Orlando City faced Club León for its second match of Leagues Cup group play, losing 2-1 Saturday night. While the Lions matched up reasonably well for the first half, they were unable to build on a first-half lead or avoid defensive lapses through the second half. Interim head coach Martin Perelman opted not to rotate heavily despite the fixture congestion, making only four changes from the side that beat Monterrey 2-1 on Wednesday, inserting Iago, Zakaria Taifi, Wilder Cartagena, and Martin Pašalić into the lineup for David Brekalo, Griffin Dorsey, Eduard Atuesta, and Justin Ellis, respectively.

The Lions started the game well, with Pašalić playing Antoine Griezmann in behind in the fifth minute, but despite a good touch to keep the ball in reach, the defense arrived to block the attempt, allowing León goalkeeper Oscar Garcia to collect. Orlando was able to keep a good spell of possession and create several decent buildups, but couldn’t convert them to clear-cut chances throughout the first phase of the game.

A few minutes after the hydration break, Orlando broke through. Griezmann and Pašalić worked a give-and-go in the midfield, with the Frenchman sending Tyrese Spicer down the left flank. Taking one touch to settle the ball, Spicer squared a pass to Pašalić about 20 yards from goal, and the Croatian’s shot found the inside of the far post to give Orlando City the lead.

After the goal, León held more of the ball, possessing the ball with more urgency and creating a couple half-chances through halftime. At the half, Griffin Dorsey entered the game for Taifi, but León was the beneficiary of the intermission. Iago attempted an acrobatic bicycle kick in the 50th minute from Dorsey’s flicked header of Griezmann’s corner kick delivery, but other than that, pressure mostly fell León’s way.

León broke through in the 54th minute when Orlando failed to defend a 50-yard set-piece. Dorsey was unable to win his battle against Juan Guevara, and regardless of who it came off of last, Guevara was credited with the goal as the ball changed direction just enough to slip inside the far post to tie the match.

Club León took the lead in the 72nd minute. Bernardo Rhein cleared the visitors’ cross-field switch to midfield, but the young fullback bombed forward to cover an opponent further up the pitch, leaving Ivan Moreno wide open on Orlando’s left flank behind him. León won possession off Rhein’s header and quickly sent it to Moreno to create a dangerous counterattack. Moreno found Daniel Arcila in the middle just outside the penalty area. Iago perhaps could have done more to crowd Arcila, but the striker’s shot was perfectly placed just inside the left post, leaving Maxime Crepeau no chance to prevent the go-ahead goal.

Chasing the game, Orlando pushed more players forward, but León dropped more defenders behind the ball and looked to counter to put the game away. The Lions looked for chances to play directly from deeper positions to deal with León’s defensive posture, and in the 84th minute, second-half substitute Ellis sprung fellow sub Harvey Sarajian in behind on the right. Guevara tracked back but never drew level with Sarajian and took him down with a physical play from behind, including an elbow to the neck, but the referee did not award a penalty, despite Orlando’s protestations.

For the remainder of the game, León stayed compact and kept the ball out of play as much as possible to see out the match. The loss hurts Orlando’s chances to advance in the tournament.

We hope you enjoy the photos from the game, despite the result.

The Orlando Pride continued their anemic play against Racing Louisville on Friday night, losing 3-1 at home to the second-worst team in the league, which completed its season series sweep. Orlando once again did not dress about half of its preferred starters, including Marta, Oihane, Hannah Anderson, Haley McCutcheon (suspended), and Barbra Banda (international duty). Even with two goalkeepers on the bench, the Pride did not dress a full complement of substitutes.

Only second-half sub Kerry Abello’s golazo late in stoppage time and an embarrassing Louisville goal overturned after video review flattered what otherwise was another tepid performance by the team.

Neither team generated much in the first 10 minutes, but after that, Louisville managed a bit of pressure, eventually leading to a corner in the 16th minute. Rafaelle, who has struggled with both fitness and form this season, lost track of Audrey McKeen in the middle of the six-yard box, and the Pride were down a goal early.

Sometimes conceding a goal will fire up a team, but it was not so in this case, as the teams were back to trading possession and a few half-chances. Finally, after the cooling break, the Pride were able to generate their best look of the game. Julie Doyle found Simone Jackson open at the top of the six-yard box, but with only an in-motion Jordyn Bloomer to beat, she rang the crossbar. Shortly after that miss, Jacquie Ovalle slipped Doyle into the box behind the defense. Doyle got nothing on her shot, allowing Bloomer to collect, but the referee awarded a penalty for contact from Mirann Gacioch. After a lengthy video review, however, the penalty call was overturned.

The rest of the half continued as it had up to that point, with a few low-percentage shots exchanged by the teams.

