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Orlando City vs. Inter Miami: Final Score 2-2 as Lions’ Subs Can’t Hold Late Lead

Orlando mostly held Lionel Messi in check but couldn’t hold onto a late lead in a draw against rival Miami to end the preseason.

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1 year ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

TAMPA — Orlando City struck first through Martin Ojeda and regained the lead through Ramiro Enrique, but a second-half squad primarily made up of substitutes could not hold the late advantage, giving up a stoppage-time equalizer in a 2-2 draw against Inter Miami at Raymond James Stadium. A stadium soccer record crowd of 42,017 fans — most there only to see Lionel Messi — saw tying goals in each half from Miami’s Tadeo Allende and Fafa Picault spoil the night for Orlando, which finished the preseason winless for the first time.

“We’re happy with the performance,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “There is about a bunch of signs that we see from our team and the game that we want to put together, and then take advantage of the week of work on our training and see if we can get better. But we’re happy we got the objectives accomplished.”

Pareja’s starting lineup featured Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. Eduard Atuesta made his Orlando City debut in central midfield alongside Cesar Araujo behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Ojeda, and Marco Pasalic with Enrique up top.

The two Florida rivals exchanged half chances early, with Atuesta blocking a shot early and Pasalic firing over the bar from just outside the area a couple of minutes later.

Orlando City started to create off of its defense over the next several minutes, with the first chance coming from an Ojeda steal and pass to Enrique in the 14th minute. The forward took a heavy first touch and was leaning into what would have been a difficult lunging shot when he went down under contact, but referee Filip Dujic ruled that there was no foul in the box.

The Lions scored a minute later anyway off another steal. Ojeda knocked the ball to Angulo on the left and the Colombian slipped a pass back to the Argentine, who chipped onrushing goalkeeper Oscar Ustari, tucking his shot just inside the right post to make it 1-0.

Three minutes after the goal, Schlegel was fortunate he was playing in a preseason game. Jansson lost an aerial duel he would normally win against Allende, which allowed the ball to get in behind. Schlegel tried to nick it away, and may have gotten the ball cleanly, but he was called for a foul just outside the box. In a normal game, he likely would have been sent off for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity, but Dujic gave only a yellow. Messi sent the free kick over Gallese’s crossbar in the 19th minute.

Miami equalized in the 22nd minute. Santos got caught ball watching, allowing Allende to get in behind and take a pass on the right. He sent his shot just inside the left post to make it 1-1 on what was a difficult first half by the Brazilian left back.

Allende came close to a second goal in the 25th minute but fired wide of the left post from the right as again Santos was caught napping. Luis Suarez fired wide of the right post from a tight angle on the left in the 28th minute. Eight minutes later, Telasco Segovia tried to chip Gallese but fired just over the crossbar and onto the roof of the net.

Orlando couldn’t do anything with a pair of corners, but nearly paid off the second on the recycle when Ojeda sent in a dangerous cross that deflected off Schlegel, which kept it from reaching Enrique with the goalkeeper out of position. The Lions should have scored in the 39th minute. Atuesta picked out a great pass to send Pasalic in behind. The Croatian probably had more time than he thought, shooting early, but Ustari made an outstanding save.

Gallese had his own moment of brilliance in the 44th minute to deny Suarez from close range. Moments later, Gallese denied a Messi chip but the Argentinian was offside anyway. The save didn’t count, but it was still fun to watch.

The teams went to the break tied with a goal apiece.

Miami had more shots (6-4) and each team won four corners. Each goalkeeper made one save and both were spectacular.

Shortly after the restart, the Lions generated a good attack, with Atuesta switching play to Angulo on the left. Angulo lost his defender and sent in a good cross that never made it to Enrique, who vehemently shouted for a handball. None was given and the ball cycled back out to Atuesta, who fired well off target.

Jansson was called for fouling Suarez just outside the box moments later, but Messi fired the free kick wide in the 52nd minute.

Orlando made Miami pay for the miss two minutes later. A long ball into the attacking half was misplayed by the Herons’ defense, ending up on Ojeda’s foot. The Argentine slipped his countryman Enrique in on goal and the forward smashed his shot just inside the right post to make it 2-1 in the 54th minute.

Suarez found an opening at the top of the box in the 57th minute, but his shot was no trouble for Gallese, who made a comfortable save. Ten minutes later, Gallese was perfectly positioned when a recycled ball fell to Messi, who had an open header after pushing off of Thorhallsson. El Pulpo made the easy save.

The next 15 to 20 minutes saw both teams making substitutes, with Messi’s departure prompting a bit of an exodus from fans. The game got a bit sloppier after the changes, which included the introduction of Nicolas Rodriguez for his first minutes as a Lion.

