Lakeland Tropics 4–3 The Villages SC
Seven goals, a record crowd, and a defeat.
Lakeland's home opener drew 6,172 people to Bryant Stadium — one of the biggest crowds this league has seen — and they got a match worth the ticket. The lead changed hands, both sides kept coming, and it finished 4–3 to the hosts.
Our scorers: Carlos Araujo twice — 40' and 45', the second assisted by Gabriel Torres — and D. Mendes on 65, assisted by Willian Hopfner.
Lakeland's four came from R. Idrissou on 32, R. Diegues on 38, and Victor Rojas twice, on 43 and 59.
Five goals in the first half, and Lakeland went in 3–2 up.
This was the first win in Lakeland Tropics' history — an expansion club in their inaugural season, in front of their own record crowd.
That is our third defeat in three matches to start the season, and we are not going to pretend that is where we expected to be. But we were in that game until the end, in that atmosphere, against a side that will be in this division race all summer.
There are eleven matches left. We will be in it.
