{"id":9275,"date":"2017-08-21T03:12:04","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T07:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonsoccer.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=9275"},"modified":"2017-08-21T03:12:04","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T07:12:04","slug":"columbus-crew-sc-vs-orlando-city-sc-match-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2017\/08\/21\/columbus-crew-sc-vs-orlando-city-sc-match-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Crew SC vs Orlando City SC Match Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Orlando City SC\u00a0<\/strong>looks to keep their postseason hopes alive when they host\u00a0<strong>Columbus Crew SC\u00a0<\/strong>in a crucial Eastern Conference battle. Orlando currently sits in eighth place in the East with an 8-10-6 record and 30 points. Columbus, on the other hand, are in fifth place with an 11-12-2 record and 35 points.<\/p>\n<h1><strong>Columbus Crew SC vs Orlando City SC Match Preview<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Orlando is coming into this match after being defeated on the road by the\u00a0<strong>New York Red Bulls\u00a0<\/strong>3-1. It didn&#8217;t get much better when captain\u00a0<strong>Kaka\u00a0<\/strong>was sent off late in stoppage time for hands to the face on defender\u00a0<strong>Aurelien Collin.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Orlando is in a pickle as the home stretch to the\u00a0<strong>MLS Cup Playoffs\u00a0<\/strong>come into view. Sitting at an 8-10-6 record with 30 points, the Lions are on the decline. This match could make or break them on making the post-season for the first time in club history.<\/p>\n<p>In order for Orlando to lose, they will need to stop midfielder\u00a0<strong>Justin Meram\u00a0<\/strong>and forward\u00a0<strong>Ola Kamara\u00a0<\/strong>who is starting to heat up for Columbus.<\/p>\n<h2>Pedro Santos available for Columbus<\/h2>\n<p>On the other hand, Columbus made a statement win last week as they defeated rivals\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/2017\/08\/12\/columbus-crew-sc-spring-three-win\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Chicago Fire\u00a0<\/strong>by a score of 3-1<\/a>. Goals by\u00a0<strong>Kekuta Manneh,\u00a0<\/strong>Meram, and Kamara sealed the win for Crew SC as they too look to continue their playoff push.<\/p>\n<p>Since the match, nonvisible injuries have appeared to haunt the team. Manneh was seen in a boot, and in return is listed as questionable. However, if Manneh were to not play, they do have new <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/2017\/08\/07\/columbus-crew-sc-sign-pedro-santos-sc-braga\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">designated player\u00a0<strong>Pedro Santos\u00a0<\/strong>available<\/a>, as he has been given his visa.<\/p>\n<h3>Projected Lineups: Orlando City SC vs Columbus Crew SC<\/h3>\n<p>Adjusting the lineup for Orlando since Kaka is suspended shouldn&#8217;t be hard. But who can replace the maestro for the Lions? He&#8217;s one of a kind. Under head coach\u00a0<strong>Jason Kries,\u00a0<\/strong>Orlando will most likely stay in their 4-4-2 formation.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/lineupbuilder.com\/350x500\/?p=11&amp;a=40402&amp;t=&amp;c=dc0000&amp;1=GK_Bendik__388_174&amp;2=DL_Toia__317_64&amp;3=DCL_Redding__327_138&amp;4=DCR_Aja__327_211&amp;5=DR_Sutter__317_284&amp;6=MLA_Yotun__204_64&amp;7=MCL_Nocerino__222_138&amp;8=MCR_Higuita__222_211&amp;9=MRA_Johnson__204_284&amp;10=FCL_Dwyer__98_138&amp;11=FCR_Larin__98_211&amp;c2=ffffff&amp;c3=ffffff&amp;output=embed\" width=\"350\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For Columbus, on the other hand, the <a href=\"http:\/\/lineupbuilder.com\/?sk=f914\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">3-4-2-1 has been on and off<\/a>, but it worked out well last weekend. Head Coach and Sporting Director\u00a0<strong>Gregg Berhalter\u00a0<\/strong>has a vision for his team, and this is it. But, will Santos get the start? Being realistic &#8212; though he is available, as stated before &#8212; Santos most likely won&#8217;t make the 18.<\/p>\n<h2>Prediction<\/h2>\n<p>Columbus on the rise, Lions on the decline. This match is up for grabs for both teams, but Columbus will have the upper hand.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Columbus Crew SC 2-1 Orlando City SC<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Orlando City SC\u00a0looks to keep their postseason hopes alive when they host\u00a0Columbus Crew SC\u00a0in a crucial Eastern Conference battle. Orlando currently sits in eighth place in the East with an 8-10-6 record and 30 points. Columbus, on the other hand, are in fifth place with an 11-12-2 record and 35 points. Columbus Crew SC vs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1693,"featured_media":9102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,119,10],"tags":[86,245,486,556,33,1124,1371],"class_list":["post-9275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crew","category-mls","category-ocsc","tag-chicago-fire","tag-columbus-crew-sc","tag-kaka","tag-kekuta-manneh","tag-new-york-red-bulls","tag-orlando-city","tag-pedro-santos"],"modified_by":"Matt Pollard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1693"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}