KISSIMMEE, Fla. — One match remains in the 2026 MLS regular season, and while Orlando City SC has already secured its place in the Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs, the Lions' final position in the Eastern Conference standings will be determined on Decision Day.
Orlando enters Saturday's regular-season finale against the New England Revolution in ninth place with 43 points. The Lions have clinched a playoff berth for the seventh consecutive season, but a win is the only path to moving up the table. A draw or a loss would lock Orlando into ninth place and a road Wild Card match.
The top seven teams in the Eastern Conference advance directly to the best-of-three Round One series, while the eighth and ninth seeds meet in the Wild Card round. A victory would move Orlando to 46 points, potentially allowing the Lions to leapfrog eighth-place Columbus Crew (44 points, at Chicago Fire FC) and draw level with seventh-place FC Cincinnati (46 points, hosting Nashville SC).
To finish seventh, Orlando must win, Cincinnati must lose and Columbus must either lose or draw. That combination would send the Lions directly into Round One.
Eighth place would be secured with an Orlando win coupled with a Columbus loss or draw, giving the Lions home-field advantage for the Wild Card match.
For a group that has been in "playoff mode" for weeks, interim head coach MartÃn Perelman said the approach remains the same heading into the weekend.
"Now it's one at a time. Now we focus on the next one. Now we are focused like we did the whole season, right? Being resilient," Perelman said this week at Orlando Health Training Ground at Osceola Heritage Park. "We are not the best when we win. We are not the worst when we lose."
Orlando enters the finale winless in its last three matches (2-2 vs. NYCFC, 2-2 at Chicago and 0-4 at Charlotte), but Perelman said the group has the perspective to evaluate the full body of work. The Lions have overcome a difficult start to clinch a playoff berth in the final weeks of the season.
"I think this team so far has fought through the season," he said. "We have really good performances, good results, and as well we struggle a little bit, and we have our transition period and our difficult moments like everybody has. But I think we are proud of the effort of everyone here."
Forward MartÃn Ojeda pointed to that same turnaround, noting how far the team has come since the early portion of the year.
"In the first 10 games, we were near the bottom of the standings, and now we're in the playoffs, with the opportunity to finish in seventh place," Ojeda said. "I think that's a credit to the hard work, and also to not being satisfied with anything, always demanding more, even when things don't turn out the way we want."
After recent results, the focus for the Lions is ensuring they remain locked in for the entirety of the match. Treating Saturday's finale like a playoff game could help Orlando secure a crucial result at home.
"Thankfully, we get to play this final at home with our fans, and I think that's going to be very important for maintaining our energy throughout the entire game," Ojeda said. "We need to maintain that intensity for 90, 95, 100 minutes, however long the match lasts. That's what we've been training for: maintaining that intensity and staying compact defensively and offensively. Our defenders help us with possession, and the players further up the field need to do their part as well. We all need to stay connected and work together."
On the other side, New England is in a race of its own. The Revolution sit third in the Eastern Conference, one point behind Inter Miami CF. Both clubs have already locked up the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, with the only question on Decision Day being the order in which they finish. New England will need a better result than Miami on Saturday to claim second place.
The Revolution arrive with plenty of momentum despite a setback in their most recent outing. New England won four consecutive matches, defeating FC Cincinnati, Chicago Fire FC, the Philadelphia Union and the New York Red Bulls before falling 2-1 at home to Miami last Sunday.
Orlando knows firsthand how dangerous the Revolution can be. In the teams' meeting at Gillette Stadium on Sept. 19, Ojeda converted a penalty in the 88th minute to pull Orlando level at 2-2, but New England scored twice in stoppage time to claim a 4-2 victory. Peyton Miller and Carles Gil each scored twice for the Revolution.
"We know they have great players, that they play very quickly and that they're a very compact team," Ojeda said. "But I think the most important thing, even knowing what kind of opponent we're facing, is focusing on ourselves. The most important thing is Orlando and what we do on the field."
Kickoff on Saturday is set for 4 p.m. ET on Apple TV.
