Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between\u00a0Orlando City (1-3-0, 3 points)\u00a0and\u00a0Nashville SC\u00a0(3-0-1, 10 points) at Geodis Park (6:15 p.m., Apple TV, FS1). This is the first of two scheduled meetings between the Eastern Conference clubs in the 2026 regular season with tonight\u2019s hosts scheduled to make the return trip to Orlando on July 25.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know ahead of the match.<\/p>\n
History<\/p>\n
The Lions are 5-3-4 against Nashville in MLS regular-season matches and 7-5-5 in all competitions. Orlando is 2-1-3 on the road in the regular season against Nashville and 3-2-3 in all competitions in the Music City.<\/p>\n
The most recent meeting between the sides took place on Sept. 20, 2025, with the Lions winning 3-2 at home<\/a>. Martin Ojeda scored two goals two minutes apart to give Orlando a first-half lead, but Hany Mukhtar and Jacob Shaffelburg scored moments before and after halftime, respectively to knot things up. Duncan McGuire\u2019s goal deep in stoppage time lifted the Lions to all three points. Just a few weeks earlier in Nashville, on Aug. 23, things did not go well for the Lions as Nashville SC blasted Orlando 5-1<\/a>. Sam Surridge and Mukhtar netted braces and Jeisson Palacios added a late goal. Luis Muriel scored a consolation goal to spoil the shutout. <\/p>\n These teams faced each other in U.S. Open Cup play on May 21, 2025 with Nashville claiming a 3-2 road win<\/a>. Marco Pasalic provided the Lions with an early lead before an own goal by Rodrigo Schlegel and an Ahmed Qasem goal put Nashville ahead at the break. Ramiro Enrique equalized in the second half, but Wyatt Meyer\u2019s goal knocked Orlando out of the competition.<\/p>\n The teams met at Inter&Co Stadium on Aug. 31, 2024 with the Lions blasting Nashville 3-0<\/a>. Facundo Torres\u2019 brace and an opening goal by Ivan Angulo led Orlando City to the season sweep. Orlando City visited Nashville SC at Geodis Park on July 17, 2024, with the Lions cruising to a 3-0 road win<\/a>. Goals by Cesar Araujo and Enrique sandwiched an Alex Muyl own goal as Orlando City got its fourth consecutive shutout victory over Nashville.<\/p>\n The teams met at the end of the previous season on Nov. 7, 2023 in the best-of-three, first-round playoff series. The Lions got an early goal from Angulo in a 1-0 win<\/a> to sweep the series. Orlando City drew first blood in the series by beating Nashville 1-0<\/a> on Oct. 30, 2023 at Exploria Stadium. Wilder Cartagena\u2019s blast from outside the area provided the game\u2019s only score.<\/p>\n The teams met in the regular season on Oct. 4, 2023 with Orlando City stealing a 1-0 win<\/a> in Music City on McGuire\u2019s goal just before halftime. That was one of only two shot attempts by the Lions all night and the only one on target. Orlando played well defensively and Pedro Gallese didn\u2019t have to make a save as the hosts didn\u2019t put any shots on frame. Nashville visited Orlando on April 1 of 2023 at Exploria Stadium and it was the visitors who made fools of the Lions, as Nashville won, 2-0<\/a>. Fafa Picault and Mukhtar did the damage for Nashville.<\/p>\n The teams did not face each other in regular-season play the year before, meeting only in the U.S. Open Cup in Orlando on June 29, 2022. Mukhtar scored in the second half, and that looked like it would be enough until Schlegel equalized deep in stoppage time. After a scoreless 30 minutes of extra time, the Lions won the ensuing penalty shootout, 6-5<\/a>.<\/p>\n These clubs met in the 2021 postseason in Tennessee, with Orlando scoring first through Daryl Dike\u2019s early goal, but\u00a0Nashville won 3-1<\/a>\u00a0on Nov. 23, 2021 to knock the Lions out of the playoffs. Mukhtar tied it up before halftime on a fluky deflected goal off of Antonio Carlos and then put his team ahead in the second half. Jhonder Cadiz put things away deep in stoppage time.<\/p>\n The teams met in Orlando on Oct. 31, 2021 and\u00a0ended in a 1-1 draw<\/a>\u00a0after referee Allen Chapman\u2019s Halloween Heist chalked off Andres Perea\u2019s apparent stoppage-time winner. The referee\u2019s excuse for overturning the goal was an imagined foul on Dike, who, if anything, was the fouled party. The decision cost the Lions a valuable home playoff match, which instead sent Orlando to Nashville. Mukhtar scored for Nashville to equalize in the second half after Dike\u2019s first-half goal.<\/p>\n The teams met in Nashville on Sept. 29, 2021 with a late rally by the Lions earning the team\u00a0a 2-2 road draw at Nissan Stadium<\/a>. The hosts had taken a 2-0 lead on goals by Mukhtar \u2014 scoring off the rebound of his own saved penalty \u2014 and Randall Leal, but a penalty by Dike and a stoppage-time own goal by Brian Anunga turned the game around. On Aug. 18 of that season, the teams\u00a0finished in another 1-1 draw<\/a>. C.J. Sapong put the hosts ahead in the first half and Carlos leveled the score in the second half. <\/p>\n The teams met on Decision Day of 2020 at Exploria Stadium, with Orlando melting down late, allowing two goals from the 88th minute on, and\u00a0falling 3-2 at home\u00a0on Nov. 8, 2020<\/a> \u2014 the team\u2019s only home loss of the season. Dike and Nani goals sandwiched a strike by Daniel Lovitz, giving the Lions a lead until late. Headers by Mukhtar (in the 88th minute) and Cadiz (in the 93rd minute) turned the game on its head.