Orlando City versus Atlético de San Luis in the Leagues Cup, played in front of a limited number of fans, was a wild match. It appears that the fanbase lives on a weekly emotional rollercoaster, but forget the online noise for a second; here’s what actually went down: the Lions won the shootout and still got kicked out of the tournament. Bittersweet doesn’t even cover it.
For most of the night, things were looking good. The boys came out flying, and the plan was working. Daryl Dike made his first start since coming back and was an absolute unit. He pushed those San Luis center-backs around all half and finished it off with a hard-fought goal in the 31st minute.
Wilder Cartagena was the midfield boss. He picked up a soft yellow card early (16’), so they had to manage him carefully, but he still put in that typical gritty, high-energy shift. He was cleaning up second balls, shutting down the middle, and forcing them wide. Wilder was the captain out there in the first half, and it showed.
Marco Pašalić was buzzing the whole time, always available on the break and still tracking back when he had to. Tiago was slicing through them vertically. San Luis kept giving the ball away cheap in the middle third, and Tiago was all over that space.
Vibes were sky-high in the second half. Tiago put on a clinic, including that filthy 68th-minute through ball that split the defense wide open. Homegrown kid Justin Ellis came on and finished it cool as ice—2-0. At that point the Lions were focused, and their momentum was at its peak.
Orlando needed a five-goal miracle to have any chance of advancing. But holding a two-goal lead should not have been a problem. Then the last 15 minutes happened… and it turned into a full defensive meltdown. Taking Cartagena off was the moment it flipped. Once he left, the midfield went soft, and the back line dropped far too deep, far too fast. Gave Sebastián Pérez Bouquet all the room he needed at the edge of the box to claw one back in the 78th.
Antoine Griezmann comes on in the 74th with the captain’s armband, expected to close out the game. Instead, he misses a complete sitter into an open net. That miss immediately sparks a San Luis counter, the defense loses its mind, and David Rodríguez has a free run to equalize in the 96th minute. It went from a 2-0 cruise control to a 2-2 nightmare in stoppage time.
Interim coach Martin Perelman did exactly what you have to do in a packed Leagues Cup schedule: rotate the squad. Seven changes. He got Dike minutes, gave Colin Guske some run, handed Issah Haruna a debut, and brought on world-class vet Griezmann to close it out. The coach didn’t mess it up. The players on the field just lost their nerve, had massive concentration lapses, and couldn’t clear their lines when San Luis threw bodies forward.
To their credit, the Lions were ice in the shootout. Griezmann made up for his earlier miss, and Ellis, Caraballo, Iago, and Adrián Marín all converted their penalties. When Aldo Cruz (San Luis) missed in sudden death vs. Otero, Orlando took it 5-4 and grabbed the extra point.
The late collapse in regulation meant they failed to secure the points actually needed to advance. They survived the night, but the run is over.
Adios, Leagues Cup.
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