Welcome to Episode 58 of Defenders of the Banc, where hopefully we sound better than YouTube TV’s coverage of the second half of our first visit to Orlando looked. LAFC sent a depleted roster into the House of the Mouse, down 7 players on international duty while MVP Carlos Vela sat out to rest his hamstring. Despite this, LAFC salvage a tie, 2-2, behind the 15th for Diego Rossi and the very first for LMU-product Adrien Perez.
In the 11th minute, Adrien Perez gave us every reason to celebrate, tallying his maiden MLS goal, but off the very next kickoff, a horror show of defending and a lucky deflection off of Latif Blessing meant the score was knotted at one. Orlando quickly took the lead just minutes later, and it was looking bleak well into the second half. Luckily, Diego Rossi waited until after YouTube TV figured out their extensive technical difficulties to log his 15th of the year, the equalizer! This game saw a little bit of everything: Both Josh and Adrien Perez started up front flanking Dio, Diego Rossi started at center-mid, a position that Eddie Segura would finish the match in, Mohamed El-Munir was providing pressure on the FRONT line, not the back, to end the game, and the final whistle blew seeing no fewer than six defenders on the pitch for LAFC: Blackmon, Harvey, Beitashour, Segura, Silva, and El-Munir. Wow. What a night in Orlando.
This episode also marks the return of the Filimonster from Columbia! The duo of Filly and the Scarf are back together, which means the return of “Rants with Filly” (there may be more than one). Make sure to listen for all the great details about the two different ways to contribute to the #KickChildhoodCancer fundraiser on the 21st.
Also on this episode, both boys try to exercise the demons for two very different reasons, Scarf is forced to watch the game from a bridal shower, and Filly name-drops all the cool people he hung out with at Barney’s. There’s also a Supporters Shield update, Chasing LAFC History, and breaking news concerning a certain Carson team and their playoff positioning. Until the game at Philly on the 14th, we wish all of our Defenders family wonderful tidings of Black and Gold!
