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Orlando City vs. Nashville SC: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

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Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night match-up between Orlando City (2-1-2, 8 points) and Nashville SC (2-2-1, 7 points) at Exploria Stadium (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+). It’s the first meeting of 2023 between the two sides, with the Lions making the return trip to Nashville on Wednesday, Oct. 4. Nashville is back in the Eastern Conference this season, so a big three points are on the line.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.

History

The Lions are 1-1-4 against Nashville in MLS matches and 1-2-5 in all competitions. Orlando is 1-1-1 at home in the series in league play and 1-1-2 at Exploria Stadium in all competitions. The odd quirk continues between the two sides in that the team to score first has never won the match.

The teams did not meet in regular-season play last year, meeting only in the U.S. Open Cupin Orlando on June 29, 2022. Hany Mukhtar scored in the 52nd minute and that looked like it would be enough until Rodrigo Schlegel equalized deep in stoppage time. After a scoreless 30 minutes of extra time, the Lions won the ensuing penalty shootout, 6-4.

The teams last met in the 2021 postseason in Tennessee, with Orlando scoring first through Daryl Dike’s early goal but Nashville won 3-1 on Nov. 23, 2021 to knock the Lions out of the playoffs. Mukhtar tied it up before halftime on a fluky deflected goal off of Antonio Carlos and then put his team up in the 74th minute on a counter attack. Jhonder Cadiz put things away deep in stoppage time.

The last time the teams met in the regular season came on Oct. 3, 2021 and ended in a 1-1 draw after referee Allen Chapman’s Halloween Heist chalked off Andres Perea’s apparent stoppage-time winner. The referee’s excuse for overturning the goal was an imagined foul on Daryl Dike, who, if anything, was the fouled party. The decision cost the Lions a valuable home playoff match, which instead sent Orlando to Nashville. Mukhtar scored for Nashville to equalize in the second half after Dike’s first-half goal.

The teams met in Nashville on Sept. 29, 2021 with a late rally by the Lions earning the team a 2-2 road draw at Nissan Stadium. The hosts had taken a 2-0 lead on goals by Mukhtar — scoring off the rebound of his own saved penalty — and Randall Leal, but a penalty by Dike and a stoppage-time own goal by Brian Anunga turned the game around. On Aug. 18 the teams finished in another 1-1 draw. C.J. Sapong put the hosts ahead in the first half and Carlos leveled the score in the second half. The Lions, who played poorly in the opening 45, were the better team throughout the second half and Tesho Akindele’s shot off the crossbar was inches from providing a winner for Orlando.

The teams met on Decision Day of 2020 at Exploria Stadium, with Orlando melting down late, allowing two goals from the 88th minute on, and falling 3-2 at home on Nov. 8, 2020 — the team’s only home loss on the season. Dike and Nani goals sandwiched a strike by Daniel Lovitz, giving the Lions a lead until late. Headers by Mukhtar (in the 88th minute) and Cadiz (in the 93rd minute) turned the game on its head.

In the Lions’ first trip to Nissan Stadium, the teams played to a 1-1 draw on Sept. 2, 2020. Benji Michel put the Lions ahead with a stunner of a goal, but Leal knotted things up and that’s the way the match ended.

That 1-1 draw came a week after a 3-1 Orlando City win on Aug. 26 at Exploria Stadium. Dave Romney had opened the scoring for Nashville with a header off a free kick but Orlando scored the last three. Dike took a star turn for Orlando City, scoring a brace, and Chris Mueller also scored for the Lions.

Overview

The Lions are coming off a 2-1 win at Philadephia last Saturday night. That victory snapped a three-match winless streak (0-1-2) in league play and a five-game skid (0-1-4) in all competitions for Orlando City. The club is 1-1-1 at home this year in MLS and 1-1-2 in all competitions at Exploria Stadium, with just two goals in the run of play — plus a Facundo Torres penalty in the opener — and only one in MLS competition.

