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Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Final Score 3-1 as Facundo Torres’ Brace Powers Lions to Win

The Lions made it six in a row at home without a loss with a win over the Fire.

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3 years ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

Orlando City allowed the Chicago Fire to close to within a goal in the second half but the Lions flipped the script of several recent games and scored an insurance tally rather than allowing an equalizer. Facundo Torres scored twice and Ramiro Enrique added the insurance goal to lead Orlando (8-5-7, 31 points) to a 3-1 win over Chicago (5-7-8, 23 points) in front of 22,070 fans at Exploria Stadium.

With the win, the Lions extended their home unbeaten streak to six games (3-0-3) and improved to 4-3-4 in league play at Exploria Stadium this season.

“A very good game in front of our fans,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “That is the most important note of the night other than just winning three points, but doing it in front of our fans means a lot for the group.”

Pareja’s lineup had a couple of minor changes. Pedro Gallese started in net behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Kyle Smith. With Cesar Araujo suspended for yellow card accumulation, Wilder Cartagena was joined in central midfield by Mauricio Pereyra behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Torres, and Martin Ojeda, with Duncan McGuire up top.

Orlando City controlled much of the play in the opening half. The Lions won an early corner and the ball fell to Torres at the top right corner of the box. The Uruguayan fired a shot just over the bar in the third minute.

Two minutes later, a ball in from Smith on the right found Ojeda but he missed the net from point-blank range. It was the third time an Orlando player has missed the entire net from just a few yards out in as many games.

Angulo picked up the loose ball off a heavy touch from Carlos Teran in the 16th minute just outside the Chicago area. He tried to play Ojeda in but a minor deflection kept the Argentine from being able to bring it in and get a shot away.

Chicago’s first attempt at goal came in the 25th minute when a long ball over the top from Shaqiri found Brian Gutierrez, who got a touch to it but Gallese knocked it out for a corner.

Schlegel sent a good shot on target off a corner kick in the 32nd minute but Chris Brady made a good save to keep Orlando off the board. Four minutes later, Brady made another stop to deny a blast by Ojeda. But the goal came shortly after that anyway.

The ball was sent wide to Smith and he sent a cross in that Torres got his head onto. Brady got a piece of it but it went through and into the net in the 36th minute, giving Orlando a 1-0 lead.

“I was just trying to bring the ball a little bit further inside and then get in a position in case it worked its way in there for me,” Torres said. “Then I saw the ball kind of swing out wide and I just kind of entered into the area and just tried to be in a good spot. It’s not my usual goal but I’ll take whatever way I can score.”

Santos tried a shot from long range in the 40th minute but hit it straight at Brady. Two minutes later, the Lions felt they should have had a penalty. Orlando worked the ball into the box and Pereyra was bundled over. He went down easily and no penalty was the correct call, but seconds later Torres caught a boot across both legs and went down. Nima Saghafi did not call a penalty and after a short review the teams played on.

“The ref told me that I was looking for the contact and looking for the foul,” Torres said. “When I was dribbling, I was off balance a little bit, but I didn’t think I was falling. And then the defender hit me and then I fell, but the ref told me that I was falling beforehand and I was trying to look for the contact.”

Neither side got a good look in the final moments of the opening half and the Lions took their 1-0 lead into the break.

Chicago held a surprising 52.8%-47.2% possession at the break — surprising because the Fire rarely seemed to have the ball past midfield. As a result of mostly holding the ball in their own end, the Fire held the advantage in passing accuracy (86.5%-83.2%). Orlando had more shots (10-1), shots on target (4-1), and corners (7-1).

“The boys expressed themselves very well the first 25-30 minutes,” Pareja said. “We should have scored a couple of goals. But we maintained our concentration and we were patient with the game, controlling it and creating sequences, creating options to score.”

