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After what seems like an eternity, Orlando City SC are back at Orlando City Stadium to take on New England Revolution this Wednesday evening.
A game that Orlando City UK are attending live, Jason Kreis‘ men will be looking for a response after the 3-0 defeat at Portland Timbers on Sunday.
Only playing Revs four games ago where City fell to an embarrassing 4-0 loss at Gillette Stadium, it’s all change at the top for the Massachusetts-based side.
Floundering in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference all season long, Revs sacked long-serving boss and former player Jay Heaps on September 18th.
With Tom Soehn in temporary charge until the close of the 2017 Major League Soccer campaign, Orlando City SC will look to take advantage of a side very much in limbo.
Having only defeated New England Revolution ONCE in MLS since 2015, that victory came in Jason Kreis‘ very first game in charge of Orlando City SC.
Our goalscoring nemesis Kei Kamara was in prolific mood the last time we faced Revs with the Sierra Leonean bagging a hat-trick against us earlier this month.
A regular goalscorer against us in his Columbus Crew days too, shutting down the 33-year-old will be key to City earning all three points in this one.
With this game representing our third from last home fixture of the 2017 season, the sole focus will be upon closing out the campaign in as positive a manner as possible.
With the off-season always bringing changes, the onus is on each Orlando City SC player giving their all to be retained for 2018.
2015/17 head-to-head stats
Last facing New England Revolution only four games ago, Orlando City SC‘s performance left a lot to be desired.
Never looking a threat in the whole 90 minutes apart from a first-half Dom Dwyer strike that was excellently denied by Cody Cropper, we simply didn’t play to the required standard.
Torn apart by Kei Kamara who scored a hat-trick on the night at Gillette Stadium, the least said about this game the better as far as Lions fans are concerned!
Kei Kamara gives New England Revolution a 1-0 lead over Orlando City SC – Highlights – September 2, 2017 (Credit: New England Revolution)
New England Revolution have enjoyed the better of this game series so far with City having only defeated them once.
That victory came in July 2016 in Jason Kreis‘ very first game in charge of Orlando City SC.
Getting an instant reaction out of the players, a Cyle Larin strike and Kevin Molino brace ensured all three points.
While Kei Kamara is our main danger, Revs have assembled an incredibly talented crop of strikers that also include Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury and Krisztián Németh.
That’s not forgetting the crucial through balls from playmaker Lee Nguyen who is definitely one of the best number 10’s in all of MLS.
He scored TWO MLS goals against Orlando City SC during his time at Columbus Crew and the Kei Kamara curse seems to be repeating itself.
Indeed, the 33-year-old now has FOUR goals in his last TWO appearances against Orlando City SC.
Giving Revs a 0-1 lead in July 2016’s 3-1 win against them, the Sierra Leonean’s hat-trick against us earlier this month takes his total goal tally to SIX against City in MLS.
Kei Kamara completes his hat-trick against Orlando City SC – Highlights – September 2, 2017 (Credit: New England Revolution)
Whenever Orlando City SC face New England Revolution, we get plenty of goals!
This game series has been providing huge entertainment for neutrals since May 2015 with ALL SIX MLS head-to-heads featuring OVER 2.5 GOALS.
A popular scoreline seems to be 2-2 with THREE of the SIX head-to-heads ending with two goals apiece.
Expect late goalmouth action when Orlando City SC play against New England Revolution!
For whatever reason, there is usually stoppage time drama in this game series with SIX goals coming on or after the 90th minute.
All of Aurélien Collin, Chris Tierney, Kevin Molino, Lee Nguyen, Carlos Rivas and Teal Bunbury have scored very late on in this particular series.
New England Revolution 2 Orlando City SC 2 – Highlights – April 30, 2016 (Credit: New England Revolution)
Orlando City SC form
Winning our first FIVE consecutive home fixtures this season, Orlando City SC‘s form at Orlando City Stadium has trailed off badly.
Losing THREE of our last FIVE home fixtures in Major League Soccer, defeats to Toronto FC (1-3), Atlanta United (0-1) and Vancouver Whitecaps (1-2) proved a huge blow to our hopes of qualifying for the 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs.
Drawing the other two games to Montreal Impact (3-3) and Columbus Crew (1-1), good home form unfortunately deserted us when we needed it the most.
New England Revolution form
The great news for Orlando City SC heading into this one is that New England Revolution have lost their last SEVEN road games in MLS.
A big part of the reason why Jay Heaps was sacked as Revs boss earlier this month, this is a great opportunity for the Lions to steal all three points.