Orlando City brings its attacking offense to Charlotte for conference showdown

Published On: July 5, 2025

Orlando City is hoping to bounce back from a 2-1 loss to FC Cincinnati when they return to action this week.

On Saturday night, the Lions (9-5-6, 33 points) will travel to Bank of America Stadium to play Charlotte FC (8-11-5, 25 points).

Oscar Pareja, the coach of Orlando, stated, “It’s an important one, of course, it’s a rival from the conference, it’s the second part of the season already, and we want to navigate it in a good way to get our spot in the playoffs.” The chance to visit Charlotte is now available. We’re ready.

One of Major League Soccer’s top offensive fronts is Orlando’s. The Lions, driven by players like Marco Pa Ali (9G, 4A) and Martin Ojeda (9G, 6A), have scored 37 goals in 20 games. Orlando has a great chance to increase its impressive goal total when they play Charlotte, a team that has given up 11 goals in its last five games.

Since Pareja thinks that effective attacking play begins with the team’s defensive recovery, he is concentrating on helping the Lions play better without the ball. Orlando’s off-ball performance has been patchy at times this season, but Pareja is aware that his team can do better.

How can I, as a coach, suggest to the players how we should play without the ball so that we can get it back and do what we enjoy most, which is sequencing and attempting to generate scoring opportunities? Pareja said. We’ve seen it, so that theory remains unchanged, but we’ll get the boys ready.

Wilfried Zaha (5G, 3A) will not play for Charlotte in this game since the English attacker has been suspended for receiving too many yellow cards.

In his absence, the Lions will have one less thing to worry about, but if they want to win three points away from home, they still need to figure out how to stop Pep Biel (6G, 8A).