In their home opener of the 2025 Major League Soccer season, New York City FC will welcome Orlando City to Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
The Boys in Blue are still winless in the campaign, suffering a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Los Angeles FC at the beginning of March, while the Lions beat Toronto 4-2 last week.
Match preview
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Pascal Jansen will search for that elusive first regular season victory as the New York City FC manager, with his side claiming just one point after two matchdays.
It is not unusual for the Pigeons to start a season poorly, in fact the club have failed to win their first two regular-season affairs in each of the past three years.
Last year, they failed to win their final two domestic encounters at Yankee Stadium, claiming just one point over that stretch (a 1-1 draw with Inter Miami).
New York City have won just one of their last six regular-season contests played in March, with that lone triumph coming in the Bronx versus Toronto last year (2-1).
In four domestic meetings against sides from Florida in 2024, this team went undefeated, while they have not lost to a club in the Sunshine State since Orlando City beat them 2-1 in August 2022.
The Pigeons have won their last four meetings with the Lions at home, including a 4-2 triumph at Yankee Stadium a year ago.
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Following a dismal opening match versus the Philadelphia Union (4-2 loss), Orlando took advantage of Toronto's sloppy defending last weekend, scoring on all four of their targeted efforts.
It is hard to take a lot away from that clash, given how bad the Reds are on the back end, however Oscar Pareja's side still managed to end a two-match regular-season losing run with that triumph.
They ended the previous domestic campaign with consecutive victories away from home in the regular season, though they have not won their opening match of an MLS campaign as the visitors since defeating NYCFC 1-0 at Yankee Stadium in 2016.
Orlando failed to claim a single triumph against New York-based clubs a year ago, exiting the MLS Cup playoffs at home to the New York Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference Final (1-0).
They have won four of their last six matches played in this competition when netting multiple goals, winning those two away contests by a combined margin of 6-2.
The Lions have given up just one goal in the opening half so far this season while netting three themselves in the first 45 minutes of play.
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Team News
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In their narrow defeat last Saturday, the Boys in Blue were missing Malachi Jones who is still recovering from a leg injury which kept him out of the lineup for most of last season.
From matchday one to two, Jansen made two changes to his starting 11, with Tayvon Gray replacing Mitja Ilenic at right-back and Monsef Bakrar coming in for Agustin Ojeda.
On the Lions side, Robin Jansson and Favian Loyola missed the previous game for them with a thigh injury, while Duncan McGuire was sidelined once again because of a shoulder issue.
A brilliant free kick by Cesar Araujo gave them the lead against the Reds before Alex Freeman scored his first as a member of the senior squad, with the other Orlando goals coming courtesy of Martin Ojeda and Dan Thorhallsson.
New York City FC possible starting lineup:
Freese; Ilenic, Tanasijevic, Risa, O'Toole; Haak, Parks; Wolf, Moralez, A. Ojeda; Martinez
Orlando City possible starting lineup:
Gallese; Freeman, Schlegel, Smith, Santos; Atuesta, Araujo; Pasalic, M. Ojeda, Gerbet; Muriel
We say: New York City FC 2-1 Orlando City
Despite their current record, NYCFC's start to the season has not been terrible, and we believe the energy of the home crowd and facing an Orlando side that have not been great defensively will propel the Pigeons to their first victory of the season.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
