Milestones, storylines and more ahead of the Lions match on the road in Nashville in "The Road Ahead" driven by Audi:
Milestones
- Duncan McGuire’s next goal, his 32nd in all competitions for Orlando City, will pass Nani for fourth place in club history. McGuire has 27 MLS regular season goals, one behind Nani and current teammate MartÃn Ojeda for third in club history.
- MartÃn Ojeda is two starts away from 100 in his Orlando City career in all competitions.
Stats & Storylines
- Orlando City will look to brush off a rough road result in Los Angeles last weekend as it heads out once again to take on Columbus on Sunday Night Soccer. The game is Orlando’s third straight away from home. The Lions will wrap up the month-long road swing on Wednesday at FC Naples in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 32.
- The Lions continue to hand young players opportunities as they transition into a new era under interim head coach MartÃn Perelman. U22 attacker Tiago earned his first career start against LAFC, while fellow Brazilian U22s Iago (90 minutes) and LuÃs Otávio (22) also appeared. Homegrown midfielder Colin Guske and rookie center back Nolan Miller both got the start, with Homegrown Players Tahir Reid-Brown and Zakaria Taifi featuring in the second half.
- Orlando will hope to get back to its strong road form of prior years this week. The Lions have had a winning record away from home each of the past three seasons, going 23-14-15 (1.65 points per game) over that span. City has yet to pick up a point on the road through three attempts in 2026.
Series History
All-time vs. Columbus - 11-9-5, +1 GD (3-5-2, -2 GD away)
MLS only vs. Columbus - 10-8-4, +1 GD (3-5-2, -2 GD away)
2015 - L 3-0 (A), D 2-2 (H), W 2-0 (H/USOC), W 5-2 (H)
2016 - D 2-2 (A), L 1-4 (H)
2017 - L 2-0 (A), D 1-1 (H), L 0-1 (H)
2018 - L 3-2 (A), W 2-1 (H)
2019 - W 0-2 (A), W 1-0 (H)
2020 - W 2-1 (H)
2021 - W 3-2 (H), L 3-2 (A)
2022 - W 0-2 (A), W 2-1 (H)
2023 - D 2-2 (A), W 4-3 (H), L 0-2 (H/MLS Cup Playoffs)
2024 - L 0-2 (H), L 4-3 (A)
2025 - W 1-3 (A), D 1-1 (H)
Meet the opponent: Columbus Crew SC
- Orlando City has dominated Columbus for the better part of a decade, going 9-3-2 against the MLS originals over the clubs’ past 14 regular season matchups since October 2018. The Lions took four points off the Crew in 2025 across two matches, with Designated Players MartÃn Ojeda and Marco PaÅ¡alić both finding the back of the net in the series.
- Wilfried Nancy, the enormously successful Crew manager who won MLS Cup in 2023 and Leagues Cup in 2024 with Columbus, departed over the offseason for Celtic in the Scottish Premiership. His replacement, Swedish coach Henrik Rydström, had spent his entire professional career in his home country, recently taking charge of Malmö FF, the club that produced Zlatan Ibrahimović and from which Orlando City signed Yoshimar Yotún back in 2017.
- Despite a 1-3-2 start to the season, Columbus has experienced its fair share of bad luck, sporting a +1.8 expected goal differential. DP striker Wessam Abou Ali has been a smash hit since getting healthy over the winter, scoring five times across the Crew’s first six matches. Abou Ali scored a brace as Columbus won its first game of the year last week in Atlanta.
- MartÃn Ojeda has strong numbers against Columbus in his career, posting 2g/3a in just 408 minutes against the Black & Gold. On the other side, Crew attacker Diego Rossi has been a consistent thorn in Orlando’s side over the years, scoring seven times in as many appearances between Columbus and LAFC.
