Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread and more – The Mane Land

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Welcome to your match feed and preview for Saturday night’s Eastern Conference final matchup between Orlando City and the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV). This is the third meeting in 2024 between the teams this season and the first ever meeting in the postseason.

Here’s what you need to know for the match.

History

The Lions are 8-10-3 in 21 league meetings with the Red Bulls in the all-time series (9-10-3 in all competitions), with a record of 4-4-2 in home league games and 5-4 -2 in Orlando in all competitions .

The teams last met on June 1 at the Red Bull Arena, with the hosts coming away with a 1-0 win after a John Tolkin set-piece goal. Orlando City was not in the best shape at the time and it was the third shutout the Lions got in five games. The first meeting of the season came at the Inter&Co Stadium on March 30, where the two teams drew 1-1. A Kyle Smith error in the box allowed Lewis Morgan to put the visitors ahead, but a late own goal by Noah Eile resulted in a deadlock. Ivan Angulo and Jack Lynn combined to force the own goal.

Orlando City got the game last year and didn’t concede a goal in the series, winning the last meeting 3-0 at Red Bull Arena. Facundo Torres scored twice – once from the spot – after Angulo opened the scoring for an easy road win. The two teams met in Orlando on opening day in 2023, with Orlando City winning 1-0 on a Torres penalty on 25 February. Sean Nealis’ handball enabled the Lions to start the season with a win.

Orlando City won at Red Bull Arena 1-0 on August 13, 2022 thanks to a Torres goal. That allowed the Lions to split the regular-season meetings and take two of three against New York in all contests in 2022.

The Lions scored five unanswered goals to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 5-1 romp in the US Open Cup semifinals on July 27, 2022 at Exploria Stadium. Cesar Araujo scored his first two professional goals from set pieces, while Mauricio Pereyra, Torres and Benji Michel also found the net. Lewis Morgan scored New York’s only goal.

The win in August had allowed the Lions to snap a four-game winless streak (0-3-1) in the regular season. The last of those non-wins came on 24 April 2022 when the Lions were beaten 3–0 at home by goals from Luquinhas, Cristian Casseres Jr. and Morgan, and Orlando City failed to get any of its paltry three shot attempts. on target.

The Red Bulls swept the 2021 season series. The teams met at Exploria Stadium on July 3 that season, with New York winning 2-1. Casseres opened the scoring just six minutes in, but Chris Mueller brought the Lions level early in the second half. Fabio’s late goal lifted the visitors. Pereyra’s poor penalty was saved by Carlos Coronel, costing Orlando City a better result.

The Red Bulls also handed Orlando City their first defeat of the 2021 season, a 2-1 affair at the Red Bull Arena, on 29 May 2021. Nani was suspended in that match and it showed as the Lions were sloppy in possession and lacked composure on the ball. New York took the lead on goals by Caden Clark and Casseres before Silvester van der Water pulled one back late. The Dutchman had a golden opportunity to level the game moments later, but his shot went wide of the bar.

The Lions were drawn away on 18 October 2020, with Brian White equalizing deep into stoppage time in a 1-1 draw. Nani had put the Lions ahead in the second half with a penalty goal and Orlando clinched its first ever MLS playoff spot despite dropping the two late points. It was the final game of the club’s record 12-game unbeaten streak in MLS play.

Orlando won 3-1 on goals by Daryl Dike, Junior Urso and Antonio Carlos at Exploria Stadium. Florian Valot scored for New York.

The Red Bulls won 1-0 at the Exploria Stadium on 21 July 2019. White’s goals came as Carlos Ascues, Tesho Akindele and Sacha Kljestan each hit the woodwork in the second half. Prior to that, the Lions earned a 1-0 win at Red Bull Arena on Kljestan’s goal on March 23, 2019. Prior to that game, the home side had won each of the previous five home games in the series, sharing a pair. matches in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

The teams split two meetings in 2018, with the Red Bulls grabbing a 1-0 result in the 2018 season finale to capture the Supporters’ Shield and the Lions pulling out a 4-3 home win on 31 March 2018. Each team won at home in 2017 to split the two-game series, with New York winning 3-1 on August 12 and Orlando City opening the season series with a 1-0 victory on April 9 behind Servando Carrasco’s goal.

