February 27 was a historic night for Orlando City SC as we sealed our first ever two-legged victory in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Making light work of defeating Cavalry FC 6-1 on aggregate across two Round One legs in the 2024 edition of the tournament, Orlando City SC now face a much tougher proposition in the Round of 16.
As fate would have it, the Lions now face two legs against Mexican giants Tigres UANL in exactly the same matchup as we saw at this stage of the competition last year. On that occasion, tournament favourites Tigres UANL narrowly progressed past City via the away goals rule having drawn 0-0 in Monterrey and 1-1 in Central Florida.
Out to avenge the pain we felt in our March 2023 tournament debut, one major difference this time is that Orlando City SC are hosting this first leg at Inter&Co Stadium with the crucial return leg taking place at Estadio Universitario on March 12.
Last time out
There is no time for our Lions to lick their wounds right now.
After all, on Saturday, Inter Miami embarrassingly thumped Orlando City SC 5-0 at Chase Stadium in the first Sunshine Clásico of the year.
Painfully abject, sloppy, and indisciplined in a self-inflicted disaster of a game, a Luis Suárez brace, a Robert Taylor strike, and a Lionel Messi brace made it a truly miserable afternoon in South Florida.
The only positive was the full-time whistle!
It was honestly that humbling.
But reflecting on our Round One second leg tie against Cavalry FC on February 27, Orlando City SC professionally took care of business to avoid any chance of an unlikely comeback.
Scoring another three goals to progress past Cavalry FC 6-1 on aggregate, Oscar Pareja‘s side were smarting after a frustrating 0-0 draw against CF Montréal in our 2024 MLS home opener.
Already leading Cavalry FC 0-3 after leg one, Papi made wholesale changes to his starting eleven pre-Inter Miami.
Among his nine changes, Mason Stajduhar started in goal with Martín Ojeda captaining the side in Robin Jansson‘s absence.
Elsewhere, Shakur Mohammed, our 2023 MLS SuperDraft pick, finally made his long awaited City debut.
Not to mention another City debut for new boy Luis Muriel, whom much is expected of after his P-1 Visa was finally approved.
With City not required to chase the game, Cavalry FC had the morale boost of heading into the half scoreless (0-0) at Inter&Co Stadium.
The floodgates opened in the second-half however with Nicolás Lodeiro scoring his first ever City goal just three minutes after the break.
After Luis Muriel picked the pocket of Sergio Camargo, the Colombian nonchalantly laid in Lodeiro who coolly placed a penalty box finish past Marco Carducci, kissing the keeper’s right post en route (1-0).
Playing for pride at this point, Cavalry FC did make history with their first ever CONCACAF Champions Cup goal on 64 minutes, however.
Joint top goalscorer in the 2023 Canadian Premier League last season (11 goals), Myer Bevan tapped home a William Akio centre to level the second leg score (1-1).
With Orlando City SC determined not to draw for a second successive home game, Ramiro Enrique produced the match’s outstanding moment on 71 minutes.
On his first Orlando City SC start of 2024, the Argentine unleashed a devastating golazo from distance that sailed past Marco Carducci into the top right hand corner (2-1).
An incredible strike and an early goal of the season contender, the Inter&Co Stadium crowd rose to their feet and clapped on in awe.
Not done yet, Kyle Smith added more gloss to the scoreline on 88 minutes.
Starting the game at centre back, something we’ve not seen often, Smith finished Facundo Torres‘ assist like a seasoned striker!
After El Cuervo reached the byline, cutting a smart pass back to “The Accountant”, Smith struck one-time with deadly accuracy to make it 3-1 on the night and 6-1 on aggregate.
With Luis Muriel playing 79 minutes before being withdrawn for Jack Lynn, the 32-year-old got up to match speed ahead of Inter Miami away.
Last head-to-head
As mentioned at the outset, Orlando City SC last faced Tigres UANL back on March 15, 2023 in the second leg of our 2023 CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 tie.
The first ever CCL game hosted at Inter&Co Stadium, it was a historic occasion for Oscar Pareja‘s Lions.
Heading into the game, confidence was high after City achieved a highly respectable 0-0 shutout at the intimidating Estadio Universitario in leg one.
Knowing that we had the toughest draw of all five MLS participants, this didn’t seem to faze the Lions across both legs.
Admittedly soaking up a lot of pressure in leg one, Orlando City SC bossed possession 54% to 45% in the second leg.
Nevertheless, it was unfortunately Sebastián Córdova of Tigres UANL who struck the first blow in this evenly matched two-legged encounter.
After 116 minutes of deadlock, the Mexican midfielder’s 21st minute goal in leg two handed Marco Antonio Ruiz’s side the advantage.
Bringing the ball down on his chest in Orlando City SC‘s penalty area, Córdova expertly cushioned a raking Jesús Angulo cross from the left wing.
Then firing a point-blank left-footed shot past Pedro Gallese, this goal left City with a big hurdle to climb.
