dropping the season opener 2-1 to the Red Bulls last week.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a derby we want to win, that is for sure. And then the other thing as well is that we want to bounce back from the loss at home against New York,\u201d Orlando goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau said. \u201cThe team has been in a great mentality and a great work ethic this week, so we want to carry that into Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions struggled mightily in the first half of the season opener, but the introduction of rookie defender Nolan Miller at halftime helped shore things up at the back. Orlando\u2019s defense needs to be better organized against a Miami side that boasts some serious attacking talent.<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi is the headliner, but players such as German Berterame and Telasco Segovia are also dangerous for the defending champs. Both teams are motivated to move past their opening week losses, but Orlando feels prepared for the high-stakes matchup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a derby as the second game of the season, the stakes are high. And yes, of course, they are a champion, because they won last year,\u201d Crepeau added. \u201cThe fact that [this] will be a game that we want to win, and they want to win, we\u2019re both 0-1, and we know that points early in the season are very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orlando needs to see more from its attacking players, and Miami\u2019s leaky defense provides an excellent chance for them to deliver. The Herons play a high line that often leaves them exposed, creating space for players like Martin Ojeda and Duncan McGuire to take advantage of. Tiago also scored in his debut against New York as a second-half substitute, and he could be a factor again this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando City is back in action on Sunday as the Lions look to earn their first win of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,1335,139,4788,141,140,2062,76046,110],"class_list":["post-173099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-soccer","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}