Orlando City vs. New York Red Bulls: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

Welcome to your match thread and preview for a Saturday afternoon Eastern Conference matchup between Orlando City (1-2-0, 3 points) and the New York Red Bulls (1-1-1, 4 points) at Red Bull Arena Sports Illustrated Stadium (2:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV). This is the first of two scheduled meetings between the teams this season, with the Red Bulls making the return trip to Orlando on April 12.

Here’s what you need to know for the match.

History

The Lions are 8-10-3 in 21 league meetings with the Red Bulls in the all-time series (9-11-3 in all competitions), with a record of 4-6-1 on the road. Goals have been scarce in this series the last couple of seasons.

These two teams last met in the 2024 Eastern Conference final at Inter&Co Stadium on Nov. 30 of last year, with an Andres Reyes set piece goal all that separated the sides in a 1-0 New York win. It was the first-ever playoff meeting between the two clubs.

The teams last met in New Jersey on June 1, 2024, with the hosts coming away with a 1-0 win on a set piece goal from John Tolkin. Orlando City wasn’t in the best run of form at the time, and it was the third shutout the Lions suffered in a five-game span. The first meeting of the season came at Inter&Co Stadium on March 30, with the two sides playing to a 1-1 draw. A Kyle Smith foul in the box allowed Lewis Morgan to put the visitors ahead, but a late own goal by Noah Eile resulted in a stalemate. Ivan Angulo and Jack Lynn combined to force the own goal. So, if you’re counting, the Lions only mustered one goal against the Red Bulls in three meetings in 2024 and it came off a New York player.

Orlando City got the sweep in 2023 and did not concede a goal in the series, winning the last meeting of the year 3-0 at the stadium then known as Red Bull Arena. Facundo Torres scored twice — once from the spot — after Angulo opened the scoring for an easy road win. The two sides met in Orlando on opening day of 2023, with Orlando City winning 1-0 on a Torres penalty kick on Feb. 25. Sean Nealis’ handball allowed the Lions to start the season with a victory.

Orlando City won at Red Bull Arena 1-0 on Aug. 13, 2022, thanks to a Torres goal. That allowed the Lions to split the regular-season meetings and take two of three against New York in all competitions in 2022.

The Lions scored five unanswered goals to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 5-1 romp in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals on July 27, 2022 at Exploria Stadium. Cesar Araujo scored his first two professional goals on set pieces, while Mauricio Pereyra, Torres, and Benji Michel also found the net. Morgan scored New York’s lone goal.

The win in August had allowed the Lions to snap a four-game winless streak (0-3-1) in the regular-season series. The last of those non-wins came on April 24, 2022, when the Lions were walloped 3-0 at home on goals by Luquinhas, Cristian Casseres Jr., and Morgan, and Orlando City failed to get any of its measly three shot attempts on target.

The Red Bulls swept the season series in 2021. The teams met at Exploria Stadium on July 3 of that season with New York taking home a 2-1 win. Casseres opened the scoring just six minutes in, but Chris Mueller pulled the Lions level early in the second half. Fabio’s late goal lifted the visitors. Pereyra’s poor penalty was saved by Carlos Coronel, which cost Orlando City a better result.

The Red Bulls also handed Orlando City its first loss of the 2021 season, a 2-1 affair at Red Bull Arena, on May 29, 2021. Nani was suspended for that match and it showed, as the Lions were sloppy in possession and lacked composure on the ball. New York took the lead on goals by Caden Clark and Casseres, before Silvester van der Water pulled one back late. The Dutchman had a golden opportunity to tie the match moments later but skied his shot well over the bar.

The Lions got a road draw on Oct. 18, 2020, with Brian White equalizing deep in stoppage time in a 1-1 match. Nani had put the Lions ahead in the second half with a penalty kick goal and Orlando clinched its first ever MLS playoff spot despite spilling those late two points. That was the last match in the club’s record 12-match unbeaten streak in MLS play.

Orlando got the better of New York at Exploria Stadium on Oct. 3, 2020, winning 3-1 on goals by Daryl Dike, Junior Urso, and Antonio Carlos. Florian Valot scored for New York.

The Red Bulls won 1-0 at Exploria Stadium on July 21, 2019. White’s goal stood up as Carlos Ascues, Tesho Akindele, and Sacha Kljestan each hit the woodwork in the second half. Prior to that, the Lions eked out a 1-0 win at Red Bull Arena on Kljestan’s goal on March 23, 2019. Before that game, the home team had won each of the previous five games in the series, splitting a pair of matches during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

The teams split two meetings in 2018, with the Red Bulls grabbing a 1-0 result in the 2018 season finale to capture the Supporters’ Shield and the Lions pulling off a 4-3 home victory on March 31, 2018. Each team won at home in 2017 to split the two-game series, with New York winning 3-1 on Aug. 12, and Orlando City opening the season series with a 1-0 win on April 9 behind Servando Carrasco’s goal.

