Orlando City starts their hunt for the MLS Cup Monday at Exploria Stadium

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando City will play Nashville SC on Monday night in the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs.

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The Lions come in as the second seed in the Eastern Conference after winning 18 games this year and also finish second in the Supporter Shield race behind FC Cincinnati.

Monday night’s game will be the third time Orlando and Nashville meet in the playoffs.

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Nashville won the first meeting in 2021 with a 3-1 win at home. In 2022, Orlando beat Nashville on penalties in the 2022 quarterfinals.

This season, the two teams have played home and away matches, with Nashville taking down the Lions 2-0 in April but the Lions would go to Nashville earlier this month and win 1-0.

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If you take history into account, this series could go the full three games.

Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar has gone on record that he loves the color purple and scoring on the Lions.

He has six goals against Orlando in nine career matches and the Nashville squad plays very well in Orlando.

The winner of this first round will move on to play the winner of the Columbus Crew, Atlanta United game, which kicks off on Wednesday night in Columbus.

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Since the playoffs started, all but one home team has won their first round game.

New York Red Bulls and Sporting Kansas City won their wildcard games at home.

Philadelphia, LAFC, Houston, and Cincinnati continued the home win streaks in the first round. St. Louis City was the only home team to lose to interstate rival Sporting Kansas City Sunday night.

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