We’re obviously bitterly disappointed with the result. I thought we were doing okay, up until the sending off. I thought the game plan was working well, and obviously the sending offs has cost us dearly,” said head coach Adrian Heath. “We started the second half by giving away a goal really early which didn’t help. We had a couple of chances to tie the game, but the bottom line is that it wasn’t good enough. We compounded our problem by going down to nine men, so it’s been a very difficult day in the end.”