Drawing 1-1 with CF Montréal on Wednesday, Orlando City SC now face New England Revolution in their penultimate home game of the season.
Five points clear of the red line right now, Oscar Pareja‘s side have just four regular season games to seal a 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs spot and a home game seeding.
With 13 attempts to CF Montréal’s 5 in midweek, Orlando City SC played protagonist for much of the 90 minutes.
In truth, our first-half performance was much better than the second however.
Playing with intensity and purpose, the Lions struck just before half-time when Chris Mueller finished a free-flowing City move.
After an inch-perfect pass out of defence by Robin Jansson, the ball was turned over expertly to Daryl Dike out wide.
Rampaging down the right wing to Dike’s right, Ruan seized upon the play and sent in a cross that Chris Mueller duly dispatched.
It was the perfect time to score and Orlando City SC had earned it after several near misses on James Pantemis’ goal.
Then came a sluggish start to the second-half.
Despite Oscar Pareja doing wonders for Orlando City SC, slow second-half starts under Papi have often been our Achilles heel.
On 51 minutes, Rudy Camacho headed home a Djordje Mihailovic corner and yet again, the Lions were caught cold.
Orlando City SC huffed and puffed thereafter but CF Montréal were good value for a point. The Quebec side are now unbeaten in six MLS regular season visits to Orlando.
The only other footnote was the long-awaited return of Alexandre Pato who replaced Mauricio Pereyra on 86 minutes for only his second ever Lions appearance.
City will now aim to put further daylight between themselves (46 points) and seventh-placed D.C. United (41 points).
Things won’t be easy on Sunday however – far from it. Visitors New England Revolution have won SIX of their last EIGHT MLS games.
Bruce Arena’s runaway Revs overturned a 1-0 deficit to win 2-3 at D.C. United on Wednesday night.
Orlando City SC vs New England Revolution – 2015/21 head-to-head stats
Last facing New England Revolution on September 25, Orlando City SC suffered a painful narrow 2-1 defeat at Gillette Stadium.
Bruce Arena’s Revs have been near perfect all season, and many thought an out of form Orlando City SC side would be blown away.
In reality, Oscar Pareja’s Lions battled hard but were behind to Adam Buksa’s ninth minute opener.
City could’ve capitulated at one of MLS’s toughest away venues but Daryl Dike bustled his way past the Revs defence to equalise on 18 minutes.
But in the remainder of the game, it was only pain for Orlando City SC.
Despite Revs only registering one strike on target at full-time, Bruce Arena’s side earned yet another three points thanks to a Rodrigo Schlegel own goal and ANOTHER Matt Turner penalty save on Nani.
As the story went, Nani came off penalty kicks with Daryl Dike bagging himself one at Nashville SC a game later.
New England Revolution 2 Orlando City SC 1 – Highlights – September 25, 2021 (Credit: Major League Soccer)
Right now, it’s Revs who hold a four-win advantage over City with SIX victories to the Lions’ TWO.
There are often draws in this fixture with FIVE played out since 2015 too.
The most recent Orlando City SC victory over Revs isn’t actually included in this MLS tally.
The win actually came in the 2019 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup instead.
Extra-time strikes by Benji Michel and Tesho Akindele helped City to a 2-1 victory and a place in the quarter-finals.
It’s fair to say Orlando City SC are long overdue a positive result against New England Revolution.
The Foxborough, Massachusetts side are unbeaten against the Lions in the last SIX MLS head-to-heads.
On Revs’ last visit to Exploria Stadium, it was an incredibly sour occasion for Orlando City SC.
Eliminating City from the 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs (1-3), Carles Gil and Gustavo Bou (x2) goals killed all the excitement from our incredible penalty shootout triumph over New York City FC a game prior.
This was another genuine character building experience for Oscar Pareja’s band of brothers.
Orlando City SC 1 New England Revolution 3 – Highlights – November 29, 2020 (Credit: New England Revolution)
Orlando City SC form
There’s no doubt that Pedro Gallese is among the top goalkeepers in MLS. He was the 2021 MLS All-Star Game starter after all!
Despite his plethora of amazing point-blank stops, the Peruvian doesn’t record as many clean sheets as you’d expect.
In short, clean sheets have been much harder for City to come by in the second-half of 2021 compared to the first.
Indeed, both sides have scored in SIX of Orlando City SC‘s last SEVEN MLS fixtures.
Our recent 0-1 win at FC Cincinnati was the exception.
New England Revolution form
All season long, Orlando City SC supporters have stared on enviously at the juggernaut that is New England Revolution.
Bruce Arena has taken his Revs team to new heights this season.
So much so that the Foxborough, Massachusetts side can still break Los Angeles FC’s record-breaking regular season points tally (72) of 2019.
On 69 points right now, Revs have THREE regular season games remaining, starting with Sunday’s trip to Exploria Stadium.
Enjoying a regular season for the ages, the Revs’ ability to consistently win tight games has been the cornerstone of their success.
Remarkably, New England Revolution have won SEVENTEEN of their THIRTY-ONE MLS games this season by a ONE-GOAL MARGIN.
They’ve been excruciatingly relentless. You have to applaud them as they close in on the Supporters’ Shield.
D.C. United 2 New England Revolution 3 – Highlights – October 20, 2021 (Credit: Major League Soccer)
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Don’t forget, Orlando City SC vs New England Revolution will be shown LIVE on FreeSports at 00:50 (GMT) in the early hours of Monday morning.
You can view our TV Fixture Tracker by clicking here.
GOOD NEWS 🚨 | @OrlandoCitySC 🆚 @NERevolution will be shown LIVE on @FreeSports_TV in the early hours of Monday morning! 🦁⚽️👏🏽
VIEW TV TRACKER 📺: https://t.co/KV9JvpSaRW#ORLvNE #OrlandoCity #NERevs #MLSUK pic.twitter.com/VxdclfpBT6
— Orlando City UK (@Orlando_CityUK) October 21, 2021
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