Tonight’s visitors have seven straight results in all competitions against Orlando (2-0-5) and five consecutive in the regular season (1-0-4). Nashville enters tonight’s game off of a 1-0 home loss to FC Cincinnati a week ago. The club has lost two consecutive 1-0 games and is 0-1-1 away from Nashville this season. This is a team that is in every game because it doesn’t concede. Nashville has allowed only two goals through five matches — tied with Seattle for the fewest in the league.

As usual against Nashville, the Lions’ concentration will be tested for 90+ minutes tonight and any success Orlando may have will be tied to not giving the ball away. Nashville’s biggest threat is Mukhtar on the counter attack and since he hasn’t gotten a goal yet this year — and loves to score against the Lions — ball security is vital. Gary Smith’s team has made a living out of staying compact defensively and simply letting his forwards do their thing in transition, where they have been lethal.

On the other side, Orlando City has to find a way to score goals. The Lions have always struggled to put more than one goal in the net against Nashville since the first meeting and they’ve not managed more than two goals in any game this season. Orlando did score twice in the first nine minutes last week but then blew several chances to put the match away.

With Nashville preferring to play without the ball, it seems like a chance to get rookie striker Duncan McGuire back in the starting lineup against those big center backs, including USMNT defender Walker Zimmerman.

“Nashville is like any other team in the league (in) that we have faced each other (already), and since they have a coach that has been there for a while — it’s the same with us, and we know each other,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said. “(Nashville) is a team that has very bold characteristics too, as Philadelphia had, in the way that they do things. We would like to have control of those things, and with the experiences that we’ve had with them we can expose them and we can use the good attributes of our team to hurt them. That is our focus.”

Striker Ercan Kara (thigh) remains questionable on Orlando’s availability report. Nashville lists two players out — Leal (lower body injury) and Nick DePuy (lower body injury).

Mandatory Match Content

With our domain transfer in flux, anything we link right now will likely turn into a broken link later, so let’s just say you can read Dave Rohe’s three keys to an Orlando City victory and Ben Miller’s Intelligence Report on either this site or our old one and you can listen to our key match-ups and score predictions on this week’s episode of The Mane Land PawedCast, along with our interview with McGuire — available on this site, the old site, or wherever podcasts are available.


Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defenders: Luca Petrasso, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Kyle Smith.

Defensive Midfielders: Felipe, Cesar Araujo.

Attacking Midfielders: Martin Ojeda, Mauricio Pereyra, Ivan Angulo.

Forward: Ramiro Enrique.

Bench: Mason Stajduhar, Rafael Santos, Abdi Salim, Antonio Carlos, Wilder Cartagena, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, Gaston Gonzalez, Facundo Torres, Duncan McGuire.

Nashville SC (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Joe Willis.

Defenders: Daniel Lovitz, Jack Maher, Walker Zimmerman, Shaq Moore.

Midfielders: Luke Haakenson, Sean Davis, Anibal Godoy, Fafa Picault.

Forwards: Hany Mukhtar, C.J. Sapong.

Bench: Elliot Panicco, Taylor Washington, Josh Bauer, Dax McCarty, Tah Anunga, Jan Gregus, Jacob Shaffelburg, Teal Bunbury.

Referees

Ref: Chris Penso.

AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt.

AR2: Jeremy Hanson.

4th: Kevin Klinger.

VAR: Geoff Gamble.

AVAR: Cameron Blanchard.


How to Watch

Match Time: 7:30 p.m.

Venue: Exploria Stadium — Orlando.

TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.

Radio: Real Radio 104.1 FM (English), Acción 97.9 FM, 810 AM (Spanish).

Twitter: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at @TheManeLand, as well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).


Enjoy the game. Go City!

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. New York Red Bulls: Three Keys to Victory

What does Orlando City need to do to earn a second victory in a row at home this Saturday?

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City is coming off its first win of the MLS regular season and will look to carry that momentum into Saturday night’s Eastern Conference matchup against the New York Red Bulls. The Lions will have several players back from international duty, making Oscar Pareja’s job a bit easier, although some of them will be on short rest. What does Orlando City need to do to earn all three points against the Red Bulls?

