Maxime Crépeau returned to start in goal for Orlando City SC on June 24, the club announced, as Orlando traveled to Cincinnati for what the team described as its final match before a lengthy World Cup break.
The lineup post listed Crépeau between the posts and named an 11-player starting XI of Maxime Crépeau, Griffin Dorsey, David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Adrián Marín, Iván Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Tiago, Martín Ojeda and Justin Ellis. Orlando also posted a nine-player substitutions list that included Javier Otero, Wilder Cartagena, Iago, Duncan McGuire, Luís Otávio, Marco Pašalić, Tahir Reid-Brown, Tyrese Spicer and Zakaria Taifi.
Javier Otero was designated as the backup goalkeeper on the roster, while Tahir Reid-Brown and Tyrese Spicer were noted as available on the bench. The team specifically flagged Spicer as returning to the bench after missing the last match through injury. The match was scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff and would be carried on Apple TV.
FilmoGaz pulled the official lineup announcement on June 24 for the road fixture, an orlando city vs cincinnati match that the club framed as its last outing before teams and players break for the World Cup. The post was a lineup release rather than a match recap, listing starters and substitutes while making clear the club expects a prolonged pause in regular play afterward.
The timing gives this roster more weight than a routine midseason rotation. Crépeau’s return, after the club’s U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinal match, restores an experienced presence in goal for a game Orlando labeled as a temporary endpoint of this stretch of the season. At the same time the bench listings make plain that several squad members who either were sidelined or had limited minutes are at least available to the coach for Cincinnati.
That combination—an experienced goalkeeper back in the starting slot and a bench stocked with returning players—creates an obvious point of friction: the announcement settles who will start but leaves unanswered how much match time those returning figures will actually get before the break. The lineup post does not say who will start on the bench, how long returning players will play, or how the coaching staff plans to manage minutes in what the club described as a final pre-break fixture.
For Orlando City, the immediate consequence is simple and concrete: the team will take whatever form it fields against FC Cincinnati into a lengthy hiatus. For Maxime Crépeau, the start is both a return to the net and, in effect, a short-term audition—his performance in Cincinnati will stand as the last visible work of this group before regular domestic play pauses for the World Cup.
