Orlando City vs. West Bromwich Albion: How to Follow the Match and Open Thread

Welcome to your open thread for tonight's international friendly match between Orlando City and West Bromwich Albion from the English Premier League. The timing isn't great for our Lions, but a match day is a match day, so let's all enjoy it, because the off-season will be here before you know it.

The lineup tonight will feature some new faces for this season but by now familiar to long-time City fans. Guys like Estrela and Tommy Redding should finally see the field as part of Orlando’s MLS team, and we’ll probably see plenty of Harrison Heath and Tyler Turner.

But veterans will also see the field. On this week’s Coach’s Show, Adrian Heath said Kaká will play about 30 minutes tonight and we may see about that much of Aurelien Collin, as he works his way back to full match fitness. We’ll get a longer look at Amobi Okugo than we have in recent weeks, too.

Coached by Tony Pulis, father of former Lion Anthony Pulis –who will coach Orlando City’s USL team next season — West Brom isn’t the best known EPL club on this side of the pond, but they’ve got a lot of talent. Manchester United fans will recognize midfielder Darren Fletcher and goalkeeper Ben Foster. Everton and Man City fans will be familiar with defender Joleon Lescott. Saido Berahino is a striker who scored 14 goals in EPL play last year for WBA and 20 in all competitions, but alas…

While they won't be in mid-season form, West Brom will still present a lot of trouble for an Orlando City side that is struggling through injuries and call-ups and will be playing a younger and perhaps less competitive squad than the club would like. Still, any time a soccer ball is kicked at the Citrus Bowl by someone in purple, it's cause to celebrate.

Here's your must-read content for tonight:

• Kevin Mercer gives you the pros and cons of tonight's friendly
• Sean Rollins covered Adrian Heath's Coach's Show, in which many hints were dropped about tonight.
• Andrew Marcinko notes why tonight's match is very important for some of our Lions.

Projected Lineups:

Orlando City (4-2-3-1):

I'll take a stab at this one.

Goalkeeper: Donovan Ricketts

Defenders: Luke Boden, Aurelien Collin, Seb Hines, Tyler Turner

Defensive Midfielders: Harrison Heath, Amobi Okugo

Attacking Midfielders: Carlos Rivas, Kaká, Eric Avila

Forward: Danny Mwanga

Bench: Earl Edwards Jr., Tommy Redding, Rafael Ramos, Pedro Ribeiro, Estrela, Cristian Higuita, Bryan Rochez

West Bromwich Albion:

Nope. Not even going to attempt it.

How to Follow:

You can't actually see the match without a ticket, but…

Match time: 7:30 p.m. (ET)

Venue: Citrus Bowl – Orlando, FL

TV: None

Radio: None

Streaming: None

Twitter: Yes! Finally a way to get that goodness! For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along with Andrew Marcinko's tweets at @TheManeLand (embedded below for your convenience), as well as Orlando City's official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).

Tweets by @TheManeLand

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.
• Try not to be “that guy” who spews nothing but venom and hate for the team. It’s ok to be critical, and, let’s face it, sometimes even the best teams can be frustrating to watch, but being overly negative relentlessly can sap the enjoyment for others.
• 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.
• Finally, we don’t have a rule against profanity but don’t abuse the non-rule. Also, any language that is sexist, racist, or homophobic in nature will be swiftly deleted and you may lose posting privileges. We’re all in this together.