Orlando City settled for a 1-1 draw against Atlanta United on Saturday in MLS play. The Lions get an immediate rematch, hosting their regional rivals in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The Lions kick off against Atlanta United at Inter&Co Stadium at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always information, it\u2019s useful, and some things probably are going to change from the side,\u201d Orlando interim head coach Mart\u00edn Perelman said. \u201cWe had previous experience in situations like this in the playoffs, so it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orlando fielded a full-strength lineup against Atlanta on Saturday, while the visitors rested a few key players. Despite the rotation, the quick turnaround provides both sides with plenty of tactical familiarity heading into the knockout clash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know how we play now, but it\u2019s good that we can use information from the last game against the same opponent,\u201d Orlando forward Justin Ellis said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions have struggled to close out matches recently, conceding five goals after the 70th minute over their last three matches. Against Atlanta on Saturday, United\u2019s Jay Fortune scored in the 86th minute to knot the score after the Lions had led since Griffin Dorsey\u2019s goal in the 18th minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a team in a transitional process, but so far, I think we are doing a really good job. We grew in a lot of aspects and phases of the game,\u201d Perelman added. \u201cOf course, we don\u2019t like to concede goals at any moment of the game, but at the end of the day, sometimes it\u2019s the game as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lingering concern for Orlando is the status of captain Robin Jansson. The center back exited Saturday\u2019s match at halftime with an injury, and his status for Tuesday has not been confirmed. Orlando\u2019s defense has struggled to maintain its shape this season during Jansson\u2019s absences.<\/p>\n
Orlando will lean heavily on attackers Mart\u00edn Ojeda and Ellis to advance. Ojeda leads the team with nine goals in league play this season, but is still searching for his first tally in the U.S. Open Cup.<\/p>\n
The other quarterfinal match Tuesday is the Houston Dynamo at St. Louis City SC. Wednesday\u2019s quarterfinal matches are New York City FC at the Columbus Crew and the San Jose Earthquakes at the Colorado Rapids.<\/p>\n
Following the cup match, Orlando City (4-8-2, 14 points) travels to face Eastern Conference foe FC Cincinnati (4-5-5, 17 points) on Saturday for its final league match before the World Cup break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando City settled for a 1-1 draw against Atlanta United on Saturday in MLS play. The Lions get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275484,"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-275483","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\/275483","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=275483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}