On Saturday, Orlando City and FC Dallas—the third-placed teams in the Major League Soccer Eastern and Western Conferences—will meet at Orlando City Stadium with kickoff at 2:30 am.
Orlando City SC has had a relatively strong start to the MLS season, establishing themselves at the top end of the Eastern Conference with 21 points from their opening 13 matches.
They come into the weekend having won four of their last seven games while losing two, having bounced back from the most recent defeat with a 1-0 win away at Toronto thanks to Kyle Smith’s injury-time winner.
That triumph was followed by a trip to Austin FC in their latest MLS outing, and Oscar Pareja’s side looked set to see an impressive 2-1 win until conceding an equalizer in the 95th minute through Moussa Djitte.
Meanwhile, Dallas arrives looking to bounce back from consecutive league defeats. They began the season with a draw and a defeat but quickly kicked into gear, going unbeaten for the next nine league games as they amassed 21 points thanks to six victories and three draws.
That run culminated in back-to-back wins over Seattle Sounders and Los Angeles Galaxy, with a Jesus Ferreira brace and a Paul Arriola goal sealing all three points for Nico Estevez’s side.
Orlando City vs. Dallas Head to Head
Both sides have 7 games against each other, with hosts taking one win while visitors are winning four. Here is a look at their previous encounters:
Home
- Orlando 1-1 Inter Miami
- Austin 2-2 Orlando
- Toronto 0-1 Orlando
- Orlando 2-1 Philadelphia
Away
- Dallas 1-2 Minnesota
- Vancouver 2-1 Dallas
- LA Galaxy 1-3 Dallas
- Kansas City 4-2 Dallas
Orlando City Team News
Orlando City will be without center-back Rodrigo Schlegel and midfielder Cesar Araujo on Saturday, as they serve suspensions after being sent off in the game against Austin. Tesho Akindele and Alexandre Pato both started for their recent US Open Cup clash after finding regular minutes hard to come by this season, and the duo will be pushing to stay in the attack.
Dallas Team News
The Dallas attack will be led by forward Jesus Ferreira, who has been on fire this season with nine goals in 13 matches. Winger Paul Arriola has also impacted offense, tallying five goals and assisting on three more.
Prediction and Odds
Dallas will certainly cause their opponents problems, but Pareja’s men have the quality to take all three points.
- Home Win
- Both Teams to Score
- Goals Over 1.5
