Antoine Griezmann Inspires Orlando City Past Monterrey in Leagues Cup as Tyrese Spicer Shines

Antoine Griezmann had never played a competitive minute for Orlando City before Wednesday night. By the final whistle, he had scored the opening goal of a 2-1 win over LIGA MX side CF Monterrey in the club’s Leagues Cup opener, and Orlando’s Leagues Cup campaign had its first real statement result attached to it.

The French World Cup winner made his Leagues Cup debut at Inter&Co Stadium and scored inside the match to hand his new club a result that pushes them toward the knockout rounds of the 2026 tournament. It was his first goal at Inter&Co Stadium after signing, and it arrived in the kind of match Orlando fans had been waiting for from the moment his move was announced.

The Griezmann era arrives

Orlando have fully entered their Griezmann era, and the club is not hiding how much it means to them. The win over Monterrey is the latest in a string of improved performances that stretch back to Griezmann’s MLS debut, with the Lions winning three of their last four matches from the point he first took the field for the club. Griezmann himself has been directly involved in three goals across that span, splitting his contributions between finishing and creating for others.

Interim head coach Martin Perelman did not hold back when asked what the World Cup winner has brought to the group. “The fact that Grizi came, it’s something we were waiting for, and it could only bring energy and good vibes and his quality, not only on but also off the field,” Perelman said after the match.

“I think it’s an amazing group of players. They fight, they work very, very hard and hopefully, we can continue growing as a team because we have a lot to improve,” Perelman added. “They are doing an amazing effort to face every competition, perform, and of course winning, which is what we want for our club.”

Spicer completes the job

Griezmann was not the only Orlando player to leave Monterrey’s defense with problems to solve. Tyrese Spicer set up the opening goal, delivering the pass that let Griezmann score his first at Inter&Co Stadium, before drawing a penalty in the second half that he then converted himself for what proved to be the match-winning goal.

Spicer is in his first full season in Orlando after arriving from Toronto FC last year, and this result continued the best form of his career so far. The Trinidad and Tobago international has now scored three goals and added two assists in his last three matches, including two game-winning contributions, and his understanding with Griezmann has grown quickly after the Frenchman’s arrival.

A tournament Orlando can push through

Leagues Cup 2026 runs from August 4 through September 6, and features 18 select MLS teams facing all 18 LIGA MX clubs across a group phase before four MLS teams and four LIGA MX teams advance to the knockout rounds. With three points from their opening match, Orlando are in a strong position to reach the knockout stage with a top-four finish among the MLS clubs in their table.

Orlando next face Club Leon at Inter&Co Stadium, before closing out their group phase schedule against Atletico San Luis on August 12. Two of their three group matches come at home, a scheduling advantage that gives the club a real chance to control their own path into the knockout rounds without needing to travel to Mexico in the group phase.

A Designated Player deal built to last

Griezmann signed with Orlando as a Designated Player, the roster mechanism MLS clubs use to sign players whose pay sits above the league’s maximum salary budget charge of $401,562.50 for the 2026 season. His deal runs through the 2027-28 season with a club option for a further year, giving Orlando a long-term commitment from a player who was still turning out for Atletico Madrid at the top level of European football only months before signing.

Signing him did not come without cost to the roster. Orlando already carried three Designated Players before Griezmann’s arrival, meaning the club had to buy down one of those existing contracts using Targeted Allocation Money, or move a player on loan or by trade, to fit him under MLS roster rules. That kind of roster management rarely makes headlines, but it explains why a club does not sign a World Cup winner on a whim. Orlando’s front office had to clear space for him months before he ever touched the ball in a competitive match.

The wider story behind the signing

Griezmann’s move to MLS this summer was one of the more unexpected transfers of the window, a World Cup winner and a player with a European resume that includes spells at Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona choosing Orlando in the prime years most stars in his position would spend chasing another Champions League run. His debut goal in MLS competition arrived shortly after his arrival, and the team’s form in the weeks that followed has justified the club’s decision to build around him rather than simply add him to an existing group.

Orlando have also brought back Daryl Dike this summer, the forward returning for a second stint with the club after his exit from West Bromwich Albion. Dike made his second debut for Orlando in the same period Griezmann’s form began climbing, adding another attacking option to a team that now has more depth up front than at almost any point in the club’s history.

None of that depth has come at the expense of Spicer’s role. If anything, Griezmann’s arrival has made the winger more dangerous, not less, giving him a partner capable of drawing defenders away from him and creating space that Spicer has been sharp enough to exploit in each of his last three outings.

Griezmann’s career reads like a tour of Spain’s biggest clubs. He came through the academy system at Real Sociedad before a move to Atletico Madrid in 2014, where he won the Europa League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Spanish Super Cup under Diego Simeone across two separate spells. In between, he spent three seasons at Barcelona, returning to Atletico Madrid on loan before making the switch permanent again. Leaving a club competing at that level to sign with an MLS side, rather than waiting until the end of his career to make the move, makes his decision to join Orlando one of the more unusual paths a player of his stature has taken to the league.

For Orlando, the appeal was obvious. A club that has spent years chasing a first MLS Cup now has a proven winner in the building, a player who has lifted a World Cup with France and major trophies at club level in Spain. What Wednesday’s win over Monterrey showed is that the fit is working on the field as well as it looked on paper when the deal was signed.

What comes next

Orlando’s home advantage in Leagues Cup gives them a genuine route to a deep run in the competition, and the club has not been shy about saying so. With Griezmann producing on the field and the squad winning matches at a rate it was not managing before his debut, the pressure now shifts to their next two group games, where a strong finish would put Orlando into the knockout rounds for the first time with a roster this well stocked in attack.

For a club that spent years being defined by near misses in the playoffs, a World Cup winner scoring on his Leagues Cup debut, and a homegrown winger delivering the winner from the penalty spot, is the kind of night that changes how a season is remembered. Orlando still have work to do to reach the knockout rounds. After Wednesday, nobody in the group phase wants to be paired with them.

Coach Perelman remains in an interim role, taking charge of a group that now has the personnel to match its ambition. How the club balances Griezmann’s arrival with the rest of MLS season, where Orlando are also competing for playoff position, will be one of the storylines to watch as August turns into September. For now, the club has exactly what it hoped for when it committed a Designated Player slot and a significant salary budget to bringing a World Cup winner to Central Florida: a team that is winning, and a front man who looks entirely at home doing it.