The teams met three times in 2016, with New York going 2-0-1. The teams split two games in 2015, with the road team winning both times, including Orlando City’s 5-2 victory in New Jersey behind a Cyle Larin hat trick.

Overview

Orlando City is coming off a 1-0 home win on Sunday against Atlanta United. It was the third straight ugly game of the playoffs for Orlando, with Ramiro Enrique providing the only goal on a scramble from a corner kick that fell into the box. It was another offensively challenged postseason game for Orlando, and that is unlikely to change tonight. The Red Bulls defend well, have a great goalkeeper and have recently turned these games into tight games.

The Lions were 7-6-4 at home in the regular season and are 11-6-4 at home against MLS teams in all competitions in 2024. However, they have not scored a goal of their own against the Red Bulls this season, a year after form New York in both meetings. This is the second straight playoff opponent Orlando has not beaten in the regular season.

New York is coming off a 2-0 road win over New York City FC at Citi Field a week ago. While it wasn’t NYCFC’s home stadium, it was still a baseball field, and the Red Bulls have been impressive in the postseason after going just 4-6-7 on the road in the regular season. The tie in Orlando was one of the seven deadlocks. Since the regular season, New York defeated defending champion Columbus 1-0 at Lower.com Field in the first-round, best-of-three series — then won in penalty kicks in Game 2 to sweep the series — then knocked off the Pigeons to advance to the conference finals.

As usual, the Lions must take care of the ball and avoid New York’s dangerous transition attack. Morgan led the Red Bulls in goals (13) and made seven assists. With his history of scoring against Orlando, he will be a player the Lions want to keep quiet. However, Emil Forsberg has been the player who has taken over as leader of the offensive, where the team collapsed during his injury absence in the second half of the year. Forsberg scored nine goals and added five assists in the regular season. Dante Vanzier had a team-high 10 assists to go along with four goals. That’s the trio Orlando’s defense must try to slow down.

“We’ve tried throughout the week to stay focused on our responsibilities and the opportunity in front of us,” Orlando City head coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the game. “We are certainly very proud to see that the group has achieved this for our club and our fans, but we are keen to go for much more than that. And now we have this opportunity, but as we said before, playing we always one game at a time, and now we’re so focused on New York (Red Bulls), trying to be prepared as best we can and have a good game to advance. That’s the process, nothing else.”

Both teams are mostly healthy going into the game. Orlando City will be without Mason Stajduhar (lower leg). New York will be without Roald Mitchell (knee) and Kyle Duncan (knee), while Cory Burke (illness) is listed as questionable.

Match content

Official lineups

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defenders: Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.

Defensive midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.

Attacking midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres.

Forward: Ramiro Enrique.

Bench: Javier Otero, Luca Petrasso, Kyle Smith, David Brekalo, Felipe, Nico Lodeiro, Luis Muriel, Jack Lynn, Duncan McGuire.

New York Red Bulls (3-4-1-2)

Goalkeeper: Carlos Coronel.

Defenders: Sean Nealis, Andres Reyes, Dylan Nealis.

Wingbacks/midfielders: John Tolkin, Peter Stroud, Daniel Edelman, Cameron Harper.

Attacking Midfielder: Emil Forsberg.

Extenders: Lewis Morgan, Dante Vanzeir.

Bench: Ryan Meara, Noah Eile, Dennis Gjengaar, Wikelman Carmona, Julian Hall, Elias Manoel, Ronald Donkor, Serge Ngoma, Cory Burke.

Judges

REF: Rosendo Mendoza.
AR1: Cameron Blanchard.
AR2: Jeremy Hanson.
4.: Lukasz Szpala.
WAS: Carol Anne Chenard.
WARNING: Tom Supple.

That’s how you see

Match time: 7:30 at

Meeting place: Inter&Co Stadium — Orlando.

TV/streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Radio: Real Radio 104.1 FM (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).

Twitter: For quick response and live updates, stay tuned @TheManeLandas well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).

Enjoy the match. Go town!