Orlando City vs. Necaxa: Five Takeaways

Welcome to Five Takeaways after a five-goal offensive outburst, with Orlando City going up 5-0 in just 51 minutes and then coasting home with a 5-1 victory. The Lions have now scored five goals in a game during each of the cup competitions, and I would like to recommend them to do the same during an MLS game as well before the season ends. Perhaps during MLS Cup, for symmetry. The Lions followed Wednesday afternoon’s thunder and lightning in the Central Florida area with thunder and lightning of their own on the offensive side of the ball, and the only real question during the second half was whether we would see our first-ever double hat trick, which alas, we did not.

Here are my five takeaways from the match.

Martín the Marksman

Martín Ojeda was the player who “failed” to deliver the second hat trick, but in the first half he scored what may well end up as the goal of the season for Orlando City, hitting a full volley off of a perfectly placed cross from Alex Freeman and dropping my jaw almost all the way to the floor in the process. If you did not see it then you should (the video is in our recap), because that shot was amazing, and amazing is good. The whole play was impressive, as it started with Freeman bursting forward from the defensive third of the field, and the right back then played a one-two pass with Marco Pašalić to blow past a Necaxa defender into wide-open space on the right side of the field. Ojeda was in the middle and spread both arms wide to get Freeman’s attention, and Freeman’s cross floated right in front of the Argentine, allowing him to get his momentum going forward and then unleashing a cannon of a volley, leaving the goalkeeper flat-footed while everyone else in the stadium set personal vertical leap records after jumping in amazement with what they just saw. Oh, and he also scored another goal in the second half and added an assist for good measure.

Hat Trick Hero

Ojeda’s volley was so impressive that it merited the coveted first takeaway spot, and that is especially impressive, because Ojeda’s fellow Designated Player Luis Muriel broke his 14-game goalless streak by scoring not one, not two, but three goals in an 11-minute span during the first half. The Colombian hit the post just a few minutes before he scored the first goal, and it seemed like he was never going to score a goal again. But then Freeman made another darting run before laying it off to César Araújo, and Muriel slammed home Araújo’s cross to end his scoreless streak. He then decided that one header was clearly not enough, so he did it again — this time teaming up with Iván Angulo for a Colombian connection (do not google this phrase on a work computer) for his second goal. Muriel completed his hat trick by curling a ball inside the far post after Ojeda ran rampant down the middle of the field, drawing in four defenders before laying it off to him on the left side of the box.

The Sheet Did Not Stay Clean

I am going to include the one negative from this game right here in the middle of the takeaways, so we can calm down a little bit after the excitement of Ojeda’s and Muriel’s achievements but then still go out on a high note. The Lions’ defense once again was unable to earn a clean sheet, and unless they get one in their next game, they will find themselves having gone two full months (June 14 against Colorado) without a shutout. Nico Rodríguez was slow to get out and pressure Franco Rossano, allowing Rossano to tee up a cross from a dangerous area just outside of the box. Robin Jansson inexplicably bent down at the last second as the cross came in, giving Alexis Peña a free header from right in front of the goal, and Peña made no mistake, putting his header into the corner past Pedro Gallese. The Lions bottled up Necaxa for the most part, but they let their guard down on this play and it cost them a goal.

Playing for Goal Differential

That goal that Necaxa scored could come back to haunt Orlando City, as goal differential will likely decide the final spot for the four MLS teams who will advance into the next round of Leagues Cup. Had this been a 5-1 lead during an MLS game, we probably, maybe, would have seen Óscar Pareja go to his bench and give some starters a rest, especially with an important league game on Sunday, but since the Lions lost the shootout in the first game, they needed to win games two and three and maximize their goal differential, and that meant that Pareja only used three of his five available subs, despite the four-goal lead.

I Like This Leagues Cup Format

In past years I was lukewarm about the Leagues Cup, but after a few tweaks to the format, I think MLS and Liga MX hit on tournament rules that work. Despite the blowout nature of the Necaxa game, every play mattered, all the way into second-half stoppage time. I was also scoreboard watching throughout the tournament, since with an 18-team group you had to focus on every team and not just three other teams like in most tournaments. Leagues Cup still ranks behind the U.S. Open Cup for me in terms of pecking order, but I liked a lot of the rules of the competition this year. You could see the strain on Pareja’s face in the second half on Wednesday, as he balanced coaching the game itself with what he was hearing about other results and considering what could happen in games to come, while also thinking about the upcoming Tropic Thunder rivalry matchup with Inter Miami this weekend. Qualifying for the Concacaf Champions Cup (the top three finishers in Leagues Cup qualify for 2026) would be a big deal, and it was clear the players and coaches thought so with how they treated this tournament.

Those are my takeaways from Orlando City’s thoroughly enjoyable 5-1 win in the team’s final game of the Leagues Cup group stage. We will not know whether two wins and a draw with a shootout loss is enough to get the Lions into the knockout rounds until the early hours of Friday morning, but we do know that the games against Atlas and Necaxa showcased how dangerous the Orlando City offense can be when it is clicking. Let’s hope that the Lions bring that same offensive productivity on Sunday at Inter&Co Stadium, and sweep the season series with Inter Miami.

Let us know your thoughts about the Necaxa match in the comments below. Vamos Orlando!