Orlando City hosted the New England Revolution Saturday night in a pre-playoff test of mettle for both teams. The Lions, who had been riding a long run of good form, continued to rise to the challenge, winning 3-2 on the strength of late first-half goals by Duncan McGuire, Facundo Torres, and Iván Angulo. These were assisted by by Dagur Dan Thórhallsson and Mauricio Pereryra, Angulo and Rafael Santos, and Santos and Pereyra, respectively. Torres’ goal was particularly impressive, as he scored his goal on a wicked volley on Angulo’s cross, which was behind him — see picture 38 in the gallery above.

The game was well contested, but not as close at the scoreline indicated. The Lions mostly controlled the game after the first 20 minutes and the Carles Gil goals came as the result of an extremely rare Pedro Gallese goalkeeping error and an unfortunate deflection late in second-half stoppage time.

With the victory, Orlando locked up second place in MLS along with a 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup berth and home field throughout the playoffs for almost every possible game. (The Lions will have a road game in the best-of-three, first-round series and the only other matchup in which they wouldn’t host would be if they meet FC Cincinnati.)

The Exploria Stadium crowd of 24,440 came out in force for the final regular-season home game of the year, providing the top-notch MLS atmosphere that Orlando is known for. The team responded with appreciation, signing autographs during warmups and high-fiving fans on throw-ins, and generally playing for fun.

Next up is a week off for the international break, followed by a trip to Toronto to close out the regular season. Then it’s off to the playoffs!

The Lions brought much more roar on Sunday night to face their southern rivals but had trouble finding the net, allowing the Herons to nick a point even while short staffed. None of Miami’s high-priced talent traveled for the match after facing Toronto midweek, and physicality ensued, firing up the sold-out crowd at Exploria Stadium.

Talking with some of the other photographers on the sideline who had flown in for this match, they rated the Orlando atmosphere top-notch; in their experience, other cities don’t compare to the in-stadium fan enthusiasm.

The Lions were in “the net is lava” mode, with Duncan McGuire and Iván Angulo each missing prime one-on-one chances with Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender in each half, McGuire leaving it straight at Callendar, and Angulo badly missing the net after a missed first touch. So of course Miami struck first, with David Ruíz scoring early in the second half.

This fired the Lions up even more and Martín Ojeda pinballed McGuire in behind the Miami back line, allowing Duncan to do what Duncan does to draw the score level. The Lions generally looked the more dangerous team for most (but not all) of the night. However, it is scoring goals that actually counts, leaving both teams unchanged in their respective Eastern Conference standings. Orlando remains second at 14-7-9, while Miami stays in 14th at 9-15-5.

The Lions continue to control their own destiny in terms of getting a top-four finish as they look to lock up home field advantage for a best-of-three matchup in the MLS Cup playoffs.

With home dates left against Montreal and a sputtering-but-dangerous New England remaining, there’s still plenty of time to be part of that world-class gameday atmosphere by going out to support the team as they push for a strong finish.

We hope that you enjoy these images from a hard-fought, come-from-behind draw against Inter Miami at Exploria Stadium.

Orlando City (12-6-7, 43 points) and St. Louis City (14-9-2, 44 points) met Saturday night in a clash of the “City SCs” and the game did not disappoint. The teams provided a high-tempo, physical affair without devolving into a chippy tit-for-tat, and that should have left every fan well entertained at the close of the evening. (Yes, even St. Louis fans, although they may need to let the sting of the 2-1 Lions victory settle for a little bit.)

The first half was not short of chances for either team, but both teams did well to limit the other’s final opportunities, allowing only a handful of shots apiece in the first half with only Duncan McGuire’s effort forcing a save by the opposing goalkeeper.

Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Facundo Torres came out of the break firing immediately, changing up their run patterns to allow Thorhallsson to lead Torres into space. Torres then worked his finishing magic to lift the Lions into the lead. Orlando City continued limiting St. Louis to low-probability chances from distance until the 79th minute, when finally the Lions conceded on a controversial call that once again demonstrates that PRO does not understand the meanings of ‘clear’ and ‘obvious,’ but alas.

Orlando redoubled its efforts to press for the win in the remaining time and was rewarded with Ramiro Enrique forcing a yellow card by Jake Nerwinski and Rafael Santos forcing a penalty kick for handball with a canon of a shot off Anthony Markanich during the resulting restart. Torres converted the penalty to complete his brace in the 91st minute and put Orlando in the lead.

The game was far from over, however, as nine minutes of stoppage time were added. Mostly this consisted of St. Louis desperately stretching for an equalizer, but as the game approached the end of stoppage time, late sub Jack Lynn sprung Enrique in behind, forcing Nerwinski to take him down in a red-card, last-man challenge just outside the box. Martin Ojeda made a valiant effort to make it three on the restart with the last kick of the game, but the effort was right at Roman Burki and the final whistle sounded immediately after 101 minutes of soccer.

As you can imagine, a high-tempo game can lead to some high-action images, so we hope you enjoy these photos of the excitement of the first-ever meeting between the two clubs.