Orlando should have put the game away in the 82nd minute when substitute Luis Muriel made a filthy pass through traffic to pick out forward Gustavo Caraballo in the box. The teenager sent his shot too close to Ustari, who made a vital save to keep it a one-goal game. Three minutes later, Muriel fired just over the bar from the top of the box — another costly miss in the end, as it turned out.

In the final minute of stoppage time, as Miami pushed for an equalizer, Orlando’s largely substitute squad failed multiple times to sufficiently clear their lines. Robert Taylor picked up the ball on the left, worked across to the right and fired a shot that got past Gallese but was cleared off the line by Colin Guske. The rebound fell to Picault, who fired it in to tie the match. The game was played without video review, which was unfortunate, because there was a clear handball on Santiago Morales in the buildup to the equalizer.

Shortly after the restart, the game was over. Although there had been talk about penalties if the game ended in a draw, there were no spot kicks and the match ended 2-2.

Inter Miami finished with more shot attempts (14-9) and corners (8-4), with the Lions finishing with more saves (5-2).

“Very happy, because we made a very good game,” Atuesta said after his first match as a Lion. “I was working just like five days with the team, and I feel very, very good on the pitch with my teammates. Trying to know each other is not easy, to know already what he’s doing, what I’m doing for them, I think is not an easy work, but they are very good players.”

“We need rhythm. We need much more rhythm,” Pareja said about what he needs to see from his team in the final week of preseason. “I thought we were not constant on our ways. It was good here and there, but we need more rhythm. I know the result was the most important part, but we were leading the game until the end. So, good for the players that played against a rival that has a bunch of games already. They’re good, but today we could end up just probably 3-1, because we had a few options in the box that we still have been better on that part.”

“I think we are in a good way,” Atuesta said. “It’s a very long season. We have to try to start well. I know the start is difficult because the rhythm is not there, but as soon as possible we’ll start to win points.”

That’s a wrap on preseason. Orlando City’s next match will be Saturday, Feb. 22 at home against the Philadelphia Union in the season opener.

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Orlando City

According to Math, Orlando Among Top Soccering Cities in North America In 2026

A ranking of every North American city by its soccer performances thus far in 2026.

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5 hours ago

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June 4, 2026

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An aerial image of Inter&Co Stadium
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

The opening match of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup kicks off one week from today, when Mexico hosts South Africa at Estadio Azteca Mexico City Stadium (thanks FIFA, for your silly stadium-naming policy). Like most soccer fans, I am excited for wall-to-wall games starting next week, but I will definitely also be missing the men and women in purple as Orlando City and the Orlando Pride will not play again until early July (Pride) and late July (Orlando City).

MLS NEXT Pro channeled its inner Red Hot Chili Peppers and said they “can’t stop, they’re addicted to the shindig” and will continue to play a normal weekly schedule throughout the World Cup, so thankfully we will still have the Young Lions to root for during this break. But aside from that, it will be all international soccer for the upcoming weeks, and primarily in North America.

With that in mind, I took a deeper look at the beautiful game on our beautiful continent and evaluated which cities in North America are having the best soccer-related 2026 so far. There are no actual rankings for this, so I created my own, using the following components:

  • I awarded a half point to the city of every team in Liga MX, Liga MX Femenil, Major League Soccer (MLS), NWSL, and the Northern Super League (Canada’s top domestic women’s league). This covers the highest levels of club competition on the continent. I did not include the Canadian Premier League (men’s, ranked 159th among men’s leagues by Opta) or the Gainbridge Super League (women’s, ranked 35th among women’s leagues), because even though those are considered leagues at the highest level of competition in their countries, they do not compare to the five leagues I included. Also, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver all have teams in MLS.
  • I awarded a full point to every city that is hosting World Cup games. This is a little sticky because some stadiums and/or teams represent metropolitan areas as opposed to the actual zip/area code location for the team or stadium, but I did some rounding. I had to put my mathematics degree to good use.
  • I averaged the points earned per match per team in that city, and awarded that total number of points to the city. Orlando, for example, received 1.18 points in this category, as Orlando City is averaging 0.93 (this was disappointing to type) and the Pride are averaging 1.42.
  • I awarded a point to the city of each quarterfinalist in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup and U.S. Open Cup, and a subsequent point for each win by those teams.
  • I awarded a point to the city of each semifinalist in the 2026 Concacaf W Champions Cup (this tournament went straight to the semifinals after the group stage), and a subsequent point for each win by those teams, excluding the third-place game.

After I awarded all those points, I rested for a minute, and then I summed up all the points for each city to see which cities are having the best 2026 so far (there are 47 North American cities/metro areas with at least one team in the leagues I included).

As this is an Orlando-focused publication, let’s take a look at the City Beautiful and how we fared. There are two professional teams in Orlando that count, so a half point for Orlando City plus a half point for the Pride accounted for one total point. With how well OCB has been playing (fourth in the Eastern Conference and winners of three of its last four games), I wish I could have included MLS NEXT Pro teams in the points system, but including that league did not make sense.

