Mikey Lopez starts his first game of 2017 at Orlando City Stadium tonight.
The Texan midfielder comes into an NYCFC XI which shows six changes from the team which lost 2-1 to Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night.
Elsewhere, Ben Sweat, Maxime Chanot, Jack Harrison, Rodney Wallace and David Villa all come back in at the expense of RJ Allen, Frederic Brillant, Andrea Pirlo Miguel Camargo and Sean Okoli.
Lopez will line up alongside Alex Ring in the midfield engine room which will be charged with dominating possession and fending off the threats posed by Kaka, Nelson Rivas and Cyle Larin.
Chanot is reunited with Alexander Callens at the heart of the back four, Sweat returns to left-back and regular starting wingers Jack Harrison and Rodney Wallace will provide the width.
Top-scorer Villa makes his return to the XI after he came on as a substitute in the defeat at the Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesdsay night.
On the bench, Eirik Johansen is joined by Allen, Brillant, Tommy McNamara, Camargo, John Stertzer and Okoli.
NYCFC XI: Johnson, White, Callens, Chanot, Sweat, Lopez, Ring, Moralez, Harrison, Wallace, Villa (C)
NYCFC Subs: Johansen, Allen, Brillant, McNamara, Camargo, Stertzer, Okoli
