Griezmann’s Seven Goals in Nine Games Cash Orlando’s Bet

Antoine Griezmann scored twice as Orlando City beat Atlanta United 3-2 on Wednesday, taking him to seven MLS goals in nine games. The Lions sit sixth in the Eastern Conference on 31 points, 15 goals in the red.

Orlando City signed him in March and parked him until July. The 4-0 debut in San Jose was the first night of that wager. The return, seven weeks later, is a scoring streak sitting on a leaky side.

Night One Was a 4-0 in San Jose

On July 22 at PayPal Park, Orlando City wrecked the San Jose Earthquakes 4-0 in the first game back after the World Cup break. David Brekalo flicked in Eduard Atuesta’s free kick in the seventh minute. Iván Angulo made it 2-0 in the 29th, his first league goal since Oct. 5, 2024.

Griezmann’s first MLS goal in the 48th minute made it 3-0 and was the 300th club goal of his career. Justin Ellis jumped a sloppy Earthquakes pass, found him, and Griezmann cut onto his left foot and rolled it inside Angus Gunn’s near post. Braian Ojeda added the fourth. Maxime Crépeau made seven saves for the first MLS clean sheet of Orlando’s season.

Martín Perelman, the coach who inherited the job after Óscar Pareja left in March, sounded like a man who had been waiting for a night like that.

Very happy on the victory. The way the guys performed today, I think it was amazing. It was a really good start to the second part of the season, so we’re so happy.

Martín Perelman, Orlando City coach, after the San Jose match

Griezmann played the full 90. He created five chances and completed 45 of 54 passes. The scoreline looked like a new team. The table after it still read 5-9-2.

They Had Four Wins When He Landed

Orlando City announced the signing on March 24: a Designated Player deal through 2027-28, with a club option for 2028-29, pending his ITC and P-1 visa. He would wear No. 7. He would not actually report until the secondary window opened on July 13, after Atlético Madrid’s season and the World Cup.

Owner Mark Wilf called it a statement about building a championship roster. Sporting director Ricardo Moreira called Griezmann a complete footballer. Griezmann, 35, said the ambition in those first talks is what sold him. He arrived as Atlético’s all-time leading scorer with 211 goals, and with 298 goals and 132 assists in 792 club appearances across Atlético, Barcelona and Real Sociedad. For France he scored 44 and added 38 assists in 137 caps, then retired from international play in 2024.

THE BET ON THE CALENDAR

1. March 24, 2026: Orlando City signs Griezmann as a Designated Player, to join in July.
2. July 10, 2026: The club trades Duncan McGuire to Houston Dynamo FC for a package worth up to $2.4 million in allocation money.
3. July 13, 2026: The secondary window opens and the summer names become eligible to debut.
4. July 17, 2026: Daryl Dike returns on a free-agent deal. He does not play in San Jose.
5. July 22, 2026: Griezmann starts, scores, and Orlando City win 4-0 at San Jose.

Before that debut, the Lions had four of their first 15 games in the win column and had given up 44 goals. Crépeau came back from the World Cup in better form, Perelman said, and the first two nights after the break were clean sheets. The rest of the window sat around the Frenchman: Bernardo Rhein on a short-term deal, homegrowns Clovis Archange and Tristan Himes, Dike back, McGuire gone.

When the window opened, the cheap line on MLS was that it was stocking a farewell tour. Robert Lewandowski went to Chicago Fire, Allan Saint-Maximin to Charlotte FC, Casemiro toward Inter Miami. Orlando’s version of that same aging-star wager around the league was a 35-year-old No. 7 with two years on the paper and a team that had won four times.

Nashville’s Unbeaten Run Died in Orlando

Three days after San Jose, Griezmann’s home debut was the harder night. Nashville SC arrived as Eastern Conference leaders at 12-2-3 and 39 points, unbeaten in 10, and left with a 1-0 loss in front of 24,453 at Inter.co Stadium after a weather delay of more than an hour.

Griezmann went another full 90 without a goal or an assist. Tyrese Spicer, on in the 53rd minute, finished a Justin Ellis pass in the 72nd. Adrián Marín had the secondary assist. Crépeau made three saves. The club’s own report logged a 1-0 win over Nashville SC as Orlando’s second straight shutout, with the Lions at 6-9-2 and 20 points.

Perelman started three teenagers that night: Rhein, 18, in his first MLS start, Ellis, and Luís Otávio. Atuesta sat on yellow-card accumulation. Martín Ojeda missed with a thigh injury. Griezmann still tracked back, which is the unglamorous half of what Orlando bought, and Nashville’s press never found an equalizer.

