In a flash, Ruan and Orlando City SC bounced back from last week’s 3-0 home defeat to the New York Red Bulls with a 2-1 victory over Charlotte FC at Exploria Stadium Saturday night.
“Coming from a difficult result and getting this one was what we needed,” Orlando City head coach Oscar Pareja said after the game.
The Brazilian fullback, who faced criticism for his part in that lopsided home defeat, played the superhero role against the expansion side, scoring the opening goal and adding an assist on Facundo Torres’ tally just before halftime.
“Ruan’s game today was very good, not just the assist and scoring,” Pareja said. "It's good for him, that gets back to his best level. I would like more consistency, but that’s hard to ask him to come back and forth the whole 90 minutes because he had a lot of miles on his legs.”
After scoring his third career MLS goal, slamming home a back-post Benji Michel service Robin Jansson flicked into his path, Ruan raced to the Lions bench and donned a “Flash” mask as part of his celebration.
The win moves Orlando City to third in the crowded Eastern Conference table with a trip to CF Montréal, which sit just three points behind the Lions, coming Saturday (4 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+).
“We need to continue building victories, otherwise it doesn’t make sense,” Jansson said. “Now we bounce back good and hopefully we can continue to stay in a good way in the future.”
Considering his team’s inconsistent play in the first 10 games of the regular season, Pareja likes where his side sits in the table, highlighting road wins against the LA Galaxy and Columbus Crew, as well as draws at Portland and Chicago.
While Pareja said his team possesses the tools to dominate at Exploria Stadium, which is the aim considering the Lions are 3-3-0 at home this season, he likes the direction his team is going.
“There’s a lot of good things happening and we're going to keep building on it,” Pareja said. “Boys should be feeling proud about bouncing back from the last game and they had a good week and today we got back to victory.”
