ORLANDO, Fla. (Oct. 19, 2018) - Orlando City SC (7-21-4, 25 points) will host Columbus Crew SC (13-10-9, 48 points) in its 2018 home finale on Sunday, Oct. 21. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. ET at Orlando City Stadium.
The match will be locally televised on TV27 and YouTube TV. It will also be transmitted in English on Real Radio 104.1 FM and in Spanish on La Nueva 990 AM.
“[I expect] a very tough game. They’ve got great forward movement, great understanding of where space is,” Lions head coach James O’Connor said. “They’ve got some good players that can cause you a lot of problems. For us it’s making sure we’re aware of the areas that they will try to play in, some of the movements they do. And then equally try to nullify that as best we can and try to give them some problems when we have the ball.”
This is the second and final meeting of the season between these teams. On July 21, Crew SC equalized on a controversial penalty kick in the 88th minute before Wil Trapp blasted the winner in stoppage time.
In their last match, the Lions lost 2-1 to Seattle Sounders FC. Dom Dwyer scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season as Scott Sutter and Chris Mueller picked up assists.
All-Star midfielder Yoshimar Yotún (Peru) and defenders Amro Tarek (Egypt) and Mohamed El-Munir (Libya) will be available for selection after returning from national team duty.
Columbus enters the match following Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Montreal. Crew SC is currently in fifth place in the Eastern Conference and can clinch a playoff berth with a win.
Gyasi Zardes leads Columbus with 16 goals, while Federico Higuain has eight assists.
After the match, Orlando City SC and Columbus Crew will partner to host a Special Olympics 7-v-7 Unified Sports soccer match between the Orlando City Unified Team and the Columbus Crew Unified Team in partnership with Major League Soccer, ESPN and MLS WORKS. The organizations are working together to leverage the power of sports to promote an environment of social inclusion and acceptance, by uniting people with and without intellectual disabilities through Special Olympics Unified Sports. The match will consist of two 20-minute halves of 7-v-7 soccer, with three Unified partner athletes joining four Special Olympians.
