Real Salt Lake vs Orlando City SC Prediction (09.07.2023)

The Major League Soccer season is motoring through to the summer break, and there’s a lot of excitement in the air about where things are heading. Today, we’ll be taking a look at what should be an intriguing showdown between Real Salt Lake and Orlando City.

They’ve made it to the final of the Champions League and they also have an MLS Cup to their name, but we’d argue it’s been a decade or so since Real Salt Lake have felt like a consistent force. They have quality in their ranks without a shadow of a doubt, and they’re suited nicely in the Western Conference, but we’ve come to learn that it means very little when compared to the end of the season.

Salt Lake are looking pretty good as of late, picking up four wins and two draws across their last six games. They’ve been able to defeat Austin, DC United, St Louis and Toronto, running alongside exciting draws with Minnesota and New York.

Despite having one of the most passionate fanbases in Major League Soccer, Orlando City continues to fall short when living up to what is their perceived potential. The boys in purple always seem to attract a lot of attention and this season, they’re turning quite a few heads, probably because they’ve only lost five of their 21 league games up to this point in the campaign. Bravo to them.

Orlando, it’s safe to say, have been pretty busy. They beat Colorado last month in a really nice display, only to lose to New England just one week later. They picked up a point against both Philadelphia and Seattle, and they’ve since battered Chicago 3-1 and Toronto 4-0.

These two teams face very different adversaries in the West and East, with our argument being that Orlando’s strength of schedule is a little bit stronger. They aren’t going to fear going into Utah by any stretch of the imagination and given where they’re both currently at, it feels like a draw is the most likely outcome.