Orlando City drops fourth straight loss to top-ranked New England Revolution

Orlando City’s hopes of unseating Eastern Conference titan New England surged, then splintered in the 75th minute of Saturday’s game at Gillette Stadium.

The Lions (10-8-8, 38) trailed for all but a handful of minutes in the match against the top-ranked Revolution. But a penalty kick drawn by Daryl Dike gave the Lions a chance to equalize for a much-needed road point.

Captain Luis Nani strode to the touch line and sent the ball floundering directly up the middle of the goal and into the torso of keeper Matt Turner.

Turner hadn’t dived hard to either side. He appeared to fall off balance, leaving the entire right side of the goal gaping for a potential equalizer to smack into the net. Instead, Nani’s shot went straight into the keeper and sputtered over the crossbar.

Since joining Orlando City in 2019, Nani has missed five of 12 penalty kicks. Despite a penalty completion rate under 60%, the captain continues to stand as the primary penalty-taker for the team if he’s on the pitch.

After the match, coach Oscar Pareja said he selected Nani to take the penalty.

“I take that blame,” Pareja said.

On Saturday, his missed penalty snuffed out the final hope for the Lions to snap their losing streak. With the 2-1 finish, they sank to fifth on the Eastern Conference table with a fourth straight loss.

Orlando City needed a win, but more than anything they needed not to lose.

The team had lost three in a row highlighted by red cards and disastrous goals. The Lions hadn’t lost four straight games since 2018.

The late-season slump echoed memories of prior years when the Lions crumbled in the final months of competition, falling from hopeful positions to miss the playoffs.

Heading into the match, midfielder Mauricio Pereyra hinted the Lions were bracing for a shootout in Foxborough. New England had averaged 2.8 goals per game but also averaged 1.8 goals allowed.

With Sebas Méndez returned to the defensive midfield, the Lions hoped to spread out the New England defense to create chances for Dike on goal.

New England took an early lead with a ninth-minute goal from Adam Buksa, but the Lions punched back quickly with an equalizer when Dike hammered a shot past Turner.

The goal marked Dike’s fourth goal in his 10th game, a limited number due to a loan to Barnsley, international duty and a lingering midseason injury.

“That period after the goal, I think we just kind of had the momentum,” Dike said. “Everyone was going, we were trying to keep the ball, we were finding the pockets of space. ... That was kind the lift we needed.”

The Lions seemed set to hold the first half draw into the locker room until the 35th minute when a cross rebounded off Rodrigo Schlegel for an own goal as he scrapped with Buksa for position.

The loss didn’t reflect the lopsided play that plagued the Lions’ previous three losses. The team held nearly 46% of possession despite being on the road and forced equalizing opportunities into the final minutes of play sparked by winger Silvester van der Water.

With the loss, the Lions are only one point above the playoff cutoff line as they enter the final eight games of the regular season. They will look to widen that margin on the road against Nashville SC on Wednesday.

Despite the loss, Dike said the game felt like a return to the style of play that lifted the Lions to the second spot in the conference table in prior months.

“You’ve got to look at the chances we created for ourselves,” Dike said. “At some points in the game, we were able to be the imposing factor ... and I think in other games recently we might not have been able to. It’s another step in the right direction, even though we lost.”

This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Julia Poe at jpoe@orlandosentinel.com.