{"id":222846,"date":"2026-04-08T02:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222846\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T02:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:18:14","slug":"columbus-crew-vs-orlando-city-everything-to-know-for-sunday-night-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222846\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Crew vs. Orlando City: Everything to know for Sunday Night Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eastern Conference foes clash when the Columbus Crew<\/a> host Orlando City<\/a> for Matchday 7’s Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire.<\/p>\n

11th in Eastern Conference
\n5 points, 1W-3L-2D<\/p>\n

Columbus earned their first win under head coach Henrik Rydstr\u00f6m last weekend, cruising to a 3-1 victory<\/a> at Atlanta United<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wessam Abou Ali<\/a> netted a second-half brace, while USMNT<\/a> defender Max Arfsten<\/a> tallied 1g\/1a in the road match.<\/p>\n

Those three points will go a long way for Rydstrom, who was hired during the offseason after Wilfried Nancy departed to lead Scottish powerhouse Celtic FC.<\/p>\n

Should Columbus reach a two-game winning streak, it’d mark their first triumph at home under Rydstrom. Previously, they settled for a 0-0 draw<\/a> with Chicago Fire FC<\/a> and suffered a 1-0 loss<\/a> against Nashville SC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Max Arfsten: The 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> hopeful featured for the United States during the March international window. He’s earned regular call-ups under head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
\nWessam Abou Ali: The Palestine international striker is in the way-early Golden Boot presented by Audi hunt with 5g\/1a.
\nDiego Rossi: Will Rossi<\/a> get back on the scoresheet? The Uruguayan forward has been held in check in four straight games.
\nSteven Moreira: Moreira<\/a> is roughly two months away from representing Cape Verde at their first-ever World Cup. Anticipation is building for the 2024 MLS Defender of the Year.\u00a0
\nAndr\u00e9 Gomes: In his three starts for Columbus, Gomes<\/a> has shown the experience you’d expect from a veteran Portuguese international with Premier League, Ligue 1 and LaLiga experience.<\/p>\n

How does that saying go again? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.<\/p>\n

14th in Eastern Conference
\n3 points, 1W-5L-0D<\/p>\n

Orlando are chasing a turnaround after losing their last three road matches by a combined 16-0 score.<\/p>\n

That first defeat, a 5-0 setback<\/a> at New York City<\/a> FC in early March, preceded the club mutually parting ways with head coach\u00a0Oscar Pareja<\/a> and naming Mart\u00edn Perelman as interim head coach.<\/p>\n

While the Lions rebounded in Perelman’s first match in charge, earning a 2-1 win<\/a> over CF Montr\u00e9al<\/a>, they’ve since suffered a 5-0 loss<\/a> at Nashville SC<\/a> before the March international break and a 6-0 defeat<\/a> at LAFC<\/a> last weekend.<\/p>\n

Did those Nashville and LAFC results come against early Supporters’ Shield contenders? Yes. But Orlando have conceded a league-high 23 goals, putting them on pace to smash the MLS single-season record for goals against.<\/p>\n

Looming over all this is Antoine Griezmann<\/a>‘s July arrival from LaLiga side Atl\u00e9tico Madrid. Significant improvements are needed before the French legend formally joins their attack.<\/p>\n

Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107: The left-footed winger, alongside FC Dallas<\/a> striker Petar Musa<\/a>, hopes to represent Croatia at this summer’s World Cup.\u00a0\u00a0
\nMart\u00edn Ojeda: The Argentine attacker has a team-best two goals this season. He set a club record for single-season goal contributions (39) last year.
\nMaxime Cr\u00e9peau: Cr\u00e9peau<\/a> is jockeying with Inter Miami CF<\/a>‘s Dayne St. Clair<\/a> for Canada<\/a>‘s starting goalkeeper job at the 2026 World Cup.\u00a0\u00a0
\nBraian Ojeda: It’s still early days in Orlando for the Paraguay international, who’s eyeing a World Cup trip. He spent 2022-25 with Real Salt Lake<\/a>.\u00a0
\nDavid Brekalo: Amid all the changes in Orlando, the Slovenian international is one of the team’s most experienced defenders.<\/p>\n

Is Griffin Dorsey<\/a> (lower back) healthy enough to return to the starting XI? What about Robin Jansson<\/a> (foot)? Those defenders would give the Lions a major boost.<\/p>\n

Few strikers in MLS are in better form than Columbus’ Wessam Abou Ali. He faces an Orlando defense that had no answers for LAFC’s Denis Bouanga<\/a> and Son Heung-Min<\/a> last weekend. Does another Abou Ali brace (or even a hat trick) await on Matchday 7?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eastern Conference foes clash when the Columbus Crew host Orlando City for Matchday 7’s Sunday Night Soccer presented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100891,17145,139,4788,141,140,76891,4959,80458],"class_list":{"0":"post-222846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-clbvsorl-04-12-2026","9":"tag-columbus-crew","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-city-sc","12":"tag-orlando-headlines","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-priority-match","15":"tag-sendtonews","16":"tag-sunday-night-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222846","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=222846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}