Jayden Hibbert finished the night in goal, but it was another team taking the headlines: Atlanta United lost 4-1 to Orlando City in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal on Tuesday night, a rematch after the teams drew 1-1 at Inter&Co Stadium on Saturday. The match kicked off at 7:30 p.m. ET and ended with Orlando turning a recent stalemate into a decisive win.
The scoreline mattered on its own, but the margin and the setting made it sharper: Atlanta had dominated the league meeting two days earlier — 56.5% possession, 20 shots to Orlando’s five and 1.48 expected goals to 0.40 — yet left central Florida with a heavy defeat in the cup. The quarterfinal field was composed entirely of MLS sides, and the winner will move on to face either Columbus Crew or New York City FC.
Coach rotation and injuries framed the night. Atlanta stayed in central Florida after the Saturday draw and opened Tuesday with a changed XI: Hibbert in goal behind a back line of Pedro Amador, Matt Edwards, Stian Gregersen, Ronald Hernández and Elías Báez; a midfield of Will Reilly, Jay Fortune and Cooper Sanchez; and Alexey Miranchuk and Emmanuel Latte Lath leading the attack. Miranchuk captained the side and entered the match with eight goal contributions in all competitions this season.
There were small storylines inside that selection. Jay Fortune started after scoring in a second consecutive match against Orlando on Saturday. Cooper Sanchez, back from an illness, returned to the starting midfield; he had opened his Atlanta account in the Round of 16 against Charlotte FC on April 28. Ronald Hernández made his fourth start of the 2026 season, his previous start having come in the Round of 32 at Chattanooga FC on April 15. Miguel Almirón was listed as questionable with a knee issue and Fafa Picault was a question mark because of a hamstring concern.
All of that planning — Atlanta had said it would keep an aggressive press despite Florida’s heat and humidity — collapsed into a few costly moments. Orlando scored at least once on a 1v1 chance against Hibbert, and one sequence described by observers had Atlanta players watching while Orlando won a free header in their own box. Those defensive lapses turned the match; pundits and local coverage singled out only Jay Fortune, Cooper Sanchez and Saba as positive performers for Atlanta on the night.
Hibbert, who was named in goal for the cup tie, spoke after the game in a manner that suggested a focus beyond the result. "I take every day with the mindset of trying to improve," he said, and later pointed to a teammate's influence: "He’s been a great tool for me." Those lines cut against the evening’s score but underline how the club is framing the campaign as a development path even in a knockout setting.
The defeat also reopened an older memory: Atlanta beat Orlando 2-0 at Inter&Co Stadium in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals in 2019, a result that now reads as a distant benchmark rather than a guide. The immediate consequence is simple and unforgiving — Atlanta are out of this year’s Open Cup, while Orlando advance and await either Columbus or New York City FC in the next round.
For Hibbert and a rotated Atlanta side, the loss will demand an internal reckoning: the aggressive press that boasted superiority on Saturday failed to translate into defensive control when it mattered; the team’s experiments on selection and the lingering injury doubts about Almirón and Picault will be measured against the clarity of elimination. Hibbert’s insistence that he is working to improve is the last line of the night, but it also sets the test: can Atlanta convert lessons learned in defeat into answers before league play resumes?
