Martin Ojeda had three goals versus Inter Miami. OCSC won 4-3 in Miami. (Photo/Mark Thor, OCSC)
Sometimes soccer writes its own stories. Saturday night in Miami, it wrote one nobody saw coming.
Martín Ojeda scored once before halftime and twice more in the second half, and Tyrese Spicer delivered the winner in stoppage time as Orlando City SC erased a three-goal deficit to defeat Inter Miami CF 4-3 at Nu Stadium — one of the most dramatic Florida Derby results in recent memory.
If you turned it off at halftime, you missed everything that matters.
This was a tale of two Number 10s. One wore black and pink and carried the hopes of a city that has spent millions building the most glamorous club in American soccer. The other wore purple and gold and carried a team that had no business being on the same field — at least not according to the first 33 minutes. Lionel Messi, the Argentine superstar, gave Inter Miami everything he had. Martín Ojeda gave Orlando City more.
Inter Miami looked dominant from the opening whistle. Ian Fray opened the scoring in the 4th minute off a corner, Telasco Segovia doubled the lead in the 25th on a Messi assist, and Messi himself made it 3-0 in the 33rd with a left-footed curler from outside the box.
If you were watching the first half, you were probably already feeling sorry for Orlando City. It looked less like a Florida Derby and more like a clinic. Then Ojeda decided otherwise.
Six minutes before halftime, Justin Ellis one-touched the ball into Ojeda's path and the forward spun out of his marker and drilled it into the bottom left corner. When the halftime whistle sounded Orlando City carried something they hadn't brought into the game: belief.
Orlando's interim head coach Martín Perelman never blinked. Throughout the comeback, he stood on the touchline with the patience and calm of a man who trusted his plan. On the other sideline, Inter Miami's Guillermo Hoyos looked increasingly stressed as the second half unraveled. The contrast in the dugouts told its own story.
Two halftime substitutions — Spicer and Eduard Atuesta for Tiago and Luis Otávio — changed everything. The second half was a different game played by a different Orlando City. Faster. More direct. Exploiting the spaces behind Inter Miami's backline with a pace the home side simply couldn't match. Fan favorite Duncan McGuire, introduced in the 59th minute, stretched the defense wide and gave Ojeda and Spicer the room to operate. Inter Miami's players looked heavy-legged. Orlando's looked like they had something to prove.
Ojeda made it 3-2 in the 68th minute, slotting an Adrián Marín pass into the bottom right corner. Nu Stadium, which had been rocking, went quiet. Then came the penalty — Maximiliano Falcón pushing Iago Teodoro in the box. Ojeda stepped up and drove it to the top left corner. Hat-trick. 3-3. Messi was booked arguing the call with the referee — a flash of frustration from the Argentine that captured exactly how badly this had gone sideways for the home side.
Spicer finished it in the 93rd minute, converting a Braian Ojeda through ball low past the keeper. Ballgame.
It is worth pausing on what Maxime Crépeau did to make all of this possible. The goalkeeper made seven saves in a first half in which Inter Miami controlled 64 percent of possession and put up 26 shot attempts to Orlando's 13. Without him, there is no comeback story. His two denials of Suárez alone were the difference between a lifeline and a rout.
There is context that makes this result even more striking. Inter Miami had beaten Orlando at Inter&Co Stadium 4-2 on March 1. The Lions came into Saturday 2-7-1 with seven points — a team that, statistically, had no business turning this game around. And Nu Stadium is still waiting for its first home win in four attempts in the new building. Saturday was supposed to be the night that changed.
It wasn't.
Martín Perelman deserves serious consideration as permanent head coach. What he did at halftime — tactically, psychologically — was the work of someone who knows exactly what this group is capable of. Second, Martín Ojeda is Orlando City's all-time leading scorer and their best player. After a night like Saturday in Miami, that doesn't feel like a stretch at all. The academy players are stepping up. The veterans are finding their rhythm. And captain Robin Jansson, composed throughout despite an early yellow card, provided the leadership the backline needed when the game was on the line.
The road doesn't get easier. Orlando City travel to face CF Montréal next Saturday, May 9, at 4:30 p.m. — a Montréal side sitting at 3-7-0 with nine points, one below the Lions in the table. The Lions return home to host Atlanta United FC on May 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Back-to-back wins — Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup victory in New England followed by Saturday's derby stunner in Miami — have given this team something it lacked just two weeks ago. Whether that something travels to Montréal will tell us a great deal about what Orlando City is becoming.
The table still tells the longer story. But Saturday night at Nu Stadium, Orlando City wrote a chapter worth reading.
