Welcome to your match preview and live thread for a midweek matchup between Orlando City (1-6-1, 4 points) and Charlotte FC (4-2-2, 14 points) at Inter&Co Stadium (7:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the first of two games on the slate between the Eastern Conference rivals in 2026, with the return fixture in Charlotte scheduled for Oct. 31.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know ahead of the match.<\/p>\n
History<\/p>\n
The Lions are 4-1-3 in the regular-season series and 6-3-3 in all competitions against Charlotte. Orlando City is 3-1-0 at home in the regular season and 5-1-0 in the City Beautiful across all competitions against the North Carolina-based side. These games are usually close, with all previous non-draws decided by one or two goals.<\/p>\n
The teams last met on July 5, 2025, playing to a 2-2 draw<\/a> at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. The hosts took a 2-0 lead on goals by Pep Biel and Bill Tuiloma, but Ramiro Enrique and Marco Pasalic brought the Lions back to earn a point on the road.<\/p>\n Earlier in the 2025 campaign, the teams met on May 14 in Orlando, with Luis Muriel and Martin Ojeda giving the Lions a 2-0 lead inside the game\u2019s first 25 minutes. Wilfried Zaha pulled the visitors within a goal before the break, making for a tight second half, but Enrique\u2019s late goal put the game to bed in Orlando City\u2019s 3-1 home win<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prior to 2025, the teams met in the first round of the 2024 MLS Cup playoffs. Orlando City claimed two of the three matches, winning the first outright, dropping the second on penalties after a late goal was called offside in the buildup, and advancing after a penalty shootout win following the third match of the best-of-three series.<\/p>\n On Nov. 9, 2024, Facundo Torres\u2019 penalty late in stoppage time canceled out a Karol Swiderski goal and sent the deciding third match to penalties with a 1-1 score. Pedro Gallese made two saves and Orlando City won the shootout 4-1<\/a>, advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n The teams played eight days before that in Charlotte, without either side scoring in normal time, as Torres\u2019 strike was disallowed for offside on Nico Lodeiro on Muriel\u2019s through ball. Charlotte won the ensuing penalty shootout 3-1 after the scoreless draw<\/a> to tie the series at 1-1. That followed Orlando City\u2019s 2-0 home win<\/a> the previous Sunday. Torres and Ojeda scored the goals on either side of halftime to lead the Lions to the Game 1 win. It was the first time Orlando scored more than one goal in an MLS playoff game.<\/p>\n The teams met a month and a half prior to their first playoff meeting on Sept. 18 in Orlando. The Lions got second-half goals from Torres and Duncan McGuire to win 2-0<\/a>, claiming the first multiple-goal win in the series. The teams also met on June 19, 2024, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte and played to a 2-2 draw<\/a>. The hosts struck first with an early Kerwin Vargas goal and the Lions pulled one back through McGuire in the second half. But despite Charlotte going down a man on Scott Arfield\u2019s red card, Brandt Bronico restored the hosts\u2019 lead shortly after McGuire\u2019s strike. Torres struck back moments later but the Lions could not find a winner on the road.<\/p>\n The previous match was also a draw at Bank of America Stadium, finishing 1-1 on Aug. 30, 2023<\/a>. Enzo Copetti\u2019s late penalty appeared to wrap things up for the hosts on a rainy night in Charlotte, but Ojeda\u2019s seeing-eye set piece equalized just before stoppage time as the teams split the points.<\/p>\n Charlotte claimed a 1-0 \u201chome\u201d victory in U.S. Open Cup play<\/a> on May 9 of that year. That game took place at Mecklenburg County Sportsplex\u00a0in Matthews, NC, rather than at the club\u2019s regular stadium. The first matchup of the 2023 season didn\u2019t go any better for Orlando City, finishing as a 2-1 Charlotte win<\/a> at Exploria Stadium on March 18. Copetti and Vargas put Charlotte up 2-0 by halftime. Ojeda pulled one back, but the Lions were wasteful in front of goal and couldn\u2019t pull level.