ORLANDO, Fla. (May 4, 2018) - Orlando City SC (5-2-1, 16 points) will go for its sixth straight victory when it hosts Real Salt Lake (3-4-1, 10 points) on Sunday, May 6. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. ET at Orlando City Stadium.
A win would give City a Club-record six consecutive wins.
The match will be locally broadcast on WRDQ TV27 and transmitted on FM 96.9 The Game in English and La Nueva 990 AM in Spanish. The match, as well as the pregame, halftime and postgame shows, will be the first to be streamed on YouTube TV as part of the Club’s new partnership announced Thursday.
“To me [Real Salt Lake] a very typical young team that has some really talented attacking players as well as talented defensive players, but is prone to making mental errors that young players make,” Lions head coach Jason Kreis said. “From my point of view it’s a team that we need to be really prepared for and have a ton of respect for, because they are quality and they can score goals and really hurt you. It is going to take our best effort, no doubt.”
City is coming off a 2-1 win in Colorado on Sunday. Cristian Higuita scored his first goal since October 2016 to equalize in the 52nd minute before Yoshimar Yotún scored the game-winner from the penalty spot. The win matched City’s current record five-game winning streak set from September to October 2015.
Sacha Kljestan’s assist on Higuita’s goal was his 87th career regular-season assist, passing Andy Williams for ninth-most assists in MLS history. Yotún’s goal was his second of the season. Yotún and Kreis were named to the MLS Team of the Week, while Justin Meram made the Team of the Week bench. The Lions have won their last three games at Orlando City Stadium.
This is the fourth all-time meeting between City and RSL and the second in Orlando. On March 6, 2016, the Lions scored two goals in stoppage time to equalize in front of over 60,000 fans at the Orlando Citrus Bowl on Opening Day. In their most recent meeting, Will Johnson scored as City won 1-0 at Rio Tinto Stadium in June 2017. RSL is one of three teams against which Orlando City is unbeaten all-time.
The match will pit Kreis against his former club. Kreis was the first player in RSL history and scored the club’s first ever goal in 2005 before being hired as head coach midway through the 2007 season. Kreis led RSL to its first playoff appearance in 2008 and an MLS Cup championship in 2009. Will Johnson and Chris Schuler also played several years for RSL, and assistant coaches CJ Brown and Miles Joseph were on Kreis’ technical staff.
Real Salt Lake enters the match off a 2-0 loss at Vancouver. Cristian Techera scored from the penalty spot in the 75th minute before Anthony Blondell scored four minutes later.
Joao Plata leads RSL with three goals while Albert Rusnak has two goals and two assists. Nick Rimando has two clean sheets in eight appearances and is seeking his 200th career MLS regular-season win.
