CINCINNATI — Martín Ojeda scored in the 16th minute and Orlando City SC had the lead. They would not have it again.
FC Cincinnati beat the Lions 6-2 Saturday night at TQL Stadium in an MLS regular season match that was competitive for about 45 minutes and a mismatch for the rest. The result dropped Orlando to 10th in the Eastern Conference with a -23 goal difference after 15 games heading into a two-month break for the World Cup.
Ojeda opened the scoring in the 16th minute, converting a penalty — Kyle Smith fouled Tiago in the area — with a composed left-footed finish to the high centre of the goal. Orlando held the lead for 26 minutes. Goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau kept it that way, making back-to-back saves on Kévin Denkey from very close range in the 29th minute and stopping Evander from outside the box two minutes earlier. The Lions were defending well.
Then they weren’t.
Evander delivered a corner in the 42nd minute, Kenji Mboma Dem rose in the centre of the box and headed it into the bottom left corner. Two minutes into first-half stoppage time, Pavel Bucha released Evander on a fast break and the Brazilian slid a left-footed finish into the bottom right corner for a halftime Cincinnati lead. The Lions had let the game slip out of their hands in the span of three minutes.
Orlando made one halftime change, bringing on Tyrese Spicer for Tiago. It paid off immediately. Ojeda bent a left-footed free kick into the top right corner in the 48th minute — a genuine quality strike — and the match was level at 2-2.
That was the moment. That was the window. It lasted four minutes.
Mboma Dem scored again in the 52nd, left foot from the centre of the box with Evander assisting for the third time. Evander then scored himself in the 58th, a right-footed shot from outside the box after Matt Miazga supplied the pass. In ten minutes after Ojeda had pulled Orlando level, Cincinnati had answered twice. The match was finished.
Kévin Denkey made it 5-2 in the 77th, finishing an Evander through ball from the centre of the box. Tom Barlow completed the rout in the 90th+1 off an Ender Echenique cross. Evander finished with two goals and three assists. Mboma Dem scored twice. Orlando had no answer for either.
The numbers back it up. Cincinnati held 54.9 percent of the ball and took 22 shot attempts to Orlando’s 19, putting 11 on frame against nine. The Lions earned 10 corner kicks to Cincinnati’s six and still couldn’t make them count. Roman Celentano made seven saves, including stops from Ojeda, Luis Otávio, Eduard Atuesta and Duncan McGuire late. Crépeau made five. Three yellow cards for Orlando — Adrián Marín in the 10th, Tiago in the 40th, David Brekalo in the 70th — added to a night the Lions will want to forget quickly. They won’t have much time. The table won’t let them.
The One Win Worth Mentioning
Four days before Cincinnati, Orlando beat Atlanta United 4-1 in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals at Inter&Co Stadium. Brekalo scored in the fourth minute, Griffin Dorsey doubled it in the 15th, and Tiago added two — 23rd minute and first-half stoppage time — before Atlanta’s Emmanuel Latte Lath pulled one back in the 83rd. It was organized, efficient, and convincing. It looked nothing like what happened Friday night in Ohio.
The Break, and What Comes With It
Orlando City does not play again in MLS until July 22, when they travel to San Jose to face the Earthquakes. The 2026 FIFA World Cup clears the calendar. For a team sitting 10th with four wins and eight losses in 14 league games, the pause arrives at the right time.
When the Lions return, Antoine Griezmann should be with them. The club signed the 35-year-old Frenchman in March — 2018 World Cup winner, Atlético de Madrid’s all-time leading scorer with 211 goals, four-time LaLiga Team of the Season — as a Designated Player for when MLS’s secondary transfer window opens in July, He scored 13 goals and added four assists for Atlético this season before making the move to Orlando.
Griezmann doesn’t fix everything. But he changes the equation at the top of the attack in a way nothing else on the roster currently does. The gap to seventh place — the final playoff spot in the East — is real. The goal difference is the worst of any team with realistic playoff ambitions. Orlando needs results in July, not just a marquee name.
The Lions have the name. Now they need the results.
