Orlando City vs. Pumas UNAM (Leagues Cup)
When: Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.
Where: Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando, Fla.
Attend: Single-Match Tickets
TV: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV (subscription required)
Everything you need to know for the Lions' opening match in Leagues Cup in "The Road Ahead":
Milestones
- At 13g/13a in all competitions, Martín Ojeda is one goal contribution away from matching Facundo Torres’ 2024 season (20g/7a) as the most productive in Orlando City history. Ojeda’s 2025 became the all-time best MLS regular season for an Orlando player on Friday with his 1g/2a masterclass against the Columbus Crew.
- Ojeda’s next assist will set a new single-season record for Orlando City, surpassing the total both he and Nicolás Lodeiro achieved last year.
- Ojeda has a goal contribution in ten consecutive matches, a club record he can extend to eleven with a goal or an assist on Wednesday.
- Both Ojeda and Ramiro Enrique are busily making their way up the Orlando City all-time scoring charts. Ojeda ranks fifth in club history with 26 goals, two behind Duncan McGuire in fourth. After his brace against Columbus last Friday, Enrique is tied for sixth with Kaká at 25 goals. Kaká is outside the top 5 in goals in the Orlando City MLS era for the first time since he scored the first league goal in club history in 2015.
- Robin Jansson is 190 minutes away from becoming the first Orlando City player to reach 20,000 minutes played for the club in all competitions.
Stats & Storylines
- Orlando City made a massive statement on Friday, coming back with three unanswered goals in the final 16 minutes and stoppage time to stun Columbus 3-1 at Lower.com Field. Ramiro Enrique scored a four-minute brace off the bench, with both goals assisted by Iván Angulo and Martín Ojeda. The Argentine No. 10 finished the game off in style late in stoppage time after Alex Freeman’s brilliant interception, run, and throughball.
- The win was Orlando’s fourth in five away from home. Orlando City has lost just once in its last 12 games on the road. The Lions also snapped a three-game losing streak against the Crew, defeating the Central Ohio side for the 11th time.
- In addition to Ojeda’s historic exploits documented above, Angulo became the third player in club history to reach 30 career assists, after Ojeda and all-time record holder Mauricio Pereyra (47). Angulo has three assists in his last two matches and is tied for second on the team with Eduard Atuesta at seven in all competitions.
- Orlando City will now take a short break from MLS play to focus in on the revamped and streamlined Leagues Cup, which has narrowed the MLS side of the competition to just the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs teams (with San Diego FC replacing the Vancouver Whitecaps, who were already committed to two other tournaments and could not participate). Every single match in the tournament will be MLS vs. Liga MX through the quarterfinal round.
- The Lions will play three matches, all at home, and then be judged against the other 17 MLS clubs based on total points won. The top four MLS clubs will then advance to face the top four Liga MX clubs in the knockout rounds. There are still no draws in Leagues Cup – every match level after 90 minutes will be decided by a penalty shootout, with the winner awarded an extra point.
- Orlando City has bowed out early in each of the last two Leagues Cups, controversially falling to Inter Miami 3-1 in 2023 before cruelly going down in penalties against Cruz Azul last year despite largely outplaying the Mexican giants throughout what turned out to be a 0-0 draw.
- Orlando is 10-2 all-time in penalty shootouts, losing their perfect record last summer against Cruz Azul and then dropping Game 2 of their First Round playoff series to Charlotte on spot kicks. The Lions won the decisive Game 3 penalties a week later, their last shootout to date.
- Orlando City has played eight games against Liga MX sides, winning one (against Santos Laguna in 2023), losing two, and drawing five, including both it contested last season.
Series History
All-time vs. Pumas - First meeting
Meet the opponent: Pumas UNAM
- Pumas is one of the most storied clubs in Mexican soccer history, taking a place among Los Cuatros Grandes (the Big Four) Mexican teams alongside Club América, Cruz Azul, and Chivas Guadalajara. Pumas is the youngest of those teams, founded as a team of college students at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in the 1940s before turning pro in 1954.
- Pumas has won seven Liga MX titles but has yet to win Mexican soccer’s top prize since the spring 2011 season. Pumas also won three CONCACAF Champions Cups in the 1980s, recently finishing as runners-up to champion Seattle Sounders in 2022. The club’s best-ever year was 2004, when it won both the spring and fall titles as well as the Campeón de Campeones match pitting the two seasonal champions head to head.
- After dropping its first two matches of the 2025 fall season (the Apertura), Pumas picked up its first three points of the campaign this past Friday, winning 2-0 at Querétaro. Guillermo “Memote” Martínez, the club’s leading scorer from the 2024/25 season, scored his first of the Apertura, while winger Jorge Ruvalcaba netted for the second straight match.
- Pumas features two former MLS players at the heart of its midfield, with former Houston Dynamo box-to-box ace Coco Carrasquilla now joined by Pedro Vite, who was at the heart of Vancouver’s run to the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup final and just joined Pumas this month.
- The Mexico City side had a massive transfer window, securing not only Vite, but former Arsenal and Wales midfielder Aaron Ramsey (yet to debut) and legendary Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas (started his first game Friday vs. Querétaro).
