Welcome to your match thread and preview of Saturday night’s Eastern Conference final between Orlando City and the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV). This will be the third meeting between the two teams this season in 2024 and the first meeting ever in the postseason.

Here’s what you need to know for the game.

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The Lions are 8-10-3 in 21 league games with the Red Bulls in the all-time series (9-10-3 in all competitions), with a record of 4-4-2 in home league games and 5-4-2 in Orlando in all competitions.

The teams’ last meeting took place on June 1 at the Red Bull Arena, with the hosts winning 1-0 after a set-piece goal from John Tolkin. Orlando City wasn’t in great shape at the time and it was the third shutout the Lions had suffered in five games. The first meeting of the season took place on March 30 at the Inter&Co Stadium, with both teams drawing 1-1. A foul from Kyle Smith in the penalty area allowed Lewis Morgan to put the visitors in the lead, but a late own goal from Noah Eile resulted in the draw. Ivan Angulo and Jack Lynn combined to force the own goal.

Orlando City prevailed last year, not conceding a goal in that series and winning the last meeting at Red Bull Arena 3-0. Facundo Torres scored twice – once from the penalty spot – after Angulo opened the scoring for an easy away win. The two teams met in Orlando on the opening day of 2023, with Orlando City winning 1-0 on a Torres penalty on February 25. Sean Nealis’ handball allowed the Lions to start the season with a win.

Orlando City won 1-0 at Red Bull Arena on August 13, 2022 thanks to a goal from Torres. This allowed the Lions to split regular season matchups and win two of three games against New York in all competitions in 2022.

The Lions scored five unanswered goals and turned a 1-0 deficit into a 5-1 victory in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals on July 27, 2022 at Exploria Stadium. Cesar Araujo scored his first two professional goals from set pieces, while Mauricio Pereyra, Torres and Benji Michel also scored the goals. Lewis Morgan scored New York’s only goal.

The August victory allowed the Lions to end a four-game regular season winning streak (0-3-1). The last of those non-wins came on April 24, 2022, when the Lions were defeated 3-0 at home by goals from Luquinhas, Cristian Casseres Jr. and Morgan, and Orlando City failed to score any of its meager three shot attempts on target.

The Red Bulls won the 2021 season. The teams met at Exploria Stadium on July 3 of that season, with New York claiming a 2-1 win. Casseres opened the scoring after just six minutes, but Chris Mueller equalized for the Lions early in the second half. Fabio’s late goal inspired the guests. Pereyra’s poor penalty was saved by Carlos Coronel, costing Orlando City a better result.

The Red Bulls also handed Orlando City their first defeat of the 2021 season on May 29, 2021, a 2-1 affair at the Red Bull Arena. Nani was suspended for the game and it showed as the Lions had sloppy possession and lacked composure on the ball. New York took the lead through goals from Caden Clark and Casseres before Silvester van der Water equalized late on. The Dutchman had a golden chance to equalize a few moments later, but his shot went well over the crossbar.

The Lions earned an away draw on October 18, 2020, with Brian White scoring an injury-time equalizer in a 1-1 game. Nani gave the Lions the lead with a penalty goal in the second half and Orlando secured its first-ever MLS playoff berth despite the late two points. That was the final game in the club’s record 12-game unbeaten streak in MLS.

Orlando edged New York at Exploria Stadium on October 3, 2020, winning 3-1 with goals from Daryl Dike, Junior Urso and Antonio Carlos. Florian Valot scored for New York.

The Red Bulls won 1-0 at Exploria Stadium on July 21, 2019. White’s goal stood as Carlos Ascues, Tesho Akindele and Sacha Kljestan each hit the crossbar in the second half. Previously, the Lions earned a 1-0 win at the Red Bull Arena on March 23, 2019 thanks to Kljestan’s goal. Prior to this game, the home team had won each of the previous five home games in the series, splitting two games in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

The teams split two meetings in 2018, with the Red Bulls scoring a 1-0 result in the 2018 season finale to secure the Supporters’ Shield, and the Lions securing a 4-3 home win on March 31, 2018. Each team won at home in 2017 to split the two-game series, with New York winning 3-1 on August 12 and Orlando City opening the season series with a 1-0 win on April 9 behind the Servando goal Carrasco.

