Austin FC Battles Back, Earns Draw Against Orlando SC

The match between the Orlando SC and the Austin FC looked bleak for the Verde and Black as they quickly fell to a 2-0 deficient. But catastrophic penalties by Orlando allowed Austin to salvage a 2-2 draw. 

An uncharacteristic mental error by Brad Stuver in the second minute of play fed the ball to Junior Urso, who set-up Ercan Kara for an easy goal. 

Ruan Teixeira doubled Orlando’s in the 22nd minute.  Teixeira collected the rebound off a save by Stuver, to beat the goaltender on the near side. 

Austin’s fortune turned in the 60th minute on a handball in the box by Rodrigo Schlegel set up an Austin penalty kick.  Shlegel was shown a yellow card for the infraction, and red card for his second infraction of the match. 

Sebastian Driussi converted on the penalty kick, and suddenly Austin had narrowed the lead to 2-1 and had a 1-man advantage on the pitch. 

The situation continued to improve for Austin when Cesar Araujo was also shown a red card  for a violent penalty against Alex Ring in the 69th minute.  The Verde and Black now a two-man advantage on the pitch. 

It took Austin until the 5th minute of stoppage time to capitalize on the heavily slanted pitch.  Dani Pereira’s curling centering pass from the top corner of the box to far outside corner of the goal to set-up a tap-in goal by Moussa Djitte to tie the match.