Orlando City
Orlando City vs. D.C. United: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More
The Lions host D.C. United in search of an elusive second consecutive win.
Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City and D.C. United at Inter&Co Stadium (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+). This is the second of the two scheduled MLS matches this season between the Lions (6-9-6, 24 points) and the Black and Red (4-10-8, 20 points).
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.
History
The Lions are 7-9-2 against D.C. in the all-time league series since the club joined MLS, and 7-9-3 in all competitions. Orlando is 4-4-1 in MLS home games against D.C. Oscar Pareja is 6-6-2 in his managerial career against United.
The Black and Red had managed four consecutive results in the series (3-0-1) prior to the Lions’ visit to Audi Field on April 13. United went ahead twice in the match on goals by Christian Benteke and Gabriel Pirani and led the game late. Dagur Dan Thorhallsson equalized in the first half on a great cross from Ivan Angulo, and David Brekalo scored down the stretch to make it 2-2. Duncan McGuire’s well-timed breakaway goal in stoppage time lifted Orlando to a 3-2 road win.
The last meeting in Orlando took place on April 22, 2023, with D.C. scoring twice in the second half to snap a 1-1 deadlock and win, 3-1. Taxiarchis Fountas, Donovan Pines, and Benteke scored for D.C. to more than offset McGuire’s strike.
These teams squared off just a few weeks before that in D.C., splitting the points in a 1-1 draw at Audi Field on March 11. McGuire scored his first MLS goal but Chis Durkin leveled things late in a match that was sandwiched between Orlando City’s two legs of Concacaf Champions League play against Tigres UANL.
D.C. swept the season series in 2022, despite being a terrible team that “won” the league’s Wooden Spoon by no small margin. The meeting in D.C. that year took place July 31 and saw Orlando City dominate the first half but miss multiple glorious chances to put the game away early. The Lions were wasteful and took only a 1-0 lead into stoppage time, thanks to Junior Urso’s first-half goal, only to fall 2-1 on stoppage-time strikes by Durkin and Fountas.
The teams also met on Independence Day at Exploria Stadium, with D.C. putting together a performance out of nowhere in a 5-3 road win. Fountas netted his first MLS hat trick and Kimarni Smith and Nigel Robertha added their first goals of the season. Facundo Torres, Ercan Kara, and Alexandre Pato scored for Orlando, threatening to bring the Lions back, but Orlando could never get on level terms.
The teams met twice in 2021, including Oct. 2 at Exploria Stadium. Daryl Dike scored deep in stoppage to lift the Lions to a 2-1 home victory. Robin Jansson scored a first-half goal off a corner kick scramble to offset an early Julian Gressel strike. The first match of 2021 took place on May 16 in D.C., with the Lions winning 1-0 on an early Mauricio Pereyra goal. That win snapped United’s 3-0-1 streak in the series in league play and 3-0-2 in all competitions dating back to City’s previously most recent win over D.C. back in 2017.
The teams did not meet in what was an odd 2020 season.
D.C. United swept the season series in 2019, winning 1-0 at Audi Field back on June 26, 2019. Wayne Rooney’s wondergoal from his own half of the pitch caught Brian Rowe napping. The Lions fell 2-1 at home on March 31, 2019, with set pieces ruining the night for Orlando. You might recall the controversy that surrounded the winning goal, with then-coach James O’Connor visibly upset after the match. Steve Birnbaum scored the first on a set piece and Rooney scored the second on a free kick that he took from wherever the hell he wanted rather than where the foul occurred. Frederic Brillant bulldozed Rowe on the play as the ball sailed into the net.
D.C. was 1-0-2 in three total meetings (two in league play) in 2018. Orlando swept the two league meetings in 2017, the teams split two lopsided games in 2016 — with each team winning at home — and the Black and Red went 2-1-0 in the first three meetings back in 2015.