After the intermission, Louisville generated its most sustained pressure of the game, keeping the Pride contained in their own half. Pride Head Coach Seb Hines made his first substitutions of the game, bringing on Summer Yates and Solai Washington in the 55th minute. This broke Louisville’s rhythm and allowed Orlando to get forward for a few minutes, but the visitors brought on their own subs in the 62nd minute and Orlando was on the back foot again. In the 68th minute, Lousiville finally doubled the lead when Emma Sears carried a ball into the box and roasted Rafaelle 1-v-1, opening enough space for a shot. It was a tight angle, but Anna Moorhouse was still easily beaten to the far post.

In the 78th minute, Sears beat Abello in transition. Moorhouse came out as a slow-rolling shot bounced toward goal that somehow went right through the goalkeeper’s legs, allowing Sears to get to it and tap it in. The goal was reviewed and overturned for offside on the initial ball forward, sparing Moorhouse and Orlando further blushes for what would have been an astonishingly embarrassing goal.

With about 10 minutes remaining in regulation, Orlando threw more numbers forward against a sagging Louisville defense, enabling the Pride to generate a few more chances. Unfortunately, that left them exposed to one of Louisville’s strengths, and Sears outraced Rafaelle on the break once again and placed an almost identical shot to her first goal past Moorhouse to put Louisville three goals ahead.

Orlando finally managed to sustain pressure against Louisville, even if it was clearly too late. That pressure finally paid off in added time when an errant cross was cleared to Abello about 30 yards from goal. Abello took a touch and then smashed a shot into the upper right corner of the goal to at least break the shutout.

We hope you enjoy these images more than anyone other than Racing Louisville fans enjoyed the game.

Orlando City began its 2026 Leagues Cup campaign in a stormy fashion on Wednesday night, both literally and figuratively. Kickoff was delayed by about 90 minutes due to a classic Florida pop-up thunderstorm, then the game had its own fireworks as numerous plays — a goal, a penalty, and a red card — were overturned after video review and things got chippy with a scrum in front of Maxime Crepeau’s goal. In the end, the Lions came out on top, winning 2-1 against CF Monterrey, the highest-seeded team of their pool, though conceding in stoppage time was damaging in a tourname.

Whether thrown by the weather delay or just continuing the inconsistency that’s marred the 2026 season, Orlando started slowly. Monterrey looked to play directly or counter off turnovers and Roberto de la Rosa put the ball in the net on a quick transition early on, but the goal was overturned for offside in the buildup, sparing the Lions some early blushes.

Orlando eventually found some rhythm in possession about 20 minutes into the match. Those attacks led to a couple of set pieces and shots by Justin Ellis and Ivan Angulo that were blocked near the top of the area. The Lions broke through on a good David Brekalo tackle as he pressed up into the Monterrey half and knocked the ball to Angulo, who found Tyrese Spicer in space on the corner of the 18-yard box. Spicer took a touch and then laid peach of a cross in front of a breaking Antoine Griezmann, who banged it inside the near post for a 1-0 lead.

The two teams battled back and forth for the rest of the half and into the second half, when Monterrey started pressing higher and putting pressure on Orlando’s goal. Luis Reyes attempted to play a ball that Maxime Crépeau had already controlled off a good cross in from the left. The Canadian took exception to Reyes’ unnecessary swipe, leading to a scuffle between the two teams. When the dust settled, Crepeau was shown a yellow card, but Reyes was shown red. After another video review, however, Reyes’ red card was reduced to yellow and play continued, although tempers continued to flare for several more minutes.

The lengthy break alleviated Monterrey’s pressure and allowed the Lions to regain focus. Orlando got back into the attack for the next few minutes, leading to the Lions’ second goal of the night. Ellis’ sharp through-ball played Spicer in behind against Monterrey goalkeeper Luis Cárdenas, who took Spicer down in the box for a penalty. Again, a lengthy video review ensued, but this time the call was upheld. Throughout the review, Griezmann held the ball at the spot, but when the referee finally signaled for the penalty to be taken, the Frenchman handed it off to Spicer, rewarding him for the earlier assist. Spicer confidently buried it in the top left corner with an unstoppable shot to put the Lions up 2-0.

Monterrey started subbing on its usual attacking starters, trying to get a grip on the game and putting pressure on the Orlando defense. The Lions subbed Daryl Dike on in the 70th minute for his first appearance since returning to the team, and in his first game involvement, he snuck inside his defender at the near post and barely missed a cheeky heel flick on a Griezmann cross at the near post.

Unforutunately, the Lions were not able to hold onto the clean sheet, falling asleep in the final minute of stoppage time. Hugo Cuypers was left unmarked and headed a cross just under the crossbar to spoil the clean sheet. Since advancement will be tight and likely involve goal differential, it may have been a critical error just seconds from the final whistle.

We hope you enjoy these images from a memorable win over the Mexican giants in Orlando City’s first-ever match against Monterrey.