Orlando City hoping to improve home record when NYCFC visits Wednesday

Published On: July 16, 2025

There is no rest for the weary as Orlando City faces a quick turnaround after a

1-1 draw with CF Montreal on Saturday.

The Lions (9-5-8, 35 points) welcome New York City FC (9-8-4, 31 points) to Inter&Co Stadium for a Wednesday night showdown.

“The first thing is that we recover the players physically and try to keep them fresh for our game this Wednesday, now that the league starts getting tight again on games and in that frequency,” Orlando coach Oscar Pareja said. “We are trying to recover the boys first, and also, just to keep on going, we have a team that needs to win at home.”

Orlando has gone winless at home since a

1-0 victory over the Portland Timbers on May 24,

dropping points in each of the past three games at Inter&Co Stadium. The Lions are 5-3-3 at home this season, and they need to find a way to get results in front of the friendly crowd if they want to be an MLS Cup contender.

Robin Jansson and Pedro Galesse are back for the Lions after serving their yellow-card accumulation suspensions against Montreal. They will help shore up a defense that looked shaky at times in the last match. Improving confidence at the back will allow Orlando to take more chances going forward.

Pareja is always looking to find ways to improve the offense, and he has been tweaking the lineups in recent games. His decision to start both Ramiro Enrique and Luis Muriel has not quite worked out as planned, so he could look to make more changes against a formidable rival in New York City FC.

“I think it’s important that we recognize that there is always room to improve. It’s important that we recognize that we have to move pieces to see if the production can be better,” Pareja added. “What we’re doing is that we are trying to get some other ideas, and it’s going to be richer for us to understand which one is the one at the same time. That’s what we get paid for.”