Orlando City will look to improve their tough start to the season on Sunday night as they face Columbus Crew, who may have turned a corner.
Orlando (1-5-0, 3 points) parted ways with manager Orlando Pareja a month ago after a heavy 5-0 loss to New York City FC. They briefly bounced back with a 2-1 home victory against Montreal, but then suffered another 5-0 loss at Nashville SC before the March international break, followed by an even more disappointing 6-0 defeat at LAFC last weekend.
In that last match, Orlando was down 5-0 by halftime, with Denis Bouanga scoring a hat trick and Son Heung-min assisting four times. This left Orlando with the worst goal differential in the league at minus-18, while the next closest team was at minus-11.
“It’s definitely not good enough from the group, and we know that,” said Lions striker Duncan McGuire. “We demand more from ourselves. After these last two games, we’ve really looked into what’s going wrong. We’ve had a few days to analyze and work on it, so we’re looking forward to this weekend.”
Columbus (1-3-2, 5 points) also started their season poorly, partly due to the exit of manager Wilfried Nancy in the offseason.
However, they remained competitive in their early matches, losing by only one goal until finally breaking their streak with a 3-1 win against Atlanta last weekend. They took control in the second half, scoring three goals—two from Wessam Abou Ali and one from Max Arfsten.
Having won the MLS Cup and Leagues Cup last year under Nancy, there are still high expectations for success in Columbus with new manager Henrik Rydstrom. Defender Malte Amundsen noted that the recent win shows the Crew can meet those expectations.
“I think we saw more of what we want to be,” Amundsen said. “More joy in playing… We saw more of the team that we are and want to be.”