SANFORD, Fla. — Atlanta United’s Josef Martinez is bound to break the MLS single-season scoring record this year.
But for Orlando City coach James O’Connor, if there’s going to be any record breaking, it’s not going to happen at Orlando City Stadium when the Lions and the Five Stripes meet on Friday night (8 pm ET | ESPN - full TV & streaming info) as part of Heineken Rivalry Week.
“I don’t want anybody celebrating any records at our place,” O’Connor told reporters before Wednesday’s training session. “We need to focus on ourselves, we’ve got good players. We have an ability to hopefully go and cause them some problems. That’s the biggest thing for us, especially at home, we want that atmosphere where it’s really intimidating [and] hard for them to come and play.”
Martinez, who leads the league in scoring, recorded his 27th goal of the season during a 3-1 win against Columbus Crew SC last Sunday.
The goal for Martinez tied the MLS single-season scoring record and joined a list of players to set the record as well: Roy Lassiter (1996), Chris Wondolowski (2012) and Bradley Wright-Phillips (2014).
Yoshimar Yotun and Cristian Higuita will miss Friday’s game for Orlando because of yellow card accumulation. Sacha Kljestan is questionable after suffering an ankle injury against D.C. United on Aug. 12.
Orlando's new arrival, defender Carlos Ascues will be available for selection.
Despite several key players missing for Orlando, O’Connor said he’s confident his side will be able to force Atlanta to defend, not just attack for most of the game.
“We want to try and create some problems for them,” said O’Connor. “I think that they’re a great attacking team. They’re having a very strong year, equally we’re at home and we want to create a winning team and atmosphere. I’m sure our supporters will be able to help us Friday night. We want to cause some problems for them and make them defend as well.”
For central midfielder Oriol Rosell, the focus will not entirely be on Martinez but the whole team.
“At the end, it’s not just one player, not Josef Martinez, but the whole team,” said Rosell. “They have some strong points. They’re really fast on the counter and we have to take that in account, but we also have to focus on ourselves and make this our game and make it difficult for them.”
