Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City (0-3-0, 0 points) and CF Montreal (1-2-0, 3 points) at Inter&Co Stadium (7:30 p.m., Apple TV). It\u2019s the first of two scheduled meetings between the Eastern Conference rivals in 2026, with the Lions set to make the return trip to the Great White North on May 9.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know ahead of the match.<\/p>\n
History<\/p>\n
The Lions are 8-9-7 against Montreal in the all-time regular-season series and 10-10-7 in all competitions since they joined MLS. OCSC is 4-4-4 in home MLS games against Montreal and 6-4-4 in matchups held in the greater Orlando area \u2014 this includes wins in Leagues Cup and the MLS is Back Tournament knockout rounds.<\/p>\n
The most recent meeting was a 1-1 draw in Orlando on July 12, 2025<\/a>. Martin Ojeda gave the Lions a lead that appeared set to hold up, but Rodrigo Schlegel\u2019s foul in the box on Prince Owusu allowed the Montreal forward to level the match late from the spot. That was the second of two matches that failed to find a winner last year. The teams played to a scoreless draw in Montreal<\/a> on April 19. The Lions\u2019 efforts at bringing home a road win took a hit in the second half when Rafael Santos was sent off.<\/p>\n The teams met in Orlando in the 2024 Leagues Cup competition on July 26, with the Lions running rampant in a 4-1 home victory<\/a>. Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, Facundo Torres, Ramiro Enrique, and Ojeda staked Orlando to a 4-0 lead. Josef Martinez scored for Montreal, although his bid for a brace was denied when Pedro Gallese stopped his penalty kick attempt.<\/p>\n The two sides met in Montreal on April 20, 2024 trading goals in a 2-2 draw at Stade Saputo<\/a>. Mason Toye opened the scoring early, but Torres equalized from the spot a few minutes later. Ariel Lassiter appeared to win it late in normal time for the hosts, but Ivan Angulo struck in stoppage time to earn Orlando City a road point. These teams opened the 2024 season against each other in Orlando and played to a 0-0 draw<\/a>. The Lions dominated the stat sheet but had a goal waved off for offside and simply weren\u2019t lethal enough.<\/p>\n The teams met twice in 2023, completing the season series on Sept. 30, 2023, with Orlando winning 3-0<\/a> in dominant fashion. Jonathan Sirois\u2019 own goal opened the scoring, and Thorhallsson and Torres added strikes for Orlando City. That was a good measure of revenge for OCSC, after Montreal defeated Orlando City 2-0<\/a> on May 6 at Stade Saputo. A Robin Jansson own goal got Montreal started in the second half and Romell Quioto added a second goal four minutes later.<\/p>\n These two sides played their biggest game against each other in the 2022 MLS playoffs, with CF Montreal knocking Orlando City out of the postseason by a 2-0 scoreline<\/a> on Oct. 16, with goals by Ismael Kone and Djordje Mihailovic \u2014 the latter coming deep in stoppage time from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n Each team won at home in the two-game, regular-season series in 2022, with Montreal thumping Orlando 4-1<\/a> on May 7. Joel Waterman, Mihailovic, Joaquin Torres, and Zachary Brault-Guillard did the damage on the scoreboard and Orlando City managed just two shot attempts, with Joao Moutinho\u2019s goal on a set piece spoling the shutout. Orlando City did not have either starting center back for that match, and it showed. The teams also met on opening day of the 2022 season, when Orlando City captured a 2-0 home win<\/a> behind second-half goals from Alexandre Pato and Benji Michel.<\/p>\n In 2021, the teams met in Montreal with the Lions earning a 2-0 road victory<\/a> on Decision Day to clinch a playoff spot. Sebas Mendez and Daryl Dike provided the goals. That season\u2019s matchup in Orlando came on Oct. 20, 2021, with the visitors managing a 1-1 draw<\/a>. Chris Mueller struck for the Lions just before halftime, but Rudy Camacho answered on a corner kick header shortly after the restart. The first meeting of 2021 took place Sept. 15 in Orlando with the Lions falling 4-2<\/a> and finishing the game with just nine men after both Nani and Andres Perea were sent off. Quioto led Montreal\u00a0with a goal and two assists. Mathieu Choiniere and Quioto put Montreal up 2-0, but despite already being down one man, Jansson and Ruan tied things up. The visitors got two more from Lassi Lappalainen and Sunusi Ibrahim.<\/p>\n The teams met at Red Bull Arena in late 2020, as the team then known as the Montreal Impact played home games in New Jersey due to the pandemic. Orlando City got a Dike goal in the 39th minute to win 1-0 on Nov. 1, 2020<\/a>. It was the second meeting of the 2020 season, with Orlando also beating Montreal 1-0 in the MLS is Back Tournament<\/a> knockout rounds on July 25 to advance to the quarterfinals. Tesho Akindele scored the game\u2019s only goal on a Montreal defensive mistake.<\/p>\n Orlando City snapped a six-game winless streak against Montreal (0-5-1) in MLS regular-season play dating back to 2016 when the Lions put the Impact to the sword in a 3-0 drubbing at Stade Saputo<\/a> on June 1, 2019. Nani (penalty), Akindele, and Will Johnson supplied the offense that day. The Lions fell 3-1 at Exploria Stadium back on March 16<\/a>, 2019, and Ignacio Piatti was a big reason why, scoring his ninth and 10th career goals against Orlando, adding to a strike by Orji Okwonkwo. Dom Dwyer added a cosmetic goal late for Orlando City to spoil the clean sheet.<\/p>\n Montreal did not allow a goal against the Lions in 2018, sweeping the two-game set from Orlando, and the Impact shut out Orlando City in three of the six meetings in that 5-0-1 run. The lone draw in that time frame was a 3-3 shootout in Orlando in 2017<\/a>, in which the Impact led deep in stoppage time, only to see Jonathan Spector\u2019s well-placed header steal the Lions a point.