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This is your open thread for Orlando City's afternoon road trip to meet the Montreal Impact. The Lions are 1-1-1, with a 1-0 road record. Montreal is 0-1-1 and today marks the Impact's home opener.
The Impact, which is nearing a date in the CONCACAF Champions League final, has yet to score in MLS play through two games and will be missing two key offensive players in the injured Cameron Porter and Justin Mapp, and three other players to international duty. Montreal, much improved defensively this season, has allowed only one goal through two games, falling 1-0 at D.C. United and drawing 0-0 at New England Revolution.
Meanwhile, Orlando City is down no less than seven players who are away for international games and the Lions are nursing several injuries in their own right. It's hard to even say who will be in the starting lineup today for Orlando or if they'll even have 18 healthy bodies for the lineup card.
Adversity is the watch word for the Lions, who must overcome a gut-wrenching 96th minute loss last Saturday night at home to Vancouver Whitecaps FC - a team that should have been down to nine men, as MLS has suspended Kekuta Manneh (one game) and Diego Rodriguez (two games) for not playing very nice. In the 65th and 62nd minutes, respectively. It's conceivable that Orlando City could have had a two-man advantage for half an hour had the referee noted both egregious infractions.
But that's in the past. It's time to take out the frustrations against a different Canadian team.
Here's your required reading/listening to get ready for tonight's match:
- Andrew M's Match Preview will prep you for the game
- Andrew H did a Scouting Report on Montreal to help get you ready
- The latest PawedCast features Mount Royal Soccer writer J.F. Corbet on Montreal
- Our Intelligence Report on the Impact, where Corbet dishes on the Impact's form
Official Lineups:
Orlando City (5-2-2-1):
Goalkeeper: Donovan Ricketts
Defense: Luke Boden, Sean St. Ledger, Aurelien Collin, Seb Hines, Tyler Turner
Defensive Midfielders: Eric Avila, Amobi Okugo,
Attacking Midfielders: Kaká (C), Pedro Ribeiro
Forward: Danny Mwanga,
Bench: Earl Edwards Jr., Tommy Redding, Harrison Heath, Bryan Róchez
Montreal Impact (4-2-3-1):
Goalkeeper: Eric Kronberg
Defense: , Victor Cabrera, Bakary Soumare, Wandrille Lefèvre, Donny Toia
Defensive Midfield: Marco Donadel, Nigel Reo-Coker,
Attacking Midfield: Dominic Oduro, Ignacio Piatti, Eric Alexander
Forward: Jack McInerney
Bench: (to come)
How to Watch:
Match time: 4 p.m. (ET)
Venue: Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TV: FOX35 locally, FOX Sports Florida throughout Florida, and RDS and TSN in Canada
Radio: 104.1 FM Real Radio (English), La Grande 1030 AM (Spanish)
Streaming: MLS Live, FOX Sports GO
Twitter: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at @TheManeLand, as well as Orlando City's official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).
Match Thread Rules:
This is your live thread for posting comments on the match. So use our comments section below to talk about the game in real time with other supporters. If you're new, welcome to our happy home! While you're here, please observe a few basic rules:
- Absolutely no links to illegal streams. They can get us in trouble, and no one wants that.
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- Keep it somewhat clean and fair when criticizing players / officials. You never know who might be reading.
- Do unto others in the match thread, the way you would have others do unto you. We are a fun community and want to keep it this way. We have a moderator, but we'd rather let him enjoy the game instead of having to play babysitter.
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