Orlando City B vs. South Georgia Tormenta FC: Preview and How to Watch

After dropping its first two games at home, Orlando City B (0-2-0, 0 points) returns to Montverde Academy tonight, where it will take on South Georgia Tormenta FC (2-0-1, 7 points) at 5 p.m. The Young Lions will have to shore up their discipline if they are going to get their first USL League One win tonight.

OCB started the season against Tucson FC, the second team of the USL Championship’s Phoenix Rising FC. Down 1-0, Randy Mendoza was sent off after a dangerous tackle on Zach Wright. Four minutes later, Wright doubled the visitors’ lead. It was too much of a deficit to come back from as the Young Lions fell 3-1.

Last Friday, OCB looked to bounce back against Toronto FC II but it was much of the same. In a scoreless game, Emmanuel Hagan picked up his second yellow after an errant pass was intercepted and he took down the attacker. After an excellent save off the free kick by Christian Herrera, the visitors took the lead on the ensuing corner. Playing a man down, the Young Lions again failed to come back as they fell, 2-0.

Tonight, OCB will welcome one of USL League One’s independent teams for the first time. Tormenta FC began life in the fourth division USL Premier Development League, playing the last three seasons there before making the move up to the new third division. They won their first two games this season, defeating Greenville Triumph SC 1-0 and FC Tucson 3-1, before dropping their first points of the year by drawing the Richmond Kickers 0-0 in their first road game.

The Statesboro, GA outfit is led by midfielder and Lakeland native Alex Morrell, who has scored two of the team’s four goals this year. The other two goals have come from Lucas Coutinho and Marco Micaletto. Defensively, Tormenta FC has been impressive, only conceding one goal and registering two clean sheets by goalkeeper Pablo Jara.

While OCB will be getting a player back tonight in Mendoza after he served a one-game suspension for being sent off against FC Tucson, the Lions will be without another defender as Hagan will serve a one-game ban for receiving two yellow cards against Toronto FC II. The Young Lions should also experience a stronger Jordan Bender, who continues to return from an ankle injury that kept him out of the first game. This should be a lift to a team that has struggled offensively as Bender was the team’s biggest threat in his 73 minutes against Toronto.

These two teams are currently on separate sides of the spectrum as Tormenta FC has gotten off to a hot start and OCB has struggled. The visitors will look to continue their hot streak while the Young Lions will look to gather their first points of the season.

Most Recent Lineups

Orlando City B (4/5 vs Toronto FC II)

Christian Herrera; Jordan Hill, Steven Hernandez, Emmanuel Hagan, Nathan Simeon; Austin Amer, Serginho, Ates Diouf; Jordan Bender, Koby Osei-Wusu, William Bagrou.

South Georgia Tormenta FC (4/6 at Richmond Kickers)

Pablo Jara; Joshua Phelps, Lars Eckenrode, William Antley, Nicholas Wells, Dalton Pando, Ricardo Gomez, Nil Vinyals, Yaw Amankwa, Charlie Dennis, Marco Micaletto.

How to Watch

The 5 p.m. kickoff from Montverde Academy can be streamed on ESPN+ domestically or YouTube internationally. For rapid reaction and live updates, follow @manelandsean on Twitter as the main TML Twitter feed will be covering the Orlando Pride’s opener, which starts at the same time.