Championship drought ends for Orlando City with U.S. Open Cup win
On a warm, sunny afternoon in March 2015, Major League Soccer arrived in Orlando. It did not enter quietly.
More than 62,000 purple-clad fans screamed, yelled, cheered and chanted for Orlando City SC in its inaugural MLS match at the Citrus Bowl. They saw Kaká score a stoppage-time goal to earn a 1-1 tie against fellow expansion team New York City FC.
Seven years later, on a rainy September night before more than 25,000 equally loud fans at a sold-out Exploria Stadium, Orlando City hoisted its first trophy as an MLS club.
The Lions defeated Sacramento Republic FC 3-0 Wednesday, winning the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup championship and earning themselves a guaranteed spot in next season’s CONCACAF Champions League tournament. Midfielder Facundo Torres scored two goals and homegrown player Benji Michel, who came off the bench to change the tenor of the match, added another in stoppage time to win the oldest soccer tournament in America.
The U.S. Open Cup, as popular television soccer coach Ted Lasso might explain it, is a March Madness-like tournament played in the middle of the MLS season involving more than 100 professional and amateur teams across the nation. The first tournament was held in 1914, 38 years after Orlando became a city and 96 years before Orlando City became a team.
The Lions found success early on. Starting out in the United Soccer League, a Division II league and current home to the Republic, Orlando City won championships in its first season in 2011 and again in 2013.
But when Orlando City moved up to Major League Soccer in 2015, winning didn’t come as easy. For its first five seasons, more championship trophies — and even making the playoffs — seemed out of reach.
That changed in 2020 when Orlando City finally found its MLS footing.
The Lions opened play at Walt Disney World, competing in a COVID-protection bubble in the MLS is Back tournament. The hometown team surprised many by advancing to the championship game, only to be denied the winners’ trophy by the Portland Timbers.
The Lions closed 2020 nearly as strong as they started, reaching the MLS playoffs for the first time. Orlando City won its first postseason match in a thrilling shootout against NYCFC but was eliminated in the semifinals the following week.
Another trip to the MLS playoffs in 2021 resulted in a first-round loss, again dashing championship dreams.
But on Wednesday, the championship drought ended. There’s finally a trophy on Orlando City’s MLS mantle.
As the Lions close out this MLS season, they find themselves in the thick of the playoff chase. Maybe, just maybe, championship magic will strike again, and the U.S. Open Cup will get some company at Orlando City.
