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Griezmann and Lewandowski Shine in MLS Action
Lionel Messi is catching his breath. MLS is not.
With the World Cup in the rearview and Argentina’s defeat to Spain still fresh, Messi has stepped away for a brief post-tournament pause. The league he helped supercharge hasn’t slowed with him. Instead, two European heavyweights have walked straight into the glare he usually owns.
Antoine Griezmann and Robert Lewandowski have arrived. The spotlight found them immediately.
Griezmann hits the ground running
On Wednesday, July 22, Griezmann’s first taste of MLS football looked almost scripted.
Orlando City tore into the San Jose Earthquakes, a 4-0 rout that felt like a statement as much as a scoreline. The 2018 World Cup winner needed only three minutes of the second half to announce himself properly, sweeping home his first MLS goal and cracking open a game that quickly turned into a demolition.
It wasn’t just a debut. It was a warning. Orlando already had control; Griezmann’s strike made sure San Jose never even sniffed a way back.
Lewandowski waits for his moment
Lewandowski’s introduction went very differently.
The Polish striker, one of Europe’s most ruthless finishers over the past decade, started for the Chicago Fire in a 3-2 defeat to Inter Miami on that same Wednesday night. No Messi, no mercy. Even without their talisman, Miami found enough to edge a five-goal thriller, while Lewandowski trudged off after 63 scoreless minutes.
He moved, he probed, he searched for space. The goal never came.
For a player used to bending games to his will, it was a reminder: MLS is no retirement lap. It bites back.
The next chance comes quickly. On Saturday, July 25, Lewandowski heads to Yankee Stadium with Chicago, hunting that first MLS goal against New York City FC. Tight pitch, hostile stands, another test of how quickly he can adapt to a league that doesn’t care about résumés.
Griezmann’s next test: the leaders
While Lewandowski chases his breakthrough, Griezmann walks straight into the heart of the title picture.
Orlando City host Nashville SC on Saturday night, a clash with the current leaders in the Supporters’ Shield race. It’s a different kind of exam. San Jose folded; Nashville rarely do. They defend with structure, grind out points, and punish lapses.
Griezmann, fresh off a dream debut, now has to show he can dictate a game against the team everyone is chasing.
A packed Saturday slate
The league’s full weight drops on Saturday, July 25, with a schedule that stretches from early evening to late night, all available on Apple TV:
- Red Bull New York vs. Charlotte FC, 6:30 p.m. ET
- Columbus Crew vs. FC Cincinnati, 7:15 p.m. ET
- D.C. United vs. Toronto FC, 7:30 p.m. ET
- CF Montréal vs. Inter Miami, 7:30 p.m. ET
- New England Revolution vs. Atlanta United, 7:30 p.m. ET
- New York City FC vs. Chicago Fire, 7:30 p.m. ET
- Orlando City SC vs. Nashville SC, 7:30 p.m. ET
- Philadelphia Union vs. Seattle Sounders, 7:30 p.m. ET
- Houston Dynamo vs. Austin FC, 8:30 p.m. ET
- Minnesota United vs. Vancouver Whitecaps, 8:30 p.m. ET
- St. Louis City SC vs. Colorado Rapids, 8:30 p.m. ET
- San Diego FC vs. FC Dallas, 9:30 p.m. ET (FS1)
- Los Angeles FC vs. Sporting Kansas City, 10:30 p.m. ET
- Portland Timbers vs. Real Salt Lake, 10:30 p.m. ET
- San Jose Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy, 10:30 p.m. ET
It’s a night built for remote controls and split screens, but one matchup refuses to sit quietly among the rest.
“Hell is Real” returns
Columbus Crew vs. FC Cincinnati. One of MLS’s purest rivalries, and right now, one of its sharpest contrasts.
They meet at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field at 7:15 p.m. ET, with Cincinnati surging and Columbus staggering. “Hell is Real” rarely needs extra spice, but this edition arrives with both teams moving in opposite directions.
Cincinnati roll into the game on the back of a wild 4-3 win over Western Conference leaders Vancouver Whitecaps, a result that underlined their credentials in the Eastern Conference playoff race. They traded blows with one of the league’s top sides and came out on top.
Columbus can only watch that kind of momentum from a distance.
The Crew’s 2026 has been brutal: just four wins from 16 league matches. The slide cost Henrik Rydström his job on May 17 after only 14 games in charge. Laurent Courtois has stepped in as interim head coach, but the bounce has yet to arrive.
The World Cup break didn’t reset anything. On July 22, Columbus fell 2-1 to New York City FC, another defeat in a season full of them. The margins stay thin; the results keep cutting the same way.
So the stakes on Saturday go beyond bragging rights along Interstate 71. For Cincinnati, it’s a chance to keep climbing, to turn a rivalry win into another block in a serious title push. For Columbus, it’s something more primal: stop the bleeding, and do it against the neighbors who would love nothing more than to twist the knife.
The bigger picture: who owns 2026?
Step back from the individual storylines and one truth stands out: even with Messi on pause, the league he reshaped is wide open—and heavily tilted toward his club.
The latest BetMGM odds for the 2026 MLS championship put Inter Miami at the front of the pack at +333. Behind them, Los Angeles FC and Vancouver Whitecaps sit at +750, Nashville SC lurk at +800, and FC Cincinnati follow at +1200.
Miami remain the benchmark, even on a night when Messi is nowhere near a pitch in North America.
So Saturday offers a glimpse of what comes next. Can Lewandowski and Griezmann bend the narrative away from Miami’s gravitational pull? Can Nashville and Cincinnati prove that the title race really is as open as the odds suggest?
The games will answer, one whistle at a time.
