Following their 4-2 away win against CF Montreal, the Columbus Crew had a bye week and now return to the field on the road against Orlando City SC.

Orlando City sits third in the Eastern Conference standings, two points above the Crew, who sit in fifth place. To begin their season, Orlando City won just four games in their first twelve. Since then, however, they have nine wins in their last fifteen games. Orlando City has been dominant away, with seven wins on the season, however, they have only won six games in Orlando.

Orlando City will be without midfielder Wilder Cartagena, who got a red card in Orlando’s previous match against FC Cincinnati, which saw them win 1-0.

Can the Crew get a win on the road against Orlando City SC? Our Massive Report Staff gives their predictions for the Black & Gold’s game against Orlando City.

Drew McDaniel

This is the week Columbus wins back-to-back road games. While Orlando are a good team, they have won more away games (7) than home games (6) this season. With Wilder Cartagena suspended for this match, Orlando will have trouble controlling the midfield against midfielders Aidan Morris and Darlington Nagbe. Both teams will score, but Columbus will show good mental focus and team chemistry as they come back from a 2-1 deficit to win the match 3-2. Christian Ramirez will break his scoring drought while Cucho Hernandez finally gets double-digit goals. 

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Caleb Denorme

The Crew returns from the international break to take on Orlando, who sits just two points above the Black & Gold in the Eastern Conference. Columbus has been on a good run of form recently, but traveling down to Orlando is a tough task for any squad. All in all, I see the Crew getting a 2-1 win behind goals from Cucho Hernandez and Diego Rossi. Hopefully this extended break has allowed those two to bond and build chemistry as the end of the season approaches. 

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Collin Johnson

As the season draws to a close, it seems like every Eastern Conference match becomes the new “biggest match of the year” for the Crew. Columbus currently has 3 matches against three of the teams ahead of them in the table and only one of those will be in the cozy confines of Lower.com Field. Saturday’s match in Orlando, who are playing some of their best soccer of the season, is the first of those three big matches. 

 The general disclaimer for these matches is that road points are always difficult in MLS but road points are absolutely necessary if the Black & Gold want to host the first round of the playoffs in Columbus. Both the Crew and Orlando City had a full week off to recuperate, so we should see a match featuring the first choice for both teams. For Columbus, that extra week off also means another week for Rudy Camacho, Diego Rossi, Julian Gressel, and Yevhen Cheberko to learn more about Wilfried Nancy’s style of play.

 If the Black & Gold can repeat their offensive performance from their trip to Montreal, they should be able to grab at least a point on the road in Orlando, but anything less than three points will be a disappointment. 

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Ryan Schmitt

The Crew is coming off a bye week and previously won in a dominant fashion against CF Montreal. The past week should hopefully help to integrate all the new signings together as when new players have mixed with players that have been in Columbus for longer, there seems to be more miscommunications and that is understandable so. I think this last week was super helpful for that reason and will help propel the Crew to a 2-1 win against Orlando City. I think it’ll be a dominant performance from top to bottom, with a good performance from Diego Rossi.

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