Orlando City FC forward Jack Lynn dribbles down the pitch against the San Jose Earthquakes during his team’s 1-0 win at Pay Pal Park on Saturday MAY 18, 2024. (Orlando City FC)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE — If the San Jose Earthquakes didn’t have bad luck, they wouldn’t have any luck at all.

Jack Lynn scored the match’s only goal in the 89th minute to give Orlando City FC a 1-0 shutout victory over San Jose on Saturday evening at Pay Pal Park.

San Jose has lost its past two MLS matches. Orlando City has points in its last three matches.

Orlando City used a counterattack off of a set piece by San Jose. Iván Angulo stripped the ball off of Niko Tsakiris and raced down the left wing before crossing the ball over to Martin Ojeda. Ojeda’s shot attempt took a fluky bounce over to a wide-open Lynn who tapped in the ball into an open net with a right footed shot for third goal of the season.

“We weren’t able to send the ball back to the 18 (inside the box) and at the end of the day, this is football. The team that scores is the team that’s going to win. Today we didn’t have that consistency to score, to take advantage of our opportunities and they did on their last one,” ‘Quakes forward Cristian Espinoza said.

Both teams spent the first 15 minutes of the first half feeling each other out. Neither generated many scoring chances in the beginning of the match.

Orlando City (4-5-4) suffered a big loss to their offensive attack in the 16th minute. Leading goal scorer Duncan McGuire went up for a headed near midfield and landed awkwardly on his arm that looked scary. He laid on the ground for five minutes before walking off the field under his own power. OC head coached Oscar Pareja replaced McGuire with Lynn.

San Jose (3-10-1) controlled the possession for the majority of the first half and dominated play in the last 15 minutes of the opening half. Espinoza crossed the ball from right to left inside the box over to Rodrigues whose point-blank shot was knocked away by Orlando City goalkeeper Pedro Gallese in the 30th minute.

Then seven minutes later Rodrigues had another attempt to put the Quakes on the board when he received a cross off the foot of Hernán López, but he shot sailed just to the right of the net.

López was a force for San Jose whenever he touched the ball as he led attacks inside Orlando City’s zone as he played mainly on the right side of the pitch alongside Espinoza. Orlando City did their best to contain the Argentine striker using more than one player to mark him throughout the half.

‘Quakes goalkeeper William Yarbrough only had to deal with one shot on target in the first 45 minutes. Orlando City had two quality scoring attempts shoot just wide of the net. Dagur Thorhallsson’s right footed shot just missed to the right of the net in the 35th minute and then Nicolás Lodeiro’s left footed shot from the middle of the box went wide left in the 42nd minute.

“Orlando is a very good team,” said head coach Luchi Gonzalez regarding another tough luck finish for his team. “They have a good away record. Oscar (Parejas) does a great job with this team, and they are savvy. They punched us today in transition (after our) set piece. It was a disappointing goal to give away.”

San Jose had two chances, one in the 86th and the other in the 88th minute to score the winning goal. Espinoza glided in from the right wing, but his shot attempt sailed high over the net. Then two minutes later, Jack Skahan’s, who came into the match as a sub in the 83rd minute for Vito Costa, right footed attempt from the middle of the box was saved by Gallese.

Gallese finished the match with four saves to earn his third clean sheet of the season, including in back-to-back games. Yarbrough made three saves on four shots on target in the losing effort.

GAME NOTES: San Jose finished with six corner kicks. Orlando City had five.

San Jose has lost back-to-back matches against Orlando City and are now 1-3-3 in the all-time series.

The announced attendance of the match was 14,127.

UP NEXT: San Jose continues its quest for its first U.S. Open Cup championship when they take on the Sacramento Republic in the Round of 16 on Tuesday 5/21 at 7:00pm at Heart Health Park.