The Fire came out of halftime more aggressive. Alonso Aceves sent a cross onto the roof of the net in the opening minute and Chicago started winning the ball more in the Orlando half. Kamara nearly scored in the 51st minute, getting his head to a corner kick cross. The striker sent the ball on target with pace and Gallese made a diving save to keep it out. It got poked back toward goal but Cartagena cleared it off the line.

The Lions broke the other way after the close call and Ojeda’s shot was blocked out for a corner. Saghafi held up Orlando City’s corner kick for an uncomfortably long period of time while the video assistant referee looked at the play to see if the ball crossed the line at the other end but no goal was given.

Instead, the Lions scored their second goal moments later. The corner kick cross deflected to Jansson near the top of the area and he flicked it toward the goal line but on its way it found the elbow of Fabian Herbers and Saghafi immediately signaled for a penalty. Torres took the spot kick and blasted home his second goal of the game to make it 2-0 in the 55th minute. The goal gave Torres five goals and an assist in his last four MLS matches.

“Thankfully, and with a bit of luck, things have been going well,” Torres said. “I’ve got that renewed motivation. I think the the national team really helped kind of re-spark that. We’re playing really well right now, and things are just starting to click.”

The Fire threw numbers forward trying to get back in the game and won a free kick that Shaqiri sent over the bar in the 59th minute.

Two minutes later, Torres tried to complete his hat trick with a shot from outside the area but it was always rising and the strike found the seats instead of the back of the net.

Shaqiri sent another shot over the bar in the 64th but got his goal moments after that miss. Gutierrez played a quick give-and-go and got behind Smith and then put on the brakes. Smith couldn’t stop and bundled him over to concede a penalty. Shaqiri made no mistake from the spot although Gallese guessed the correct way. The Fire were back within a goal in the 66th minute with plenty of time left.

“They were overloading one side and then there was a wall pass that I need to defend better,” Smith said of the penalty. “And then the player did well to get position on me and stop in front of me and it caused me to foul.”

Torres had another opportunity to complete his hat trick shortly after the Fire goal but Brady made the save, knocking it wide.

Orlando got its insurance goal in the 75th minute. A ball was played for Enrique over the top and into the left corner. Enrique was obviously offside and knew it, so he stopped his run and waved Angulo on to the ball. Angulo picked up the loose ball and sent a pass back to Enrique at the left corner of the box. The Argentine curled a beautiful low shot just inside the back post to make it 3-1.

“It gave us a lot of confidence. It was a great goal by Ramie,” Smith said. “I’m happy for him and it brought us together.”

Things got more difficult for the Fire in the 84th minute when Arnaud Souquet was shown his second yellow card and sent off, putting Chicago down a man. Orlando was content to try to see the match out but some sloppy passing gave the Fire some opportunities to get forward. Jairo Torres sent a shot over the bar from inside the box in the 86th minute.

Both teams had some chances in the nine minutes of stoppage time. Substitute Luca Petrasso volleyed a shot over the bar off a good cross from Dagur Dan Thorhallsson in the 93rd minute. Enrique had a shot blocked a minute later.

Rafael Czichos headed a corner kick cross off the post in the 98th minute for the Fire. The Lions broke the other way in a 5-on-2 transition opportunity that ended with substitute Felipe smashing a shot on target that Brady saved.

The match ended shortly after the Felipe attempt and Orlando City had all three points.

The Lions turned around the possession, finishing with a slim 50.1%-49.9% advantage. Orlando also had more shots (19-8), shots on target (9-4), and corners (13-3). The Fire had the advantage in passing accuracy (87.3%-86.3%).

“A lot of positive things, but now we just need to think about Tuesday,” Pareja said. “Recovering and those three points will give us a lot of confidence.”

The Lions have a quick turnaround after tonight, hosting Toronto FC on Tuesday night. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

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Orlando City

Flashback Friday: June 10, 2023 vs. Colorado Rapids

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to a booking-laden match at home that took place a little less than three years ago.

