Welcome to your match preview and live thread for a Friday night playoff matchup between Orlando City (1-0) and Charlotte FC (0-1) at Bank of America Stadium (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV). This is the second time the teams have met in the postseason, having played Sunday in this best-of-three, first-round series.

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

History

The Lions are 3-1-2 in the regular-season series and 4-2-2 in all competitions against Charlotte. Orlando City is 1-0-2 on the road in the regular season and 1-1-2 at Charlotte in all competitions. These games are usually close, as every game between the two teams (aside from the draws) had been decided by a single goal until the two most recent clashes, including Orlando City’s 2-0 home win Sunday. Facundo Torres and Martin Ojeda scored the goals on either side of halftime to lead the Lions to the Game 1 win. It was the first time Orlando scored more than one goal in an MLS playoff game.

The teams also met a month and a half ago on Sept. 18 in Orlando. The Lions got second-half goals from Torres and Duncan McGuire to win 2-0, claiming the first multiple-goal win in the series. The teams also met on June 19 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte and played to a 2-2 draw. The hosts struck first with an early Kerwin Vargas goal and the Lions pulled one back through McGuire in the second half. But despite Charlotte going down a man on Scott Arfield’s red card, Brandt Bronico restored the hosts’ lead shortly after McGuire’s strike. Torres struck back moments later but the Lions could not find a winner on the road.

The previous match was also a draw at Bank of America Stadium, finishing 1-1 on Aug. 30, 2023. Enzo Copetti’s late penalty appeared to wrap things up for the hosts on a rainy night in Charlotte, but Martin Ojeda’s seeing-eye set piece equalized just before stoppage time as the teams split the points.

Charlotte claimed a 1-0 “home” victory in U.S. Open Cup play on May 9 of last year. That game took place at Mecklenburg County Sportsplex in Matthews, NC, rather than at the club’s regular stadium. The first matchup of the 2023 season didn’t go any better for Orlando City, finishing as a 2-1 Charlotte win at Exploria Stadium on March 18. Copetti and Vargas put Charlotte up 2-0 by halftime. Ojeda pulled one back, but the Lions were wasteful in front of goal and couldn’t pull level.

The teams met at Bank of America Stadium on Aug. 21, 2022. After a scoreless first half, Ercan Kara put the Lions ahead on the road, only to see McKinze Gaines equalize just four minutes later. Tesho Akindele’s late goal lifted Orlando to a 2-1 victory.

Orlando City won the first-ever meeting between the sides on April 30, 2022 at Exploria Stadium. Ruan scored the opening goal and set up Torres on the counter for the second as the Lions took a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Christian Fuchs scored from the spot after Rodrigo Schlegel was called for a foul in the box in the second half, but that was as close as Charlotte got in what was ultimately a 2-1 Orlando victory.

Overview

These teams were separated by only one point in the standings after the 34-game regular season. The Lions (15-12-7, 52 points) needed their three points this season against Charlotte (14-11-9, 51 points) to finish in the home playoff places for the first round.

The Lions finished 8-6-3 away from home in the regular season, finishing with a slightly better road record than home record. Orlando won its last two games on the road in the regular season, picking up victories in Dallas and Cincinnati.

Charlotte’s Game 1 loss in this series was the team’s first since dropping that Sept. 18 match in Orlando, going 4-0-1, with the only draw coming on the road against Inter Miami, 1-1. Tonight’s hosts finished the regular season with a home record of 9-3-5, with only three teams in the Eastern Conference capturing more victories on their home patches.

Although Orlando scored twice in each meeting with Charlotte this season, tonight’s visitors have the best defensive record in the Eastern Conference and the second-best defense in MLS, allowing just 37 goals in 34 games during the regular season.

As usual against Charlotte, Orlando City will need to be patient but also try to build a volume of shots against a stout defense led by goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, who posted 119 saves on the season and tied for the league lead in minutes played (3,060). Charlotte also has a strong back line that includes U.S. international Tim Ream. The key to beating Charlotte is to get some goals on the board, as the visitors’ offense has found the net just 46 times this season — tied for 10th in the Eastern Conference — although it had scored 14 during its unbeaten run prior to Game 1 and had been held under two goals just once since getting shut out in Orlando in September before Sunday happened.