OCB would have helped with the average points metric as well, as it is averaging 1.83 points per match, the best in Orlando. Restricting it down to Orlando City and the Pride, however, added the 1.18 points that I referenced in the bullets earlier.

The Lions are in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, which earned them one point for being a quarterfinalist and another point for winning that quarterfinal match, so they picked up two points from the U.S. Open Cup.

Orlando was not selected to be a host city for any World Cup games, Orlando City did not qualify for this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup, and the Pride nearly qualified for the semifinals of the Concacaf W Champions Cup but fell just short (ugh, because they really should have advanced), so Orlando did not pick up any points from any of those three categories.

With the points that Orlando accumulated it has tallied a total of 4.18 points so far in 2026. Let’s take a look at where 4.18 puts Orlando in the city rankings:

Chart showing all North American cities in the study and its score, organized alphabetically.

The cities in the chart above are sorted alphabetically, for ease of finding any cities you are interested in picking out, but the chart below shows the same data but sorted from most to fewest points earned:

Chart showing all North American cities in the study and its score, organized by score, showing Orlando in 13th.

In looking at this chart, you will find Orlando just outside the top 10, sitting in the lucky number 13 spot. Unsurprisingly, most of the teams at the top are among the largest cities on the continent and were also selected to be World Cup host cities. Among cities not selected as host cities, and therefore cities that did not receive a one-point bump in my rubric, Orlando ranked fifth, trailing Toluca (Mexico), Nashville, Washington D.C., and Denver.

If the Pride had played a little better in the Concacaf W Champions Cup, and had Barbra Banda not gotten injured and missed the entire group stage last summer, Orlando likely would have qualified for at least the semifinals in that cup and finished in the top six, or perhaps even higher, of these rankings.

It should come as no surprise to soccer fans that Mexican cities dominate the top of this ranking system, as Mexico City boasts a continent-high six teams (men’s and women’s heavyweights Club América, Cruz Azul, and Pumas), Monterrey houses four (men’s and women’s for Tigres and Monterrey), and Toluca, which only has men’s and women’s teams called Toluca but is the reigning Concacaf men’s champion after defeating Tigres on May 30.

With Miami to the south and Atlanta to the north, it was always unlikely that Orlando was going to be selected as a host city, but based on performance alone, our city is among the top soccer cities on the continent this year. And this is even with Orlando City having a down year during league play in 2026 and the Pride only recently putting together some decent results.

Last year, through 15 games Orlando City was nearly one full point better, averaging 1.80 points per game compared to this year’s 0.93, and the 2025 Pride were two-thirds of a point better than this year’s team through their first 12 games, averaging 2.08 points per game last year compared to 1.42 in 2026.

That was then and this is now, and neither season ended the way Orlando City or the Pride wanted in 2025, so hopefully the slower starts portend something better for this year’s teams. There is still a U.S. Open Cup, Leagues Cup, and MLS playoff spot for Orlando City to play for when its season resumes, and the Pride can solidify, or preferably, improve their playoff spot as well.

As we get closer to the end of 2026 I will update this chart to see where Orlando finishes in the full-year rankings, but for now we once again have unimpeachable evidence that shows that Orlando is the soccer capital of the southeast. We have all known this for years and years, but it is important to remind the people of Atlanta and Miami about it from time to time.

This was that time.

Vamos Orlando!

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Orlando City

Orlando City So Far in 2026: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

A look back at some key elements of the season at the break.

Published

7 hours ago

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June 4, 2026

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Image of Martin Perelman celebrating his first MLS win as coach.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

With the World Cup break upon us, this is a good time to take a look at a few key components of the club so far this season. It might turn out that this break is exactly what Orlando City needs to right the ship to win the U.S. Open Cup and make a run to the playoffs. Let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly so far this season.

The Good

Without a doubt, the number one good so far is the play of Martin Ojeda. In the first 15 matches, he has 11 goals and an assist. He is only two goals behind league leader Hugo Cuypers. That is 12 goal contributions in only 15 matches. To put that in perspective, last season he finished with 31 goal contributions in 33 matches but only 16 of those were goals. If he can maintain the goal scoring but add more assists it will be a historic season for the Argentinian.

Ojeda’s play isn’t the only good thing so far, and there are other pleasant surprises. Justin Ellis earned more time with the first team and proceeded to show he belonged. He has contributed a goal and two assists and has mostly been an asset when on the pitch. Newcomer Griffin Dorsey has been a solid addition after Alex Freeman’s late departure. Given the circumstances, signing Dorsey was an excellent move by Ricardo Moreira. Dorsey has been good if not great on defense, but has fit in nicely on the offensive side in Martin Perelman’s system.

