One of the league’s hottest road teams will try to mar the Eastern Conference’s only unbeaten home record when Orlando City visit the New York Red Bulls on Saturday in Harrison, N.J.
The Red Bulls are 4-0-2 on their home field, including Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Charlotte FC.
Charlotte had not allowed an opponent to score a goal in five consecutive games before the Red Bulls (7-3-5, 26 points) scored three times in a 10-minute span in the second half to secure the victory.
The victory was a strong rebound for the Red Bulls after a lackluster opening 45 minutes, and then a weather delay that extended halftime.
“(We changed) our intensity, our energy immediately and then (changed) how we want to play,” New York coach Sandro Schwarz said. “… It’s not possible to play every week a perfect match, a perfect game. So it’s good to see that we can change and that we have to keep our focus on how we want to play.”
Orlando City (4-6-5, 17 points) had something of the opposite feeling in a 1-1 away draw Wednesday against the Chicago Fire. Facundo Torres scored to give Orlando City the lead after just four minutes, but the Fire increased the pressure in the second half and collected a 70th-minute equalizer.
“For one reason or another we started to … play a little easily with the ball and they were able to find their way into the game and really start pushing us into our half and they were able to get the goal,” Torres said.
The draw still continued the Lions’ five-match (3-0-2) unbeaten streak on the road. Orlando led all MLS teams with 31 road points during the 2023 season.
Duncan McGuire leads Orlando with five goals but has missed Orlando City’s last two matches with a shoulder injury. Defender Robin Jansson won’t play Saturday due to a suspension for caution accumulation.
New York’s Cameron Harper (hamstring) and Kyle Duncan (illness) are questionable for Saturday after missing the Charlotte match.
The two clubs played to a 1-1 draw in their first meeting of the season, on March 30 in Orlando.
–Field Level Media