He had cut his break short to learn the group. The supporters had months to build a tifo of him with the 2018 World Cup trophy. He said it gave him goosebumps, and that he wanted to walk over, except Nashville were on that side of the field.

I wanted to arrive here a little bit early, to get to know the group, the tactics, really bond with the locker room, and get to work. I think it’s gone well, but we continue to work.

Antoine Griezmann, after his home debut

Spicer, who scored the winner, put the dressing-room test in one line: no matter how big you are, DP or not, you work. The next two league games answered that with a 2-3 loss at New York Red Bulls, where Griezmann picked up an assist, and a 1-1 draw with FC Cincinnati. Chicago Fire then beat them 1-2 at home. The wager had a wobble in it.

He Has Now Scored in Four Straight

The turn sat on Aug. 22. Griezmann scored twice in a 2-1 home win over Real Salt Lake, his first brace in purple. He had a goal and an assist in a 3-3 draw at Minnesota United on Aug. 29, then the only goal in a 1-0 win over San Diego FC on Sept. 5, with Ellis and Dike on the assists. Wednesday in Atlanta made it four straight games with a goal and six in those four.

HIS NINE MLS GAMES

That is seven goals and three assists in nine MLS matches, 810 minutes, no penalties. The expected-goals line on those nine nights is 4.02. He is running ahead of it. He has two braces. Four of the seven have come on the road.

Atlanta was the loudest of them. Mercedes-Benz Stadium went 1-0 to the home side in the seventh minute on a David Brekalo own goal. Griezmann equalized in the 26th, sliding in at the front post onto a low ball from Joran Gerbet. Angulo put Orlando in front in the 58th, finishing a move Robin Jansson started and Martín Ojeda touched on. Griezmann’s second, in the 77th, was a give-and-go with Ellis after Wilder Cartagena won the ball, tapped in from just outside the six, then a Heisman pose. Tyrese Spicer’s own goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time made the final 3-2. Crépeau had one save. Orlando had 60 percent of the ball.

French highlight accounts treated the brace like a recall petition. The nine-game tape does not look like a man collecting a paycheck on the way out. It looks like a No. 7 who skipped part of his holiday so he could press in Florida in July.

Sixth Place Still Comes With a Minus-15

Orlando City are 9-11-4 for 31 points from 24 games, sixth in the East. They have scored 41 and given up 56. That is a minus-15. The top seven go straight into the conference quarterfinals. Eighth and ninth play a wild-card game.

THE EAST FROM FIFTH TO NINTH

Nashville still lead the conference on 53 points. Inter Miami have 44. The Lions are one point above Philadelphia and two above New York City FC, and they are tied on 31 with Cincinnati, who have a game in hand and a better goal difference. Unbeaten in four (three wins, one draw) is how they climbed. It is not a cushion.

Before Griezmann, Orlando had 14 points from 15 games at 4-9-2. The nine games since are 5-2-2 and 17 more points. That is the wager hitting. The other column is the defense that 4-0 did not repair: 44 goals against in those first 15, then 12 more in the nine with him, including two own goals in Atlanta. A 1-0 over San Diego and the Nashville shutout sit in the same run. The season line still reads 56 conceded.

Ellis, Dike and a Date With Toronto

The supporting cast is why the bet is more than one man. Ellis, still a teenager, had two assists in the San Jose rout, the winner against Nashville, and the last ball for Griezmann’s 77th-minute tap-in in Atlanta. Club notes before that Atlanta trip had him on 3 goals and 9 assists across all competitions, and on half of Griezmann’s goals in all comps to that point.

Dike, back on July 17, sat the debut and then put a goal contribution in each of his first three starts (2 goals, 1 assist), including the secondary assist on the San Diego winner. Cartagena’s tackle in Atlanta created the insurance goal. Angulo, blank from October 2024 until San Jose, now has the go-ahead strike in a rivalry win. Rhein has gone from a short-term call-up to the matchday mix.

WHAT THE NINE GAMES ACTUALLY SHOW

• The return: Seven goals and three assists in nine MLS games, two braces, six goals in the last four.
• The table: Sixth in the East on 31 points after 14 points from the first 15 games.
• The hole: Forty-one scored, 56 conceded, still a minus-15, with Cincinnati on 31 from a game fewer.
• The next night: Toronto FC at home on Saturday, with the wild-card line a point behind.

Toronto come in on 29 points from 24 games. A home win would put some air between Orlando and the play-in round. A slip, with Cincinnati still to play their game in hand, puts sixth back up for grabs. Griezmann has started every league night and finished every one of them. The 4-0 in San Jose was never going to be the whole return. Nine games in, the goals are there, the place in the East is real, and the minus-15 is still on the same sheet.