One swing of Braian Ojeda's right foot decided Orlando City's regular season. He scored in the 45th minute, and Orlando City defeated New England 1-0 on Saturday at Inter&Co Stadium on the last day of the MLS schedule.
The Associated Press described the goal as a blast from 24 yards that made it 1-0. ESPN's match report logged it as a right-footed volley from outside the box to the top right corner, coming after a corner, with no assist listed. That was the only goal of the afternoon.
Orlando finished 13-14-7 for 46 points, 13 wins, 14 losses and 7 draws, and is the East's No. 8 seed. New England finished 18-12-4 for 58 points, 18 wins, 12 losses and 4 draws, and takes the East's third seed. The AP listed those records in wins-losses-draws order, and ESPN's scoreboard carried the same point totals, 46 and 58.
The result ended a stretch of three matches without a win for Orlando, the AP said, and put the club into the Eastern Conference wild-card round against No. 9 Cincinnati. Orlando hosts that match on Thursday. New England will play sixth-seeded Philadelphia in a first-round series that is best of three, with the MLS Cup playoffs scheduled to begin Nov. 19.
A lead that had to be protected
Because the goal arrived just before halftime, New England had the entire second half to find an equalizer and did not. The Revolution held 62 percent of the ball but attempted only eight shots to Orlando's 13 and were outshot 4-2 on target, according to the AP.
Those shots on target line up with the save totals: Matt Turner made three saves for New England, and Maxime Crepeau made two for Orlando. Crepeau was shown a yellow card in the first minute of second-half stoppage time. The match ended after four added minutes in the second half.
Orlando made attacking changes after the interval, bringing on Joran Gerbet for Eduard Atuesta in the 62nd minute and Daryl Dike for Marco Pasalic in the 66th, then Griffin Dorsey for Martin Ojeda in the 82nd, per ESPN's commentary. New England introduced Alhassan Yusuf and Brooklyn Raines around the hour mark, then Diego Fagundez and Marcos Zambrano later, without converting its territorial edge.
