Evander believes FC Cincinnati "need to have more urgency as a team" after throwing away a good chance to win a trophy.

Cincinnati were eliminated from the Leagues Cup during the week after a 2-1 defeat to Atlas, a game in which they led 1-0 at half-time after a goal from Evander.

Victory would have seen Cincinnati progress to the quarter-finals after they defeated Pachuca and U.N.A.M in their other group games, but they fell short in the end.

Cincinnati face Orlando City in MLS in their next match, and Evander wants his team-mates to use their Leagues Cup failure as motivation to go and win silverware.

"I think we had the best scenario possible to go on and qualify for the next round," said Evander.

"I think the Leagues Cup could have been a good moment for the club to have a trophy. But it was just [us] throwing things away. We need to be better, we need to have more urgency as a team.

"We need to feel this loss. We need to feel this loss and what it means in front of our fans. I think we had a good opportunity to win the Leagues Cup, and we just threw that away.

"I think we need to have just more urgency to win these games and show to the fans that we want to win, that we want to win the tournament, and be prepared for these kinds of games from the first to the last second."

Orlando were also eliminated from the Leagues Cup, despite defeating Atletico San Luis on penalties last time out.

Though they were knocked out of the competition in the first round, interim boss Martin Perelman believes there were plenty of positives to take.

"I think it’s important for us in terms of minutes for the players," said Perelman.

"It was our goal to have the full roster able to compete, and I think today the guys performed.

"And we faced a good team as well, and it was a tough game. It was a competitive game. Now we’re thinking about the next one."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Orlando City – Eduard Atuesta

Since the return from the World Cup, there are six players with three or more assists in MLS regular-season play, and two of them are Orlando players: Atuesta and Justin Ellis.

That is the same number of players with three or more assists that Orlando had in 2026 prior to the break.

FC Cincinnati – Evander

In Cincinnati’s last MLS match, Evander scored a goal and added three assists in a 4-2 win over the San Jose Earthquakes.

It was Evander’s second MLS game this season with at least three assists and a goal (also doing so against Orlando in May), and he is the only player since 2010 with multiple such games in a single season.

MATCH PREDICTION – DRAW

In their last MLS match, Orlando lost 3–2 to the New York Red Bulls; Orlando have lost four MLS matches while scoring multiple goals this season. That is the most such losses of any MLS team in 2026 and tied for the most in a single MLS season in club history (also 2018).

Meanwhile, in their 18 regular-season matches in 2026, Cincinnati have scored 45 goals while allowing 44. The 89 combined goals are seven more than any other team have had through 18 matches of an MLS regular season (LA Galaxy – 82 in 1998).

Cincinnati notched a 6–2 victory over Orlando in May, equalling the largest margin of victory by either team in this fixture's history, alongside Orlando’s 5–1 win in the first meeting in 2019.

Those six goals were tied for Cincinnati’s most in an MLS match and tied for the most allowed by Orlando in an MLS match.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Orlando City – 38.6%

Draw – 26.5%

FC Cincinnati – 34.9%