Orlando City

Orlando City vs. Nashville SC: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

The Lions look to get back on track at home when they host Nashville.

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3 weeks ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City (9-10-7, 34 points) and Nashville SC (6-12-8, 26 points) at Inter&Co Stadium (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV). It’s the second of two scheduled meetings between the teams this season.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.

History

The Lions are 3-2-4 against Nashville in MLS regular-season matches and 5-3-5 in all competitions. Orlando is 1-2-1 at home in the series in league play and 2-2-2 at home in all competitions.

Orlando City last met Nashville SC at Geodis Park on July 17, with the Lions cruising to a 3-0 road win. Goals by Cesar Araujo and Ramiro Enrique sandwiched an Alex Muyl own goal as Orlando City got its fourth consecutive shutout victory over Nashville.

The teams met at the end of last season on Nov. 7, 2023 in the second game of a best-of-three, first-round playoff series. The Lions got an early goal from Ivan Angulo in a 1-0 win to sweep the series. Orlando City drew first blood in the series by beating Nashville 1-0 on Oct. 30, 2023 at Exploria Stadium. Wilder Cartagena’s blast from outside the area hit the underside of the crossbar near the right corner and bounced in for the game’s only score.

The teams met in the regular season last year on Oct. 4, 2023 with Orlando City stealing a 1-0 win in Music City on Duncan McGuire’s goal just before halftime. That was one of only two shot attempts by the Lions all night and the only one on target. Orlando played well defensively and Pedro Gallese didn’t have to make a save as the hosts didn’t put any shots on frame.

Nashville visited Orlando back on April 1 of last year at Exploria Stadium and it was the visitors who made fools of the Lions, as Nashville won, 2-0. Fafa Picault and Hany Mukhtar did the damage for Nashville.

The teams did not face each other in regular-season play the year before, meeting only in the U.S. Open Cup in Orlando on June 29, 2022. Mukhtar scored in the second half, and that looked like it would be enough until Rodrigo Schlegel equalized deep in stoppage time. After a scoreless 30 minutes of extra time, the Lions won the ensuing penalty shootout, 6-4.

These sides met in the 2021 postseason in Tennessee, with Orlando scoring first through Daryl Dike’s early goal, but Nashville won 3-1 on Nov. 23, 2021 to knock the Lions out of the playoffs. Mukhtar tied it up before halftime on a fluky deflected goal off of Antonio Carlos and then put his team up in the 74th minute on a counterattack. Jhonder Cadiz put things away deep in stoppage time.

The teams met in Orlando on Oct. 31, 2021 and ended in a 1-1 draw after referee Allen Chapman’s Halloween Heist chalked off Andres Perea’s apparent stoppage-time winner. The referee’s excuse for overturning the goal was an imagined foul on Dike, who, if anything, was the fouled party. The decision cost the Lions a valuable home playoff match, which instead sent Orlando to Nashville. Mukhtar scored for Nashville to equalize in the second half after Dike’s first-half goal.

The teams met in Nashville on Sept. 29, 2021 with a late rally by the Lions earning the team a 2-2 road draw at Nissan Stadium. The hosts had taken a 2-0 lead on goals by Mukhtar — scoring off the rebound of his own saved penalty — and Randall Leal, but a penalty by Dike and a stoppage-time own goal by Brian Anunga turned the game around. On Aug. 18 of that season, the teams finished in another 1-1 draw. C.J. Sapong put the hosts ahead in the first half and Carlos leveled the score in the second half. The Lions, who played poorly in the opening 45, were the better team throughout the second half and Tesho Akindele’s shot off the crossbar was inches from providing a winner for Orlando.

The teams met on Decision Day of 2020 at Exploria Stadium, with Orlando melting down late, allowing two goals from the 88th minute on, and falling 3-2 at home on Nov. 8, 2020 — the team’s only home loss on the season. Dike and Nani goals sandwiched a strike by Daniel Lovitz, giving the Lions a lead until late. Headers by Mukhtar (in the 88th minute) and Cadiz (in the 93rd minute) turned the game on its head.

In the Lions’ first trip to Nissan Stadium, the teams played to a 1-1 draw on Sept. 2, 2020. Benji Michel put the Lions ahead with a stunner of a goal, but Leal knotted things up and that’s the way the match ended.

That 1-1 draw came a week after a 3-1 Orlando City win on Aug. 26 at Exploria Stadium. Dave Romney had opened the scoring for Nashville with a header off a free kick but Orlando scored the last three. Dike took a star turn for Orlando City, scoring a brace, and Chris Mueller also scored for the Lions.

Overview

The Lions are coming off a brutal 3-0 road loss at Sporting Kansas City a week ago in one of the team’s worst and most perplexing performances of the season. After a bright opening 10 minutes, Orlando City was second best for the rest of the night, despite finishing the game up a man for half an hour. That snapped the Lions’ eight-game unbeaten run in all competitions and five-match unbeaten streak in regular-season play. Orlando is just 3-5-4 at home during the 2024 regular season but is 2-0-1 in its last three home matches. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Lions have not scored in their last two games (all competitions).

Tonight’s visitors are coming off a 2-0 home loss against Austin FC and are 0-8-1 in their last nine matches in all competitions. That streak includes Nashville’s 3-0 home loss to Orlando City in July. Nashville SC is just 2-7-3 away from home in the regular season and last won away from home on June 19 at Toronto FC, losing all four league matches on the road since that game.

B.J. Callaghan is Nashville’s new head coach. The former USMNT interim head coach is 0-2-1 since taking the job in Tennessee, but he and his team will be hungry to get him his first victory. Expect a tightly contested game, as is common when these teams meet.

“We recognized that we didn’t have our best game in Kansas,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the game. “When we went deep and analyzed the game, we had those moments where we could have probably changed the story of the game, but this is football. If you don’t score goals when you have the chance, the other team may do it, and that’s exactly what happened in Kansas. Also, trying to get our energy back during the week and understanding we have had a good time with good results, good football, and we want to continue with that momentum. We absorb it and we are ready to play our games here at home.”

The Lions will be without Mason Stajduhar (lower leg), but the rest of the availability report is clean. Nashville SC will be without Patrick Yazbek (suspension), Tyler Boyd (knee), Sean Davis (knee), Randall Leal (hip), Lukas MacNaughton (ankle), and Dru Yearwood (lower body).

Match Content

Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defenders: Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.

Defensive Midfielders: Wilder Cartagena, Cesar Araujo.

Attacking Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres.

Forward: Ramiro Enrique.

Bench: Javier Otero, Kyle Smith, David Brekalo, Jeorgio Kocevski, Felipe, Nico Lodeiro, Yutaro Tsukada, Luis Muriel, Duncan McGuire.

Nashville SC (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Joe Willis.

Defenders: Daniel Lovitz, Josh Bauer, Walker Zimmerman, Shaq Moore.

Defensive Midfielders: Anibal Godoy, Brian Anunga.

Attacking Midfielders: Jacob Shaffelburg, Hany Mukhtar, Alex Muyl.

Forward: Sam Surridge.

Bench: Bryan Dowd, Forster Ajago, Brent Kallman, Jack Maher, Taylor Washington, Julian Gaines, Jonathan Perez, Amar Sejdic, Teal Bunbury.

Referees

REF: Victor Rivas.
AR1: Adam Wienckowski.
AR2: Tyler Wyrostek.
4TH: Thomas Snyder.
VAR: Younes Marrakchi.
AVAR: Craig Lowry.

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 game. Go City!

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