Orlando City vs. FC Cincinnati: Wild Card Preview, Kickoff Time and How to Watch
Orlando City hosts FC Cincinnati in a single-elimination MLS Cup Playoffs Wild Card match Thursday night at Inter&Co Stadium — the No. 8 seed Lions against the No. 9 seed, level on 46 points, with a Round One series against Supporters' Shield winners Nashville waiting for the winner.
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Orlando City’s season comes down to one night at home. The Lions host FC Cincinnati in the Eastern Conference Wild Card match of the Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs on Thursday, Nov. 19 at Inter&Co Stadium (7:30 p.m. ET, Apple TV) — a single-elimination game between the conference’s No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, with a Round One series against the Supporters’ Shield winners waiting on the other side. Follow the run on our Orlando City SC page, part of Orlando Citizen Sports, and plan the night with the Citizen’s Orlando game-day guide.
How both teams got here
Orlando (13-14-7, 46 points) secured the No. 8 seed and home field on Decision Day, Saturday, Nov. 7, beating the New England Revolution 1–0 at Inter&Co Stadium on Braian Ojeda’s 45th-minute volley. Cincinnati (12-12-10) finished level with Orlando on 46 points but fell to the No. 9 seed with a 2–0 loss to Nashville SC; Orlando’s 13 wins to Cincinnati’s 12 settled the seeding and put this game in Orlando. The Wild Card is unforgiving by design: if the match is tied after 90 minutes, there is no extra time — it goes straight to a penalty-kick shootout.
An even series, a first playoff meeting
There is no historical edge to lean on. Orlando and Cincinnati have met 15 times, all in the regular season, and the series is perfectly level at five wins apiece and five draws. Thursday is the first postseason meeting between the clubs. What Orlando does carry is a streak: this is the Lions’ seventh consecutive trip to the MLS Cup Playoffs, the longest active playoff streak in the league, and the club is chasing its first MLS Cup.
What awaits the winner
The prize for surviving Thursday is the hardest draw in the bracket: a Round One best-of-three series against No. 1 seed Nashville SC, the Supporters’ Shield winners, opening with Game 1 on Sunday, Nov. 22 (4:00 p.m. ET) at GEODIS Park. But single-elimination soccer has a way of flattening brackets, and Orlando’s route runs through its own building first. Tickets for Thursday’s match went on sale Nov. 9 through the club. However the night ends, the rest of Orlando’s teams are in action this week too — start with the Magic’s 107–99 NBA Cup win over the Bucks.
Photo: Orlando City Stadium (04-21-18) 1 by Porsche997SBS · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons · AI-enhanced by Orlando Citizen.
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