Welcome to your preview and match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City (4-8-2, 14 points) and FC Cincinnati (4-5-5, 17 points) at TQL Stadium (7:30 p.m., Apple TV) in Cincinnati. It’s the first of the two meetings between the teams this season, with FC Cincinnati scheduled to make the return trip to Orlando on Aug. 15.

Here’s what you need to know for the match.

History

Orlando City leads the all-time series, 5-4-4, with a 3-1-3 mark on the road. The teams last met on Sept. 28, 2025, with Alex Freeman’s goal late in stoppage time salvaging a 1-1 draw for Orlando City on the road, canceling out Kevin Denkey’s second-half strike.

Prior to that, the teams also met last year on June 28 at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, with FC Cincinnati winning 2-1. An Evander brace, which included a poorly conceded set piece goal from distance, was enough to offset Marco Pasalic’s goal.

These two teams met at TQL Stadium on Oct. 5, 2024, with the Lions leaving southwest Ohio with a 3-1 victory in their final road match of the regular season. Ramiro Enrique scored twice and had a third chalked off for a controversial foul on a corner kick. He also assisted on a goal by Ivan Angulo in an impressive performance. Luciano Acosta scored Cincinnati’s goal.

These two sides also met on May 4 of that year in Orlando with FC Cincinnati claiming a 1-0 road win on a first-minute goal by Acosta. The Lions went down a man early in the game when Rodrigo Schlegel was called for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity on Yuya Kubo. Orlando City had a second-half goal waved off for an offside in the buildup. Cincinnati lost Bret Halsey to a second yellow card late but the Lions couldn’t take advantage.

The teams met in Ohio on Sept. 2, 2023, with the Lions claiming a 1-0 win on enemy soil, becoming the first road team to beat FC Cincinnati all season. Facundo Torres scored the game’s only goal. Orlando had to hold on down a man late when Wilder Cartagena was sent off. The teams played to a 0-0 draw in Orlando on March 4, 2023 in Orlando.

The Lions fell 1-0 at TQL Stadium on June 24, 2022. A second-half goal from Brenner represented all the offense, but it could have been worse for Orlando City as Pedro Gallese made eight saves in the match. The first meeting of 2022 took place in Orlando on March 12, with FC Cincinnati notching its first win in the all-time series, 2-1 at Exploria Stadium. The Lions were more in control but were wasteful, despite dominating the stat sheet. The visitors got a brace from Brandon Vazquez to offset Junior Urso’s goal.

The final meeting of 2021 was on Oct. 16 in Cincinnati, when Orlando City got its first road victory in the series, 1-0 on Urso’s early goal. Tesho Akindele should have scored a second off the crossbar late in the game, but the play was never reviewed, despite video evidence that the ball was completely across the line.

On Aug. 7, 2021, the match in Cincinnati ended up in a 1-1 draw. Nani’s strike rescued a point after Brenner had opened the scoring for the hosts just before halftime, taking advantage of an obviously injured Uri Rosell, who subbed off moments later. The first of the three meetings in 2021 came on May 21 in Orlando, with the Lions posting a 3-0 win. Akindele scored in the first minute and Nani and Urso each added a goal.

In Orlando’s first trip to the banks of the Ohio River, the match ended in a 1-1 draw at Nippert Stadium on Sept. 29, 2019. Benji Michel’s goal in stoppage time rescued a point for the Lions after Allan Cruz had given the hosts a lead. The draw officially eliminated Orlando City from playoff contention that year, but realistically the Lions had been out of it for a while.

The first-ever meeting between the two sides took place on May 19, 2019, when the Lions pummeled the expansion side, 5-1. Both Nani and Akindele bagged braces in the match and Dom Dwyer added a goal as well.

Overview

The Lions are coming off back-to-back matches at home against Atlanta United. Orlando City conceded a late goal a week ago, allowing the Five Stripes to snatch a point in a 1-1 draw. On Tuesday night, Orlando City ran roughshod over Atlanta in the first half on the way to a 4-0 lead at the break and a 4-1 win. The Lions are playing their fifth match in 15 days, and now they take their heavy legs with them on the road, where they are a terrible 1-5-1 on the season.

