ORLANDO, Fla. (May 16, 2017) - Orlando City SC (6-3-1, 19 points) makes its first West Coast road trip on Wednesday, May 17, when the Lions face the San Jose Earthquakes (4-4-3, 15 points). Kickoff is set for 10:30 p.m. ET at Avaya Stadium.
The match will be locally televised on WRDQ TV27. It will also be transmitted on Real Radio 104.1 and La Nueva 990 AM.
“Long day yesterday, think the guys were able to sleep in and get some rest, had a long meeting to prepare for the match, tactical meetings,” Head Coach Jason Kreis said. “We know it’s a team [San Jose] that has had some incredible highs and lows this season and they are coming off a little bit of a low, so we need to be prepared for a team that’s really, really hungry tomorrow night and a team that has played incredibly well in their own building, so it’s again a match and opponent we need to be mindful of.”
Orlando City is coming off a hard-fought draw against Sporting Kansas City Saturday at Orlando City Stadium. Sporting took an early lead when Latif Blessing pounced on a loose ball in the box but the Lions roared back with two goals in the first half. Carlos Rivas served a perfect ball into the box for Cyle Larin to equalize in the 16th minute. Then in the 26th minute, birthday boy Scott Sutter found Kaká, who controlled with his chest and curled a gorgeous ball into the bottom corner for his third goal of the season. Blessing equalized in the second half. It was City’s first draw of 2017.
Larin is tied for third in Major League Soccer (MLS) with seven goals while Rivas leads the team with five assists, also good for third in the league. Sutter earned his third assist of the season.
San Jose will be looking to rebound from a 3-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids, which snapped a five-game losing streak. The Rapids scored two goals in the span of six minutes in the first half and Shkelzen Gashi picked up his second goal of the game in the 56th minute.
This is the third all-time meeting between the two clubs. On June 18, 2016, Orlando City hosted San Jose in the #OrlandoUnited match, which was dedicated to the victims of the June 12 tragedy at Pulse Nightclub. A moment of silence was observed in the 49th minute in honor of the 49 who lost their lives. The match ended in a dramatic 2-2 draw, with Seb Hines and Júlio Baptista scoring for City. In 2015, Kaká and Chris Wondolowski scored on penalty kicks just four minutes apart as 10-man Orlando City picked up a point at Levi’s Stadium.
This will be Lions midfielder Matías Pérez García’s first visit to Avaya Stadium since joining City in a trade on Aug. 3, 2016. Pérez García was acquired in exchange for Darwin Cerén. Cerén scored six goals and added seven assists in 72 MLS and United Soccer League (USL) appearances with City since 2014, when the Salvadorian became City’s third MLS signing.
City will come home to take on New York City FC for the third and final time this season on Sunday, May 21. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET at Orlando City Stadium.
