ORLANDO — Forward Tyrese Spicer rescued a point for Orlando City SC with a second-half equalizer Saturday night, rallying the Lions to a 1-1 draw against FC Cincinnati at Inter.co Stadium in a match where Orlando dominated the expected-goals battle but couldn’t find a winner.
Spicer’s goal — his seventh of the season across all competitions and the ninth of his Orlando City career — came three minutes after halftime. Iván Angulo sprinted past two Cincinnati defenders along the left touchline and fed homegrown forward Justin Ellis, who first-timed a pass into space for Spicer. The 2026 breakout player fought through contact, dribbled past goalkeeper Roman Celentano and chipped a shot under the crossbar.
“Well, it was a very tough team, tough game. As we expected against Cincinnati, it’s always like this. They have a very strong offense. I think it’s one of the best teams in the league attacking, so we knew who we were facing as well,” interim head coach Martín Perelman said. “We know that we are very strong at home. I think we created chances. At moments, the game was very open. They had chances as well. We always want to win at home. But again, taking into account the opponent, the game and everything, I think the effort of the players was there. We need to take the point and move forward because this league is long and we are still there. The standings, we look at the end. Tough night, but okay, we move forward for the next one.”
Pavel Bucha had put Cincinnati ahead in the 23rd minute after an Evander shot inside the Orlando box deflected off a defender and fell to Bucha outside the area, where he took a touch and beat goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau. The result marked just the second time in Cincinnati’s last 12 games that the club was held to a goal or less.
Orlando City (6-10-3, 21 points) finished with 2.1 expected goals to Cincinnati’s (7-6-6, 27 points) 1.2 xG, creating multiple chances to take all three points. Ellis recorded his seventh assist of the season on the equalizer, while Angulo’s secondary assist was his ninth of the season and 40th across all competitions — making him the third player in club history to reach that mark, joining current Lion Martín Ojeda (43) and former captain Mauricio Pereyra (47).
Perelman made 11 changes to his starting lineup from the club’s previous match against Atlético de San Luis. The Lions were without defender Nolan Miller (knee), midfielder Eduard Atuesta (thigh), midfielder Braian Ojeda (foot) and midfielder Martín Ojeda (thigh), all out because of injury.
Orlando City will next host Robert Lewandowski’s Chicago Fire FC on Wednesday at Inter.co Stadium in MLS action at 7:30 p.m. ET on Apple TV.