ORLANDO, Fla. (Aug. 15, 2026) — Orlando City SC (6-10-3, 21 points) played to a 1-1 draw against FC Cincinnati (7-6-6, 27 points) at Inter.co Stadium on Saturday night, debuting the Orlando Original kit.
The Lions controlled the opening minutes and created most of the early attacking chances before Pavel Bucha put the visitors ahead in the 23rd minute. Evander’s shot inside the Orlando box deflected off a defender and fell to Bucha outside the area, where he took a touch and sent a shot past goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau for the opener.
Orlando equalized three minutes after halftime through Tyrese Spicer. The play began on the left side of the Lions’ defensive half, where Iván Angulo sped past two Cincinnati defenders along the touchline and played a ball inside to Justin Ellis.
Ellis first-timed a pass into space for Spicer, who fought through contact to reach the ball first before dribbling past goalkeeper Roman Celentano and chipping a shot under the crossbar to beat the recovering Cincinnati defender.
The Lions created multiple chances to take all three points, finishing the match with 2.1 xG to Cincinnati's 1.2 xG. Entering the match, no other team had scored more than goals in league play than Cincinnati, with the result marking just the second time in their last 12 games that the Orange & Blue were held to a goal or less.
Orlando City will next host Robert Lewandowski’s Chicago Fire FC on Wednesday, Aug. 19, at Inter.co Stadium in MLS action (7:30 p.m. ET, Apple TV).
Scoring Summary:
23’ Pavel Bucha – CIN 1, ORL 048’ Tyrese Spicer (Justin Ellis, Iván Angulo) – ORL 1, CIN 1
Interim Head Coach Martín Perelman:
“Well, it was a very tough team, tough game. As we expected against Cincinnati, it’s always like this. They have a very strong offense. I think it’s one of the best teams in the league attacking, so we knew who we were facing as well. We know that we are very strong at home. I think we created chances. At moments, the game was very open. They had chances as well. We always want to win at home. But again, taking into account the opponent, the game and everything, I think the effort of the players was there. We need to take the point and move forward because this league is long and we are still there. The standings, we look at the end. Tough night, but okay, we move forward for the next one.”
Match Notes
- Forward Tyrese Spicer scored his seventh goal of the season across all competitions and the ninth of his Orlando City career.
- Homegrown forward Justin Ellis assisted on Spicer’s goal, his seventh assist of the season across all competitions.
- Iván Angulo picked up the secondary assist on Spicer’s goal, his ninth assist of the season and 40th across all competitions. He became the third player in club history to reach 40 assists, joining current Lion Martín Ojeda (43) and former captain Mauricio Pereyra (47).
- Interim head coach Martín Perelman made 11 changes to his starting lineup from the club’s previous match against Atlético de San Luis.
- Defender Nolan Miller (knee) and midfielders Eduard Atuesta (thigh), Braian Ojeda (foot) and Martín Ojeda (thigh) missed the match because of injury.