The teams met three times in 2016, with New York going 2-0-1. The teams split two games in 2015, with the away team winning both times, including Orlando City’s 5-2 victory in New Jersey after a hat trick from Cyle Larin.

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Orlando City celebrates a 1-0 home win against Atlanta United on Sunday. It was Orlando’s third straight ugly playoff game, with Ramiro Enrique scoring the only goal after landing a corner kick in the penalty area. It was another offensively challenging postseason game for Orlando, and that likely won’t change tonight. The Red Bulls defend well, have a great goalkeeper and have made these games tough battles recently.

The Lions were 7-6-4 at home in the regular season and are 11-6-4 in all competitions at home against MLS teams in 2024. However, they haven’t scored their own goal against the Red Bulls this season. a year after New York was blanked in both meetings. This is the second straight playoff opponent that Orlando has not defeated in the regular season.

New York earned a 2-0 away win over New York City FC at Citi Field a week ago. While this wasn’t NYCFC’s home stadium, it was still a baseball field, and the Red Bulls were impressive in the postseason after going just 4-6-7 on the road in the regular season. The tie in Orlando was one of those seven stalemate situations. Since the regular season, New York defeated defending champion Columbus 1-0 at Lower.com Field in the first round of the best-of-three series – then won the second game on penalties to win the series – and then beat the Pigeons away to advance to the conference finals.

As usual, the Lions will have to take care of the ball and avoid New York’s dangerous transition attack. Morgan led the Red Bulls with 13 goals and contributed seven assists. With his track record against Orlando, he will be a player the Lions are happy to keep under wraps. However, Emil Forsberg was the player who took the lead on offense and the team faltered during his injury-related absence in the second half of the year. Forsberg scored nine goals and added five assists in the regular season. Dante Vanzier had a team-best 10 assists and four goals. This is the trio that the Orlando defense needs to try and slow down.

“During the week we tried to focus on our responsibilities and the opportunities presented to us,” Orlando City head coach Oscar Pareja said before the game. “Of course we are very proud that the group has achieved this for our club and our fans, but we want much more than that. And now we have this opportunity, but as I said, we always take it one game at a time, and Now we are so focused on New York (Red Bulls) and trying to be as prepared as possible and have a good game moving forward. That’s the process, nothing else.”

Both teams enter the game mostly healthy. Orlando City will be without Mason Stajduhar (lower leg). New York is without Roald Mitchell (knee) and Kyle Duncan (knee), while Cory Burke (illness) is listed as questionable.

Match content

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Official lineups

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defender: Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.

Defensive midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.

Attacking midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres.

Forward: Ramiro Enrique.

Bank: Javier Otero, Luca Petrasso, Kyle Smith, David Brekalo, Felipe, Nico Lodeiro, Luis Muriel, Jack Lynn, Duncan McGuire.

New York Red Bulls (3-4-1-2)

Goalkeeper: Carlos Coronal.

Defender: Sean Nealis, Andres Reyes, Dylan Nealis.

Full-back/midfielder: John Tolkin, Peter Stroud, Daniel Edelman, Cameron Harper.

Attacking midfielder: Emil Forsberg.

Forward: Lewis Morgan, Dante Vanzeir.

Bank: Ryan Meara, Noah Eile, Dennis Gjengaar, Wikelman Carmona, Julian Hall, Elias Manoel, Ronald Donkor, Serge Ngoma, Cory Burke.

referee

REF: Rosendo Mendoza.
AR1: Cameron Blanchard.
AR2: Jeremy Hanson.
4th: Lukasz Szpala.
VAR: Carol Anne Chenard.
AVAR: Tom Supple.

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Here’s how to watch

Playing time: 7:30 Clock

Venue: Inter&Co Stadium – Orlando.

TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

Radio: Real Radio 104.1 FM (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish).

Twitter: For quick response and live updates, follow us at @TheManeLandas well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).

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Enjoy the game. Go to town!