Welcome to your match thread for a late night midweek matchup tonight between Orlando City (4-9-2, 14 points) and the San Jose Earthquakes (10-3-2, 32 points) at PayPal Park (10:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the only scheduled meeting between the teams in 2026 and the first time the teams have met since 2024.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know ahead of tonight\u2019s match.<\/p>\n
History<\/p>\n
Orlando City is 3-1-3 in the previous seven MLS meetings with the Quakes since the club joined Major League Soccer in 2015. The Lions got their only away win in the series in the last meeting and enter tonight 1-1-2 on the road against San Jose.<\/p>\n
The teams last met on May 18, 2024, with Jack Lynn coming off the bench to score the game\u2019s only goal. Lynn\u2019s strike in the 89th minute broke the scoreless deadlock and lifted the Lions to a 1-0 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n The teams met in Orlando most recently way back on June 22, 2021, with the Lions beating the Quakes down, 5-0<\/a>. Orlando got things started with an early penalty kick goal by Nani, followed by braces from Benji Michel and Daryl Dike to easily put the game away. The lasting memory from the game is Michel\u2019s celebratory dance wearing a cowboy hat that came out of the stands.<\/p>\n Prior to that Orlando City romp, the last time the teams met was on Aug. 31, 2019 when the Lions got freight trained 3-0<\/a> at Avaya Stadium, giving the Quakes their first win in the series. San Jose\u2019s offense came via a Chris Wondolowski brace and an early opening goal by Magnus Eriksson. Orlando looked flat and weary out of the gate.<\/p>\n The Lions were victorious in Exploria Stadium in the 2018 meeting on April 21, a 3-2 Orlando win<\/a>. It was the first win in the series for either side after three straight draws. Chris Mueller, Sacha Kljestan, and Dom Dwyer gave the Lions a 3-0 lead before Florian Jungwirth pulled two back in the game\u2019s late stages.<\/p>\n The Lions led all of the first three matches in the second half only to see San Jose pull level, with two of those tying goals coming late. In the 2017 meeting, Carlos Rivas finally broke the scoreless tie and gave Orlando City the lead in the 81st minute, but Wondolowski spoiled the Lions\u2019 night with an equalizer two minutes later as the teams drew at Avaya Stadium, 1-1<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2016, the Lions were gut-punched in the 94th minute in an emotional match that ended in\u00a0a 2-2 draw<\/a>. It was the first home match following the Pulse nightclub tragedy and what appeared to be a storybook ending to a cathartic win turned sour on a last-gasp equalizer by\u00a0Shea Salinas.\u00a0Seb Hines\u00a0\u2014 now the Orlando Pride\u2019s head coach \u2014 opened the scoring for Orlando, only to see\u00a0Chad Barrett tie it up. Julio Baptista restored the lead in stoppage time, but Salinas ruined everything.<\/p>\n The two teams also drew in the first meeting,\u00a0a 1-1 affair at Levi\u2019s Stadium<\/a>\u00a0in Santa Clara, with the Lions down to 10 men after Brek Shea was sent off in the first half. Kak\u00e1 and\u00a0Wondolowski\u00a0each scored from the penalty spot four minutes apart in that initial meeting.<\/p>\n Overview<\/p>\n The teams meet tonight to get their post-World Cup portion of the season started. Orlando City has been terrible on the road all season long, keeping only one MLS opponent under two goals all year away from home and allowing five goals twice (at New York City FC and Nashville) and six goals twice (at LAFC and in the team\u2019s most recent match away at FC Cincinnati just before the break). <\/p>\n Orlando City is a putrid 1-6-1 on the road this season, and now the Lions must face the Western Conference co-leaders tonight before coming home to face Supporters\u2019 Shield-leading Nashville SC at home on Saturday. They\u2019ll have to play at least tonight\u2019s game without Martin Ojeda, who is out with a thigh injury sustained some time between his first-half goal a week ago in a friendly against FC Dallas and the time the availability report dropped on Tuesday.<\/p>\n But it isn\u2019t all bad news for the Lions, who should have both Antoine Griezmann and Dike in the lineup. Griezmann was the club\u2019s highly prized and widely publicized summer Designated Player signing, while Dike\u2019s return to Orlando came together more recently, following his departure from West Bromwich Albion. They\u2019ll help the club\u2019s offense, but the attack hasn\u2019t been the issue in 2026 \u2014 it\u2019s been the historically porous defense, which is on pace to shatter the MLS record for goals conceded.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, San Jose is one of the first half of the season\u2019s biggest surprises, as the Quakes have been outstanding in 2026. Scoring 34 goals while conceding just 15, San Jose is among the league leaders in goals scored (tied for third), goals conceded (third), and goal differential (+19, third). <\/p>\n The Earthquakes are 4-2-1 at home and are coming off a 3-1 road win at Portland in their last game prior to the World Cup break. San Jose boasts Golden Boot challenger Preston Judd, who leads the Quakes with 11 goals, adding two assists in his 15 appearances. Ousseni Bouda has chipped in five goals and three assists. Niko Tsakiris leads the team with seven assists to go along with his two goals, but he\u2019s still recovering from a lower body injury and is not available tonight. However, the arrival of Timo Werner (four goals and five assists in just seven games) has truly elevated Bruce Arena\u2019s Quakes, and he\u2019ll need to be one of the main focal points for the Orlando defense.<\/p>\n To have any shot at taking something from this game, the Lions will need to play better road defense than they have all season. Orlando can score goals, but with Ojeda out, Griezmann will need to adapt quickly, and someone other than the team\u2019s leading scorer will need to find the net.<\/p>\n The Lions will play without Ojeda (thigh), Joran Gerbet (knee), Nolan Miller (knee), Colin Guske (international duty), and Clovis Archage (international duty). In addition, Marco Pasalic may or may not have returned to the team after the World Cup. He was not in training Monday, although interim head coach Martin Perelman said he expected the Croatian back soon. The Earthquakes will be without Nonso Adimabua (lower body), former Lion Earl Edwards Jr. (lower body), DeJuan Jones (lower body), and Tsakiris (you guessed it, lower body\u2026come on, San Jose).<\/p>\n Match Content<\/p>\n Projected Lineups:<\/p>\n Orlando City (4-4-2)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper:\u00a0Maxime Crepeau.<\/p>\n Defenders: Adrian Marin, David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Griffin Dorsey.<\/p>\n Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Wilder Cartagena, Eduard Atuesta.<\/p>\n Forwards: Justin Ellis, Antoine Griezmann.<\/p>\n San Jose Earthquakes (4-2-3-1)<\/p>\n Goalkeeper:\u00a0Angus Gunn.<\/p>\n Defenders:\u00a0Jamar Ricketts, Reid Roberts, Daniel Munie, Benjamin Kikanovic.<\/p>\n Defensive Midfielders: Beau Lerouox, Ronaldo Vieira.<\/p>\n Attacking Midfielders: Timo Werner, Nick Fernandez, Ousseni Bouda.<\/p>\n Forwards: Preston Judd.<\/p>\n Referees<\/p>\n REF: Elijio Arreguin. How to Watch<\/p>\n Match Time:\u00a010:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Venue:\u00a0PayPal Park \u2014 San Jose, CA.<\/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 thread for a late night midweek matchup tonight between Orlando City (4-9-2, 14 points)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-348744","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\/348744","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=348744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
AR1: Adam Wienckowski.
AR2: Mike Nickerson.
4TH: Timothy Ford.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki.<\/p>\n