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3 hours ago

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June 12, 2026

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Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

The World Cup is now officially underway, and while that means Orlando City is on break, we can’t have you forgetting about the Lions while all the international action is taking place. That means its time for another edition of Flashback Friday, where we hop in the trusty time machine and reminisce on OCSC matches of yesteryear.

Last week we relived a rousing road win over the New York Red Bulls from June, 3 2023, and this week, we actually pick up right where we left off, on June 10, 2023 as the Lions returned home to take on the Colorado Rapids.

Coming off a 3-0 win over the Red Bulls in the previous match, Oscar Pareja decided to not mess with a good thing, and kept Orlando City’s same starting XI from that victory. Pedro Gallese was in net behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Kyle Smith. Wilder Cartagena and Cesar Araujo played the double pivot; Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres were the attacking midfielders, and Ercan Kara was deployed as the striker.

In typical June fashion for the City Beautiful, kickoff was delayed by just under an hour as the stadium was pounded by storms, and the delay did not look to have done any favors for Orlando’s sharpness. That said, OCSC did win a corner kick less than a minute into the game, and Torres had a tame shot saved in the eighth minute, but the Lions weren’t consistently sharp with their passing in the early moments of the contest.

The teams traded chances just before the 15-minute mark, with Kara sending a header too high before Cole Bassett sent a shot straight to Gallese. Carlos then picked up a yellow card in the 24th minute, which evened things out between the two teams after Lalas Abubakar was cautioned for the Rapids after just six minutes. Those two bookings proved to be a harbinger of things to come, because Colorado went down to 10 men in the 39th minute after midfielder Braian Galvan caught Angulo with a high boot while his studs were showing.

Pereyra had Orlando’s best chance of the opening 45 minutes in stoppage time but could only send his effort right at goalkeeper Marko Ilic, and that was the last significant action of the half. The Lions ended the half with an edge in possession (59.7%-40.3%), shots (7-2), shots on target (2-1), and passing accuracy (85.3%-79.4%), while both teams won two corners.

Pareja made two moves at halftime, bringing on Rodrigo Schlegel for the once-booked Carlos, and Martin Ojeda for Cartagena in an effort to go more offensive against a shorthanded Rapids side. The Lions certainly looked brighter going forward as the second half got underway and had a few dangerous moments before finally breaking the deadlock in the 55th minute.

Pereyra played a ball across the top of the box for Torres, who took a couple of touches before sending a ball to the net that took a wicked deflection off Andreas Maxsø that carried it past Ilic.

It wasn’t the prettiest goal the Lions have ever scored, but for a team that was guilty at times of passing up good shots in favor of the perfect look at goal, it was proof that sometimes you just need to take shots in dangerous areas.

Fortunately, Orlando seemed to take that lesson to heart. Kara went close in the 65th minute despite shooting through traffic, Angulo had a shot deflected by Abubakar three minutes later, and Torres had another deflected effort go just wide of the post four minutes after that.

The game changed again in the 75th minute, when the Rapids had another player sent off. Abubakar lasted for 69 minutes on a yellow card but got burned by Angulo in midfield and hauled him down in order to prevent the Lions from potentially working a transition opportunity. He had some teammates behind him, but the referee showed him a second yellow card. Pareja smelled blood in the water and just three minutes later he brought on Ramiro Enrique for Smith, who had been given a yellow card in the 52nd minute.

Ilic made a great save on Pereyra in the 81st minute to keep the score at 1-0 and keep the Rapids in the game, but Orlando got its second goal just two minutes later. Torres had the ball on the right side of the box with a Colorado player backing off him, and that gave him ample time to get his head up and pick out a man. He played a ball to Enrique at the top of the box, who had plenty of time to take a couple of touches and send a low shot into the bottom corner past a diving Ilic for his first goal as an Orlando City player.

Somewhat surprisingly, the game started to get a little stretched after the Lions doubled their advantage. Colorado had a shot blocked in the 81st minute, Kara sent a shot very close to the post six minutes after that, and Gallese saved a Darren Yapi attempt in the 88th minute to keep his clean sheet alive. Aside from Pareja handing Alejandro Granados his MLS debut, that was the last significant action of the match, which finished 2-0 to the good guys.

