Orlando City SC took down Club Necaxa 5-1 on Wednesday night off a Luis Muriel hat trick and a Martín Ojeda brace.
While Muriel led the team in scoring, the Lions notched their first goal in the 15th minute off a highlight reel-worthy volley from Ojeda, his 14th goal of the season until he added another to that total later in the match.
Martín Ojeda with the ? blast to give @OrlandoCitySC the advantage on Necaxa ? pic.twitter.com/tPLdu4R9Yz
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 6, 2025
Orlando’s next goal wouldn’t come for another 20 minutes, but the Lions’ attack didn’t slow down one bit as they found the post twice and kept up the pressure. It was only a matter of time before they would extend their lead.
Muriel’s first goal of the match arrived in the 35th minute off a cross from the right wing by midfielder César Araújo, and Muriel’s second came only two minutes later in a similar fashion. Forward Iván Angulo beat his defender, sending in a cross that found Muriel’s head and the back of the net once again.
After not starting against Atlas, Muriel’s performance will be a huge boost for his confidence.
“I see every day in training that he has the possibility of scoring every game,” said defender Alex Freeman. “He [can get] opportunities… and today, he displayed that. He was very clinical in the final third. I feel it’s going to get him confidence and get the team confidence to be able to score even more.”
The Lions further extended their lead before halftime as Muriel earned his hat trick — the fastest in club history — off an Orlando counterattack, assisted by a perfectly placed through ball from Ojeda. Orlando’s fifth and final goal came early in the second half when Ojeda put away a through ball from Angulo.
While Ojeda and Muriel are the goal scorers on the stat sheet, they couldn’t have done it without the rest of the team’s efforts.
“Martin and I had the fortune to score the goals tonight, but I think the work that the team did was so important,” Muriel said. “The work of the team is incredible. This team is doing things so well and [is in] such a good form. I hope that it’s able to continue because we can achieve a lot of things together, and we deserve to with the way that we’re working together.”
Orlando’s five goals come after scoring three against Atlas, their most at home since they played Portland Timbers in May. After struggling to convert opportunities in recent matches, the Lions managed to do so time after time in their third and final Phase One Leagues Cup game.
Marco Pašalic, Freeman and Muriel’s returns to the starting lineup forced Necaxa’s defense to stay on their toes for the entire ninety-plus minutes, while the Lions’ defense also limited Necaxa’s attacking opportunities, eventually losing their clean sheet in the 71st minute.
Orlando Manager Óscar Pareja said he’s been tinkering with the lineup to see what works best for the team in what’s been a busy last few weeks.
“We are trying to split the energies in those jobs,” Pareja said. “[Forward] Ramiro [Enrique] has come in the games where he has been a tremendous key for us to achieve the results. Tonight, we felt that Luis [Muriel] was the one who came fresh from the past two games, and I thought it was that quality that he has that we needed. You may say we need that every game, but sometimes we need Ramiro’s energy or [forward] Duncan [McGuire’s].”
Orlando’s back-to-back victories should give them confidence heading into a high-stakes derby match against in-state rival Inter Miami on Sunday. Miami also played Necaxa in a Leagues Cup game, narrowly sliding by them in penalty kicks.
With Orlando sitting in sixth place and looking to be within the top-four in the Eastern Conference before the playoffs begin, a match against fifth-placed Miami presents an opportunity to move ahead in the standings. The squad’s takeaways from the last three games will go a long way in helping Orlando prepare for the latter part of league play.
“Something that sometimes needs to be refreshed is that we are very competitive at any instance and against any team,” Pareja said. “What we would like to have is consistency. In these three games I have seen consistency on scoring, on trying to keep our lines higher, that reaction that we have as a group to relate on positioning. I thought we were a much better team in terms to cooperation with each other.”
The team must now wait for other results to come in before they know if they will advance to the next round of the Leagues Cup, but they can rest easy knowing they did their part in that effort.
Lionel Messi & Co. will come to Orlando for an 8:00pm kickoff at Inter & Co Stadium.