FC Cincinnati is the much better-rested side, having last played a week ago in a wild 3-3 draw at San Diego FC. That match featured two goals deep in stoppage time, with Cincy scoring the final one in the 98th minute to snatch a road point. Tonight’s hosts are 3-2-1 at home this year, but they’re also 0-1-2 in their last three games.

To win tonight, the Lions will have to play much better defense than they have throughout most of the season. Cincinnati is second in the Eastern Conference and tied for third in MLS in goals scored (30). Neither side has been good defensively, with Orlando continuing to lead Major League Soccer in goals conceded (38) and FC Cincinnati second in that category (35). Orlando City’s offense has come to life in recent weeks — at least at home — but with so many miles logged in May, the Lions can’t afford to make tonight’s match a track meet.

“We are preparing this game like it’s the most important, not because it’s more important than the previous ones, but because the next one always is the more important for us,” Orlando City interim head coach Martin Perelman said ahead of the match. “So, it’s true that this one is the last one of this semester (before the World Cup break), but for us it’s about one game at a time, so hopefully we can do a good job against Cincinnati. We know them. I think they know us as well. Both of us, we changed a little bit some things, but Cincy’s a good team and we’re going to be ready to go there and do our best in order to bring the points to Orlando.”

The Lions will be without Joran Gerbet (knee), while Tyrese Spicer (ankle) is questionable. FC Cincinnati will be without Teenage Hadebe (leg) and Alvas Powell (leg).

Match Content

• Our Intelligence Report provides more info about FC Cincinnati from Rupesh Sharma of Cincinnati Soccer Talk.
• The most recent episode of The Mane Land PawedCast features our key matchups and score predictions for tonight’s match.
• Our David Rohe provides his three keys to an Orlando City victory on the road in tonight’s match.

Official Lineups

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.

Defenders: Adrian Marin, Robin Jansson, David Brekalo, Griffin Dorsey.

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Tiago.

Forward: Martin Ojeda, Justin Ellis.

Bench: Javier Otero, Tahir Reid-Brown, Zakaria Taifi, Iago, Wilder Cartagena, Luis Otavio, Marco Pasalic, Tyrese Spicer, Duncan McGuire.

FC Cincinnati (3-5-2)

Goalkeeper: Roman Celentano.

Defenders: Kyle Smith, Matt Miazga, Samuel Gidi.

Wingbacks/Midfielders: Bryan Ramirez, Gerardo Valenzuela, Evander, Obinna Nwobodo, Pavel Bucha.

Forwards: Kenji Mboma Dem, Kevin Denkey.

Bench: Evan Louro, Ayoub Lajhar, Gilberto Flores, Nick Hagglund, Andrei Chirila, Brian Anunga, Ender Echenique, Tom Barlow, Ayoub Jabbari.

Referees

REF: Rubiel Vazquez.
AR1: Cory Richardson.
AR2: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho.
4TH: Allen Chapman.
VAR: Ismir Pekmic.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki.

How to Watch

Match Time: 7:30 p.m.

Venue: TQL Stadium — Cincinnati, OH.

TV/Streaming: Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish), Nossa Rádio 1160 AM-WRLZ (Portuguese).

Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at @themaneland.bsky.social or follow Orlando City’s official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC) feed.

Enjoy the match. Go City!

It hasn’t been the easiest of 2026 seasons for Orlando City, but things have been better lately. The Lions have started to pick up a few wins and booked a place in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, thanks to a raucous midweek win over Atlanta United. With just one match remaining before going on break for the World Cup, OCSC will try to finish the first half of the season strong when it hits the road to take on FC Cincinnati.

A bout with Cincy means I spoke to Rupesh Sharma, one of the authors over at Cincinnati Soccer Talk. He was kind enough to bring us up to speed on this season’s iteration of FCC, and we appreciate his help.

Talk me through FCC’s off-season transfer business. Who went out the door, and who came in to replace them?

