{"id":398419,"date":"2026-09-13T05:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T05:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/398419\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T05:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T05:16:09","slug":"antoine-griezmanns-on-fire-as-orlando-city-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/398419\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Griezmann’s on fire as Orlando City surge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The legendary Frenchman scored in his fifth consecutive game on Saturday night, netting his third straight game-winning goal in a 3-0 victory<\/a> over Toronto FC<\/a> and further fuelling Orlando\u2019s remarkable turnaround in the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

The Lions now look like a contender to make serious noise in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, and Griezmann is delivering exactly what fans would have hoped for after his blockbuster arrival this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pleasure, a joy every day for me as a coach and as a person, because he\u2019s unique, he\u2019s magical on and off the field,\u201d interim head coach Martin Perelman said in Spanish. \u201cAll I can do is enjoy every second of it, because it\u2019s a privilege that football has given me and everyone at this club.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result extends Orlando’s unbeaten run to five games, including four wins, with the Lions finding form ahead of the most important stretch of the regular season.<\/p>\n

\n Terrific turnaround<\/p>\n

Griezmann arrived at a struggling Orlando City team that were 13th in the East, averaging less than a point a game. Since then, that rate has more than doubled, and the Lions have climbed to sixth place.<\/p>\n

With 20 points in 10 games since Griezmann\u2019s debut, Orlando have found their best form of the season, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup<\/a> winner is at the center of it all. The Lions are unbeaten in every match Griezmann has scored in all competitions in since his arrival (6W-0L-1D).<\/p>\n

On Saturday, he opened the scoring against Toronto shortly before halftime, arriving in the box for an excellent first-time finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like stuff I dreamed of as a kid,\u201d said defender\u00a0Zakaria Taifi<\/a>. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s Griezmann. I\u2019ve watched him for my whole life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn warm-ups and training, I always practice that ball with him because I know he just likes to fly and get his foot, get his head on the ball. And I know he\u2019s going to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a summer of star-studded arrivals in MLS, Griezmann has been among the brightest stars. The 35-year-old has seven goals in his last five games and nine across all competitions since joining Orlando.<\/p>\n

Given both his prolific scoring rate and Orlando’s dramatic improvement since his arrival, Griezmann has firmly entered the MLS Newcomer of the Year conversation.<\/p>\n

\n Team effort<\/p>\n

Griezmann was replaced in the 70th minute, but what followed showed the higher standard that has fueled Orlando\u2019s turnaround.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really hate taking Griezmann off,\u201d Perelman said. \u201cHe\u2019s a player I always enjoy watching on the field. I hate taking Mart\u00edn Ojeda off, I hate when he doesn\u2019t start, and I hate when other players don\u2019t play. It\u2019s the hardest part.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat stands out to me is that they put the team ahead of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvey Sarajian<\/a>, a 2026 SuperDraft selection who spent the first half of the season with Orlando City B in MLS NEXT Pro<\/a>, came off the bench to score his first MLS goal in spectacular fashion.<\/p>\n

Iv\u00e1n Angulo<\/a>, despite starting the game as a left back, stormed up the field to add the exclamation point in second-half stoppage time.<\/p>\n

The resounding win makes a definitive statement as Orlando climb in the East, especially considering TFC entered the night unbeaten in seven matches and scoring goals for fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just shows the character we have with the entire team, with Griezmann, with Harvey, Justin [Ellis],\u201d Taifi said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s playing. We\u2019re going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlando will face the Columbus Crew<\/a> next in a U.S. Open Cup<\/a> semifinal on Wednesday, a game that puts them just two wins away from a second trophy in club history.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll round out September with intriguing road matchups against two of the other hottest teams since the World Cup break: Eastern Conference foes New England Revolution<\/a> on Sept. 19 (7:30 pm ET |\u00a0Apple TV<\/a>) and the Philadelphia Union<\/a> on Sept. 26 (7:30 pm ET | Apple TV<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legendary Frenchman scored in his fifth consecutive game on Saturday night, netting his third straight game-winning goal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47194,16163,139,4786,141,140,158583,4959],"class_list":["post-398419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-antoine-griezmann","tag-match-reaction","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlvstor-09-12-2026","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398419","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=398419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}