The teams met three times in 2016, with New York going 2-0-1. The teams split two games in 2015, with the road team winning both times, including Orlando City’s 5-2 win in New Jersey behind a Cyle Larin hat trick.

Overview

Orlando City is coming off a hard-fought 2-1 road loss at New York City FC a week ago with all of the scoring in the second half. The Lions used their third different back line in three games and individual mistakes again proved costly in an otherwise solid road performance by the defense. It was the first match of the season in which the offense failed to score more than once, although there were enough good chances to get a better result. As a result of last week’s performance, Orlando is 0-1-0 on the road in 2025, but the Lions will try to regain the away form that allowed them to go 8-6-3 away from home last season.

New York is 1-0-0 at home and is coming off a 0-0 road draw at Atlanta United last weekend. The Red Bulls are once again stingy, having allowed just one goal through the first three matches of the season — second only to St. Louis City’s zero. On the other hand, New York has only scored twice this year, with Emil Forsberg and Mohammed Sofo netting those goals.

As has been the case in recent years, the Red Bulls defend well, have a great goalkeeper, and have recently turned matches into rock fights, usually finding ways to eke out enough offense to win low-scoring games.

The Lions will need to take care of the ball and avoid New York’s dangerous transition attack, although today’s hosts will be without offensive talisman Morgan. Forsberg is the player who has taken over as the leader of the offense, however, with nine goals and five assists last year in the regular season. Carlos Coronel is a difficult goalkeeper to beat, so when Orlando manages to create a chance against New York’s stout defense, the Lions will need to be clinical to finish.

“(Today’s) match is a good opportunity for us to bounce back. But it’s an even better opportunity to keep growing as a team and keep gluing together,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the match. “It’s a good chance for the players who are new to come into our game model and make it better and better. We’re good, we’re optimistic. The way we approached the week was trying to put together a good game plan but also trying to spend a lot of time doing the exercises with the guys. So, as I said, the guys can glue in with everybody and find a rhythm and hopefully results too. Results make us more confident.”

Orlando City will be without Wilder Cartagena (Achilles), Favian Loyola (thigh), Nico Rodríguez (thigh), and Yutaro Tsukada (knee), while Duncan McGuire (shoulder) and David Brekalo (shoulder) have been elevated to questionable. New York has a considerable number of players on its availability list. The Red Bulls will be without Wiktor Bogacz (back), Ronald Donkor (shin), Kyle Duncan (knee), Cameron Harper (knee), Roald Mitchell (knee), Morgan (knee), Marcelo Morales (knee), and Sofo (groin). Serge Ngoma (abdominal) and Adri Mehmeti (thigh) are questionable.

Match Content

• Our Intelligence Report provides more background on tonight’s opponents, courtesy of Mark Fishkin of the Seeing Red podcast.
• The most recent episode of the PawedCast includes our key matchups and score predictions for the match.
• Our David Rohe provided his three keys to an Orlando City victory over the New York Red Bulls.

Official Lineups

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defenders: Kyle Smith, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Alex Freeman.

Defensive Midfielders: Joran Gerbet, Eduard Atuesta.

Attacking Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Marco Pasalic.

Forward: Luis Muriel.

Bench: Javier Otero, Rafael Santos, Zakaria Taifi, David Brekalo, Colin Guske, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, Gustavo Caraballo, Ramiro Enrique, Duncan McGuire.

New York Red Bulls (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Carlos Coronel.

Defenders: Alexander Hack, Noah Eile, Sean Nealis, Dylan Nealis.

Defensive Midfielders: Daniel Edelman, Peter Stroud.

Attacking Midfielders: Raheem Edwards, Emil Forsberg, Dennis Gjengaar.

Forward: Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.

Bench: AJ Marcucci, Tim Parker, Wikelman Carmona, Serge Ngoma, Omar Valencia, Aiden Jarvis, Andy Rojas, Felipe Carballo, Julian Hall.

Referees

REF: Armando Villarreal.
AR1: Jeremy Kieso.
AR2: Meghan Mullen.
4TH: Lorenzo Hernandez.
VAR: Daniel Radford.
AVAR: Robert Schaap.

How to Watch

Match Time: 2:30 p.m.

Venue: Sports Illustrated Stadium — Harrison, NJ.

TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (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). You can also catch our live updates on Bluesky (@TheManeLand.bsky.social).

Enjoy the match. Go City!