Stop Morgan

Lewis Morgan has been on a tear this season with five goals in five matches. That is more than every Orlando City player combined so far this season. The Red Bulls were held scoreless in two matches, meaning those five goals have come in three matches, with Morgan scoring a hat trick against Inter Miami. I love that he took it to the Herons like that, but I’m going to need him to cool off a bit against the Lions.

If Orlando City is to stop Morgan it will take excellent defending from the Lions’ back line and of course Pedro Gallese, who is returning from international duty. Orlando City also gets Wilder Cartagena and David Brekalo back, meaning more of the first choice lineup will be available to keep a clean sheet. With the match at home, earning a clean sheet is all the more important.

Proper Rest and Preperation

It might seem silly to say, but having more than a few days between matches is conducive to earning points. When Orlando City was participating in the Concacaf Champions Cup, the Lions never had time to properly recover or train with a game plan for the next match. Now, the Lions are able to do so, and the result against Austin FC reflects that.

Pareja is a top level MLS coach. We know that he has a plan for about the first 20 minutes of any match, and then makes adjustments throughout the remainder of the match. Even so, many of those adjustments have been planned out prior to the match. That, paired with a more rested roster, allows the Lions to be the protagonists Pareja wants them to be.

Shots, Shots, Shots

Orlando City was able to create plenty of chances against Austin FC, and will need to do so again against the Red Bulls. The Lions took 22 shots Saturday night, with eight on target, and they put two in the back of the net against Austin. Hopefully, Orlando City can be more efficient going forward, but if you don’t create opportunities, you won’t score.

The Red Bulls have some decent defenders who Orlando City will have to deal with, including fullback John Tolkin and Carlos Coronel at keeper. If the Lions can pass even close to the way they did against Austin, the opportunities will come, and if that is the case, hopefully the goals will come. Orlando City still has a sizable goal deficit, thanks to the early part of the season, that can only be corrected with more goals on the other end.


That is what I will be looking for this Saturday night at Inter&Co Stadium. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 3/28/24

Getting to know Rafael Santos, Orlando Pride prepare for Chicago, Midge Purce out for the season, and more.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

How’s it going, Mane Landers? I hope the work week has been treating you well as we gear up for another weekend of soccer. March flew by for me and April is shaping up to be a pretty busy month as well. In other news, I’m looking into adopting a cat and gathering the supplies to make that happen. Let’s dive into today’s links!

Getting to Know Rafael Santos

Orlando City left back Rafael Santos was the latest Lion to field questions as part of the club’s video series for fans to learn more about its players. The 26-year-old spoke about the decision process behind joining Orlando and playing outside of Brazil for the first time in his career after five years with Cruzeiro. He’s brought his attack-minded style of play to the team, particularly in terms of providing lethal crossing from the wing. Make sure to check out the full video as Santos also shared photos of his newborn and showcased his skill with a cavaquinho.

Orlando Pride Prepare to Host Chicago

After a pair of draws to start their season, the Orlando Pride will have a chance to claim their first win of the season when they host the Chicago Red Stars tomorrow night at 6 p.m. Head Coach Seb Hines spoke about how the Pride have shown plenty of resilience so far this young season. The team managed to secure a point in last week’s 1-1 draw with Angel City FC despite a patchwork back line due to injuries. That defense will likely have its hands full against Mallory Swanson and a Chicago team that won both of its first two games. Hines spoke about how the Pride are preparing for Chicago and how they will need the home crowd to bring the support tomorrow night.

Sophia Smith Signs Record-Breaking New Deal

American forward Sophia Smith signed a new contract with the Portland Thorns that will make her the highest-paid NWSL player, according to the club. The new deal will last through the 2025 season, with an option for 2026 as well. The 23-year-old was drafted by the Thorns with the first overall pick in the 2020 NWSL Draft and has gone on to score 34 regular-season goals. Smith re-signed with the club in 2022 and was set to become a free agent following this season, but will instead stay in Portland.

