Orlando City SC passes the friendly test against Clube Atletico Mineiro | OneFootball

Brazilian powerhouse Atletico Mineiro and Orlando City SC played a friendly match. Both sides performed well, but the Lions won the final shootout.

Preseason friendlies give teams a chance to try new players. It also gave Orlando City SC and Atletico Mineiro a chance to try goalkeepers out in the penalty kick shootout at the end.

Both Pedro Gallese for the Lions and Everson for Atletico Mineiro converted. The shootout went to 5-5. The match was still tied.

If the Lions were to win it, the two players with responsibility were newly drafted midfielder Joran Gerbet and then netminder Gallese.

Gerbet decided a powerful frontal attack on the penalty wouldn’t work. So he craftily wound up, paused, and switched feet several times. Then he hit a soft, low-line drive toward the bottom-right corner of the net.

Gerbet’s unique strategy worked. The winner scored and Gerbet wasn’t even looking at the ball when he kicked. That was what kept Everson’s head swimming.

Dec 11, 2023; Louisville, KY, USA; Clemson Tigers midfielder Joran Gerbet (6) dribbles the ball against Notre Dame Fighting Irish midfielder Nolan Spicer (22) during the second half of the College Cup Championship at Lynn Family Stadium. Clemson defeated Notre Dame 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images | Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images

Atletico center-back Bruno Fuchs was expected to keep his team alive. So he also chose a low, line drive. But he delivered the kick more conventionally and more powerfully.  Gallese had it all figured out just in time. He met the attempt with a punch save while hitting the pitch.

Fuchs was looking at the ball upon his kick.

The friendly was over. And it mattered more than the record books can ever show.

It was a confrontation between a rising Orlando City SC squad and a historical, established Atletico Mineiro team.

The friendly proved that the Lions can keep up with such a squad. And when Orlando City couldn’t win it outright in 90 minutes, they kept playing. They beat their opponent mentally with Gerbet’s penalty and Gallese’s punch save.

Gerbet previously had made 76 starts in 78 appearances, but that was in college. Now he is absorbing and executing the Lions’ strategy. It’s no wonder the team had such confidence in him at this key moment. He handled the penalty kick situation like he’d been practicing it all week.