ORLANDO, Fla. (September 7, 2017) - Orlando City SC (8-12-7, 31 points) will travel to Washington to face D.C. United (8-15-4, 28 points) on Saturday, Sept. 9 at RFK Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.
Saturday’s match will be locally televised on WRDQ TV27. Additionally, the match will be transmitted in English on Real Radio 104.1 FM and in Spanish on La Nueva 990 AM. The pregame, halftime and postgame shows will be streamed on the LionNation app and Facebook Live.
“It’s a much different team. That’s the first and foremost problem is that I think they have four new players from the time that we played them last. Four impactful players,” Lions head coach Jason Kreis said. “So we have to prepare for those guys and we need to understand what D.C. is all about right now. They’re a very different-looking team than they were early in the season.”
This will be the second and final meeting of the season between Orlando City and D.C. United. On May 31, the Lions defeated D.C. 2-0 with two second-half goals. In the 66th minute, Cyle Larin scored his eighth goal of the season on a header on a free kick. Giles Barnes scored his first goal as a Lion on a shot from distance in the 88th minute as Tony Rocha earned his first career MLS assist.
D.C. enters the match on a three-game winning streak, most recently topping the New England Revolution 1-0 on Aug. 26. Luciano Acosta scored the game-winning goal in the 71st minute when he finished a pass from Kofi Opare inside the six-yard box.
Acosta leads United with five goals and Lloyd Sam with six assists. Goalkeeper Bill Hamid is second in the league with 89 saves.
In its last match Orlando City fell 4-0 against the New England Revolution. Kei Kamara opened the scoring in the first half and later scored twice more in the 70th and 89th minutes. Teal Bunbury scored the final goal in stoppage time.
Joe Bendik’s 91 saves are the most in MLS. Larin leads the team with 10 goals in 23 appearances, while Kaká and Carlos Rivas lead the team with five assists. The Lions will be with Yoshimar Yotún and Larin, who both missed the match against New England while on international duty. Yotún played the full match and was key in Peru’s 2-1 World Cup Qualifier win in Ecuador on Sept. 5, while Larin played the second half of Canada’s 2-0 friendly win over Jamaica at BMO Field on Sept. 2.
The Lions will travel to face Atlanta United FC on Saturday, Sept. 16 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. ET. City will then travel to Portland before returning to Orlando City Stadium to host the New England Revolution on Wednesday, Sept. 27. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
Tickets to all City home matches are available at OrlandoCitySC.com or by calling 855-ORL-CITY. Follow the latest Orlando City news and updates via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
