Football
2019 Major League Soccer, Regular Season
ORL 
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FT
 PHI
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Reuters 5y

Philadelphia finally earn win at Orlando City

Kacper Przybylko recorded a brace and Fafa Picault scored in his second straight game as the visiting Philadelphia Union rallied for a 3-1 win over nine-man Orlando City SC on Wednesday night.

Jamiro Monteiro added two assists for the Eastern Conference-leading Union (10-5-5), who won for the first time in five matches at Orlando. Chris Mueller scored in his second straight game for Orlando City (6-9-3), as both Robin Jansson and veteran Sacha Kljestan received straight red-card bookings.

Early on, Orlando was the aggressor and got rewarded in the 8th minute. Mueller took advantage of a Philadelphia turnover, then dribbled his way through the visitor's back end to eventually roll one past goalkeeper Matt Freese. It was Mueller's fifth of the season, and had Orlando City feeling good about things.

However, the Union weren't about to roll over as Przybylko had a couple of quality looks in the minutes after Orlando's goal. The Polish forward then equalized in the 32nd minute on a strong pass from Monteiro that left him one-on-one with Orlando keeper Brian Rowe, who was not up to the challenge.

The complexion of the match changed, however, when Orlando went down to 10 men following a 43rd-minute take-down tackle by Jansson on Picault. Jansson was initially given a yellow card, but VAR determined it was worthy of a straight red.

With the Union holding the advantage, Przybylko scored two minutes into the second half off a brilliant back-kick from Alejandro Bedoya. It was Przybylko's eighth goal of 2019 and fourth in three games. Picault put Philadelphia ahead by two with a successful angle strike in the 52nd minute.

As if things couldn't get worse for Orlando, Kljestan was sent off on 67 minutes for a hard foul on Monteiro that did not appear deliberate. The Union kept the pressure, but could not add on.

These teams will meet again Saturday night at Chester, Pa. Wednesday's match was delayed roughly 45 minutes due to lightning.

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