{"id":434966,"date":"2026-10-22T16:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/434966\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T16:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T16:04:09","slug":"antoine-griezmann-orlando-city-roll-into-new-york-city-fc-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/434966\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Griezmann &#038; Orlando City roll into New York City FC test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>7th in Eastern Conference<br \/>\n41 points (12W-13L-5D)<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been smooth sailing lately for Orlando City, with last weekend&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/mls-regular-season\/2026\/matches\/orlvsdc-10-17-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">4-1 win<\/a> over\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/d-c-united\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">D.C. United<\/a> making it a three-game unbeaten streak.<\/p>\n<p>Griezmann earned Player of the Matchday presented by Michelob ULTRA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/orlando-city-s-antoine-griezmann-named-player-of-the-matchday-31-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">honors<\/a> for a 2g\/1a performance.<\/p>\n<p>Argentine midfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/martin-ojeda\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mart\u00edn Ojeda<\/a> added 1g\/1a, including a stunning scorpion-kick golazo, and Croatian international <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/marco-pasalic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107<\/a> netted a late tally.<\/p>\n<p>Antoine Griezmann: The French legend has helped revitalize Orlando&#8217;s season, tallying 12g\/7a in 14 league matches since arriving from Atl\u00e9tico Madrid in July.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nJustin Ellis: The homegrown forward continues to rise and scored twice in his first three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/us-men-s-national-team\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">USMNT<\/a> caps before finishing No. 5 on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/2026-22-under-22-rankings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">22 Under 22 Rankings<\/a>.<br \/>\nMart\u00edn Ojeda: Orlando City&#8217;s all-time leading scorer leads the Lions with 15 goals this season, in addition to four helpers.<br \/>\nMaxime Cr\u00e9peau: The Canadian international goalkeeper started all five of Les Rouges&#8217; games at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Orlando have turned into a goal-scoring machine, scoring three or more goals in six of their last nine contests.<\/p>\n<p>Consider it the Griezmann Effect, which has them on the verge of an Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs spot with four games left.<\/p>\n<p>As they surge up the table, current postseason projections have Orlando facing Florida Derby rivals\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/inter-miami-cf\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inter Miami CF<\/a> in a Round One Best-of-3 Series.<\/p>\n<p>12th in Eastern Conference<br \/>\n34 points (8W-12L-10D)<\/p>\n<p>NYCFC are looking to get back in the win column for the first time since Sept. 12 and snap a five-game winless streak.<\/p>\n<p>The Pigeons built momentum in their last match, however, earning a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/mls-regular-season\/2026\/matches\/nycvslafc-10-17-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">1-1 draw<\/a> against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/los-angeles-football-club\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LAFC<\/a> thanks to an equalizer from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/andres-perea\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andr\u00e9s Perea<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau: The brightest star in NYCFC&#8217;s season, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/nicolas-fernandez-mercau\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau<\/a> leads the team with 24 goal contributions (15g\/9a).\u00a0<br \/>\nMatt Freese: The goalkeeper started every match for the USMNT during their Round of 16 run at the 2026 World Cup.<br \/>\nLuighi: The 20-year-old forward joined NYCFC from Brazilian powerhouse Palmeiras this summer and has scored four goals.<br \/>\nB\u00e9nie Traor\u00e9: The Ivory Coast international forward arrived as a Designated Player from Swiss powerhouse Basel over the summer. Can he find form in crunch time?<\/p>\n<p>It hasn&#8217;t been the season NYCFC envisioned when they kicked off back in February. Still, despite only one win in their last 13 regular-season games, the Pigeons are still squarely in the race for an Eastern Conference Wild Card spot.<\/p>\n<p>Only two points behind rivals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/red-bull-new-york\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Bull New York<\/a>, who currently occupy the ninth postseason spot, it&#8217;s becoming do-or-die time for head coach Pascal Jansen&#8217;s team.<\/p>\n<p>The market is relatively close, with Orlando City holding a slight edge (43%) compared to NYCFC&#8217;s 35%.<\/p>\n<p>Market insights shared are current as of Thursday, Oct. 22 at 10 am ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"7th in Eastern Conference 41 points (12W-13L-5D) It&#8217;s been smooth sailing lately for Orlando City, with last weekend&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[38167,139,4786,141,140,170379,76891,76890,4959],"class_list":["post-434966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-new-york-city-football-club","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlvsnyc-10-24-2026","tag-priority-match","tag-saturday-showdown","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434966","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=434966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}