Orlando City
Orlando City vs. LA Galaxy, Leagues Cup: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More
The Lions cross the country again without two key defenders in a match that will determine a spot in the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Welcome to your match thread for a Sunday night Leagues Cup consolation matchup between Orlando City and the LA Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park (5 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, Apple TV+, Univision, TUDN). This is the second meeting between the sides this season — both in Southern California — and the first time the teams have ever met competitively outside of MLS regular-season play.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.
History
The Lions are 5-3-0 against LA in MLS play, going 2-2-0 on the road and getting those two wins in their two most recent away matches. One of those was earlier this season on March 29, and the other came back in March of 2022 (more on both matches to follow).
The teams last met March 29 in SoCal, with the host Galaxy grabbing an early lead on a Christian Ramirez goal. Orlando left it late, but a Martin Ojeda penalty in the final quarter of an hour and Luis Muriel’s winner in the final minute of normal time lifted the Lions to a 2-1 road win.
Prior to the meeting in March, the last time the teams played each other was April 29, 2023 at Exploria Stadium, with Orlando City winning 2-0 on goals by Ercan Kara and Facundo Torres. Current Orlando starting right back Alex Freeman made his MLS debut in that match.
Orlando City and LA met at Dignity Health Sports Park on March 19, 2022 and the Lions won their first match ever in the state of California, 1-0. Torres scored his first career MLS goal on a header off a beautiful Kara cross for the game’s only goal. Pedro Gallese set a new club record with his 14th clean sheet across all competitions.
The Galaxy came to Exploria Stadium and got a smash-and-grab 1-0 win on May 24, 2019. Jonathan dos Santos provided the game’s only goal in the opening 20 minutes, with the Lions out-shooting the Galaxy 19-4 (7-1 on target).
Before 2019, the home team had won all four prior meetings. In Orlando’s visit to LA in 2018, the Lions fell 4-3 after blowing the lead three times. It was a case of too much Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who figured in every goal, notching his first MLS hat trick and adding an assist. Cristian Higuita and Dom Dwyer scored for Orlando and Sacha Kljestan forced an own goal by Michael Ciani with a pass intended for Yoshimar Yotún.
Back in 2017, the Lions prevailed 2-1 in Orlando. Will Johnson and Cyle Larin provided the offense to offset a goal by Romain Alessandrini.
The Galaxy captured the lone 2016 contest, 4-2. Giovani Dos Santos scored twice as LA put together four straight goals to erase a 1-0 deficit provided by Kevin Molino. Alan Gordon and Robbie Keane scored the other two Galaxy goals. Brek Shea tacked on a cosmetic goal late for Orlando.
The Lions won 4-0 at home in 2015 in the first meeting against the then-defending champions. It was Orlando City’s first-ever home win in MLS. Eric Avila, Larin, Kaká and Darwin Ceren found the net for the Lions and Tally Hall got a shutout in his first Orlando City appearance.
Overview
While a third-place match is usually a meaningless game, tonight’s match provides a spot in the Concacaf Champions Cup for the winning team.
Orlando City is coming off a bitter 3-1 loss at Inter Miami on Wednesday. With the Lions holding a 1-0 lead courtesy of Marco Pasalic, a blatant foul by Sergio Busquets in the box against Ivan Angulo was ignored, but a softer penalty at the other end was given to allow Lionel Messi to equalize from the spot and putting Orlando down to 10 men. That manpower advantage helped the Herons go on to win a game in which they seldom threatened. Two yellow cards on David Brekalo in that match have him suspended for tonight. Robin Jansson was shown a red card after the match for language insulting to the officials, and so the captain is also suspended for tonight.
The Lions are 7-4-6 in all competitive matches away from home in 2025.
The defending champion Galaxy have struggled all season in MLS play, but they’ve put together a strong run in the Leagues Cup, reaching Wednesday’s semifinals before bowing out with a 2-0 home loss to Seattle. LA is just 4-16-7 in the regular season, but the Galaxy have been much better at home (4-7-2) than on the road (0-9-5). In all competitive matches at home this season, LA is 8-8-4.
The Galaxy distribute their goal-scoring evenly across a number of good attacking options. Marco Reus, Joseph Paintsil, and Gabriel Pec have each scored five times in the regular season, with Ramirez and Diego Fagundez chipping in four apiece. Reus leads LA with nine assists, while Pec has five, and Miki Yamane has four. If you remember Yamane’s name, it might be because his foul on Eduard Atuesta gave Orlando its penalty kick back in March, helping the Lions turn that game around.
The Galaxy will get offensive chances. LA possesses the ball a lot, passes the ball a lot, and creates scoring chances a lot. To get a result in this match, the Lions will need big performances from the defensive replacements for Brekalo and Jansson. It will likely be Kyle Smith stepping in to help at center back, with Adrian Marin starting at left back, but we’ll see about that 45 or so minutes before kickoff.
“I think we have a responsibility to fight for that place in Concacaf Champions Cup, that is naturally important for all,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the match. “At the same time, as we’ve expressed from the beginning, the culture that we have created at Orlando City is to be great in any competition that we belong to. There will not be a time where Orlando City is competing with no interest. That won’t happen.”
In addition to Brekalo and Jansson, who are suspended, Orlando City will be without Wilder Cartagena (Achilles) and Yutaro Tsukada (knee).
Match Content
- The latest episode of The Mane Land PawedCast includes our key matchups and score predictions for the game.
- Ben Miller provided his three keys to victory for Orlando City in this matchup.
Official Lineups:
Orlando City (4-4-2)
Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.
Defenders: Adrian Marin, Rodrigo Schlegel, Kyle Smith, Alex Freeman.
Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Cesar Araujo, Eduard Atuesta, Marco Pasalic.
Forwards: Martin Ojeda, Luis Muriel.
Bench: Javier Otero, Tahir Reid-Brown, Thomas Williams, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, Colin Guske, Joran Gerbet, Nico Rodriguez, Tyrese Spicer, Duncan McGuire.
LA Galaxy (4-3-3)
Goalkeeper: Novak Micovic
Defenders: John Nelson, Emiro Garces, Maya Yoshida, Miki Yamane.
Midfielders: Diego Fagundez, Edwin Cerrillo, Elijah Wynder.
Forwards: Joseph Paintsil, Marco Reus, Gabriel Pec.
Bench: JT Marcinkowski, Julian Aude, Zanka, Isaiah Parente, Chris Rindov, Mauricio Cuevas, Harbor Miller, Tucker Lepley, Lucas Sanabria, Miguel Berry, Christian Ramirez.
Referees
REF: Pierre-Luc Lauziere.
AR1: Stefan Tanaka-Freundt.
AR2: Gerard Kader Lebuis.
4TH: Adonis Carrasco García.
VAR: Edvin Juresevic.
How to Watch
Match Time: 5 p.m.
Venue: Dignity Health Sports Park — Carson, CA.
TV/Live Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, Apple TV+, Univision, TUDN.
Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).
Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at our Bluesky Social account (@themaneland.bsky.social), as well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).
Enjoy the match! Go City!