Rupesh Sharma: FCC did not have an especially busy transfer season. There were two major outbound transfers at the end of the 2025 season. Brenner returned to Italy after his loan spell with FCC ended.  The club tried to work out a permanent transfer but a deal could not be reached. Luca Orellano also left FCC, joining Monterrey. 

Inbound, FCC brought in Tom Barlow via free agency as depth on the forward line.  He has scored four goals in MLS play this season, including the last-second tying goal this past weekend in San Diego. The second major player brought in was left back Bryan Ramírez from Quito. Bryan is still finding his footing in MLS but has started most of the games this season.

Like Orlando, keeping the ball out of the net seems to have been an issue for Cincy, as the club has conceded the second-most goals in the league. What has been going wrong on the back line, and how does it get fixed?

RS: In 2025, the defense overperformed its underlying expected goal numbers, allowing about 20 fewer goals than expected.  This led to a belief that the team had a stronger defense than it did. A regression to the mean should have been expected, but that does not entirely explain why the defense has been so poor. My feeling is that the defense got old and that a lot of the players the club was going to lean on have been injured this year.  Each of the top four center backs in Miles Robinson, Matt Miazga, Teenage Hadebe, and Nick Hagglund have missed significant time. FCC may have found a solution to its “old” defense in 17-year old center back Andrei Chirilâ, who has come on and played significant minutes in three matches until he got a concussion against Miami.  I do not believe this defense is going to get better until it finds some more young talent.

Aside from the headline names of Evander and Kevin Denkey, who has been the most important player for Cincinnati up to this point?

RS: The most important under the radar player to me the last two seasons has been Pavel Bucha. Last season, he was the glue in the midfield and this season, he has played wherever Coach Noonan has asked him to. Bucha has started the last five games at right back, and after a rough first few minutes at the position, he has looked pretty good. He has a goal and three assists from right back this year.

Will any players be unavailable due to injuries, suspensions, etc.? What is your projected starting XI and score prediction?

RS: Miles Robinson took a knock in the first half of Saturday’s match in San Diego and according to Laurel Pfahler of Queen City Press, he was not in training on Wednesday, so I would expect him to miss the match. 17-year-old Andrei Chirila, who has been a revelation this season, was in concussion protocol after the Miami match, but he has reportedly cleared it and could be available this week. Teenage Hadebe picked up a leg injury a few weeks ago, so I would expect him to miss this match.

I would expect the lineup to look something like this:

Roman Celentano; Kyle Smith, Matt Miazga, Nick Hagglund; Bryan Ramirez, Gerardo Valenzuela, Samuel Gidi, Pavel Bucha; Evander; Kevin Denkey, Kenji Dem.

[No score prediction provided.]

Thank you to Rupesh for the excellent primer on FC Cincinnati. Vamos Orlando!

Orlando City bounced back from conceding late in a 1-1 draw against Atlanta United at home to crush Atlanta United 4-1 at home. The rematch between the Eastern Conference rivals turned into a rout as the Lions built a 4-0 halftime lead and saw the match out in the second half to advance to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals. It was a big night for the likes of Tiago, Griffin Dorsey, Braian Ojeda, and others.

We break down the match, discuss the many goals and breakaway opportunities, and make our selections for Man of the Match.

After our game rewind, we touched on Marco Pasalic being named to Croatia’s World Cup squad. Congrats to Orlando City’s right winger!

Our mailbagbox asked us about spying. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

After the mailbagbox, we discussed Orlando City B’s upcoming match against Inter Miami II on Sunday. The Young Lions are much higher in the table but in a rivalry match, anything can happen — especially in an OCB rivalry match.

Finally, we looked ahead to Orlando City’s final match before the World Cup break. The Lions head north to face FC Cincinnati on Saturday. There will be a lot of heavy legs and possibly a bit of a letdown emotionally after a charged win over rival Atlanta in a knockout game. We discuss the series history, provide our key matchups, and make our final score predictions.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how No. 534 went down:

0:15 – The Lions destroyed Atlanta United in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals. It was fun!

25:02 – Our mailbagbox is small and surveillance-related.

32:06 – OCB hosts rival Miami while the senior Lions head for Cincy in a weekend filled with Orlando soccer.