ORLANDO, Fla. (July 20, 2019) - Orlando City SC (7-9-5, 26 points) returns home to host the New York Red Bulls (9-8-4, 31 points) on Sunday, July 21. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET at Exploria Stadium.
The match will be nationally televised on FS1 while also being broadcast locally on FM 96.9 The Game in English and La Nueva 990 AM in Spanish.
“The Red Bulls are obviously a very good team. They have a philosophy that they’ve stuck to over the years, so we’ll expect high pressure, a very tough opponent,” Head Coach James O’Connor said. “Again, we’ll try to make sure we’re at our best and try to make sure the players recover and rest. Obviously a long flight back and we’re straight into it again, so I think we just need to be mindful of the type of game that we’re going to get and then we make sure that we do the things that we need to do to try to get a result against them.”
The Lions face yet another quick turnaround, entering Sunday’s match coming off a 1-1 draw at Portland on Thursday. Santiago Patiño opened the scoring in the match, finding the back of the net in the 44th minute for his second finish of the season. Jeremy Ebobisse answered in the 82nd to level the match, forcing the two sides to split the points on the evening.
Nani leads the Lions with eight goals and seven assists this season, followed by Tesho Akindele with six finishes in 2019.
The Red Bulls enter Sunday’s contest following a 3-1 loss at Toronto on Wednesday. The Reds jumped out to a 2-0 lead, with Jozy Alitdore scoring in the sixth minute and Alejandro Pozuelo converting from the penalty spot 20 minutes later. Tom Barlow cut Toronto’s lead in half in the 63rd, but Ashtone Morgan added another for the home side in the 72nd to give them a 3-1 victory.
Daniel Royer leads New York with seven goals this season, followed by Brian White with six. Royer also holds the team lead in assists with seven.
Sunday’s match will be the second between the two clubs this season, with the Lions taking a 1-0 victory at Red Bull Arena earlier this season. Former RBNY midfielder Sacha Kljestan scored the game-winner in that match, to give the Lions their first win of 2019.
Following Sunday’s game, City will head back out on the road for a trip to Foxboro to face the New England Revolution on Saturday, July 27 at Gillette Stadium.
