Antoine Griezmann Scores and Sets Up Three as Orlando City Rout San Jose in MLS Debut

Antoine Griezmann waited four months to make his first appearance for Orlando City, and it took him just one game to look like the signing capable of changing everything for a club that badly needed a lift. The French World Cup winner scored, created a game-high five chances, and helped tear apart the San Jose Earthquakes 4-0 on the road as Major League Soccer returned from its World Cup break.

Eduard Atuesta added a hat trick of assists as Orlando looked like a completely different, more composed team from the one that had spent the first half of the season conceding goals at a record pace, giving their long-suffering supporters a rare night to enjoy on the road, one worth savouring given how few of those there have been this year.

From club-record signing to instant impact

Orlando City agreed a deal for Griezmann with Atletico Madrid, with the 35-year-old signing a two-year contract through the 2027-28 season that includes a club option for a further campaign in 2028-29, a long-term commitment on both sides given the player’s age. He arrived as the club’s third Designated Player for an undisclosed club-record fee, finishing out the 2025-26 campaign in Spain before formally joining Orlando when the MLS summer window opened on July 13, ending months of anticipation among the club’s fanbase about exactly when their new forward would finally be available to play.

The France international, a 2018 World Cup winner, made his long-awaited debut on the road against San Jose, and his teammates were already talking about the difference he had made off the field before a ball was kicked in anger, a level of anticipation rarely seen around a signing in MLS outside of the league’s handful of true global superstars.

Griezmann brings a resume that few players in MLS history can match. He won the World Cup with France in 2018, retiring from international duty with 137 caps and 44 goals for Les Bleus. At club level, he became Atletico Madrid’s all-time record scorer, finishing his spell in Spain with 174 goals for the club and a trophy case that includes the Europa League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Spanish Supercup under Diego Simeone.

Crepeau: ‘Such a beautiful soul’

Canada international Max Crepeau made seven saves for San Jose in a losing effort, but he still had time afterward to praise the player who had just helped beat him.

“Antoine has been such a success for the club, on and off the field, already,” Crepeau said. “In the locker room, such a beautiful soul, such a good person that wants to work. You’ve seen him running up and down the whole 90, gives us a lot of freedom on and off the ball, and the discipline. You can see what he brings onto the field when we combine with one another close to him.

“So it’s delightful, amazing to play with one of those top-class players.”

A defense that had been leaking goals all season

The scoreline flattered Orlando to some degree. The two teams’ expected-goals numbers were nearly identical across the match, and the Earthquakes were made to pay for a lack of clinical finishing rather than being outclassed for long spells. But the result was still rough justice for Timo Werner and his San Jose teammates, considering how competitive the underlying numbers were.

For Orlando, the win mattered for what it represented as much as the scoreline. The Lions had spent the first half of the season conceding goals at a rate that put them on course to smash league records for goals allowed. A 4-0 away win, with a new Designated Player scoring, creating five chances, and visibly organizing play around him, offered the clearest evidence yet that one high-profile addition can change the identity of a team.

The scale of Orlando’s defensive problem explains why. Heading into the game against San Jose, the Lions had conceded 44 goals in just 15 matches, an average of close to three a game and the worst return in all of MLS. Their goal differential of minus seven was also the poorest mark in the league, the product of a defense that had been picked apart on a near weekly basis through the opening months of the season.

Atuesta’s hat trick of assists

Griezmann was not the only Orlando player to have a night to remember. Eduard Atuesta set up all three of the Lions’ other goals, giving Orlando two players directly involved in every goal they scored. The combination between Griezmann and Atuesta through the middle of the pitch gave Orlando a control over the game that had been missing for long stretches of the season’s first half.

Griezmann’s five created chances were the most of any player on the field, a return that reflects both his passing range and his willingness to drop deep and link the game rather than stay isolated as an out-and-out forward, a trait that made him such a difficult opponent to plan for throughout his time at Atletico Madrid.

Griezmann’s debut fit a wider pattern across the league

Griezmann’s immediate impact was not an isolated story on a night full of statement performances from big-name arrivals. In Los Angeles, Son Heung-min scored and assisted to power a 3-1 LAFC win over Real Salt Lake, extending his own hot streak after a difficult World Cup campaign with South Korea. LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said afterward that the club’s approach had been to give Son “as much confidence as possible” on his return, mirroring the way Orlando have built their attack around their own new marquee forward.

Inter Miami also needed a second-half rally to beat Chicago Fire 3-2 despite missing Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul on rest days, a reminder that even the league’s most star-studded rosters are leaning on squad depth as the post-World Cup schedule resumes at pace. Against that backdrop, a returning Designated Player scoring and creating five chances on debut stood out as one of the clearest individual performances of the round.

Cincinnati produced a similar individual statement elsewhere in the round. Evander scored and assisted in a 4-3 shootout win over Vancouver, setting up Pavel Bucha for a brace that helped FC Cincinnati overcome the return of Whitecaps playmaker Ryan Gauld from a long-term knee injury. It made for a night where the league’s marquee attacking talent, new and established, largely delivered on the same evening the World Cup break finally ended.

Atuesta’s own history in MLS runs deeper than one hat trick of assists. The Colombian first signed with LAFC in 2019 and spent three seasons there, helping the club win the 2019 Supporters’ Shield and earning MLS Best XI honors that year before a move to Palmeiras in Brazil in 2021. A loan back to LAFC in 2024 preceded his permanent switch to Orlando ahead of the 2025 season, and Wednesday’s performance was the clearest sign yet of what he can produce once he has a forward of Griezmann’s quality to aim his passes at.

Werner arrived at San Jose in January as a Designated Player from RB Leipzig, joining after falling out of favor in Germany and making just three Bundesliga appearances the season before his move. His resume includes spells at Chelsea and Tottenham in the Premier League, a 2021 Champions League winner’s medal, and more than 150 career goals across his time in Europe, so Wednesday’s result was a reminder that even a heavily decorated squad can be undone by one costly mistake at the back.

What the debut means for Orlando’s season

Orlando’s defensive record means the season is unlikely to be defined by one result, however emphatic, given how many games remain before the playoff picture takes shape in the Eastern Conference. But the question hanging over the club after Griezmann’s arrival was confirmed back in the spring was a fair one to ask of any single new arrival, no matter how decorated: could one player really fix a team with such deep problems at the other end of the pitch. Wednesday’s performance did not answer that question for the whole season, but it gave the clearest early sign that Griezmann’s arrival changes how Orlando can set up going forward.

As a Designated Player operating outside MLS’s standard salary budget rules, Griezmann’s signing was always going to be judged on nights like this one, and the club committed a club-record fee on the belief he could be exactly this kind of difference maker. San Jose will point to a match that was closer than the scoreline suggested, with the underlying numbers offering the Earthquakes some consolation on a difficult return from the World Cup break. But for Orlando City, a World Cup winner scoring on his MLS debut and setting the tone for a 4-0 win on the road is exactly the kind of statement signing was supposed to deliver, and it gives a rebuilding club a genuine reason for optimism heading into the second half of the season.