Atlanta United vs Orlando City

Mercedes-Benz Stadium is the venue as Atlanta United and Orlando City go head-to-head in an exciting Major League Soccer encounter.

Atlanta United recovered from a sluggish start to the new MLS campaign, thumping New England Revolution 4-1 at home after a 1-0 loss at reigning champions Columbus Crew. As both matches featured a first-half opener, plenty of early action could be on the cards. Interestingly, Atlanta’s two opening MLS outings contained three penalties, two for the Five Stripes and one against them. Another ill-disciplined contest could lead to a high-scoring affair, which has been a rarity in this fixture, with three of their last four league meetings with Orlando producing under 2.5 goals. More importantly for Gonzalo Pineda’s side, they only won once during that stretch (D2, L1). It’s also worth noting that they’ve netted one goal or fewer in five of the last six H2Hs they hosted.

Orlando’s decent defensive performances at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium are in stark contrast to their woeful defending in recent fixtures as they’ve conceded 3+ goals in three of their last four competitive games, including a 4-2 demolition at UANL Tigres in midweek CONCACAF Champions League action. As for their opening MLS duels, it couldn’t have gone any worse. Oscar Pareja’s men kicked things off in the United States’ top division with a scoreless home draw against Montreal, but things have since gone sideways. After a 5-0 demolition at the hands of Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, Orlando slumped to a 3-2 home defeat to Minnesota United last time out, with only New England (L3) experiencing a worse start than them in the Eastern Conference.