“Grateful for that first game and the effort of the players. We know this series is open still and we have to go to Charlotte and win our game in order to advance to the next one,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the game. “But we’re focused on this first step. Going in with the same personality and same energy, the boys are very optimistic, but we’re preparing the best we can.”

The Lions will be without Mason Stajduhar (lower leg). Charlotte will be without Pep Biel (suspension).

Match Content

• Our most recent epsidode of the PawedCast includes our key matchups and score predictions for today’s match, as well as a preview of the game.
• Our Ben Miller presented his three keys to victory for Orlando City in this match.

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Projected Lineups

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

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

Defensive Midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.

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

Forwards: Ramiro Enrique.

Charlotte FC (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Kristijan Kahlina.

Defenders: Tim Ream, Andrew Privett, Adilson Malanda, Nathan Byrne.

Midfielders: Brandt Bronico, Ashley Westwood, Junior Urso.

Forwards: Liel Abada, Patrick Agyemang, Karol Swiderski.

Referees

REF: Guido Gonzales Jr.
AR1: Corey Parker.
AR2: Justin Howard.
4TH: Pierre-Luc Lauziere.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: Eric Weisbrod.

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How to Watch

Match Time: 7:30 p.m.

Venue: Bank of America Stadium  — Charlotte, NC.

TV/Live Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Radio: Real Radio 104.1 FM (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).

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Enjoy the match. Go City!

Welcome to November, Mane Landers! It’s kind of crazy that there are only two months left of 2024, and I’m not looking forward to the holiday shopping frenzy. I checked on how my resolutions are doing for this year and am going to have to pick up the pace if I want to reach my reading goals. Let’s get this November started with today’s links!

Lions Takes On Charlotte FC Tonight

Orlando City has a chance to book its spot in the next round of the playoffs tonight when it faces off against Charlotte FC at 7:30 p.m. This will be Charlotte’s first playoff game at home since joining the league and it will likely be a loud environment for the Lions to deal with. Charlotte is without Designated Player Pep Biel due to his red card, but midfielders Kerwin Vargas and Patrick Agyemang are more than capable of making an impact. The Lions will have to remain at the top of their game to avoid the series being sent back to Orlando for Game 3 on Nov. 9.

Orlando Pride Prepare for Regular Season Finale

The Orlando Pride will aim to get back on track Saturday night when they take on the Seattle Reign at home in their final game of the regular season. After a pair of losses, a match against the Reign presents a good chance for the team to return to its winning ways after securing its first NWSL Shield. Pride Head Coach Seb Hines spoke on how the international break gives the team a decent chance to reset, as well as how playing at home should give the team a boost.

NWSL Playoff Race Nears Its End

While the Pride secured the top spot in the standings weeks ago, a majority of the league has plenty on the line this weekend. There are three teams in contention for the final two playoff spots, and there’s a three-team race for the second seed in the playoffs. The Portland Thorns can clinch a spot in the playoffs with a result tonight against Angel City FC, while Bay FC can clinch with a result tomorrow night against the Houston Dash. If either team loses, it opens the door for Racing Louisville to snatch a spot in the playoffs on Sunday against the San Diego Wave. After last year’s drama that included the Pride narrowly missing out on the playoffs, I’m glad things are already locked up for Orlando this year.

USWNT’s New Era Off to Strong Start

One of the biggest takeaways from the United States Women’s National Team’s trio of victories in the recent international window was how many new players took the field and impressed. Head Coach Emma Hayes utilized plenty of rotation across the three matches, and Pride defender Emily Sams was one of seven players who made their debut. Sams received a rating of 7 coming off the bench in the team’s win over Argentina, a match that showcased just how deep the U.S. player pool is. It’s been a fantastic past few months for Hayes, who leaned on innovation and experimentation with Chelsea and has the U.S. rebuilding while still staying on top.

Free Kicks

• Forward Diana Ordonez won’t play in the Dash’s final game of the season after undergoing successful surgery earlier this week.

