Orlando City
Orlando City vs. Sporting Kansas City: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More
The Lions resume the MLS regular season with a road trip to Kansas City.
Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City (9-9-7, 34 point) and Sporting Kansas City (6-14-6, 24 points) at Children’s Mercy Park. It is the lone meeting of the two sides scheduled for 2024 and the third consecutive time the teams have played in Kansas City.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.
History
Orlando City is unbeaten in the last three meetings (2-0-1) and is 3-2-2 in the all-time series and 1-2-1 on the road. The most recent meeting occurred three years ago on April 23, 2021 at Children’s Mercy Park, with Orlando City coming from behind to earn a 1-1 road draw. The Lions fell behind just before halftime on a Gianluca Busio goal, but Nani’s late backheel goal evened things out in the end. Orlando had two goals called back in the game and the hosts had one as well.
The Lions’ first ever away victory in the series occurred in a 2-1 Orlando City win on Sept. 23, 2020. Benji Michel and Tesho Akindele gave a heavily rotated Orlando side the lead and the Lions held on after a Johnny Russell goal to get the win.
In 2019, this fixture took place in Orlando and finished as a 1-0 Orlando City win at Exploria Stadium on Aug. 14. Akindele scored the game’s only goal off a Carlos Ascues pass, although both teams squandered offensive opportunities in the match.
The 2018 meeting finished with a 1-0 SKC victory at Children’s Mercy Park on Sept. 8. Felipe Gutierrez provided the only goal in Dom Dwyer’s return to Kansas City. It was a rough outing for Dwyer, who missed two golden opportunities to score.
Sporting was the first MLS team to come into Exploria Stadium (then known as Orlando City Stadium) and take any points in a 2-2 draw in 2017. Latif Blessing scored both SKC goals in the first non-win for the Lions in their new stadium. That non-win happened because the assistant referee ruled that Will Johnson’s corner kick service curled over the end line in the air before Jose Aja had headed it home for an apparent go-ahead goal. Cyle Larin and Kaká scored Orlando’s goals that counted.
In 2016, the Lions went into Children’s Mercy Park and gave up an incredible 34 shots en route to a 2-1 loss in Kansas City. With that many shots, it was a minor miracle to escape without a more lopsided scoreline. At the time, Sporting put up the third-most shots ever in a regular-season MLS game and the most since 1998. David Mateos nodded in off Jimmy Medranda for an own goal to get the Lions on the board with an improbable lead. Joe Bendik made 10 saves but conceded goals to Dwyer (74’) and Jacob Peterson (79’) five minutes apart, as SKC came from behind to win.
The Lions captured the first meeting, 3-1 at home on Sept. 13, 2015. That win snapped a seven-game winless skid at the time and kicked off a club record five-game winning streak. Adrian Winter started the party with a third-minute goal and added another in the 72nd to seal it. After Krisztian Nemeth had equalized in the 59th, Bryan Rochez put Orlando back on top for good with his first MLS goal in the 66th minute.
Overview
The Lions are coming off a 0-0 draw against Cruz Azul in the Leagues Cup back on Aug. 9. Orlando was knocked out of the competition when the Lions suffered their first shootout loss in club history. Still, City is on an eight-match unbeaten run in all competitions (5-0-3), although the three draws have come in the last four matches. Orlando is 6-4-3 on the road in MLS play this season.
Sporting Kansas City is 4-5-4 at home in 2024 during the MLS regular season and aside from being knocked out of Leagues Cup in a 4-0 loss at Columbus on Aug. 9, tonight’s hosts have improved of late. Sporting is 2-0-1 in its last three regular-season home matches and is 4-1-1 in its last six home games in all competitions.
Russell and Alan Pulido haven’t quite gotten going in 2024, but they still each have four goals and four assists apiece. Sporting’s attack is paced by William Agada’s nine goals and two assists and Erik Thommy’s five goals and three assists. Children’s Mercy Park provides a good home atmosphere for Sporting Kansas City, and it’ll be a tough battle after a long layoff.
“We definitely had a good two weeks of work,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the match. “At the beginning of the first week, we tried to rest a couple days with the players. After that number of games that we had it was healthy for us just to recover. Then we dedicated the rest of the time to prepare for our next games, especially this one against [Sporting Kansas City]. We tried to evaluate what we’ve done well, what we need to improve, and obviously the strategy for this next game; that’s what we’ve done.”
The Lions will be without Jack Lynn (lower leg) and Mason Stajduhar (lower leg). The last league availability report is listed as Aug. 19, but it seems to be updated for Matchday 29, showing Sporting Kansas City as being without Robert Castellanos (hamstring), Felipe Hernandez (non-injury), Namanja Radoja (groin), and Memo Rodriguez (quad).
Match Content
- The latest episode of The Mane Land PawedCast features our key matchups and predictions for the game.
- Our David Rohe provides his three keys to an Orlando City victory.
Official Lineups:
Orlando City (4-2-3-1)
Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.
Defenders: Kyle Smith, Robin Jansson, David Brekalo, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.
Defensive Midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.
Attacking Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres.
Forward: Ramiro Enrique.
Bench: Javier Otero, Rafael Santos, Rodrigo Schlegel, Felipe, Jeorgio Kocevski, Nico Lodeiro, Yutaro Tsukada, Luis Muriel, Duncan McGuire.
Sporting Kansas City (4-2-3-1)
Goalkeeper: Tim Melia.
Defenders: Tim Leibold, Andreu Fontas, Robert Voloder, Khiry Shelton.
Defensive Midfielders: Zorhan Bassong, Jacob Davis.
Attacking Midfielders: Daniel Salloi, Erik Thommy, Stephen Afrifa.
Forward: William Agada.
Bench: John Pulskamp, Dany Rosero, Logan Ndenbe, Remi Walter, Danny Flores, Chris Rindov, Alenis Vargas, Johnny Russell, Alan Pulido.
Referees
REF: Timothy Ford.
AR1: Corey Parker.
AR2: Jeffrey Swartzel.
4TH: Elijio Arreguin.
VAR: Chris Penso.
AVAR: Cory Richardson.
How to Watch
Match Time: 8:30 p.m.
Venue: Children’s Mercy Park — Kansas City, KN.
TV/Live Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.
Radio: 96.9 FM 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!