<\/p>\n In the Lions\u2019 first trip to Nissan Stadium, the teams\u00a0played to a 1-1 draw<\/a>\u00a0on Sept. 2, 2020. Benji Michel put the Lions ahead with a stunner of a goal, but Leal knotted things up and that\u2019s the way the match ended. That 1-1 draw came a week after\u00a0a 3-1 Orlando City win on Aug. 26<\/a> at Exploria Stadium.\u00a0Dave Romney\u00a0had opened the scoring for Nashville, but Orlando scored the last three. Dike scored a brace and Chris Mueller added a goal.<\/p>\n Overview<\/p>\n The Lions are coming off their first win of the season. The 2-1 home victory over CF Montreal<\/a> was far from perfect, but Orlando City needed to stop the bleeding after starting the year 0-3-0 and getting outscored 11-3 and having men sent off in two of those matches. Ojeda has scored in two of the last three games and McGuire is coming off his first goal of the season. The back line has been seemingly patched together with masking tape and gauze, but it at least only allowed a single goal for the first time in 2026 in the last match and that came off a set piece rather than in open play. He didn\u2019t score in the match, but Ivan Angulo helped create both Orlando goals and the Colombian has been perhaps the team\u2019s best player since the second game on.<\/p>\n Orlando City, which will get back suspended goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, is 0-1-0 on the road in 2026, with the only previous away game a 5-0 loss due in no small part to the Canadian getting sent off 16 minutes into the match.<\/p>\n Nashville has yet to taste defeat in 2026 and is coming off an upset of sorts in Concacaf Champions Cup play. Tonight\u2019s hosts went to Inter Miami in the midweek and drew 1-1, going through on the away goals tiebreaker and ousting Lionel Messi and company. While Nashville may have the more tired legs for this matchup, the team will be full of confidence with its 2-0-0 home record and having outscored opponents 8-2 (+6) through four total matches.<\/p>\n Although Orlando City has gotten the better of this series thus far and the matches are usually close, Nashville must be considered heavy favorites with its current run of form. Surridge leads the club with four goals, while Mukhtar has scored twice and assisted on another goal, giving the two Designated Players seven goal contributions on eight goals. Joining them this year is former San Jose Earthquakes star Cristian Espinoza and newcomer Warren Madrigal \u2014 each with a goal and two assists on the year \u2014 giving Nashville its most balanced and lethal attack to date. At the other end, Palacios has paired with Maxwell Woledzi to form a solid central defense in front of emerging goalkeeper Brian Schwake. This is a difficult matchup for the Lions, who will need their best performance and perhaps some tired Nashville legs to come away with their first road points of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cPragmatism and versatility are always\u00a0required\u00a0in this game,\u201d Orlando City interim head coach Martin Perelman said ahead of the match. \u201cCoaches,\u00a0staffs,\u00a0and teams have our ideas, principles,\u00a0methodologies\u00a0and plans, but at the end of the day, this game is beautiful because you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0control it 100%. You need to respect the game. You need to have the capacity to adapt to each game, each\u00a0context\u00a0and each moment.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0trying to build a team with clear ideas that\u00a0represents\u00a0our philosophy, our fans, our people, our\u00a0emotions,\u00a0and our style, and at the same time, has\u00a0the pragmatism,\u00a0versatility,\u00a0and adaptability to solve games. Because at the end of the day,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0here to win, game by game.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lions will be without Robin Jansson (foot), Wilder Cartagena (thigh), and Joran Gerbet (knee), while Eduard Atuesta (thigh), David Brekalo (lower leg), Tyrese Spicer (thigh), and Tiago (lower leg) are listed as questionable. Nashville will be without Chris Applewhite (leg), while Isaiah LeFlore (leg) is questionable.<\/p>\n Match Content<\/p>\n Projected Lineups:<\/p>\n Orlando City (4-4-2)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper:\u00a0Maxime Crepeau.<\/p>\n Defenders:\u00a0Adrian Marin, Iago, David Brekalo, Griffin Dorsey.<\/p>\n Midfielders:\u00a0Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Marco Pasalic.<\/p>\n Forwards: Martin Ojeda, Duncan McGuire.<\/p>\n Nashville SC (4-3-3)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper:\u00a0Brian Schwake.<\/p>\n Defenders:\u00a0Daniel Lovitz, Jack Maher, Jeison Palacios, Andy Najar.<\/p>\n Midfielders: Gaston Brugman, Edvard Tagseth, Patrick Yazbek.<\/p>\n Forwards:\u00a0Edvard Tagseth, Bryan Acosta, Hany Mukhtar.<\/p>\n Referees<\/p>\n REF: Victor Rivas. How to Watch<\/p>\n Match Time:\u00a06:15 p.m.<\/p>\n Venue:\u00a0Geodis Park \u2014 Nashville, TN.<\/p>\n TV\/Live Stream:\u00a0Apple TV, FS1.<\/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 game. Go City!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between\u00a0Orlando City (1-3-0, 3 points)\u00a0and\u00a0Nashville SC\u00a0(3-0-1, 10 points)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-200544","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\/200544","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=200544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
AR1: Jeff Swartzel.
AR2: Walt Heatherly.
4TH: Sergii Demianchuk.
VAR: Kevin Stott.
AVAR: Claudiu Badea.<\/p>\n