• Matchday 3: New York City FC vs Orlando City SC
• Date and Time: Saturday, March 8, 7:40 pm ET
• Venue: Yankee Soccer Stadium, The Bronx, NY
• Forecast: Clear but cold and blustery, 40F/4C
• Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
• Apple Broadcast Team: Callum Williams and Calen Carr (English), Diego Pessolano and Daniel Chapela (Spanish)
• New York City FC Radio: Glenn Crooks and Matty Lawrence (English), Roberto Abramowitz and Ariel Judas (Spanish)
• Officiating Crew: Pierre-Luc Lauziere (referee), Mike Nickerson and Ben Pilgrim (assistant referees), Sergii Boiko (fourth official), Jorge Gonzalez (VAR), Jonathan Johnson (assistant VAR)
• Kits: New York City will wear the blue-and-white Excelsior Kit; Orlando will wear their purple Perfect Storm Kits.
Welcome to the 2015 Nostalgia Bowl. This will be the 11th home opener in New York City FC history and it's taking place on the 10th anniversary of the very first match in NYCFC history, which also happened to be the very first match in Orlando City SC's history.
New York City returns to Yankee Soccer Stadium for the first time in a long time, having last played in the Bronx on September 21, 2024, that eventful Saturday afternoon when Lionel Messi and friends came to town and James Sands ruined their party with a last-gasp equalizer.
This time it's a different visiting team from Florida and New York City FC will be looking to secure a first win of 2025 and a first win under new coach Pascal Jansen while also improving on their historically great record in home openers.
| Home | Away | Venue | Date | Kickoff Time | Attendance | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | New York City FC | 1 - 2 | Portland Timbers | Yankee Stadium | 03/09/2024 | 2:00 pm ET | 24,774 |
| 2023 | New York City FC | 1 - 0 | Inter Miami | Yankee Stadium | 03/11/2023 | 7:30 pm ET | 24,489 |
| 2022 | New York City FC | 4 - 1 | CF Montréal | Yankee Stadium | 03/12/2022 | 1:00 pm ET | 21,113 |
| 2021 | New York City FC | 5 - 0 | FC Cincinnati | Yankee Stadium | 04/24/2021 | 8:00 pm ET | 4,500 |
| 2020 | New York City FC | 1 - 0 | Columbus Crew | Red Bull Arena | 08/24/0220 | 7:00 pm ET | 0 |
| 2019 | New York City FC | 0 - 0 | DC United | Yankee Stadium | 03/10/2019 | 3:00 pm ET | 24,361 |
| 2018 | New York City FC | 2 - 1 | LA Galaxy | Yankee Stadium | 03/11/2018 | 5:00 pm ET | 26,221 |
| 2017 | New York City FC | 4 - 0 | DC United | Yankee Stadium | 03/12/2017 | 2:00 pm ET | 24,259 |
| 2016 | New York City FC | 2 - 2 | Toronto FC | Yankee Stadium | 03/13/2016 | 5:00 pm ET | 30,315 |
| 2015 | New York City FC | 2 - 0 | New England | Yankee Stadium | 03/15/2015 | 5:00 pm ET | 43,507 |
New York City vs Orlando H2H
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 45 | 31 | 14 |
It's a historically great record in home openers, but a less historically great head-to-head record against 2015 expansion pals Orlando City – though recent results have leaned heavily in NYCFC's favor. Orlando is winless in its last five head-to-head meetings with NYCFC and last won a road game in New York on April 23, 2017, making it a streak of seven straight visits to face NYCFC without coming away with a win. Don't be fooled by anyone who says Orlando won away to NYCFC in 2020: That 3-1 Orlando "road" win was during the MLS Is Back bubble tournament held during the global Covid-19 pandemic and the less that's mentioned about it the better.
New York City Scouting Report
• Player Availability: Malachi Jones is out as he continues to come back from a broken leg suffered against Orlando during their last visit in July 2024. Tayvon Gray (leg) is out after suffering an early injury and exiting last week's game against LAFC and Andrés Perea (hip) is also unavailable. Birk Risa seemed questionable after missing training on Thursday with an illness but was not listed on the official injury report.
• Injuries, plus conceding sloppy late goals in back-to-back games, raise questions about who will start in defense. Is Thiago Martins ready for a bigger workload after getting his first competitive minutes of 2025, preseason included, at the tail-end of the 1-0 loss to LAFC? Might Justin Haak be asked to slide back in at center-back to cover if, say, Risa can't go or Thiago can't start?
• Expect Alonso Martínez to again lead that attacking line at striker. He had a great scoring record at home during the 2024 season, with 12 of his 18 goals in all competitions coming in home matches. He was held quiet vs. LAFC but will be looking to get back in the goals after scoring in the draw vs. Inter Miami CF. Martínez didn't score against Orlando City in 2024 but did pick up an assist in each of the team's meetings last season, El Clínico turned facilitator.
• Will Hannes Wolf keep his place in the Starting XI? The Austrian attacker has been quiet through the season's first two games and if you look back even further to 2024, Wolf has zero goals and just one assist in his last 19 appearances in all competitions for NYCFC dating back to the Leagues Cup.
• For everything you need to know about NYCFC's opponents, Orlando City, read the latest edition of Oppo Research with Ben Miller of The Mane Land.
Matthew Mangam
