Houston Dynamo FC will visit Orlando City SC on Saturday, April 18, 2026, in an interconference matchup at Inter&Co Stadium, with kickoff set for 6:30 p.m. CT. Fans can stream the game live on Apple TV.
It will be the first meeting between the clubs since 2022, and the old series has stayed tight: Houston and Orlando are tied at two wins apiece in regular-season play, with the Dynamo holding a 7-4 edge in goals scored. The match comes after both teams advanced in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, but they arrive with different levels of momentum.
Houston beat El Paso Locomotive FC 4-1 in the Round of 32 at Shell Energy Stadium, a game that gave Ondřej Lingr three goal contributions with one goal and two assists. Ezequiel Ponce scored his first goal of the year, Nick Markanich also scored his first goal of the year, and Markanich, Agustin Resch and Sam Vines made their first Dynamo starts. Aliyu Ibrahim and Jimmy Maurer made their first starts of the year as well.
For Houston, the visit to Orlando comes before another Cup date already on the calendar: the Dynamo will host Louisville City FC in the Round of 16 on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, with kickoff set for 7:00 p.m. CT. The stretch gives Houston a chance to build on a roster that has begun to produce across the field.
Guilherme is tied for third in MLS with nine goal contributions, including five goals and four assists. He is tied for fourth in the league for goals and tied for third for assists. Lawrence Ennali is fourth in MLS in one-on-ones with eight, has won seven of his eight for an 87.5 percent success rate and is tied for first in MLS with a top speed of 35.96 kilometers per hour.
Orlando also reached the next round of the Cup, edging FC Naples 1-0 on Wednesday behind Tyrese Spicer's lone goal. The club will travel next to face the New England Revolution in the Round of 16, but its league form has been uneven. Orlando is 1-3-1 over its last five regular-season matches, is coming off a 1-1 draw at Columbus Crew SC and sits 13th in the Eastern Conference with four points on a 1-5-1 record.
The matchup also carries a layer of roster history. Houston traded Griffin Dorsey to Orlando in February for $1 million in General Allocation Money and a future sell-on percentage. Antonio Carlos, who signed with Houston in July 2025 after playing 105 matches in all competitions for Orlando, helped Orlando win its first trophy, the 2022 U.S. Open Cup. Houston also announced the signing of Mattheo Dimareli, a 16-year-old forward, to an MLS NEXT Pro contract through June 2027. He will join the first team on an MLS contract as a Homegrown Player starting in July 2027. Dimareli is the 21st Dynamo Academy product to sign a Homegrown contract with the first team, the 10th signed by President of Soccer Pat Onstad since February 2022 and the 12th Dynamo Academy product to sign a professional contract with Houston.
That leaves Saturday's match with a simple edge: Houston enters with sharper attacking numbers and a deeper recent Cup performance, while Orlando is trying to steady its league season in a game that has not come around often. With the teams level in the regular-season series and separated by a thin scoring margin, the first meeting in four years should show whether Houston's form travels or Orlando can use home field to reset the picture.