Orlando City will go head-to-head with New York Red Bulls in gameweek six of the MLS regular season at the Inter&Co Stadium in Florida on Sunday morning.
The hosts are on four points after five games and moved up to 13th place in the Eastern Conference last week, while the visitors are now in third place with 10 points over the same period.
Match preview
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After finishing as runner-up by just six points to FC Cincinnati for the Supporters' Shield last season, Orlando City have made a shaky start to the 2024 campaign.
The Lions earned their first win of the season in their previous outing, beating Austin 2-0 last week, with Jack Lynn grabbing his first career goal in his first start for the club this term before Nicolas Lodeiro secured the points with the second goal in the 64th minute of the match.
That result brought an end to a three-match losing streak in the league for OCSC, during which time they conceded 10 goals, including a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Inter Miami back in gameweek two.
Notably, though, after only scoring two goals in their first four matches of the season, Oscar Pareja's side were able to create plenty of chances against the Verde and Black, firing 22 shots at goal and eight on target, which is something they will need to do again this weekend against a Red Bulls side that have been good in front of goal so far this term.
While the visitors have the better form coming into this match, the hosts are the ones with the better recent record in this fixture, unbeaten in their last three encounters against the Red Bulls, with the most recent ending in a 3-0 victory back in June last year.
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Meanwhile, New York Red Bulls have made a much better start to this season as compared to last and while it is still early days, they should have little issue reaching the playoffs for a 15th consecutive campaign if they keep up their current level of performance.
The Red Bulls come into this match off the back of a commanding 4-0 win over Inter Miami, who were without World Cup winner Lionel Messi due to an injury, which also saw him miss out on international duty with Argentina.
Lewis Morgan, formerly of Inter Miami, emerged as the standout performer against his previous employers, delivering an outstanding hat-trick, while Venezuelan Wikelman Carmona also got on the scoresheet for the Red Bulls.
Morgan has already notched up five goals this season, which is more than Orlando have scored as a team combined, and he is now tied for the lead in the race for the Golden Boot with LA Galaxy's Dejan Joveljic.
Still, despite the encouraging signs so far for Sandro Schwarz, his side have already conceded one heavy defeat this season, losing 3-0 away to Columbus Crew, and they will need a better performance on the road here, against an opponent that will be feeling a lot better about themselves after claiming their first win of the campaign last week.
Team News
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Orlando City have a host of players returning from international duty, including the likes of David Brekalo, Wilder Cartagena, Pedro Gallese, Favian Loyola and Facundo Torres.
However, they will have to make do without the services of forward Ramiro Enrique and midfielder Cesar Araujo, both of whom are ruled out due to ankle injuries.
Meanwhile, Daniel Edelman will be eligible to return to action this week, having served his one-match suspension for the double-yellow he was shown against Columbus Crew a couple of weeks ago.
As many as six players will be returning from international duty for NYRB in this match, including their skipper Emil Forsberg, but there are doubts around the fitness of Elias Manoel (thigh), Sean Nealis (adductor) and Dante Vanzeir (hamstring).
Orlando City possible starting lineup:
Gallese; Thorhallsson, Brekalo, Jansson, Santos; Martins, Cartagena; Lynn, Lodeiro, Torres; Muriel
New York Red Bulls possible starting lineup:
Carlos; Duncan, Eile, Reyes, D. Nealis; Carmona, Edelman, Amaya, Stroud, Forsberg; Morgan
We say: Orlando City 2-2 New York Red Bulls
Orlando City have made a very slow start to the campaign, and while they did secure their first win last week, they still look some way from the best and are likely to be tested to the limit here by a Red Bulls side that just claimed their biggest win of the early season against Inter Miami.
The hosts are the marginal favourites in this contest, but we feel that this one will end level at the final whistle.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