Unsurprisingly, considering Colorado’s deficit in players, the Lions dominated all of the game’s most important statistics. OCSC finished with the advantage in possession (65%-35%), shots (15-4), shots on goal (6-2), corners (5-3), and passing accuracy (89.4%-81.5%).

The victory made it back-to-back wins for the first time in 2023, stretched Orlando’s unbeaten run to six, and gave El Pulpo his 100th clean sheet for the team in all competitions.

Marcus Mitchell had the helm for Player Grades in this one, and Torres got his nod for Man of the Match with a goal, an assist, and a grade of 7.5 out of 10. Several other Lions graded out at 7 out of 10, with only one player grading below a 6.

While it was a weird win, it unfortunately was the final game of the unbeaten streak, as the Lions fell to a familiar defeat at Gillette Stadium the following week, although things got back on track soon afterward. I’ll see you back here in a week for another trip down memory lane. Vamos Orlando!

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Lion Links: 6/12/26

USMNT plays Paraguay tonight, red cards rain down in World Cup opener, Sporting Kansas City linked with Yann Gboho, and more.

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6 hours ago

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June 12, 2026

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Image of Alex Freeman sliding in celebration of a goal.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Happy Friday, Mane Landers! The World Cup is in full swing and the U.S. will play today, so it’s a pretty exciting Friday to say the least. I’m a bit of a bundle of nerves about how the team will do, but I’m still looking forward to catching the game. If you have any gameday rituals, be sure to share, so that we can conjure up enough luck and support for the team tonight. Let’s get to the links!

USMNT’s World Cup Campaign Begins Today

The United States Men’s National Team will take on Paraguay at 9 p.m. tonight in its first match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. There’s plenty of pressure on the U.S. to perform well as one of the host nations, and this will also be Head Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s first time coaching at a World Cup. Pochettino stated that all 26 players are available for selection, including center back Chris Richards, although he may not necessarily start. Former Orlando City defender Alex Freeman, who is the youngest player on the U.S. roster, could make his World Cup debut tonight, so be sure to root for our hometown hero should he take the field. Hopefully, the Yanks can start this tournament off on the right foot with a big win in California.

World Cup Opener Features Three Red Cards

This year’s World Cup began in Mexico City, with Mexico beating South Africa 2-0 in a match that included three red cards. All three were straight red cards given in the second half in separate incidents, as Sphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane were sent off for South Africa before Mexico’s Cesar Montes was shown red in stoppage time. There hasn’t been a World Cup match with that many red cards since the record of four was set in 2006 in a match between Portugal and the Netherlands. As for the game’s goals, Julian Quinones pounced on a mistake by South Africa to give Mexico an early lead and Raul Jimenez doubled that lead while South Africa was reduced to 10 men.

Sporting Kansas City Linked With Yann Gboho

While the World Cup roars on, the rumor mill is in full force as clubs make plans for summer reinforcements. Sporting Kansas City is reportedly pushing to sign Toulouse winger Yann Gboho, who recorded 10 goals and three assists across all competitions this past season. The surprising aspect of this pursuit would be that Toulouse values Gboho at an eye-watering $20 million transfer fee, which would be a club record by a country mile. Kansas City needs all the help it can get on offense, as it has scored just 14 goals in 14 games so far this season.

Jose Mourinho Officially Returns to Real Madrid

It’s been a bit of an open secret over the past few weeks that Jose Mourinho would become Real Madrid’s next manager and it’s now official, with the 63-year-old signing a three-year contract with the Spanish club. Mourinho helped Real Madrid win a La Liga title and the Copa del Rey over a decade ago before his departure in 2013 after three seasons with the club. Now, he joins a Real Madrid side that has finished second in the league standings and been eliminated in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League the past two seasons. I, for one, can’t wait to see how one of the biggest personalities in soccer works alongside a locker room of star players that seemed in disarray this past season.

