ORLANDO — Antoine Griezmann will carry a club-record five-game scoring streak into the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinal Wednesday night when Orlando City travels to face the Columbus Crew with a berth in the tournament final on the line.
The 2018 World Cup champion has scored seven times in his last five matches across all competitions, powering Orlando to a 4-0-1 record during that stretch. Griezmann leads MLS with eight goals since the summer break and his 11 goal involvements during that span are tied for third-most in the league. He has tallied eight goals and three assists in just 10 MLS appearances — the most productive start to any Orlando City player’s career in club history. A goal against Columbus would make him the first player in club history to score in six consecutive matches.
Orlando City enters the semifinal riding a wave of attacking production, with 25 goals since the summer break — tied for fifth-most in MLS. The Lions have scored multiple goals in seven of their last nine matches across all competitions and are coming off a 3-0 shutout of Toronto FC, where goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau recorded four saves for his fourth clean sheet with the club. Orlando has conceded just two goals across its last three matches and posted its fifth shutout across all competitions this season.
The Open Cup run has featured dramatic moments at every stage. Orlando dispatched USL League One side Naples FC 1-0 on April 15, then erased three separate deficits in a 4-3 Round of 16 thriller against the New England Revolution in Rhode Island, with Zakaria Taifi scoring the winner in second-half stoppage time. The Lions followed with a 4-1 quarterfinal blowout of Atlanta United.
Homegrown attacker Justin Ellis, 19, has provided an assist in four consecutive matches and has accumulated three goals and 11 assists in 24 appearances across all competitions in 2026. Rookie forward Harvey Sarajian delivered the first goal and first assist of his Orlando City career in the Toronto FC win, then scored and assisted for Orlando City B in a 3-0 victory over Toronto FC II less than 24 hours later.
Since the World Cup, Orlando City is 7-3-3 with a plus-9 goal differential across all competitions and has climbed from 12th to sixth in the Eastern Conference. This marks the club’s third U.S. Open Cup semifinal appearance — the Lions fell 2-0 to Atlanta in 2019 but won the tournament in 2022 after a 5-1 semifinal rout of Red Bull New York. A win Wednesday would send Orlando to its third final in the MLS era, joining the 2020 MLS is Back Tournament and the 2022 U.S. Open Cup.
Columbus enters the match in poor league form, having lost six of its last seven MLS matches and sitting fourth from the bottom in the Supporters’ Shield standings on 23 points. The Crew parted ways with head coach Henrik Rydström after just 16 matches in the spring and are operating under interim boss Laurent Courtois. Orlando is unbeaten in three against Columbus over the past two seasons, including a 3-1 win at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field last July and a 1-1 draw on April 12.
Several individual milestones loom beyond Griezmann’s streak. Martín Ojeda needs three goals to tie Facundo Torres’ club record of 47 across all competitions and is three assists from matching Mauricio Pereyra’s club record of 47. Daryl Dike is one goal from tying former Lion Chris Mueller at 22 for ninth on the club’s all-time scoring list, while Marco Pašalić sits two goals from 20 for the club. Wednesday’s semifinal kicks off in Columbus with the winner advancing to the final for the oldest trophy in American soccer.