Orlando City vs. Chicago Fire: Five Takeaways

That was fun! Orlando City dispatched the Chicago Fire by a score of 3-1 at Exploria Stadium, with Facundo Torres’ brace leading the way for the Lions. What follows are my five takeaways from an entertaining night at the Purple Palace.

No Carlos, No Cesar, No Problem

Antonio Carlos was given the night off for this one, with Rodrigo Schlegel starting in his place. Around these parts, we tend to be of the opinion that Rodri is one of the better backup center backs in Major League Soccer, and he showed why during this game. Chicago did have some threatening moments, particularly in the second half, but aside from the hairy moment in the 50th minute, when Pedro Gallese saved Kei Kamara’s header and Wilder Cartagena cleared the follow-up effort off the line, Orlando’s goal wasn’t threatened too badly from open play. Cesar Araujo was unavailable due to yellow card accumulation, but the upshot is that he and Carlos both got some rest, which is never a bad thing considering the Lions play again Tuesday and have six matches during the month of July.

Shots for Everyone

At times, Orlando City’s refusal to shoot the ball is infuriating, and the Lions can be guilty of trying to pass the ball into the net rather than have a hit from a promising area. That wasn’t the case during this game as the hosts racked up 19 efforts at goal, putting nine of them on frame. Plus, 11 of those strikes came from inside the box, a number indicative of an offense that was in a good groove. I particularly enjoyed Ramiro Enrique’s goal. His strike came from a tricky situation where he was going away from goal and needed to generate a ton of power while maintaining pinpoint accuracy to have a chance of beating the goalkeeper, and it would have been much easier to pass the ball off for someone else to have a hit. His confidence was rewarded however, and it was fun to watch this team not hesitate to pull the trigger.

Offensive Chemistry Starting to Cook

While it’s true that this Fire team currently sits 13th of 15 Eastern Conference teams, I couldn’t help but be pleased with how OCSC looked on the offensive end of the field. Numbers aside, this was a team that just looked like it had a better understanding of what it wanted to do when it had the ball in the final third. While those ideas didn’t always come off, to my eye there was a lot less of players looking like they were on completely opposite pages, and guys weren’t occupying the same spaces, which is something that was an issue earlier in the year. Torres’ first goal came as a result of Martin Ojeda recognizing Kyle Smith’s intelligent overlapping run, playing the correct ball, and The Accountant making no mistake with his cross to Facu. It wasn’t the most dazzling example of interplay you’ll ever see, but it was nice to see the Lions break down a team in the “halfcourt,” and there are signs that the offense is beginning to hum.

Facu Takes Flight

Don’t look now, but here comes Facundo Torres. In his last four MLS games he has five goals and one assist, and is in danger of fully rounding into the kind of form that led the Lions to the U.S. Open Cup last year. Obviously he had his brace, but he also took six shots and put three on target, completed two dribbles, and made two key passes, all while distributing the ball with 86% accuracy. He was a handful all night long, and while he remains distressingly one-footed at times, he’s still putting the ball in the back of the net, and you can’t ask for much more than that. Also, he might be listed at 5-foot-10, but frankly I think that’s on the generous side to say the least, and it was funny that one of the two or three shortest players opened the scoring with a header. Fly on Facu, fly on.

Insurance Goal Makes the Difference

I won’t lie, when Xherdan Shaqiri scored his 66th-minute penalty kick, I did start to get a bit nervous. It was a story we’ve all seen far too many times over numerous different seasons. Orlando plays well, takes the lead, gives up a goal and either drops two points or all three. Hell, we saw it during the team’s last home game against the Philadelphia Union. But, that wasn’t to be the case this time around. Orlando kept its collective cool and brilliantly hit Chicago on the break as the visitors were pouring numbers forward in search of an equalizer. Enrique showed great awareness to leave the ball when he was offside by a country mile, and then as I mentioned earlier, pulled out an excellent finish to all but ice the game for the Lions. Winning at home always feels good, and winning at home in emphatic fashion feels even better.

Bonus Takeaway: A New Convert to the Cause

I brought a friend, who was visiting me from out of town, to this match. He’s a soccer fan and has been to United States National Team games with me before but never an Orlando City game. We stood in The Wall, as I always do, and around five minutes into the game he turned to me and said something along the lines of ,”Okay yeah, I absolutely understand why you love coming here. This is insane.” He was struck by how intimate the game felt from our position roughly 15 rows up directly behind the goal, and loved how intense the supporters section was for the full 90 minutes. It was very cool to introduce him to an experience and a team that’s important to me, and a rousing 3-1 win was the icing on the cake.

Those were my main thoughts on a fun evening at Exploria Stadium. What did you all think of the match? Be sure to have your say in the comments, and vamos Orlando!