On March 8, 2015, Orlando City SC and NYCFC played out to a 1-1 draw as Kaká and David Villa led their then-expansion sides out of the tunnel into an MLS match for the first time.
Fast forward four years later, Orlando and NYCFC again will once again open a season opposite one another. This time, the global stars that led them through their expansion era won't be there. The clubs are led by new stars, with Portuguese winger Nani arriving in Orlando just ahead of the season while NYCFC spent a reported $8.5 million fee to sign Romanian attacker Alexandru Mitrita a few weeks ago. Their debuts are highly anticipated, just as Villa and Kaká experienced in 2015.
Here are three things to watch as Orlando take on NYCFC:
Who plays where in NYCFC's attack?
NYCFC have one of the deepest stables of wingers and central midfielders in the league, but are without a single natural center forward on the roster.
Head coach Dome Torrent doesn't seem to mind much, ready to lean on a more collective ethos for goals between Mitrita, Maxi Moralez, Ismael Tajouri-Shradi, Jesus Medina, Jonathan Lewis and the rest. The current working theory is Mitrita will play a false No. 9 role with Moralez underneath him and Medina and Tajouri-Shradi on the wings. But as Torrent showed last season, he might have some wrinkles to the expectation.
What will a triad of Nani, Dwyer and Kljestan look like?
On paper, it's a compatible trio: A natural, reliable goalscorer (Dom Dwyer), a pure No. 10 playmaker (Sacha Kljestan) and a dynamic winger capable of creating chances and scoring goals alike (Nani). But how will it fare in reality?
If Nani features on the wing, would Kljestan feature opposite him to an unnatural wide position? If James O'Connor opts into a 4-2-3-1, will there be enough defensive stability for a club that conceded an MLS record 74 goals in 2018? If Nani plays next to Dwyer centrally with Kljestan underneath, will the club have enough width?
It's not a bad problem to have for O'Connor, but something he'll need to figure out early in the season so not to risk a slow start out of the gate.
First full season for O'Connor, Torrent
After both being appointed midway through the 2018 season, O'Connor and Torrent have had the chance to have their first preseason with their clubs. How distinctively different will both sides look, if distinctive at all?
Torrent was given the job once Patrick Vieira departed for Ligue 1 club Nice in June while O'Connor took over for Jason Kreis, who was let go in the same month. Midseason transitions aren't easy, especially when the new head coaches arrive externally rather than promoted from within.
With the proper foundation of an offseason rather than taking over on the fly, both coaches will hope for a quick start to 2019 before their seat starts to get warm.
