In case you missed it, Sporting Kansas City’s regular season home match against FC Dallas on Saturday has been pushed back half an hour to 8 p.m. CT and will air live on ESPN. But soccer fanatics won't have to wait that long for a Major League Soccer match to hit America's biggest sports network.
ESPN will broadcast a high-profile MLS doubleheader on Thursday night, with Orlando City SC hosting New York City FC at 7 p.m. CT and LAFC welcoming the LA Galaxy for Round 2 of El Trafico at 9:30 p.m. CT.
Orlando (7-12-1, 22 points) has suffered through an anemic run of 10 losses in 11 games, and in order to make the playoffs for the first time in their history, they'll need to start collecting maximum points at home. The task will be far from easy, however, as NYCFC (12-4-4, 40 points) are among the genuine contenders for the Supporters' Shield.
On the opposite side of the country, Banc of California Stadium will host the second installment of the cross-city rivalry between LAFC (10-5-5, 35 points) and the Galaxy (9-7-4, 31 points), who occupy second and fourth place in the Western Conference, respectively.
The first meeting between the sides was arguably the greatest game in league history: LAFC took a 3-0 lead before the Galaxy staged a wild rally at StubHub Center, cutting the deficit to 3-2 before Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice in his MLS debut — including an otherwordly strike from near midfield — to cap a stunning 4-3 comeback victory.