The Bad

The Lions have allowed a league’s worst 44 goals in 15 matches. That equals 2.93 goals per match. Is it any wonder the Lions have a 4-9-2 record? Orlando City also has a -21 goal differential, which if it wasn’t for Sporting Kansas City would also be the worst in the league. This is very likely a historically bad record.

If the Lions continue leaking goals at that rate, the club will allow 96 goals by the end of the season. The record is currently held by the San Jose Earthquakes with 78 goals allowed. I will say that the team has been slightly better over the last seven matches, allowing only 19 goals for a rate of 2.71 goals per match. If that rate holds then the club will end up with 95 goals allowed. Obviously, slightly better won’t cut it if the club wants to make the playoffs.

The Ugly

Coaching changes are never easy. It almost always takes time for a new coach to establish a style of play and a method of how they communicate with the players, the press, and the fan base. It’s harder when taking over for a popular coach. Even the success of Arne Slot following the departure of Jurgen Klopp soured quickly the following season.

I’m not saying Oscar Pareja is at Klopp’s level, nor has Perelman had the immediate success that Slot did when he took over at Liverpool. I’m just acknowledging it is difficult to walk into such a situation. You only need to look at the previous section to see the challenges Perelman has been dealing with since taking over.

However, he is definitely a part of the problem. Perelman, like Moreira, wants to play a more attacking style of soccer. That’s all well and good if your defense is solid, but as we have established, that is not currently the case. Pareja was good at communicating with the press about the positives and negatives of any given performance. Too many times Perelman has simply said that the team will “work harder.” That’s not good enough. I am personally convinced Moreira wants Perelman to take over permanently. Whether Perelman is able to get enough good results to earn it remains to be seen.

This is by no means a complete list so I encourage you to contribute your own thoughts in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links: 6/4/26

Lions make U.S. Open Cup Team of the Round, Audi Field will host 2026 NWSL Championship, Sergino Dest praises home crowd, and more.

Published

11 hours ago

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June 4, 2026

By

Image of Tiago playing against Inter Miami.
Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

How’s it going, Mane Landers? We’re only a week away from the World Cup and I’m pretty excited for things to get going after all this buildup for it. Until then, there are some friendlies ahead of us to enjoy and an Orlando City B game on Sunday to look forward to as well. Let’s get to the links!

Lions Receive U.S. Open Cup Honors

Orlando City players Tiago, Griffin Dorsey, Braian Ojeda, and David Brekalo were all named to the 2026 U.S. Open Cup Team of the Round for the quarterfinals, with Ivan Angulo also named to the bench. Martin Perelman was named as the Team of the Round’s coach for leading the Lions to a 4-1 win at home against Atlanta United. Tiago scored a brace and Ojeda contributed a pair of assists, with Brekalo and Dorsey scoring Orlando’s other goals. Hopefully the Lions can continue to impress in this tournament when they travel to face the Columbus Crew on Sept. 16 in the semifinals.

Audi Field Named 2026 NWSL Championship Venue

The NWSL Championship will return to Washington D.C. this year after the league announced that Audi Field will host the 2026 league playoff final on Nov. 21. The nation’s capital previously hosted the NWSL Championship only a short while ago in 2022, with the Portland Thorns beating the Kansas City Current 2-0. Along with the NWSL Championship, the city will also host the 2026 NWSL Awards and NWSL Skills Challenge. For those not making the trip, you can watch the NWSL Championship game on CBS or Paramount+ for the fifth consecutive year.

Sergino Dest Praises Home Crowd Ahead of Friendly

Only one friendly remains for the United States Men’s National Team before the World Cup, with the team set to take on Germany on Saturday in Chicago. It should be a tough test for a U.S. side that has some momentum behind it after a 3-2 win over Senegal. Defender Sergino Dest scored early in that match and spoke on the massive support from the home crowd in the win.

“We have also played in stadiums that we didn’t really have fans, but to have a stadium full with all USA fans that is special and that is also what we need,” Dest said. “So we appreciate that and we want that kind of support because that helps us and look what we guys gave you back…a winner against Senegal, so we need it.

“It’s great to have it like that,” he continued, “We want to have it always like that because it just helps us so much to win games. Even for the opponents, it just scares them as well.”

USWNT Aims to Make the Most of Brazil Trip

The United States Women’s National Team is currently in Brazil for a pair of friendlies against the reigning Copa America Femenina champion. Next summer’s World Cup will take place in Brazil, making this trip a great chance to get the lay of the land while also playing one of the best teams in the world at World Cup venues. Road trips are a bit of a rarity for the USWNT, as it’s only played two international games outside of the U.S. since winning gold in 2024. The U.S. will play Brazil in Sao Paulo on Saturday before another friendly between the two in Fortaleza on Tuesday.

Free Kicks

That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!

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