Orlando City Lions travel to face Real Salt Lake

Orlando City SC (2-2-2, 8 points) will travel west to face Real Salt Lake (1-4-1, 4 points) on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 9:00 p.m. ET at Rio Tinto Stadium.

The match will be locally televised on My65 and available on YouTube TV. It will also be broadcasted on 96.9 The Game FM in English and La Nueva 990 AM in Spanish.

”We’ve been really pleased with the players. I think that when you look at the level of performance, we’ve been really, really encouraged and really pleased,” Head Coach James O’Connor said.” I think the biggest thing for us, this weekend obviously, is managing the travel and managing the squad, and trying to see who’s looking maybe a little tired and who is looking a little more fatigued than some of the others.”  

City is coming off a thrilling 4-3 win over Colorado this past week. After the visitors opened the scoring in the ninth minute, City answered with Nani’s first-career MLS goal in the 31st, followed by a goal from Tesho Akindele in the 33rd. After the halftime break and nearly an hour weather delay, the visitors regained the lead with goals in the 61st and 71st minutes respectively. The Lions answered once more however thanks to a goal from Chris Mueller in the 81st minute, capped off by a converted penalty kick from Nani in the 89th to claim all three points.

Dom Dwyer leads the Lions with three goals in 2019, followed by Chris Mueller, Tesho Akindele and Nani with two apiece. Nani holds the team lead in assists with four, tied for the most in MLS with LAFC’s Carlos Vela.

Real Salt Lake enters Saturday’s contest off a 1-0 defeat in Seattle this past Saturday. A goal from Nicolás Lodeiro in the 18th minute served as the difference in the match for the Sounders, forcing RSL to return home empty handed.

Albert Rusnák leads the Claret and Cobalt with two goals this season, while also sharing the team lead in assists with Sebastian Saucedo and Corey Baird with one.

Following Saturday’s contest, the Lions will return home to face the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday, April 20.

 

MORE COVERAGE AT https://www.orlandocitysc.com/