Match Overview
Orlando City is coming off a 2-1 road win Wednesday at Toronto FC. The Lions fell behind in the fifth minute but rallied on a Martin Ojeda header and an own goal by Nicksoen Gomis forced by Facundo Torres put Orlando ahead by halftime. No one scored in the second period and Orlando grabbed the three points. The Lions return home where they are a disastrous 2-5-3 on the season so far, although they won their most recent match at Inter&Co Stadium against the Chicago Fire on June 22.
D.C. jumped out to a three-match unbeaten start to the season under Head Coach Troy Lesesne and lost only once in its first six games of 2024 before hosting Orlando City in April. Since then, the team has sunk to the bottom of the Eastern Conference and enters on the heels of a hard-fought, 3-2 midweek home loss to FC Cincinnati — the club’s 10th consecutive match without a win (0-7-3). The Black and Red are just 1-4-5 away from Audi Field this season.
The Lions will need to be aware of where Benteke is at all times. The former Crystal Palace, Liverpool, and Aston Villa man leads D.C. in goals (14) and is in the thick of the MLS Golden Boot race. That pursuit was put on pause in the loss to Cincinnati, as Benteke was suspended for that match, meaning he’ll be fully rested for tonight. Benteke’s size and strength make him difficult to defend in the air, so Orlando City will need to pull out all the stops to make him uncomfortable. The Congo native has put up 62 shots on the season and 29 of them have been on frame. He’s also chipped in a pair of assists.
Behind Benteke, no D.C. player has more than two goals. Five different players have scored twice and six more have added one goal, so it’s difficult to say who the team’s secondary threat is. However, the Lions must pay attention to Mateusz Klich, who has a team-high seven assists to go with his two goals, and Aaron Herrera, who has six helpers to go with his pair of strikes.
“(Benteke) has that quality. We’ll prepare the best that we can,” Pareja said ahead of the match. “First is to recognize what are the strengths that [D.C. United] have and this is one of them. We’re just trying to be sharp, be conscious, be informed about what those things are that we need to move and how we can avoid that too. It’s not just that final phase of that play, marking him, but probably preventing them getting there to him too and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
The Lions will be without Michael Halliday (knee) and Mason Stajduhar (lower leg), while Homegrown fullback Tahir Reid-Brown (thigh) is listed as questionable. None of Orlando’s internationals are on the availability report anymore, so presumably Brekalo is available, although it’s possible he may start the match on the bench after returning from the 2024 Euros. As of this writing, D.C.’s availability report was…well, unavailable. However, entering Wednesday, the team reported several players out: Conner Antley (knee), Steven Birnbaum (hip), Russell Canouse (not due to injury), Kristian Fletcher (ankle), Jackson Hopkins (back), and Garrison Tubbs (head).
Match Content
- Our most recent episode of The Mane Land PawedCast includes our match preview, key matchups, and predictions for the game.
Official Lineups
Orlando City (4-2-3-1)
Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.
Defenders: Kyle Smith, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.
Defensive Midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.
Attacking Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres.
Forward: Duncan McGuire.
Bench: Javier Otero, Alex Freeman, Rafael Santos, David Brekalo, Jeorgio Kocevski, Nico Lodeiro, Ramiro Enrique, Jack Lynn, Luis Muriel.
D.C. United (3-5-2)
Goalkeeper: Tyler Miller.
Defenders: Christopher McVey, Lucas Bartlett, Garrison Tubbs.
Wingbacks/Midfielders: Pedro Santos, Martin Rodriguez, Gabriel Pirani, Matti Peltola, Aaron Herrera.
Forward: Christian Benteke, Theodore Ku-Dipietro.
Bench: Alex Bono, Jabob Murrell, Jeremy Garay, Matai Akinmboni, Hayden Sargis, Jared Stroud.
Referees
REF: Lukasz Szpala.
AR1: Logan Brown.
AR2: Mike Nickerson.
4TH: Elton Garcia.
VAR: David Barrie.
AVAR: Joshua Patlak.
How to Watch
Match Time: 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Inter&Co Stadium — Orlando.
TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).
Twitter: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at @TheManeLand, as well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).
Enjoy the match. Go City!