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Antoine Griezmann and Orlando City: 2026 MLS Playoff Push
Four months ago, a new face donned Orlando purple and set his sights on building the Lions into a formidable force for the immediate future. On Saturday, we will see just how far Antoine Griezmann has come in his stated aim to put the team on an upward trajectory, both for this season’s playoffs and, just as importantly, for the unique challenge of 2027.
He has already more than made an impact and proved a positive force when it comes to his stated aims for boosting City’s profile. Back in July, on his introduction as the newest Lion, he insisted: “I’ve done some traveling, so I think I’m in a very good moment right now in terms of aesthetics and mental health, but this was a perfect moment to come in and help the team to grow, to win more trophies.”
Frenchman Griezmann, a celebrated player in both France and Spain and a FIFA World Cup winner and MVP in 2018, arrived in Central Florida fresh from an eight-week break from soccer, but only after making a grueling 57 appearances (29 starts for a total of 2,875 minutes) for Atletico Madrid in the 2025-26 season in Spain.
Having turned 35 in March, the main question was how much this dynamic striker had left in the tank after 17 top-flight seasons. He’d managed just 14 goals and 8 assists in his final La Liga campaign, finding the back of the net every 205 minutes for one of the worst strike rates of his career. Could he reverse that form in order to give City the boost it needed after a miserable start to the season?
His initial press conference, as covered by Pulp City’s Mike Synan, was a study in fresh-faced enthusiasm and spirit, with the promise of, yes, he was definitely ready for the challenge.
Fast forward to the final week of the MLS season and we can see it was no idle statement. Not only has he recaptured some of the form of his record-breaking Madrid career, he has lost none of the vision and ability to inspire the players around him.
In just 21 appearances – 20 as a starter – he has bagged 15 goals and 7 assists (14 and 7 in league play), with a strike rate of a goal every 117 minutes, and a goal contribution every 80 minutes. Over a full 34-game MLS season that would be translate to a whopping 28 goals and 14 assists, which would put him fifth on the MLS single season goalscoring list, behind only Carlos Vela (34), Josef Martinez (31), Zlatan Ibrahaimovic (30) and Lionel Messi (29).
It’s clear Griezmann has also had a major influence on those around him, with the team’s record in the 15 games before the summer World Cup break and his arrival in stark contrast to the 18 since then. The miserable 4-9-2 performance of that Griezmann-less first phase of the season – including five defeats in the first six games – has given way to a more solid 8-5-5 since July 22. Factor that second-half record over a full season and it would be 15-9-9 to date, good enough for 54 points, fifth spot in the Eastern Conference and a shot at fourth (with a home playoff spot) in the final regular season game at home to New England this Saturday.
So far, so good. However, the last three games have provided renewed cause for concern, which is not so good. A total of just two points from those matches has seen City slide from a solid seventh spot, with a chance to clinch sixth, to a more precarious ninth and on the road for the not-so-cool play-in game, most likely at Columbus.
The big bugbear that has returned to dog the Lions in the past few weeks is injuries, which were a crippling factor in the early going this year, but had eased off during the first half of the Griezmann era. Combined with a spate of ill-advised suspensions, the team’s form has hit something of a nose-dive.
City’s defensive record in the last eight games is the main cause for concern, shipping an eye-watering 22 goals in that spell, which has also been notable for the absence of captain Robin Jansson, fellow defender Griffin Dorsey and winger Tyrese Spicer. All three will be sidelined again for the visit of New England, with the Lions still able to snag seventh spot and avoid the play-in game if Columbus fails to win at Chicago and Cincinnati loses at home to Nashville.
It should still be plenty of incentive to finish with a W, but it puts an extra burden on two players, only one of whom is called Griezmann. The other hero in purple this year has been Maxime Crepeau, the Canadian shot-stopper who has performed near miracles at times to keep the ball out of the net. City will need both players at their very best on Saturday to gain three points from a streaking Revolution team that has won four of its last five games and crushed the Lions 4-2 at home back in September.
It is not just this year’s playoffs that will occupy the thoughts of Orlando’s brains trust as we enter the post-season, though. With MLS Cup concluding the season on December 18, there will be barely eight weeks before the players are back in action for the unique 2027 Sprint Season, which aims to put MLS on the same annual schedule as the rest of the soccer-playing world.
This shortened version of MLS play will run until an MLS Cup Final on May 31 before there is a seven-week breather and the 2027-28 season starts in late July with a Fall-Winter-Spring calendar instead of the current February to December timetable. There will be more of this dramatic change in the way we watch MLS in the coming months, but, for now, it is up to Griezmann, Crepeau, and City’s shaky back-line to set the playoff scene for 2026 – with half on eye on next February.
Simon Veness was the Orlando beat writer for MLSSoccer.com from 2015-2018 and now writes on sports, music and culture for Pulp City.