<\/p>\n In 2022, the teams met at Bank of America Stadium on Aug. 21. After a scoreless first half, Ercan Kara put the Lions ahead on the road, only to see McKinze Gaines equalize just four minutes later. Tesho Akindele\u2019s late goal lifted Orlando to a 2-1 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n Orlando City won the first-ever meeting between the sides on April 30, 2022, at Exploria Stadium. Ruan scored the opening goal and set up Torres on the counter for the second as the Lions took a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Christian Fuchs scored from the spot after Rodrigo Schlegel was called for a foul in the box in the second half, but that was as close as Charlotte got in what was ultimately a 2-1 Orlando victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n Overview<\/p>\n Orlando City enters the match adrift in 2026, having won only one time in eight league matches to start the season \u2014 easily the worst start to any season in OCSC history. The Lions have managed only one draw to go with the win and are coming off a 1-0 home loss to the Houston Dynamo,<\/a> squandering a handful of good scoring chances and giving up a late goal to a team that had previously not won on the road in 2026 and had never won in Orlando. The lads in purple are just 1-3-0 at home this season and Orlando City has scored just six goals on the year while conceding a league-worst 25. While the defense has been better the last couple of games since captain Robin Jansson returned, those came against teams not high in the standings.<\/p>\n Charlotte is 1-1-1 on the road this season after beating New York City FC at Citi Field \u2014 the Pigeons\u2019 other baseball stadium \u2014 on Saturday. Tonight\u2019s visitors have won four of their last five games in all competitions. Biel is off to a hot start with four goals and three assists, while Zaha has added two goals and four assists. Idan Toklomati and Archie Goodwin have three goals apiece, giving Charlotte three players with more goals than Orlando co-leaders Martin Ojeda and Marco Pasalic, who have each scored twice. Kristijan Kahlina is one of the league\u2019s top goalkeepers, and Orlando City won\u2019t have an easy time against the club that has conceded the fourth-fewest goals in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n Orlando City will need to be patient to avoid giving up dangerous counterattacks, as they\u2019ve struggled to defend them all year, but the Lions must also try to build a volume of shots against a stout defense led by Kahlina and usually anchored by USMNT center back Tim Ream. However, Ream will miss the match per the latest MLS availability report with a lower body injury.<\/p>\n \u201cI think both teams\u00a0know each other\u00a0really well. They have done\u00a0a good job\u00a0over the last year,\u201d Orlando City interim head coach Martin Perelman said ahead of the match. \u201cWe respect them like we respect every opponent, and we will have our plan and our strategy. We will be at home with the energy and attitude we want to have.\u00a0Hopefully\u00a0we can give the fans some joy and happiness\u00a0with\u00a0a result, for our people and for us as well, because we are the first ones who need and want to win.\u00a0Hopefully\u00a0we can do it this game, but the attitude will be there.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lions will be without Wilder Cartagena (thigh), Griffin Dorsey (thigh), Joran Gerbet (knee), Match Content<\/p>\n Projected Lineups<\/p>\n Orlando City (4-4-2)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper:\u00a0Maxime Crepeau.<\/p>\n Defenders:\u00a0Adrian Marin, Robin Jansson, Iago, Zakaria Taifi.<\/p>\n Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Luis Otavio, Tyrese Spicer.<\/p>\n Forwards: Martin Ojeda, Tiago.<\/p>\n Charlotte FC (4-3-3)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper: Kristijan Kahlina.<\/p>\n Defenders: Harry Toffolo, Morrison Agyemang, Andrew Privett, Nathan Byrne.<\/p>\n Midfielders: Pep Biel, Ashley Westwood, Brandt Bronico.<\/p>\n Forwards: Wilfried Zaha, Idan Toklomati, Rodolfo Aloko.<\/p>\n Referees<\/p>\n REF: Filip Dujic. How to Watch<\/p>\n Match Time:\u00a07:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Venue:\u00a0Inter&Co Stadium\u00a0 \u2014 Orlando.<\/p>\n TV\/Live Stream:\u00a0Apple 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 preview and live thread for a midweek matchup between Orlando City (1-6-1, 4 points)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-242010","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\/242010","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=242010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Duncan McGuire (lower leg), and Pasalic (thigh). Eduard Atuesta (shoulder) and David Brekalo (lower Leg) are listed as questionable. Charlotte will be without Ream (lower body), while Henry Kessler (lower body) is questionable.<\/p>\n
AR1: Corey Rockwell.
AR2: Justin Howard.
4TH: Lorenzo Hernandez.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: Joshua Patlak.<\/p>\n