{"id":268384,"date":"2026-05-12T19:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T19:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/268384\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T19:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T19:15:08","slug":"orlando-city-aims-to-earn-points-starting-with-union-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/268384\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando City aims to earn points, starting with Union match"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orlando City returns home Wednesday for the first time in four matches, looking to rebound from a late stoppage-time loss at CF Montreal<\/a> and secure critical points before the upcoming World Cup\u00a0 break.<\/p>\n

The Lions (3-8-1, 10 points) host the Philadelphia Union (1-8-3, 6 points) at Inter&Co Stadium on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We are) very happy to come back home. We have a bunch of games in a row, so we enjoy playing at home,\u201d Orlando interim head coach Mart\u00edn Perelman said. \u201c(We are) preparing the game with the responsibility that we always have but again, really happy to come back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlando held Montreal scoreless through 90 minutes before Robin Jansson conceded a decisive penalty in stoppage time. The offense struggled to produce, as Montreal outshot the Lions 23-8 and held an 11-3 edge in corners. Orlando rarely threatened the net, failing to replicate the four-goal output from the previous week against Inter Miami.<\/p>\n

The attacking pairing of Mart\u00edn Ojeda and Justin Ellis remains Orlando\u2019s focal point. Ellis created two chances against Montreal, a team-high for the Lions, and will look to press a Union defense that has conceded 19 goals in 12 matches this season.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia arrives amid a difficult start to the season. The reigning Supporters\u2019 Shield winners have won just once in 12 matches, struggling to finish chances following offseason roster turnover. While Bradley Carnell\u2019s pressing system remains, the Union are still searching for consistency, providing Orlando an opening to capitalize on home turf.<\/p>\n

With the World Cup break looming, Orlando has just three league games remaining before the pause. A win on Wednesday could push the Lions as high as 11th in the East, and forward Duncan McGuire noted Perelman has the squad focused on stockpiling points over the next 10 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Mart\u00edn said to us, and we all agree with him, is we just want to come out of here with points. We want to get as many points as we can before the summer break,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cObviously a really slow start to the season. But I think if we ended on a good stretch, we can carry that momentum into the second half of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the midweek clash against Philadelphia, Orlando hosts Atlanta United on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando City returns home Wednesday for the first time in four matches, looking to rebound from a late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,1335,139,4788,141,140,2062,76046,110],"class_list":["post-268384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-soccer","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268384","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=268384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}