Orlando City put themselves "on the map" in narrow CCL loss to Tigres

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Orlando City SCā€™s first Concacaf Champions League experience was short, but memorable, with the Lions pushing 2020 champions Tigres UANL to the brink before being eliminated on the away-goals tiebreaker following a 1-1 draw at Exploria Stadium in the Round of 16 second leg Wednesday night.

The result was a bitter pill for Orlando coach Oscar Pareja, who saw his team equalize on a stunning Ercan Kara bicycle kick in the 90th minute, but squander a golden chance to advance with a miss by Duncan McGuire at the death.

"It just showed that this team did not give up at all,ā€ Pareja said in his post-match press conference. ā€œWe pushed, pushed, pushed and then we found the game probably later on than we want obviously in the 89th minute. But after that, I thought we had the energy to score the other one, including that option that Duncan has, but it could be one more or two more.ā€

Pareja was adamant referee Said MartĆ­nez should have added more additional time than the five minutes put up on fourth official Selvin Brown's board in the aftermath of Karaā€™s dramatic leveler.

ā€œWeā€™re not bad losers,ā€ Pareja said. ā€œWeā€™re respectful, but weā€™re not stupid.ā€

The Lions' head coach sprinted onto the field after the final whistle to confront Martinez, who showed Pareja a post-match red card.

ā€œWhether it was because their goalkeeper wasnā€™t playing, not restarting, substitutions and even the celebration of the goal,ā€ Pareja said. "They need to understand that, and we saw it in the World Cup, guys. You give minutes, but theyā€™re wasting time, they need to add more time. That's what Iā€™m saying. Listen, we are respectful, and I want to say it again, but we're not stupid. Weā€™re not.ā€

Although disappointed with the early exit, Pareja said the experience of competing in the CCL and going toe-to-toe over the course of two evenly-matched legs with one of Liga MXā€™s top squads proves Orlando are ā€œon the map of the bestā€ regionally.

ā€œNow we have in front of us a big challenge, which is what's next and how can we grow with this experience,ā€ Pareja said. ā€œWeā€™ll do [it]. Obviously it is a quick turnaround because we have the league in front of us over the weekend. But today there is a lot of positive things for the boys, for sure.ā€