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 (3-2-2, 11 points) and the New York Red Bulls (3-2-2, 11 points) at Inter&Co Stadium (4:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV). This is the second and final scheduled meeting between the teams this season.

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

History

The Lions are 8-10-4 in 21 league meetings with the Red Bulls in the all-time series (9-11-4 in all competitions), with a record of 4-4-2 at home in the regular season and 5-5-2 in Orlando in all competitions. Goals have been scarce in this series the last couple of seasons, but the teams “exploded” for four combined goals just weeks ago in their first meeting of 2025.

These two sides met less than a month ago, playing to a 2-2 draw at Sports Illustrated Stadium on March 15. Martin Ojeda’s strike put Orlando up early, but it was canceled out by a controversial penalty by Eric Choupo-Moting just 11 minutes later. Marco Pasalic restored the Lions’ lead before the break with a stunning strike. However, Dennis Gjengaar was left unattended in front just two minutes after the restart as the teams split the points.

The two teams faced off 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 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 2024 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.

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 Ivan 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 fought to 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 enters on a four-game unbeaten run (2-0-2), but the Lions are coming off an unsatisfying scoreless draw at the Philadelphia Union a week ago. The men in purple created few chances in the match, but managed to fashion two good ones, only to fail to take their chances. Playing with backups in the central midfield, the result was a decent one, but it was clear early in the match that the Lions weren’t going to generate much in the attack. At least the club finally kept its first clean sheet of 2025. Orlando is 2-1-0 at home and has won both matches at Inter&Co Stadium since falling in the season opener.

New York is 0-2-1 on the road in 2025, but is coming off a 2-1 home win over the Chicago Fire a week ago. The Red Bulls have played three consecutive 2-1 games since the 2-2 draw against Orlando City, losing by that score in New England and beating Chicago and Toronto. As has been the case in recent years, the Red Bulls press and defend well, have a great goalkeeper, and have turn 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. Choupo-Moting and Emil Forsberg pace the Red Bulls with three goals and an assist each. However, New York has the third-stingiest defense in the Eastern Conference behind Coronel’s standout play in goal and a defense that boasts Tim Parker, Sean Nealis, Alexander Hack, Eile, and others who can protect the goal.

“We’re feeling good. It was a difficult game in Philadelphia, but I think the team had a very good performance under the circumstances,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the match. “There are a few changes we must make to the whole performance. It was very intense, but we found ways to keep the result. We had some options that could have been even more for us, but now coming into the next matchup against a rival like the New York Red Bulls, that we know and have played not long ago. We are just preparing like always, with the same energy and understanding that this is a different [game]. We’re good, the boys are in good shape.”

Orlando City will be without Wilder Cartagena (Achilles), Favian Loyola (thigh), and Yutaro Tsukada (knee). César Araújo (lower leg), Eduard Atuesta (thigh), and Nico Rodríguez
(thigh) are listed as questionable. New York has a considerable number of players on its availability list. The Red Bulls will be without Roald Mitchell (knee) and Morgan (knee), while Kyle Duncan (knee), Raheem Edwards (knee), Cameron Harper (knee), and Marcelo Morales (knee) 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: David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Alex Freeman.

Defensive Midfielders: Joran Gerbet, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.

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

Forward: Luis Muriel.

Bench: Javier Otero, Rafael Santos, Kyle Smith, Thomas Williams, Cesar Araujo, Eduard Atuesta, Shak Mohammed, Ramiro Enrique, Duncan McGuire.

New York Red Bulls (3-5-2)

Goalkeeper: Carlos Coronel.

Defenders: Tim Parker, Noah Eile, Dylan Nealis.

Wingbacks/Midfielders: Omar Valencia, Peter Stroud, Felipe Caraballo, Ronald Donkor, Serge Ngoma.

Forwards: Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Emil Forsberg.

Bench: Anthony Marcucci, Alexander Hack, Sean Nealis, Wikelman Carmona, Cameron Harper, Julian Hall, Mohammed Sofo, Dennis Gjengaar, Wiktor Bogacz.

Referees

Ref: Chris Penso.
AR1: Logan Brown.
AR2: Nick Balcer.
4th: Marcos DeOliveira.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki.

How to Watch

Match Time: 4:30 p.m.

Venue: Inter&Co Stadium — Orlando.

TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).

Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at @themaneland.bsky.social or follow Orlando City’s official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC) feed.

Enjoy the match. Go City!