After defeating nine-man Colorado Rapids 2-0 at Exploria Stadium, Orlando City SC now hit the road to face 2021 MLS Supporters’ Shield winners New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.
Our first 2023 regular season meeting with Revs, the Foxborough team are quite simply a bogey side to the Lions. After registering our current joint-highest MLS win against Revs (6-1) in September 2017, they’ve gone unbeaten against City in the nine MLS head-to-heads ever since (5-4-0).
Casting our minds back to last Saturday, Orlando City SC huffed and puffed, but eventually blew the Rapids door down after a pre-kick-off weather delay.
Heading into the game, confidence was as high as it’s been all year.
Five MLS games unbeaten, City had just defeated New York Red Bulls 0-3 and were eager to improve their poor home record (2-3-3).
And achieve this they did against a careless Rapids side who could’ve got something had it not been for reckless Braian Galván AND Lalas Abubakar red cards!
With Galván sent off for a high studs-up challenge on Wilder Cartagena (39 minutes), City received a major boost at the end of a first-half lacking any real quality.
But it was Oscar Pareja‘s decisive half-time substitutions of Rodrigo Schlegel (for the booked Antônio Carlos) and Martín Ojeda (for Wilder Cartagena) that helped spark City into life.
The crucial breakthrough came on 56 minutes against the 10 men of the visitors.
Shooting on the edge of Rapids’ 18-yard box, Facundo Torres saw his left-footed strike deflect off Andreas Maxsø and past Marko Ilić in goal.
The stroke of luck Orlando City SC needed to get a genuine foothold, Torres is now reassuringly getting back to his best.
Really finding his feet in the second-half of 2022, “El Cuervo” is starting to take games by the scruff of the neck consistently – and that can only be a good thing moving forward!
On 75 minutes, Rapids were dramatically reduced to nine men when Lalas Abubakar tugged back Iván Angulo who cleverly slalomed past the Ghanaian with a neat piece of skill.
With Rapids all at sea, the 83rd minute saw City score the crucial cushion goal to erase any fears of surrendering a late equaliser for a third consecutive home fixture.
With Facundo Torres assisting substitute Ramiro Enrique in space, the Argentine confidently dispatched his first ever goal in Orlando City SC purple.
A fantastic moment for the 22-year-old, another great moment came for 17-year-old Alejandro Granados on 90 minutes.
Signing on a short-term agreement from Orlando City B only a day earlier, it was a lovely touch from Oscar Pareja to sub in the teenager for his City first team debut after recently starring for the Spain U-17 National Team at the 2023 UEFA European Under-17 Championship.
Now switching our attention to this weekend, Bruce Arena’s New England Revolution are back battling in the upper echelons of the Eastern Conference again.
Rather shockingly, Revs endured a 2022 MLS regular season to forget.
Especially considering their record-breaking 73-point Supporters’ Shield winning 2021 regular season, only a year prior, also under Arena.
Their first ever Supporters’ Shield title, 2022 saw the club fall way below their expectations, finishing a lowly tenth in the East and failing to qualify for the 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs.
Things are much brighter this time around, however.
With club captain Carles Gil and 2023 new boy Bobby Wood each boasting six MLS goals to their name, Revs have gone 8-6-3 so far this year.
Winning four of their first five MLS fixtures this season, their fast start has dissipated more recently.
Failing to win five of their last six regular season games, Revs have been leaking too many goals and were involved in two crazy back-to-back 3-3 draws with Chicago Fire and Atlanta United in May.
That said, Revs got back to winning ways last weekend against Inter Miami, swatting aside Lionel Messi’s soon-to-be new club 3-1 in Foxborough.
Notoriously a tough venue to achieve results, New England Revolution remain unbeaten at Gillette Stadium this season, going 5-3-0 in MLS regular season play.
Nevertheless, Orlando City SC currently boast the best road record in MLS and already have four away victories to their name after 16 games played.
As one final footnote, Orlando City SC will also be without Wilder Cartagena, Pedro Gallese, and Facundo Torres for this game with the trio currently away on international duty.
City are also without Antônio Carlos and Kyle Smith – both currently suspended due to yellow card accumulation.
New England Revolution vs Orlando City SC
Last 3 head-to-heads
- October 24, 2021: Orlando City SC 2 New England Revolution 2 (MLS)
- June 15, 2022: New England Revolution 1 Orlando City SC 1 (MLS)
- August 6, 2022: Orlando City SC 0 New England Revolution 3 (MLS)
2015/22 head-to-head stats
- It was 0-3 to Revs the last time the sides met (August 2022)
- Played Revs 16 times in MLS – Revs 7, Draws 7, Orlando 2
- Revs are unbeaten in the last 9 MLS head-to-heads
- Bobby Wood has scored 3 goals in his last 4 MLS appearances for Revs
- Orlando just achieved their first back-to-back MLS victories since August 2022
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Watching the game
New England Revolution vs Orlando City SC will be shown live on Apple TV at 00:30 (GMT) on Sunday, June 18.
Remember, UK supporters can watch all of Orlando City SC‘s 2023 MLS regular season fixtures by subscribing to Apple TV’s “MLS Season Pass”.
Subscribe now by clicking here.
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