<\/p>\n Orlando won the first two meetings in 2016 by a combined score of 6-2. The teams split three meetings in 2015, with each going 1-1-1.<\/p>\n Overview<\/p>\n Orlando City is a team in turmoil entering tonight\u2019s match, having parted ways with longtime head coach Oscar Pareja in the midweek after just three games into his seventh season. The club\u2019s winningest coach of all time seems to have been let go, to be replaced on an interim basis by assistant Martin Perelman despite no plan in place for his succession per a press conference with Orlando City General Manager and Sporting Director Ricardo Moreira, who made it clear the club is going to be in an evaluation phase.<\/p>\n \u201cFor now, the focus is to support the team and for Martin to achieve results. Then we\u2019ll assess what needs to be assessed in due time,\u201d Moreira said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a coaching search, I would assume that depending on how things go, Martin will be considered, but that\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to assess in due time.\u201d<\/p>\n While the words \u201cif there\u2019s a coaching search\u201d will not likely bring peace to any Orlando City fan, that\u2019s where the club is right now. <\/p>\n Orlando City is 0-3-0 for the first time ever (0-2-0 at home) and is using a makeshift back line that has been abused by every team it\u2019s played while captain Robin Jansson recovers from foot surgery. The Lions will play tonight\u2019s match without starting goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, who made a below-rookie-level mistake in handling the ball outside the box to deny a goal-scoring opportunity a week ago and was sent off.<\/p>\n Montreal hasn\u2019t fared much better than Orlando, but tonight\u2019s visitors did manage to pick up their first win of the year last weekend at the New York Red Bulls \u2014 the team that started the Lions\u2019 three-game skid on opening day. CF Montreal has yet to play at home this season, so the 1-2-0 start on the road is not necessarily a killer, but it\u2019s not ideal either.<\/p>\n Midfielder Wikelman Carmona leads Montreal with two goals on the season, and both came at the Red Bulls, which is why he is the reigning MLS Player of the Matchday, making him the first to win the award this season in a week in which he did not play Orlando City. Owusu has the team\u2019s other goal.<\/p>\n To get the win tonight, Orlando\u2019s defense must show up. The OCSC offense has scored three goals in the 194 minutes the Lions have played with 11 men this season. If the defense in front of backup goalkeeper Javier Otero can somehow help him keep a clean sheet, this is a match Orlando City can win. Otherwise, it could be another ugly, lopsided loss. Perhaps the team will get a jolt from the shock of losing Pareja so early in the year. But it\u2019s not clear how Perelman\u2019s more attack-minded style will suit a team that should absolutely not put its back line under pressure on counterattacks. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0not here to\u00a0wait\u00a0and the club\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0want me here to wait. This club deserves to always prepare the team to win,\u00a0succeed,\u00a0and continue the pathway we have built,\u201d Perelman said ahead of the match. \u201cThe season has already started, but MLS is long. I know MLS well. We know how to manage the regular\u00a0season\u00a0and we will be ready for the playoffs too. We are here to work. We are here to make our people, our\u00a0fans,\u00a0and our community proud of this team and to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n Orlando City will be without Jansson (foot), Joran Gerbet (knee), Wilder Cartagena (thigh), and Crepeau (suspension), while Tiago (lower leg) is questionable. Montreal will be without Fabian Herbers (lower body) and Josh-Duc Nteziryayo (lower body).<\/p>\n Match Content<\/p>\n Projected Lineups:<\/p>\n Orlando City (4-4-2)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper:\u00a0Javier Otero.<\/p>\n Defenders: Adrian Marin, Nolan Miller, David Brekalo, Griffin Dorsey.<\/p>\n Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Marco Pasalic.<\/p>\n Forwards: Martin Ojeda, Duncan McGuire.<\/p>\n CF Montreal (5-4-1)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper: Thomas Gillier.<\/p>\n Defenders: Luca Petrasso, Brayan Vera, Efrain Morales, Tomas Aviles, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.<\/p>\n Midfielders: Wikelman Carmona, Matty Longstaff, Victor Loturi, Ivan Jaime.<\/p>\n Forward: Prince Owusu.<\/p>\n Referees:<\/p>\n REF: Jair Marrufo. How to Watch<\/p>\n Match Time:\u00a07:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Venue:\u00a0Inter&Co Stadium \u2014 Orlando.<\/p>\n TV\/Live Stream: Apple TV.<\/p>\n Radio:\u00a0AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English); Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish), Nossa R\u00e1dio 1160 AM-WRLZ (Portuguese).<\/p>\n Social Media:\u00a0For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at\u00a0@themaneland.bsky.social<\/a>\u00a0or follow Orlando City\u2019s\u00a0official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC<\/a>) feed.<\/p>\n Enjoy the match. Go City!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City (0-3-0, 0 points) and CF…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-191573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191573","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=191573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
AR1: Adam Garner.
AR2: Gianni Facchini.
4TH: Tori Penso.
VAR: Daniel Radford.
AVAR: Christian Clerc.<\/p>\n