{"id":365559,"date":"2026-08-07T19:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T19:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365559\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T19:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T19:52:07","slug":"orlando-city-leon-square-off-in-leagues-cup-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365559\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando City, Le\u00f3n square off in Leagues Cup match"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orlando City SC<\/a> is back in action Saturday as it faces Club Le\u00f3n in Leagues Cup Phase One, three days after Tyrese Spicer\u2019s goal and assist led a 2-1 win over CF Monterrey.<\/p>\n

The Lions (1-0-0, 3 points) and Le\u00f3n (1-0-0, 3 points) kick off at Inter.co Stadium at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to win, but as we always say, no matter which result we had, we need to always move forward as quickly as possible to the next one because it\u2019s one game at a time,\u201d Orlando interim head coach Mart\u00edn Perelman said. \u201cWe enjoyed the victory, but it\u2019s over now. We need to think about the next game, and this is the mode we are in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spicer has five goal contributions across Orlando\u2019s last three matches in all competitions, with three goals and two assists. He set up Antoine Griezmann\u2019s opener<\/a> in the 27th minute against Monterrey with a driven cross and converted a penalty in the 60th to double the lead. Griezmann\u2019s goal was his second across all competitions since his summer arrival and his first at Inter.co Stadium.<\/p>\n

Orlando has won three of four matches since the World Cup break. The Lions beat San Jose 4-0 on the road and Nashville 1-0 at home before falling 3-2 at Red Bull New York<\/a>. Wednesday\u2019s win over Monterrey made Orlando 4-2-7 all-time against Liga MX opposition.<\/p>\n

Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107 and Daryl Dike<\/a>, who returned off the bench Wednesday, are in contention for more playing time against Le\u00f3n. Pa\u0161ali\u0107 had not played since the May 23 match against FC Cincinnati before representing Croatia at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Dike made his first appearance for Orlando since the 2021 MLS Cup playoffs, rejoining the club after five seasons with West Bromwich Albion. Pa\u0161ali\u0107\u2019s and Dike\u2019s on-field relationship with Griezmann will help dictate how far this team can go.<\/p>\n

Orlando City received a big hit to its roster; the Lions will be without midfielder Braian Ojeda for several months after he had surgery Thursday to repair a fracture in his right foot. Ojeda, one of the Lions\u2019 World Cup participants<\/a>, led the club in MLS starts and minutes this season with 18 starts and 1,607 minutes.<\/p>\n

Forward Mart\u00edn Ojeda, the team\u2019s leading scorer with 11 goals across all competitions, missed the Monterrey match due to a thigh injury and remains unavailable.<\/p>\n

Daniel Arcila scored in Le\u00f3n\u2019s 1-0 win at Nashville on Wednesday. Javier Gandolfi has coached Le\u00f3n since March, winning six and losing four of his 10 matches in charge. Forwards D\u00edber Cambindo and Arcila led the attack against Nashville, with Fernando Beltr\u00e1n directing play from midfield.<\/p>\n

Saturday is Orlando\u2019s third match in eight days. Perelman made three changes to his starting lineup between the Red Bull New York and Monterrey matches, and more rotation is expected against Le\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

Orlando concludes Phase One against Atl\u00e9tico de San Luis on Wednesday at Inter.co with a 7:30 p.m. start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando City SC is back in action Saturday as it faces Club Le\u00f3n in Leagues Cup Phase One,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,1335,139,4788,141,140,2062,76046,110],"class_list":["post-365559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-soccer","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}