Midge Purce Out for NWSL Season

NJ/NY Gotham FC forward Midge Purce will miss the remainder of the NWSL season after tearing her ACL. The 28-year-old will undergo surgery and suffered the injury in her team’s 1-0 victory over the Portland Thorns this past weekend. She’s been with Gotham since 2020 and assisted on both goals in her team’s 2-1 win in the 2023 NWSL Championship. It’s a tough blow for the United States Women’s National Team too, as she will not be representing the U.S. during this summer’s Olympics in France.

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  • Orlando City B’s match against Carolina Core FC on April 14 has been rescheduled.

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!

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Lion Links

Lion Links: 3/27/24

Bally Sports will broadcast Orlando Pride matches, Pride players called up, USWNT announces SheBelieves Cup roster, and more.

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Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Hello, Mane Landers. I hope all is well with you down in Florida. I attended my friend’s wedding this past weekend and have been getting myself back into work mode by covering high school tennis this week. There is plenty to cover today, so let’s get to the links.

Bally Sports Will Broadcast Select Orlando Pride Matches

Bally Sports was announced as the new local television partner for the Orlando Pride. There will be 13 select Pride matches broadcast this season across Bally Sports Florida, Bally Sports Sun, and on the Bally Sports app. The partnership will begin this Friday, with the Orlando Soccer Insider show taking place before the kickoff of the Pride’s home match against the Chicago Red Stars at 7 p.m. The show will be broadcast on Bally Sports Florida, and then you can switch to the Bally Sports app to watch Friday’s match. Below are all the select matches that will be broadcast on Bally Sports this season.

Brazilian Orlando Pride Players Called Up

The Orlando Pride’s Marta, Angelina, and Luana were all called up by Brazil for next month’s SheBelieves Cup. Brazil heads into this tournament after a solid showing in the Concacaf W Gold Cup. The format is different for this year’s SheBelieves Cup, as there will only be four matches instead of six. Brazil’s first match of the tournament will be a semifinal on April 6 against Canada in Atlanta.

USWNT Announces Roster for SheBelieves Cup

United States Women’s National Team interim head coach Twila Kilgore announced the 23-player roster for the 2024 SheBelieves Cup matches next month. The USWNT has won this competition four consecutive times since 2020, and is going for a seventh title in 2024. Of those called up, 19 players on this squad were part of the team that won the Concacaf W Gold Cup earlier this month. San Diego Wave forward Jaedyn Shaw, the Concacaf W Gold Cup’s MVP, is back on the roster after she led the USWNT with four goals. The squad also includes familiar names like former Pride forward Alex Morgan, Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman, and Olympique Lyon midfielder Lindsey Horan. Mallory Swanson and Catarina Macario return to the squad after being sidelined with injuries. The USWNT will begin its quest to defend its SheBelieves Cup title when it faces Japan on April 6 in Atlanta.

MLS Referees Agree to New CBA

After a lockout that resulted in Major League Soccer starting the season with replacement referees, the Professional Soccer Referees Association voted to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement with the Professional Referee Organization. The new CBA is a seven-year deal that runs through January of 2031. This deal will also include significant pay raises for referees, assistant referees, and video assistant referees. The PRO referees will return to the pitch for this weekend’s MLS matches.

Ukraine, Georgia, and Poland Qualify for Euro 2024

Ukraine has qualified for this summer’s Euros after edging out Iceland 2-1 in its playoff final, with Mykhaylo Mudryk scoring the winning goal in the second half. Georgia eliminated Greece 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw to book a spot in the tournament as well. Georgia qualifies for its first major tournament after coming up short in 2020. Poland also needed penalties to qualify, with goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny making the final save against Daniel James to beat Wales 5-4 on penalties after a scoreless draw.

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That will do it for me today, Mane Landers. Enjoy your Wednesday and I’ll see you next time.

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