After Tuesday night's dramatic 3-1 win over Philadelphia Union in the US Open Cup semifinal, Nashville SC travel to Florida for another crucial match with Orlando City.
Nashville have beaten Orlando twice this year, 3-2 in the US Open Cup and 5-1 in MLS just a few weeks ago, but find themselves just two points ahead of the Lions as both sides battle for a Top 4 spot in the final table.
For the latest on Orlando City, we turned to Ben Miller, who covers Orlando City for The Mane Land.
Ben Wright
Ben Wright (SixOneFive Soccer): Orlando were one of the hottest teams in MLS this summer, but it seems like they've cooled off a bit recently. What's gone wrong with them, and do you have any concerns heading into the postseason?
Ben Miller (The Mane Land): I think the three match losing streak that kicked off with the 5-1 spanking by Nashville and concluded with the 2-1 loss to the LA Galaxy in Leagues Cup can be attributed to a couple different things.
For Nashville, heavy rotation, fixture congestion, short rest, and cross country travel combined to produce a truly ugly performance, and then the latter three all played a part in the next two losses. The Lions then had a man advantage against DC United for almost a whole half but couldn't find another goal and settled for a 1-1 draw against one of the worst teams in the league. Orlando was really hurt in that game by Luis Muriel's suspension for the red card he picked up against Nashville. The Lions have always struggled when up a man but Muriel has the best vision and passing range of anyone on the team, and OCSC ultimately just couldn't pick the DC lock.