Wishing D a speedy recovery 🧡

Diana Ordóñez has been placed on the season ending injury list following a successful surgery on Monday. pic.twitter.com/9ZZPBAmCYK

— Houston Dash (@HoustonDash) October 31, 2024

• St. Louis City’s home stadium has been named Energizer Park as part of the club’s partnership with the battery manufacturer.
• The NWSL announced the schedule of events leading into the NWSL Championship on Nov. 23. The NWSL Skills Challenge will take place the night prior and the winner of the Lauren Holiday Impact Award will be announced on the day of the match.
• Chicago Fire FC II midfielder David Poreba was named 2024 MLS NEXT Pro MVP after leading the league with 18 goals this season.
• Ruben Amorim stated that there will be clarification on his reported move to Manchester United after Sporting CP’s match today.

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That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and a relaxing weekend!

As noted in the recap of Orlando City’s first playoff game against Charlotte, the Lions scored more than one goal in a postseason playoff game for the first time in their MLS history. However, the Lions struggled to score in their seven other MLS playoff games, getting shut out twice and scoring one goal in the other five matches.

Even with the low-scoring output, the team advanced one round in 2020 and again in 2023, but the Lions have yet reach the conference final. A quick look at their performances in the regular season, as opposed to the playoffs, shows just how stark the offensive struggles have been (I am aware that points are not a thing in the playoffs, but just pretend that they were for comparison purposes, so even though Orlando City won in 2020 against New York City FC, it was a draw after 90 minutes that eventually went to penalties. As such, I called it a draw for average points purposes):

You can see from the data that while the team’s defense is averaging roughly the same amount of goals given up per game across all playoff games, the offense is down 56% in terms of average goals scored per game. I am not someone who believes in teams carrying history with them onto the field, as we are beaten over our heads with when the Yankees take the field in baseball and the announcers intimate that because the team won a lot of titles in the first half of the 20th century, that somehow matters in 2024 (altogether unsurprising note — I despise the Yankees), but in this situation I think it is worth looking at the last few years, because it is the same head coach and the team plays a similar formation and in very similar ways.

The players from 2020 are different than today (leading scorer: the Money Badger, Chris Mueller, and of 2024’s roster only two current players (Pedro Gallese and Robin Jansson) started in more than half of their games), but the reality from that year, and every year, is that the teams played all season long include teams at the top, middle, and bottom of the league, but the opponents in the playoffs include some in the middle but are mostly at the top.

With a higher caliber of opponent on the field, the Lions have performed similarly defensively but have struggled offensively, and the chart below shows some of the reasons why (red shading means the value is lower (even barely) in the playoffs as compared to during the regular season):

Insert usual disclaimer about non-penalty expected goals (npxG) being a metric that is more about shot locations than if the player really should have been expected to score, but regardless, while the red to white split in the table on the right is not drastic (11-9 red to white), some of the gaps in efficiency are large. The playoff stats on the right are full of small sample sizes, and as Billy Beane of Moneyball fame said “my (expletive) doesn’t work in the playoffs,” meaning that in small sample sizes, anything can happen, and season-long trends can disappear. The 2024 playoff stats, albeit through only one game, look good though, so perhaps this season will be the one when everything goes right offensively instead of wrong.

Whether the reason is offensive struggles, playing against better defenses, or some kind of mental block for playoff games, the reality is that prior to the home game against Charlotte on Sunday, Orlando City had never scored more than one goal in a playoff game. But, now the Lions have done that, and I do not want to take full credit, but it was my daughter’s first-ever game in attendance when they did so…I am taking full credit. (Sorry, actual players who played in the game.)

This year’s team scored the most regular-season goals of any Orlando City squad in the MLS era, and in my opinion, the Lions have the best collection of overall offensive talent of any team in club history, so much so that they bring three players off the bench (Duncan McGuire, Luis Muriel, and Nico Lodeiro) who combined for 37 goal contributions this season in MLS regular-season play. Now that the team has achieved one playoff game with at least two goals, the next offensive goal target will be multiple playoff games with multiple goals — hopefully starting as soon as in the match at Charlotte on Friday.

The last two seasons have been full of achievements for Orlando City in the team’s MLS era, and with two more wins (though let’s not get ahead of ourselves), the team would add another achievement to that list — the Lions’ first-ever trip to the conference final. Advancing in the playoffs does not require scoring goals (provided you hold your opponent scoreless too and win your shootouts), but scoring goals is fun, and fun is good (doctor’s orders, right Dr. Seuss?). And I believe that this team has the offensive ability to continue to have fun and advance in the upcoming weeks.

Vamos Orlando!