COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2013 The Columbus Crew defeated Orlando City SC, 2-1, at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field on Wednesday evening in the first of two Semifinal matches in the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The victory for interim head coach Laurent Courtois sees his Crew through to the U.S. Open Cup Final for the fourth time in club history, where they will host St. Louis CITY SC on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n
Just nine minutes into the match, recent Columbus signing Josef Mart\u00ednez scored his first goal for the Crew. Set up by another newcomer in midfielder Santiago Rodr\u00edguez, Mart\u00ednez gathered Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s in-swinging cross inside the six-yard box and slotted home a composed finish to open the scoring.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez\u2014starting for just the fifth time since joining the club in early August\u2014matched a personal record with his 11th goal against Orlando with the previous 10 coming as a member of Atlanta United FC. The former Open Cup champions\u2019 goal was his first Open Cup goal since scoring in the 2023 U.S. Open Cup Final with Inter Miami CF.<\/p>\n
The Crew rode that early momentum over the next few minutes, though the Lions did their best to respond. Orlando peppered Columbus goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen with several shots, placing three on target inside the first 30 minutes of the match, though the Guatemala international stood tall to deny all three attempts.<\/p>\n
The first clear chance for the visiting side came in the 30th minute, as 18-year-old Bernardo Rhein sent a looping header up and over Nico Hagen. The ball bounced off the far post and rolled along the line, allowing Crew defender and Cape Verde international Steven Moreira a chance to boot it off the line.<\/p>\n
Just before the halftime break, Orlando finally found its breakthrough. U.S. Under-19 Men\u2019s National Team talent Justin Ellis raced down the pitch, dribbling through a quintet of opponents before calmly dishing the ball to the Mart\u00edn Ojeda, who sliced it across the box and beyond a diving Hagen. The goal marked Ojeda\u2019s 12thgoal of the season and Ellis\u2019 11th assist on the year, both across all competitions.<\/p>\n
Level after the halftime intermission, the two sides continued to trade punches early in the second half. Orlando tested Hagen with a pair of shots, but it was the hosts that again broke through. In the 52nd minute, Columbus\u2019 big summer acquisition\u2014former Spain international Brais M\u00e9ndez\u2014tapped home a lofted through ball from Santiago Rodr\u00edguez. The goal marked M\u00e9ndez\u2019s fifth of the season through 13 matches, while Rodriguez tallied his first assist for the Black & Gold in just his fourth appearance.<\/p>\n
Just moments later, M\u00e9ndez nearly tallied his first brace since 2022, smashing a Josef Mart\u00ednez pass into the top right corner of the goal and racing off to celebrate before it was determined that Mart\u00ednez was in an offside position. Mart\u00ednez himself nearly double his scoring total on the night five minutes later, sending a low, curling ball just wide of the goal.<\/p>\n
As the match progressed further into the second half, Columbus emerged as the more confident and composed team, playing with a sense of purpose and intensity that one might expect to see from the team trailing. The Crew\u2014up a goal with less than half an hour to play\u2014started to slow things down, focusing on controlling possession, earning fouls from a desperate Orlando side and draining the clock.<\/p>\n
Even with its focus on controlling possession, Columbus still found plenty of opportunities in the final 10 minutes to speed down to Orlando\u2019s end of the pitch and send the ball in the box, though no Crew attackers were able to connect with any properly.<\/p>\n
Orlando did pick up its intensity in the final few minutes of regular and stoppage time, but the 2022 champions were unable to find the equalizer in the dying moments. The victory for Columbus\u2014only its second since Aug 8.\u2014means the Crew are in the U.S. Open Cup Final for the fourth time in club history and first time since 2010. Additionally, the Crew will host the 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final on Oct. 21, marking the first time the Crew have hosted the tournament\u2019s crowning match since 2002.<\/p>\n
-U.S. OPEN CUP MATCH REPORT-<\/p>\n
Match: Columbus Crew vs. Orlando City SC<\/p>\n
Date: Sept. 16, 2026<\/p>\n
Competition: 2026 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup \u2013 Semifinal<\/p>\n
Venue: ScottsMiracle-Gro Field; Columbus, Ohio<\/p>\n
Attendance: 8,805<\/p>\n
Kickoff: 7 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
Weather: 82 degrees, partly cloudy<\/p>\n
Scoring Summary
\n 1
\n 2
\n F<\/p>\n
CLB
\n 1
\n 1
\n 2<\/p>\n
ORL
\n 1
\n 0
\n 1<\/p>\n
CLB \u2013 Josef Mart\u00ednez9th minute
\nORL \u2013 Mart\u00edn Ojeda (Justin Ellis)40
\nCLB \u2013 Brais M\u00e9ndez (Santiago Rodr\u00edguez)52<\/p>\n
Lineups:<\/p>\n
CLB: 1-Nicholas Hagen, 8-Santiago Rodr\u00edguez, 10-Brais M\u00e9ndez, 11-Brooks Lennon (2-Andr\u00e9s Herrera, 76), 16-Taha Habroune, 18-Malte Amundsen, 20-Andr\u00e9 Gomes(7-Dylan Chambost, 73), 21-Anass Zaroury (26-Lautaro Giaccone, 58), 25-Sean Zawadzki, 31-Steven Moreira, 77-Josef Mart\u00ednez (33-Gonzalo Tapia, 73)<\/p>\n
Substitutes not used: 3-E. Bailly, 24-E. Bush, 12-C. Ruvalcaba<\/p>\n
Head coach (interim): Laurent Courtois<\/p>\n
ORL: 71-Maxime Cr\u00e9peau, 4-David Brekalo, 6-Robin Jansson, 7-Antoine Griezmann (9-Daryl Dike, 54), 10-Mart\u00edn Ojeda, 19-Zakaria Tafi (14-Tyrese Spicer, 60), 20-Eduard Atuesta Velasco, 22-Justin Ellis (87-Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107, 78), 35-Joran Gerbet (16-Wilder Cartagena, 45), 44-Bernardo Rhein, 77-Iv\u00e1n Angulo Cort\u00e9s<\/p>\n
Substitutes not used: 5-Luis Ot\u00e1vio, 12-J. Otero, 57-Iago Teodoro<\/p>\n
Head coach (interim): Mart\u00edn Perelman<\/p>\n
Stats Summary: CLB \/ ORL<\/p>\n
Shots: 7 \/ 3<\/p>\n
Shots on Goal: 3\u00a0\/ 0<\/p>\n
Saves: 3 \/ 4<\/p>\n
Corner Kicks: 2 \/ 2<\/p>\n
Fouls: 7 \/ 7<\/p>\n
Offside: 3 \/ 0<\/p>\n
Misconduct Summary<\/p>\n
CLB \u2013 Taha Habroune (Caution)48th minute
\nORL \u2013 Wilder Cartagena (Caution)75<\/p>\n
Officials:<\/p>\n
R \u2014 Alexis Da Silva<\/p>\n
AR1 \u2014 Tyler Wyrostek<\/p>\n
AR2 \u2014 Rhett Hammill<\/p>\n
4TH \u2014 Nabil Bensalah<\/p>\n
VAR \u2014 Guido Gonzales Jr.<\/p>\n
AVAR \u2014 Melissa Beck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2013 The Columbus Crew defeated Orlando City SC, 2-1, at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field on Wednesday evening in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-402311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402311","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=402311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}