Halftime report: Orlando City 1, Philadelphia Union 0

In a very physical match, the Philadelphia Union are down a goal to Orlando City SC at the half.

The Union started out pretty well with a couple of good runs forward, however it was Andre Blake’s sliding saves that set the tone early. The first was in the box in the eighth minute, and the second was at eleven minutes outside of his box where a sliding tackle upended Jose Rivas. After a mintue on the turf, Rivas was back up and play resumed.

In the 14th minute, Chris Pontius made a great run down the left wing and centered a ball for CJ Sapong, however it was cleared out by Jose Aja. A minute later, Pontius had a header that just went wide of the far post.

In the 19th minute, disaster almost struck as a high ball into the box was headed by an off-balance Oguchi Onyewu. The ball went backwards and bounced off the top of the crossbar and out.

In the 22nd minute, Andre Blake tweaked his foot and was down on the turf, however luckily he was able to shake it off and continue.

Philadelphia conceded a couple of free kicks deep on fouls to Giles Barnes, one of which resulted in a (rather soft) yellow card. Luckily for the Union, nothing came of either of these. The match was physical and gritty – just what you’d expect from these two teams who pretty clearly do not like one another.

Alejandro Bedoya took a bit of a knock around the 33rd minute, but was able to come back in with no apparent damage.

The Union had two possible opportunities for penalties, with an apparent handball in the box and a tackle on Chris Pontius that wasn’t called.

In the 38th minute, Orlando City sprung Jose Rivas, who passed it wide to an unmarked Cyle Larin. The Canadian Messi didn’t miss, and Orlando was up a goal.

The play was hard and physical, but with three minutes of added time the Union weren’t able to find an equalizer before heading into the locker room as Derrick Jones skied the last touch of the half off of a corner kick.

Philadelphia Union: Andre Blake; Fabinho, Richie Marquez, Oguchi Onyewu, Keegan Rosenberry; Derrick Jones, Haris Medunjanin; Chris Pontius, Alejandro Bedoya, Fabian Herbers; CJ Sapong

Orlando City: Joe Bendik; Donny Toia, Jonathan Spector, Jose Aja, Will Johnson; Antonio Nocerino, Servando Carrasco; Giles Barnes, Matias Perez Garcia; Carlos Rivas, Cyle Larin

Scoring: Orlando City – None; Philadelphia – None

Disciplinary: Orlando City – Carlos Rivas (Yellow, 24’); Philadelphia – Oguchi Onyewu (Yellow, 27’)