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That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend!

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Lion Links: 6/11/26

Wilder Cartagena linked with move to Sporting Cristal, Orlando Pride hire Dr. Nicole Surdyka, Barbra Banda injury update, and more.

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1 day ago

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June 11, 2026

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Jermey Reper

The World Cup is finally here! Today starts what should be an exciting month of international soccer featuring more teams than ever before. While I wasn’t able to part with the arm and leg necessary to afford a ticket to one of the games, I’m still looking forward to watching along when I can with the rest of the world. Let’s get to the links!

Wilder Cartagena Linked With Move to Peruvian Club

You’ll need a translation tool to check out the full details unless you are fluent in Spanish, but Sporting Cristal of Peru’s top flight is reportedly interested in signing Orlando City midfielder Wilder Cartagena. The 31-year-old is currently under contract with Orlando through 2026, with the contact also including a club option for 2027. He was a crucial part to Orlando’s success in 2024, but he missed all of last year and has only started one game so far this season due to injuries. It’s not much more than a rumor as of now, but it’ll be something to keep an eye on during this break in the league schedule.

Barbra Banda Sustained a Hamstring Injury

Zambia Head Coach Nora Hauptle stated that Orlando Pride forward Barbra Banda is dealing with a hamstring strain. Banda didn’t play in either of Zambia’s matches during this international break, but Hauptle also noted that she should recover in the next week or two and will be fine for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations at the end of July. Banda was injured late in the Pride’s 3-1 win against Bay FC on May 29 and it was unclear how severe the injury was. Hopefully she’ll be good to go before the Pride’s match against Angel City FC on July 3.

Dr. Nicole Surdyka Named Orlando Pride Director of Medical & Performance

The Orlando Pride have hired Dr. Nicole Surdyka as their new director of medical and performance. She’ll oversee the Pride’s medical operations, nutrition, and more while also working with Orlando Health. Dr. Surdyka has over a decade of experience that included leadership roles with OL Reign and the LA Galaxy and has studied extensively into developing frameworks for health and performance in women’s soccer.

“Nicole is one of the most respected practitioners in our field, and her expertise in women’s football, return‑to‑play, and high‑performance systems will elevate every aspect of our medical and performance environment,” said Caitlin Carducci, Orlando Pride VP of Soccer Operations & General Manager. “Her leadership, her commitment to evidence‑based practice and her passion for supporting athletes make her an exceptional addition to the Pride.”

Analyzing Paraguay Ahead of USMNT World Cup Match

The United States Men’s National Team will play its World Cup opener on Friday when it hosts Paraguay at SoFi Stadium. It will be the 10th match between the two nations, with the USMNT most recently winning 2-1 against Paraguay in November of last year. There’s a familiar face on Paraguay’s roster in Orlando City midfielder Braian Ojeda, with Miguel Almiron and Andres Cubas as other MLS midfielders called up. Paraguay’s defense is anchored by center back Gustavo Gomez, who you may remember as the player who put former Lion Alex Freeman in a headlock during that aforementioned November friendly. As for Paraguay’s attack, the Yanks will need to keep Julio Enciso and Antonio Sanabria from wreaking havoc. Paraguay is a physical team that’s also strong in the air, so we’ll see how the USMNT deals with that on Friday.

England Beats Costa Rica 3-0 at Inter&Co Stadium

Orlando City’s Inter&Co Stadium hosted a friendly between England and Costa Rica on Wednesday, with England winning 3-0. Declan Rice gave England an early lead, but Costa Rica kept the Three Lions off the scoresheet until the substitutes came on for England in the second half, with Anthony Gordon and Ollie Watkins both scoring. England got the full Orlando experience due to a heavy storm that delayed kickoff, but Inter&Co Stadium earned praise for its drainage system that had the pitch ready to roll in no time. Enjoy this satisfying time-lapse video of the transformation provided by the stadium.

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That’s all I have for you this time around. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!

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