In this moment, the Lions knew they’d have to score two goals without reply to progress – due to the away goals rule enforced in the competition.
Agonisingly, we could only find one goal, not two with Ercan Kara‘s spectacular equaliser not being enough on the night.
On 89 minutes, Facundo Torres sent in a dangerous corner that Tigres UANL thought they had cleared from danger.
Cue Ercan Kara however who brilliantly performed acrobatics to send a looping bicycle kick back across the Tigres defenders and past Nahuel Guzmán in goal.
With seven minutes of stoppage time called thereafter, we piled on the pressure to find the second killer goal but this unfortunately never came.
What’s at stake this time?
Ultimately, a place in the quarter-finals is on the line where Orlando City SC or Tigres UANL will face either Columbus Crew or Houston Dynamo.
While there’s no doubt that juggling MLS and the CONCACAF Champions Cup at the start of a new year is tough, Orlando City SC constructed a deep roster for this exact reason.
It’s now up to our squad to show everybody that we can successfully handle both competitions.
Having played Tigres UANL as recently as last season – and not technically losing each leg either – Oscar Pareja will hope this experience provides his side added confidence this time around.
Currently, in terms of mentality however, the players require a boost following the resounding 5-0 defeat at the hands of rivals Inter Miami last Saturday.
With Tigres UANL being the third overall seed in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup, the much-fancied Mexican side will be favourites yet again in this year’s Round of 16.
This needn’t scare Orlando City SC but should serve to motivate us instead.
After all, playing the role of underdog is something we’ve relished since our USL days.
If we were to take the scalp of one of this year’s tournament favourites in Tigres UANL, we’d take immense confidence into the remaining rounds leading up to the single leg final that takes place on June 2.
It’s also worth noting that all two-legged rounds continue to use the away goals rule as the first tiebreaker.
If two clubs are tied on aggregate and on away goals, they’ll proceed to extra time – where away goals no longer count – followed by penalties.
Opposition danger men
When it comes to Tigres’ danger men, 38-year-old striker André-Pierre Gignac is still a consistent source of goals despite being in the twilight of his career.
Undoubtedly a club legend, the former French international striker became Tigres’ all-time leading scorer (all competitions) back in August 2019.
Surpassing previous record holder, Tomás Boy, Gignac currently has a mightily impressive 176 goals in 317 domestic appearances for Tigres UANL.
In Tigres’ Round One first leg fixture at Vancouver Whitecaps on February 7, it was Gignac’s spectacular 88th minute free-kick (1-1) that denied Whitecaps a famous victory.
Gignac didn’t score in the second leg but Luis Quiñones, Ozziel Herrera, and Juan Vigón did (3-0).
Flexing their muscle against MLS opposition, it ended up 1-4 on aggregate to Robert Siboldi’s side who will now provide really stiff competition for Orlando City SC.
Besides André-Pierre Gignac, midfielders Juan Brunetta and Sebastián Córdova have each scored three goals so far in the Clausura phase of the 2023/24 Liga MX season.
New opposition faces
Tigres UANL’s side is largely the same as it was when facing them in March 2023.
A new face however is Ozziel Herrera, a right or left winger signed from Atlas in July 2023.
A scorer in Tigres’ Round One second leg victory over Vancouver Whitecaps (3-0) on February 14, the 22-year-old has seven goals and three assists across all competitions in his club career to date.
He will be another for the City defence to pay close attention to.
Injuries and suspensions
Heading into this Round of 16 first leg tie in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup, Oscar Pareja has a fully fit roster to choose from.
Tigres UANL only have one injured absentee, David Ayala, who has a broken knee cap.
Orlando City SC vs Tigres UANL
2023/24 stats
- It was 1-1 the last time the sides met (March 2023)
- Prior to this two-legged tie, Orlando have won 20 and lost 14 knockout fixtures since 2015*†
- Both sides have scored in 6 of Orlando’s last 11 knockout fixtures**
- Orlando have scored 16 goals in their last 11 knockout fixtures**
- Tigres UANL have gone 5-3-2 so far in the Clausura phase of the 2023/24 Liga MX season
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Key
* Our two victories (1-0 and 0-1) over Nashville SC in the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs Best-of-3 series have been counted as one win
* Our two victories (0-3 and 3-1) over Cavalry FC in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup have been counted as one win
† Our two-legged defeat to Tigres UANL (0-0 and 1-1) in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League Round of 16 has been counted as one loss
** Excludes game one of our 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs Best-of-3 series against Nashville SC
** Excludes game one of our 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup Round One tie against Cavalry FC
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Watching the game
Orlando City SC vs Tigres UANL will be streamed live on the CONCACAF YouTube channel at 02:00 (GMT) on Wednesday, March 6.
Subscribe (for free) now by clicking here.
Click here for the Orlando City SC vs Tigres UANL YouTube live stream link.
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