Two sides seeking their first victory of the 2025 Major League Soccer campaign will square off on Saturday as Orlando City welcome Toronto to Inter & Co Stadium.
The Lions were beaten 4-2 by the Philadelphia Union in their opener last weekend, while TFC held DC United to a 2-2 draw.
Match preview
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It was a less-than-ideal start to the 2025 season for Orlando City, who gave up four targeted efforts to the Union, all of which found the back of the net.
Allowing four goals after just one encounter has to be a huge concern for Oscar Pareja, who saw this team concede three or more goals on six occasions in this competition last year.
That, combined with not taking the chances presented to them, contributed to their opening defeat, as Orlando fired nine efforts on target and had 55% of the possession.
That was their second consecutive defeat at Inter & Co Stadium in the regular season dating back to last year, and on Saturday, they will try to avoid losing their first two home matches of an MLS campaign for the first time in club history.
A year ago, the Lions lost just two games in this competition when scoring first, and they are already halfway towards equalling that mark following their defeat on matchday one.
Last year this team earned points in three of their four MLS meetings versus Canadian opposition but only claimed victory in one of those instances against Toronto at BMO Field in early July (2-1).
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Resilience was the name of the game for Toronto in their season opener, as Robin Fraser saw his side fight back from a goal down twice to earn a point.
In doing so the club ended a two-match losing run in this competition dating back to the end of 2024, avoiding defeat in their regular season opener for a second successive occasion.
Their two goals scored on matchday one were as many as they had in their final five matches of the 2024 domestic campaign combined.
While a point is nice, this team have now dropped points in six consecutive league contests and are winless in their last three regular-season games away from home.
In this competition last year, the Reds dropped 16 points after scoring the opening goal and collected six when conceding first.
One of those come-from-behind wins came at Inter & Co Stadium against the Lions last April (2-1), ending a three-match losing run for TFC at that venue, with those three defeats being by a combined margin of 9-0.
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Team News
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On matchday one, Orlando were missing Yutaro Tsukada due to a knee issue, Duncan McGuire sat out with a sore shoulder and Favian Loyola was sidelined because of a thigh injury.
Marco Pasalic notched a brace in a losing effort last week, becoming the first player in club history to do so in his debut match, with Eduard Atuesta and Joran Gerbet also making their first career appearances for the Lions.
Toronto could have Lorenzo Insigne available after the Italian trained this week, while former Arsenal defender Zane Monlouis made his debut off the bench and the club loaned Adam Pearlman to Halifax Wanderers in the Canadian Premier League for the 2025 season earlier this week.
Jonathan Osorio scored the first goal of the season for the Reds against DC, with the equaliser coming courtesy of Federico Bernardeschi from the penalty spot 20 minutes from the end.
Orlando City possible starting lineup:
Gallese; Thorhallsson, Brekalo, Schlegel, Santos; Atuesta, Araujo; Pasalic, Ojeda, Angulo; Muriel
Toronto possible starting lineup:
Johnson; Monlouis, Long, Rosted; Laryea, Coello, Longstaff, Cimermancic; Osorio; Bernardeschi, Corbeanu
We say: Orlando City 2-2 Toronto
Both sides have the individual quality that can make a difference, but as we saw last weekend, they each give up their share of scoring opportunities, which is why we anticipate an exciting stalemate between the two on Saturday.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
