Orlando City heads south to Miami on Saturday, riding the momentum of a 4-3 victory over the New England Revolution in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16.<\/p>\n
The Lions (2-7-1, 7 points) take on Inter Miami (5-1-4, 19 points) at Nu Stadium at 7:15 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey changed their structure the last two games. But\u2026 we know them. They know us,\u201d Orlando interim head coach Mart\u00edn Perelman said. \u201cWe are preparing the game, especially preparing our team, which is always our priority, and looking forward to [having] a good game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami boasts a potent attack, led by Lionel Messi\u2019s seven goals. Germ\u00e1n Berterame has added three goals and an assist, and the Herons have scored 19 times in 10 matches. Inter Miami defeated Orlando 4-2 at Inter&Co Stadium in March and possesses the firepower to replicate that result.<\/p>\n
One bright spot for the Lions in recent weeks is homegrown player Justin Ellis. Ellis has scored twice and added two assists in his last three games across all competitions. The Wellington native spent time in the Inter Miami youth setup and now returns south looking to help Orlando secure a road result.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no shying away from this game. We all know in the club how big this game is, of how big this week is,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cWe just have to show out and try to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defensively, Miami has conceded 15 goals, showing vulnerability along the back line. Orlando\u2019s attacking trio of Ellis, Mart\u00edn Ojeda and Tiago has combined for six of the team\u2019s 12 goals this season, providing the Lions with the tools to exploit those gaps.<\/p>\n
Inter Miami has yet to win a match in three outings at its newly opened Nu Stadium. The Herons have drawn all three games and, crucially for Orlando, conceded the opening goal each time. To secure three points, Orlando must strike early and prevent Miami from dictating the tempo.<\/p>\n
Following the trip to Miami, Orlando travels to take on CF Montreal on May 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando City heads south to Miami on Saturday, riding the momentum of a 4-3 victory over the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28,123,125,124,1335,4788,2062,76046,110],"class_list":["post-254215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-florida","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-soccer","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254215","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=254215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}