Orlando City (0-3-1) vs Austin FC (0-1-3)
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET
Where: INTER&Co Stadium, Orlando, FL
TV: Apple TV - MLS Season Pass (Subscription Required)
Radio: Real Radio 104.1, (English), Mega 97.1 (Spanish)
Everything you need to know for the Lions' home match against Austin FC in "The Road Ahead" driven by Audi:
Milestones
- Kyle Smith’s next appearance will be his 150th for Orlando City in all competitions. Smith will become the second Lion to reach 150 games played for the club after captain Robin Jansson.
- Mikey Halliday’s next appearance will be his 40th for Orlando City in all competitions. He has the second-most appearances of any Homegrown in club history, behind Benji Michel.
- Jeorgio Kocevski and Shak Mohammed both made their MLS debuts against Atlanta United last weekend. Kocevski’s appearance also marked his overall professional debut.
Stats & Storylines
- Orlando City is not accustomed to losing streaks under Oscar Pareja. The Lions’ current three-game skid is their longest in MLS since July 23-August 6, 2022 and their longest in all competitions since losing four in a row from September 10-25, 2021. Orlando will hope to avoid matching that run in Saturday’s match against Austin.
- The Lions will be down seven players on international duty for the Austin game. These players include:
- GK Pedro Gallese and MF Wilder Cartagena (Peru)
- DF David Brekalo (Slovenia)
- DF Abdi Salim (Somalia)
- MF Favian Loyola (United States U19)
- FW Facundo Torres (Uruguay)
- FW Duncan McGuire (United States U23)
- Orlando City opened the season playing eight games in 26 days. The Lions’ next eight games take place over a span of 59 days, with no more than one game per week until mid-May and a bye during Matchday 8 on April 6-7.
Series History
All-time vs. Austin FC - 0-0-1, 0 GD (0-0-0, 0 GD home)
MLS only vs. Austin FC - Same
- 2022 - D 2-2 (A)
Meet the opponent: Austin FC
- Orlando City welcomes Austin FC to Inter&Co Stadium for the very first time this weekend. The teams have only played on one other occasion, on May 22, 2022, at Q2 Stadium in Austin.
- That first Orlando/Austin game was rife with controversy. Orlando took a 2-0 lead within the first 22 minutes and looked to be cruising to victory, but the referee awarded questionable yellow cards to Rodrigo Schlegel on back-to-back plays at the hour mark, sending him off and earning Austin a penalty kick. César Araújo was sent off minutes later, leaving Orlando with nine men for the final half-hour of the match. City looked like they would hold on, but Austin was awarded a corner kick deep into stoppage time despite the ball going out off an Austin player. The Texas side would score off the corner and level the match.
- Austin went on to finish second in the Western Conference in that 2022 season, their second year in MLS, but they have yet to replicate that success since. Austin slipped to 12th in the West last season, going 10-15-9 while scoring 16 fewer goals than in 2022. The Verde and Black have yet to win in 2024, dropping their home opener to Minnesota United and drawing each of their last three.
- Austin’s star player is Argentine attacker Sebastián Driussi, who made his season debut off the bench this past weekend after missing the first three games of the year with a hamstring injury. Driussi had 22 goals and seven assists in Austin’s big 2022 campaign but dropped to 11 G/5 A last year amid some minor injuries.
- Austin’s big offseason add was forward Diego Rubio, who signed a one-year deal with an option for 2025 as an MLS free agent. Rubio has 54 goals in 169 MLS appearances, including a 16-goal campaign for Colorado in 2022. The forward has one goal in 263 minutes for Austin.
- Other key players for the Verde and Black include former NYCFC midfielder Alex Ring, DP winger Emiliano Rigoni, and goalkeeper Brad Stuver.
- As of this writing, Austin will only be down two players for international duty: center back Julio Cascante (Costa Rica) and midfielder Dani Pereira (Venezuela). Both players have started three of Austin’s first four matches.
