Orlando City vs. Columbus Crew Rescheduled for Nov. 4

Orlando City will make up its postponed match against the Columbus Crew at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 at Exploria Stadium. Major League Soccer announced the makeup date today for a match that was originally scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 11 in Orlando. That game was postponed due to two members of the Columbus staff testing positive for COVID-19.

Tickets for the originally scheduled match will remain valid for Nov. 4 and the match can be seen locally on FOX 35 Plus.

An Orlando City player also tested positive the day of the game’s postponement, however, that player was isolated per MLS protocols, everyone else on the team tested negative, and the match was scheduled to go on as planned until the two Crew positive tests. Orlando City B also had its match postponed that weekend when two members of the traveling contingent from Chattanooga Red Wolves SC tested positive for COVID-19.

The Nov. 4 makeup date was always the most likely one, as we wrote at the time:

With the schedule condensed the rest of the way, the most logical makeup date would be the midweek between the Nov. 1 and Nov. 8 games. That would at least allow Orlando to get back some injured players, as well as Pedro Gallese and Sebas Mendez, who are both away for international duty.

Indeed, Gallese and Mendez are expected to be available as soon as this Saturday’s road match against Inter Miami. However, none of the injured Lions have yet returned to the lineup and both Ruan and Joey DeZart left Sunday night’s game against the New York Red Bulls with knocks, although the severity isn’t yet known as of this writing. The Lions should have Matheus Aias on the team sheet for the Columbus game, and potentially Alexander Alvarado as well, who awaits his international paperwork. Our Daniel Finton wrote about how the postponement would affect the match.

The good news for Orlando City is that barring any more issues, the Lions are set to play the full slate of 23 regular-season matches in 2020. The club has already clinched its first-ever MLS playoff berth, and now Oscar Pareja sets his sights on securing a home playoff match or even potentially challenging Toronto FC for the top seed. Columbus spent time recently in the pole position for the top seed but then hit a slump with star players Darlington Nagbe and Lucas Zelarayan sidelined with injuries.