Will Sunday's Inter Miami-Orlando City match add heat to the Sunshine Derby? | OneFootball

Miami-Orlando: A balanced, but not memorable, derby

Club Internacional de Futbol Miami and Orlando City Soccer Club will play for the 18th time overall tomorrow night in an almost perfectly balanced rivalry: Orlando's Lions have six wins and the Herons five, with six draws. Local fans circle the Sunshine Derby dates on their calendars, but the battle for Florida bragging rights doesn't spark the average Major League Soccer fan's imagination like, say, the "Hell is Real" matchups between the Columbus Crew and FC Cincinnati, El Trafico between LAFC and the Los Angeles Galaxy, or the three-way Cascadia Cup competition between the Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps in the Pacific Northwest.

Matches that mattered

Through the Pink vs. Purple rivalry's first six years, only three meetings hold real significance:

Aug. 22, 2020: Inter Miami 3, Orlando City 2. Inter Miami registered the first win in franchise history in its second meeting with its in-state rival. Julian Carranza had a first-half brace (12' and 24') at DRV PNK (now Chase) Stadium in Fort Lauderdale and Rodolfo Pizarro scored the eventual game-winning goal in the 48th minute. Daryl Dike (18') and Nani (80') scored for the Lions. Orlando City beat the Herons 2-1 on its home pitch in the teams' first match on July 8, 2020.

May 25, 2022: Orlando City 1 (4), Inter Miami 1 (2), U.S. Open Cup. In the most important match between Los Garzas and Los Leones to date, Orlando vanquished Inter Miami in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup round of 16. The clubs played to a scoreless draw through the regulation 90 minutes at Exploria Stadium; sending the match into two 15-minute extra-time periods.

Jean Mota gave Miami the lead in the 94th minute, but Facundo Torres equalized just three minutes later for the Purple. Still tied after 120 minutes, the match went to penalty kicks. Lions goalie Mason Stajduhar blocked the Herons' second attempt (by Bryce Duke) and DeAndre Yedlin missed Miami's third attempt. Mauricio Pereyra made the last of four successful attempts by the Lions, sending Orlando on to the quarterfinals. The Purple went on to win the 2022 Open Cup, beating the United Soccer League's Sacramento Republic 3-0 in the final for their first major trophy since joining MLS.

Aug. 2, 2023: Inter Miami 3, Orlando City 1, Leagues Cup. Lionel Messi (7' and 72') and Josef Martinez (51', penalty) scored for the Herons and Cesar Araujo (17') had Orlando's only goal in a ho-hum round of 32 Leagues Cup win. Inter Miami eventually won its first-ever major hardware, lifting the Leagues Cup trophy after defeating Nashville SC in the final.

The other 14 matches have been regular-season MLS affairs and a club friendly earlier this year. The teams' first five meetings all were single-goal decisions (three won by Inter Miami, two by Orlando), creating the competitive tension needed to fuel great rivalries. Since the Lions' 2-1 win in June 2021, though, the matches have been draws or victories of two or more goals.

The two most recent wins in the Sunshine Clasico have been blowouts: the Herons whipped the Lions 5-0 at Exploria Stadium last year and Orlando returned the favor with a 3-0 win at Chase Stadium in May.