By Jon Arnold
It was not long ago that MLS’ Florida teams met in a Clásico del Sol showdown. Inter Miami and Orlando City will see each other Wednesday in a Leagues Cup semifinal 17 days after a league contest between the rivals. But everyone agrees: This game is different.
Not everyone will want it to be. Orlando City won the meeting earlier this month 4-1, getting a goal from Luis Muriel in the second minute and overcoming a quick equalizer to get a big win. It was the second MLS victory for Orlando over the Herons, having secured a 3-0 win in their May visit to Chase Stadium. But even as a young rivalry, there are plenty of anecdotes for Inter Miami to point to as well, namely a 5-0 thrashing in 2024 that saw Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi each score twice.
With a place in the 2025 Leagues Cup final and the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup on the line, those matches will form some of the context heading into the semi, but Orlando City manager Oscar Pareja emphasized that what will determine the finalist isn’t anything that happened in the past but what the attitude the teams take onto the field Wednesday night.
“We’re bringing the energy, the desire, the effort that has characterized us in previous derbies, knowing this one has a different connotation, it means something different being a semifinal and with what has happened in both of the previous occasions,” Pareja said in his pre-match news conference. “We always try to move forward playing one game at a time. We’re not going to blow up or deny the importance of this game. The guys know it. But the effort we have, you’ve got to multiply it, and we’ll do it naturally because of the importance.”
Inter Miami fans no doubt will highlight the key absence of Lionel Messi missing the rivalry match earlier in the season.
While he and defender Jordi Alba, who came out of Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup quarterfinal win over Tigres with a knock, returned to training Tuesday their status for Wednesday night is up in the air. Having the La Liga and Leagues Cup winners on the field would be a boost, but Miami assistant Javier Morales said they’ll need to see how they feel the rest of the day before making the final decision Wednesday.
Morales has been with Inter Miami since the start, working in the team’s academy in 2019 and knows what a knockout round win over Orlando would mean to the club and its fans.
“Having been here from the academy days and always facing them, it’s our Clásico, the rival. That’s how all the guys in the club feel about it, the fans too,” Morales said. “I think it’s probably the most important Clásico we’re going to play.”
Inter Miami homegrown defender Ian Fray said Tuesday agrees that the rivalry feel extends beyond the first team, saying that even the club’s youth teams look to raise their level when playing against the Central Florida teams.
“It’s a huge game, the semifinal of Leagues Cup. They beat us twice this season, and we’re looking to change that. We’re looking to come into this game, dominate and win,” Fray said. “Credit to them, they’ve played really well against us. You watch some of their other games, then watch when they play us, they really have turned it up a notch.”
While keeping Pareja’s mantra of playing with the same energy as always in mind, Orlando City players concede that this matchup is a special one to them as well.
“It’s a rivalry. We have to win, and we want to win. It’s Leagues Cup. We want to get a trophy, want to guarantee us a Concacaf spot,” said Orlando City defender Alex Freeman, who played at South Florida academy Weston FC before joining Orlando City’s youth program. “This is a must-win game for us. It’s putting our mentality in and being ready to fight Wednesday.”
While the past meetings of the rivalry may not change what happens during the 90 minutes - and potentially penalty shootout - this game may be a key chapter in the story of a rivalry that is still being written.
A previous meeting in the Leagues Cup knockout stage that saw a Messi double push Miami past Orlando with a 3-1 Round of 32 win is one of the most memorable moments in a series yet to reach 20 matches played. Given the stakes of this game, Wednesday could be the biggest meeting yet.
