Orlando City SC vs. Atlanta United | 2018 MLS Match Preview

Dylan Butler

Orlando City SC vs. Atlanta United
2018 MLS Regular Season – Week 11
Orlando City Stadium — Orlando
May 13 - 6 pm ET
WATCH: FS1, TSN

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After having their eight-match unbeaten streak snapped in a 2-0 home loss to Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday, Atlanta United will try to avoid consecutive losses against the league’s current hottest team in Orlando City SC, who have won a franchise-best six straight games after beating Real Salt Lake, 3-1.

The Lions are also seeking their first win against the Five Stripes after losing once and playing to a pair of draws in three meetings a year ago.

Orlando City SC

Jason Kreis made one change to his starting XI from a 2-1 win in Colorado a week prior, replacing an injured Amro Tarek with Chris Schuler in the center of four-man backline.

For the fourth time in their winning streak, the Lions had to rally after Corey Baird put RSL in front in the 12th minute. The equalizer came from Dom Dwyer, who scored his sixth goal in six games and three minutes later Lamine Sane netted the go-ahead goal. Yoshi Yotun closed the scoring in the 78th minute.

“i think that we need to understand in the game of soccer one team will score first all the time. We want it to be ourselves, especially at home,” Jason Kreis said. “We want to be out on the front foot, but I think we’ve proven now in a number of games it doesn’t matter that much.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: M - Yoshi Yotun
International duty: None
Injury Report: GK - Mason Stajduhar (Localized Ewing Sarcoma), D - Jonathan Spector (concussion); QUESTIONABLE: D - Scott Sutter (lower body), D - Amro Tarek (lower body)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK: Joe Bendik — Will Johnson, Lamine Sane, Chris Schuler, Mohamed El-Munir — Cristian Higuita, Yoshi Yotun — Chris Mueller, Sacha Kljestan, Justin Meram — Dom Dwyer

Notes: Orlando is one of three teams this season yet to record a clean sheet at home (LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes). … Orlando is on a six-game winning streak, the longest in franchise history. The Lions have scored 2.8 goals per game over this run.

Atlanta United

Tata Martino altered his formation to 4-2-3-1 and made two changes to his starting XI from a 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire last Saturday. Sal Zizzo slotted in at right back in his first start and Hector Villalba came back into the XI for Julian Gressel.

Atlanta (7-2-1), which had a goal called back by Video Review for offside in the sixth minute, was reduced to 10 men when Brad Guzan was shown a straight red card for a denial of obvious goal scoring opportunity for tripping a breaking Khiry Shelton.

Daniel Salloi put the visitors in front in the 67th minute and Gerso Fernandes added the insurance goal three minutes from full time to seal the road win for SKC.

Suspended: GK - Brad Guzan
Suspended after next caution: D - Chris McCann, D - Leandro Gonzalez Pirez
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: D - Jose Hernandez (quad strain), GK - Mitch Hildebrandt (left knee sprain), GK - Alec Kann (left knee); QUESTIONABLE: D - Chris McCann (hamstring)

Projected Starting XI
(3-4-1-2, right to left)
GK: Paul Christensen — Franco Escobar, Michael Parkhurst, Leandro Gonzalez Pirez — Julian Gressel, Darlington Nagbe, Jeff Larentowicz, Greg Garza — Miguel Almiron — Ezequiel Barco, Josef Martinez

Notes: Miguel Almiron has completed 45 dribbles this year, the most in the league. He is one of just three players to have completed 40+ dribbles. … Atlanta is on a three-game winning streak on the road, their longest in their short history. It is just the second time they have strung together consecutive road wins July 1-21, 2017).

All-Time Series

Overall: Orlando City SC 0 wins, 4 goals … Atlanta United 1 win, 5 goals … 2 ties
At Orlando: Orlando City SC 0 wins, 0 goals, Atlanta United 1 goal, 1 win … 0 ties
Last meeting at Orlando: Orlando City SC 0, Atlanta United 1 (July 21, 2017)